'Madhurakala Praveena' Shri C.S.Shankarasivam

Among many disciples of Muthiah Bhagavathar the following are some of his most famous disciples.
Ramanathapuram Shri C.S. Shankarasivam, Budalur Shri Krishnamurthy Sastrigal and Madurai Shri Mani Iyer.

‘Madhurakala Praveena’ Ramanathapuram Shri C.S. Shankarasivam
Shri C.S. Shankarasivam, a great vidwan of the previous century was one of the prime disciples of Harikesanallur Dr L. Muthiah Bhagavathar.

Family and childhood
Shri Shankarasivam was born in the year 1905 to Chitsabhai Servai and Pappammal. Chitsabai Servai was a very famous mridanga vidwan during that period. Chitsabai Servai was a disciple of Shri Mamundya Pillai, who is known to be the Father of South Indian percussion. During the period of King Ramanathapuram Sethupathy, Chitsabai Servai was the samasthana vidwan and he accompanied stalwarts like Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar. He was also a master in Konnakol.

As Shankarasivam belonged to such a great musical family, it is no wonder that he had ‘Laya Gnanam’ from a very tender age. He had the opportunity to meet great artists because of the relationship that the family had with the king and other musicians.

Musical training
Shri Shankarasivam had his initial training under Ramanathapuram Poochi Srinivasa Iyengar. Due to Iyengar’s old age he could not continue his training for a long period. Seeing the potential, passion and great voice of the boy, King Sethupathy wanted Shankarasivam to undergo training from ‘Gayaka Sikhamani’ Harikesanallur Dr L. Muthiah Bhagavathar. Since he did gurukulavasam with Muthiah Bhagavathar, he stopped his school with S.S.L.C (10th Std). After 15 years of rigorous training under Muthiah Bhagavathar, Shri Shankarasivam was made the samasthana vidwan of Ramanathapuram.

Picture of Ramanathapuram Samasthanam

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[Note: I had the unique privilege to present a brief life history of Ramanathapuram Shri C.S.Shankarasivam (reverently called as ‘Vadyar thatha’) as narrated to me by my guru Madurai Shri T.N.Seshagopalan (foremost disciple of Vadyar thatha). This was on the occasion of Vadayar thatha’s memorial function conducted by my guru in Madurai. I also had the opportunity to perform a concert as a part of this function.]