Guru Kaaraikkudi Mani was born on September 11th 1945 at Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu. He is the son of LateSri.T.Ramanatha Iyer and Smt. Pattammal. He stepped into Carnatic Music at the tender age of 3. Although he commenced with Vocal training, very soon he realized his special interest was in Percussion and switched over to Mridangam.His Gurus were Karaikudi Sri Rangu Iyengar, Sri T R Hari hara Sharma and Sri K M Vaidyanathan .His first stage performance took place when he was 8 years old at