Renowned Mridanga Vidwan Karaikudi Mani (77) passed away. Beyond being a Pakkavadyam, Mani has played a major role in making the mridanga world-famous through unparalleled levels of playing and has shared the stage with many world-renowned musicians and instrumentalists. M.S. Subbalakshmi, D.K.Pattammal, M.L. Vasantakumari, Madura Somu, T.M. Thiagarajan, D.K. He has played mridangam for many luminaries of Carnatic music such as Jayaraman, Lalgudi Jayaraman, and Sanjay Subramanian. Experiments were conducted including a taniyavartanam concert and a rhythm music and dance ensemble. Karaikudi gave rise to the style known as Mani Bani. Layamani is the editor-in-chief of Laiyam, a music publication. He is single.
On September 11, 1945, in Karaikudi, musician T. Ganapathi Subrahmanyam was born as the son of Ramanatha Iyer and Pattammal. He started learning music at the age of two. My father was the inspiration. Later he learned Takil and Nagaswara. Realizing that Mani’s talent was in mridanga playing, his father enrolled Mani to study mridanga under Karaikudi Raghu Iyengar. Mridangam was performed for Kumbhabhishekam at Karaikudi Shiva Temple. Mani was a fan of Mridanga Kulapati Palakkad Mani Iyer. Continued Mridanga studies under TR Harihara Sharma and KM Vaidyanathan. After moving to Chennai at the age of fifteen, he started playing mridangam for the concerts of senior musicians.
Mani’s experiments in mridangavadan gave the connoisseurs impossibly beautiful levels of instrumental music. The Layavinyasa concert that Mani started in 1986 under the name Shrutilaya, combining percussion and string instruments, caught the world’s attention. Many world-famous talents have been a part of it. Shrutilaya Seva School started in Chalakudy, Chennai, Bengaluru, Australia, London, USA, and Canada.