Sirkazhi Govindarajan (19 January 1933 – 24 March 1988) was an Indian Tamil Carnatic vocalist and a leading playback singer of Indian cinema.

Early life

Govindarajan, was born on 19 January 1933 at Sirkazhi (a small town in present day

Mayiladuthurai district Mayiladuthurai district is one of the 38 districts of the state of Tamil Nadu in India. The district headquarters is located at Mayiladuthurai. Geography The district is bounded on the north by Cuddalore district, on the west by Thanjavur ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

; famed birthplace of

Sambandar Sambandar ( Tamil: சம்பந்தர்), also referred to as Tirugnana Sambandar (lit. ''Holy Sage Sambandar''), Tirujnanasambanda, Campantar or Jñāṉacampantar, was a Shaiva poet-saint of Tamil Nadu who lived sometime in the 7th ce ...

, one of the 63

Nayanars The Nayanars (or Nayanmars; ta, நாயன்மார், translit=Nāyaṉmār, translit-std=ISO, lit=hounds of Siva, and later 'teachers of Shiva ) were a group of 63 Tamil Hindu saints living during the 6th to 8th centuries CE who were ...

of the Saiva faith) to Siva Chidambaram and Avayambal Ammal. At the age of eight, Govindarajan began to perform at the Tirupurasundari Temple on the occasion of the Gnana Paal Festival.Sirkali Home Page
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Musical education

He graduated from the Tamil Isai College in Chennai (Madras) in 1949 with the degree 'Isaimani'. He also graduated with the Degree of 'Sangeetha Vidwan'. At the same time, he started rigorous training (Gurukulavasam) under his Guru Thiruppampuram Swaminatha Pillai, who was then a Professor at the Central College of Carnatic Music, Madras. Under his tutelage and in-depth study, he gained knowledge of the nuances and intricacies of Indian Music, especially, Classical Carnatic Music. During this period (1951–1952) he won many competitions, conducted by the Sangeetha Vidwat Sabha (Music Academy) and the Rasika Ranjani Sabha.

Collaboration

Music composers

S. V. Venkataraman Sozhavanthan Varadharajan Venkatraman (Tamil: சோழவந்தான் வரதராஜன் வெங்கட்ராமன்) (25 April 1911 – 7 April 1998), also known as SVV, was an Indian actor, singer, and music director, wh ...

, S. M. Subbaiah Naidu,

S. Rajeswara Rao Saluri Rajeswara Rao (11 October 1922 – 25 October 1999) was an Indian composer, multi instrumentalist, conductor, singer, and music producer known for his works predominantly in South Indian cinema.M. L. Narasimham"Trend-setter in Light Music ...

, S. Dakshinamurthi,

V. Dakshinamoorthy Venkateswaran Dakshinamoorthy (9 December 1919 – 2 August 2013) was a veteran carnatic musician and composer and music director of Malayalam, Tamil and Hindi films, predominantly in Malayalam films. He has set scores for the songs in over 125 ...

G. Ramanathan Gopalan Iyer Ramanathan was an Indian music composer for Tamil movies. He is also known as ''Isai Methai'' (Genius of Music) or ''Sangeetha Chakravarthy'' (Emperor of Music) and is considered to be one of the influential Tamil music composers ...

, C. N. Pandurangam, Master Venu,

K. V. Mahadevan Krishnankoil Venkadachalam Mahadevan (14 March 1918 – 21 June 2001) was an Indian composer, singer-songwriter, music producer, and musician known for his works in Tamil cinema, Tamil, Telugu cinema, Telugu, Malayalam cinema, Malayalam, and Kann ...

, Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan, G. Devarajan, B. Narasimma Rao, A. Rama Rao, T. Chalapathi Rao,

T. G. Lingappa Thiruchirappalli Govindarajulu Lingappa (22 August 1927 – 5 February 2000) was an Indian music director who worked predominantly in Kannada language films. He also worked in Tamil and Telugu movies. He was the son of G. Govindarajulu Naidu wh ...

, P. Adinarayana Rao,

T. R. Pappa Thiruthuraipoondi Radhakrishnan Sivasankaran (T. R. Pappa) (3 July 1922 – 15 October 2004) was an Indian music director of Tamil, Telugu and Sinhalese films. He was born in 1923 at Thiruthuraipoondi, Madras Presidency, British India. Early ...

Ghantasala Ghantasala may refer to: People * Ghantasala (musician) (Ghantasala Venkateswara Rao, 1922-1974), Telugu singer and composer * Ghantasala Balaramayya (1906 - after 1952), Telugu film producer and director * Ghantasala Sai Srinivas, professionally ...

