[3][10] Ganesh was born on 4 December 1962 to a Tamil brahmin family, in Kolar, Karnataka, to R. Shankar Narayan Aiyar and K. V.

[11] Also in his childhood, he read Sanskrit and Kannada literature and was writing poetry at the age of sixteen.

[14] Ganesh is well known for his performances of avadhana, in which he composes extempore solutions in metrical verse to problems posed in parallel by the pṛcchakas on stage, satisfying the constraints imposed by them, while simultaneously dealing with interruptions designed to break his concentration.

[12] In 1987, he gave a major astavadhana performance at Kolar in the centenary year of D. V. Gundappa, where thousands of people and several learned persons assembled.

He has also started lectures on poetry composition, prosody and poetics on the website of "Padyapaana" organisation.

He also gives public lectures,[18] on dance (nāṭya śāstra), music,[19][20] art, culture, literature,[21] poetics, etc.

[26] He has given multiple lectures on various topics in Gokhale Institute of Public affairs, most of which is published on YouTube.