Kalki Sadasivam was born in a Tamil Brahmin family[2] on 4 September 1902 at Aangarai in Tiruchirapalli District, the third of 16 children of Tyagarajan and Mangalam Iyer.

Impressed by the fiery speeches and writings of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lokamanya Tilak and Aurobindo Ghosh, Kalki Sadasivam joined the freedom movement at an early age and being a disciple of Subramaniya Siva desired to kill an Englishman and court imprisonment for the sake of it.

As a result, he quit school and enlisted in the Bharata Samaj, serving Subramaniya Siva who was afflicted with leprosy and ardent involving himself in the Swadeshi Movement.

Sadasivam's nephew (sister's son) Ramachandran, known as Ambi in music circles, married Krishnamurthy's daughter Anandi.

[5] Sadasivam died in 1997, at the age of 95, and his final rites were carried out in Chennai by his adopted son, S Thyagarajan.