, Vedha, G. K. Venkatesh, M. S. Viswanathan,

T. K. Ramamoorthy Trichirappalli Krishnasamy Ramamoorthy (15 May 1922 – 17 April 2013) was an Indian Tamil music composer and violinist. Ramamoorthy was known as ''Mellisai Mannar'' ( ta, மெல்லிசை மன்னர்; "The King of Light Music") ...

, V. Kumar, A. M. Rajah,

C. Ramachandra Ramchandra Narhar Chitalkar (12 January 1918 – 5 January 1982), also known as C. Ramchandra or Chitalkar or Anna Sahib, was an Indian music director and playback singer.

Ilaiyaraaja Ilaiyaraaja (born R. Gnanathesikan, 3 June 1943) is an Indian musician, composer, arranger, conductor, orchestrator, instrumentalist, lyricist and singer, popular for his works in Indian Cinema, prominently in Tamil films. Reputed to be one o ...

, and

Shankar–Ganesh Shankar–Ganesh is an Indian music director duo who has worked on Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada movies for around 50 years. Career They started as assistants to Tamil music composers M. S. Viswanathan and T. K. Ramamoorthy in 1964 an ...

, Baburaj

Playback singers

He has sung with other male singers such as M. S. Viswanathan, T. M. Soundararajan,

, P. B. Srinivas, S. C. Krishnan, Tiruchi Loganathan, A. L. Raghavan,

K. J. Yesudas Kattassery Joseph Yesudas (born 10 January 1940) is an Indian playback singer and musician who sings Indian classical, devotional and film songs. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of Indian Music and also as a ...

and S. V. Ponnusamy. He also sang duets with many female singer such as M. L. Vasanthakumari, P. Leela, K. Jamuna Rani,

Jikki Pillavalu Gajapathy Krishnaveni (3 November 1935 – 16 August 2004), more famously known as Jikki, was an Indian playback singer from Andhra Pradesh. She sang around 10,000 songs in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi, and Sinhalese langua ...

, P. Susheela, K. Rani, L. R. Eswari, L. R. Anjali, Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi, Soolamangalam Jayalakshmi,

R. Balasaraswathi Devi Raavu Balasaraswathi Devi (born 28 August 1928) is an Indian singer and actress who performed from 1930 to the 1960s in Telugu and Tamil cinema. She was the first light music singer on All India Radio and the first playback singer in the T ...

, N. L. Ganasaraswathi, A. P. Komala, A. G. Rathinmala,

T. V. Rathnam Tenkasi Vallinayagam Rathnam ( ta, தென்காசி வள்ளிநாயகம் (டி.வி.) ரத்தினம்) (1930 - 17 October 1984) hailed from Tenkasi, Madras Presidency, British India. She was a playback singe ...

, Bangalore A. R. Ramani Ammal,

Vani Jayaram Vani Jairam (born as Kalaivani on 30 November 1945), also credited as Vani Jayaram, is an Indian singer. She is best known as a playback singer in South Indian cinema. Vani's career started in 1971 and has spanned over five decades. She has do ...

, S. Janaki, M. R. Vijaya, Sarala and Rohini. He sang duets with singing actors such as N. S. Krishnan, T. R. Mahalingam, P. Bhanumathi, S. Varalakshmi and Manorama.

Filmography

Discography

Govindarajan had sung for many leading actors like M. G. Ramachandran,

Gemini Ganesan Ramasamy Ganesan (17 November 1920 – 22 March 2005), better known by his stage name Gemini Ganesan, was an Indian actor who worked mainly in Tamil cinema. He was referred to as the ''Kaadhal Mannan'' (King of Romance) for his romantic roles ...

, N. T. Rama Rao, S. S. Rajendran, and R. Muthuraman.

Awards and honours

He was the recipient of three gold medals (first place) in the austere and hallowed halls of Sangeetha Vidwat Sabha (Music Academy) from Karaikudi Sambasiva Iyer. "Sangeetha Vidwan" Sirkali won all first places in the three categories: Apoorva Krithis of Sri Thyagaraja swamigal, Ragam-Thalam-Pallavi, and Tamil Classical Songs. He was conferred the

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is confe ...

award by the Government of India. The Central College of Carnatic Music was the next institution for his musical enrichment. Govindarajan had also done playback singing in Tamil,

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

films.

Madras University The University of Madras (informally known as Madras University) is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and among the most prestigious universities in India, incorporated by an a ...

conferred a doctorate (

Honoris Causa An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad h ...

