Guruvayur Dorai

His wide range of efforts in the field of mridangam and music have helped propagate the art around the globe.

His other sister is a reputed music teacher in Madras, while his brother, G.K.Rajamani is a notable violinist living in Palghat (Kerala).

Struck by polio at the age of five, his father thought it would be difficult for Dorai to go outside of Guruvayur for higher studies and a job.

Pisharody's book 'Mridanga Nada Manjari' (a practical study of mridangam) was published by Guruvayur Dorai on 23 September 2001.

Dorai, Ponnammal, Rajamani and the father stayed in a rented house in the city while the rest of the family remained in Guruvayur.

Dorai performed with nearly all the eminent artists even at a young age, including Musiri Subramania Iyer, M. D. Ramanathan, Semmangudi Srinivasa lyer, M. S. Subbulakshmi (it was Dorai who performed with her in Carnegie Hall, New York), G. N. Balasubramaniam, Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu, Balasubramaniam]], M.Balamuralikrishna, S. Balachander, Chitti Babu, T. R. Mahalingam, Mysore T. Chowdiah, Palghat Ghatam Sundaram, Alangudi Ramachandran, G. Harishankar and others.

Read More About the Interview Moreover, he is one of the few mridangists who has performed with nagaswaram wizards, namely T. N. Rajarathnam Pillai (in 1956, Rama Seva Mandali, Bangalore; P. Bhuvaneswariah played violin, Bangalore Venkatram played ghatam, and a khanjira artist was part of the team), Thiruvengadu Subramanium Pillai in 1951, and Namagiripettai Krishnan (from the 1960s onwards).

Yesudas, T. N. Krishnan, T. V. Sankaranarayanan, T. N. Seshagopalan, Neyveli Santhanagopalan, Chitraveena N. Ravikiran Flautist Shashank Subramanyam and others.