Papanasam Sivan

Sivan's early years were spent in the Travancore area of Kerala. 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 he was 7, his father died. His mother Yogambal, along with her sons, left Thanjavur and moved to Travancore (now Thiruvananthapuram) in 1899 to seek the aid of his uncle. In Thiruvananthapuram, he learned Malayalam and later joined the Maharaja Sanskrit college and obtained a degree in grammar.

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

He took his first music lessons from Noorani Mahadeva Bhagavatar, son of Parameswara Bhagavatar. Later, he became the disciple of Konerirajapuram Vaidyanatha Ayyar, a well-known musician.

He 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. He was a regular performer in the main temple festivals in South India with his devotional songs.

He received the President Award in 1962, 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.

D K Pattammal and D K Jayaraman, the sister-brother duo who were both awarded Sangeeta Kalanidhi, were his disciples. He taught Pattammal many kritis, and she also sang many of Sivan's compositions for films.^[4]

Papanasam Sivan had an elder brother P. Rajagopal Iyer, whose daughter, V. N. Janaki, was an actress who would later serve as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu during 7-30 January 1988.

He had four children, 2 sons and 2 daughters namely P.S. Kirthivasan, P.S Ramadas, Smt. Neela Ramamurthy and Smt. Rukmini Ramani. Sivan started conducting bhajanai in 1934. After his death, his daughter Rukmini Ramani (b 1939), an accomplished singer herself, and her son Ashok Ramani have carried on the bhajanai tradition.^[5]