) on him in 1983. ''Source:'' * ISAI MANI: 1949 – Degree from Tamil Isai College, Madras * SANGEETHA VIDWAN: 1951 – Degree from Central College of Carnatic Music, Madras * ISAI ARASU: 1968 – Kunrakudi Adheenam, Kunrakudi kumari' * Best Male Playback Singer: 1971 – for songs of

Thirumalai Thenkumari ''Thirumalai Thenkumari'' () is a 1970 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language Road movie, road film written and directed by A. P. Nagarajan. Inspired by the 1969 film ''If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium'', it features an ensemble cast consist ...

* ISAI KADAL: 1972 – Bharathi Youth Association, Madras * INNISAI ARASU: 1974 – Tamil Nadu Nalvazhi Nilayam, Madras * DHARUMAPURA ADHEENA ISAI PULAVAR: 1974 – Adheena Vidwan of Dharumapura Adheenam appointed by Sri Guru Maha Sannidhaanam * KALAI MAMANI: 1975 – Tamil Nadu Iyal Isai Nataka Manram (State Sangeetha Nataka Academy Award) * INNISAI VENDHAN: 1976 – Kandan Arts Academy, Madras * SANGEETHA BHASKARA: 1977 – Sri Shantananda Swami, Sri Bhuvaneswari Adhishtanam, Pudukkottai * ISAI THILAKAM: 1977 – Sri Thyagaraja Sangeetha Sabha * ISAI GNANA BHOOPATHI: 1978 – Brittania Hindu Shiva Temple Trust, London * EZHISAI VENDHAR AND GANAMRITHA VARITHI: 1978 – During Sri Lanka tours * PERISAIMANI: 1979 – Sangeetha Abhivrithi Sabha, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia * IRAI ISAI VENDHAI: 1979 – Seshasayee Paper Mill Temple, Erode * MIYAN TANSEN AWARD: 1980 – Delhi Drupad Sangam, New Delhi * Central

Sangeet Natak Akademi Award Sangeet Natak Akademi Award (IPA: Saṅgīta Nāṭaka Akādamī Puraskāra), also known as the Akademi Puraskar, is an award given by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's National Academy of Music, Dance & Drama. It is the highest Indian recognit ...

: 1980 * Tamil Isai Mannar: 1981 – New York Tamil Sangam, New York * Gandharva Geetha Vithakar: 1981 – Ramalingar Pani Manram, Paris, France * Di Singenden Hersen Von Indien: 1981 – Yoga Center (Germans), Düsseldorf, West Germany * Tamil Nadu Arasavai Kalaignar: 1981 – At the Bharathiyar Centenary Celebrations * Isai Perarignar: 1982 – Annual music festival honor from Tamil Isai Sangam, Madras *

: 1983 * ISAI THENDRAL: 1984 – Thyagaraja Swami Aradhana Committee, Tirutani * INNISAIMANI: 1985 – Guru Gnana Sambandar Iraipani Manram * GAMBEERA GANA ISAI VENDHAN: 1985 – Arya Vaisya Schools, Madurai * ARUL ISAI ARIGNAR: 1987 – Mauritius Education and Cultural Tour * TAMIL ISAIPERARIGNAR: 1987 – Tamil Sangam, Bangalore * MUTHAMIZH KALAI MAMANI: 1987 – Tamil Sangam, Salem * ISAIMAMANNAR: 1987 – Bharathidasan Centenary celebrations by Dravidar Kazhagam, Madras * ISAIPERARUVI: 1987 – Siddhi Vinayakar Temple, Paris, France * CULTURAL AMBASSADOR: 1987 – Frei Platz Axion-World Peace Conference in Switzerland

Personal life

His son Sirkazhi G. Sivachidambaram is also a Carnatic singer.

Death

Govindarajan died on 24 March 1988 in

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Tamil Nadu, the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and territories of India, Indian state. The largest city ...

(now

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

) due to of a massive heart attack. He was aged 55.

References

External links

Article on Seerkazhi Govindarajan in Kalyana Malai
{{DEFAULTSORT:Govindarajan, Sirkazhi 1933 births Recipients of the Padma Shri in arts Tamil singers Indian Tamil people 1988 deaths Male Carnatic singers Carnatic singers Tamil Nadu State Film Awards winners People from Mayiladuthurai district Tamil playback singers Kannada playback singers 20th-century Indian male classical singers Indian male playback singers Singers from Tamil Nadu