Papanasam Sivan

Papanasam Sivan's early years were spent in the Travancore area of Kerala where the kings patronised fine arts. He was born at Polagam village in the district of Thanjavur, which was home to the musical trinity of Carnatic music. His given name was Ramaiya. In 1897, when Ramaiya was just 7, his father died. His mother Yogambal, along with her sons, left Thanjavur and were forced to move to Trivandram (now Thiruvananthapuram) in 1899 to seek the aid of his uncle. At Thiruvananthapuram, Ramaiya learned Malayalam and later he joined the Maharaja Sanskrit college and obtained a degree in grammar.

Ramaiya was very religious, and with the death of his mother Yogambal in 1910, when he was 20, became even more so. He wandered from place to place visiting temples and singing devotional songs. Ramaiya used to be an active participant in the devotional music sessions at the home of Neelakandasivan in Thiruvananthapuram. Thus he learned many of the musical compositions of Neelakandasivan. In this period, his wanderings would take him regularly to the temple at Papanasam, where he would smear bhasma all over his body. Hence people began to refer him as Papanasam Sivan, the name by which he was to become known later.

He picked up his first music lessons from Noorani Mahadeva Bhagavatar, son of Parameswara Bhagavatar. Later, he became the disciple of Konerirajapuram Vaidyanath Iyer, a well-known musician.

Papanasam Sivan was most interested in the devotional aspect of music. He preferred to sing devotional songs and encouraged other singers take part in sessions of devotional music with him. Papanasam Sivan was a regular performer in the main temple festivals in South India with his devotional songs.

Later in 1962, Papanasam Sivan received the President Award, and in 1969 he received the Sangeetha Kalasikhamani Award bestowed on him by "The Indian Fine Arts Society, Chennai". He was conferred the Sangita Kalanidhi in 1971.

Sivan was married to Lakshmi Ammal and they had three daughters, the youngest of them being Dr. Rukmini Ramani, who is also a composer, and two sons. Ashok Ramani who is his grandson is also a Carnatic musician. Another daughter by the name of Nila Ramamurthy also used to compose Carnatic music. He had two sons named Ramadoss and P.S.Krithivasan, and is survived by children named K.Ganapathy and K. Balathiripura Sundari. K.Ganapathy is a mechanical engineer by full-time profession and is also a part-time light music- performer for various orchestras in and around Chennai. K.Balathiripura Sundari has learnt carnatic music and currently teaches music to students in Mumbai. Many of Sri Papanasam Sivan's kritis have the mudhirai ' ramadasa' in tribute to his son. Sri Papanasam Sivan had an elder brother Rajagopal Iyer whose daughter, V. N. Janaki, was an actress and wife of M. G. Ramachandran She later became the Chief minister of Tamil Nadu for a few days. Rajagopal Iyer also had a son P. Narayanan who was an educator in Chennai.

• Sita Kalyanam (1934)
• Pavalakkodi (1934)
• Naveena Sadaram (1935)
• Naveena Sarangadhara (1936)
• Kuchela (1936)
• Chithnamani (1937)
• Sevasadanam (1938)
• Yayathi (1938)
• Mathru Bhoomi (1939)
• Sivakavi (1943)
• Haridas (1944)
• Pankajavalli (1947)
• Kannika (1947)
• Bilhana (1948)
• Naattiya Rani (1949)
• Ambikapathy (1957)

• List of Carnatic composers