Legendary violinist Lalgudi Jayaraman passed away in Chennai today. Born in the lineage of the saint musician Thyagaraja, Lalgudi went on to invent a whole new style designed to suit the needs of Indian Classical Music popularly known as ‘Lalgudi Bani’. Lalgudi has flawlessly composed several ‘Kritis’, ’tillanas’ and ‘vanams’.

Hailing from Lalgudi in Tiruchi, Mr. Jayaraman accompanied Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavatar, Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, G. N. Balasubramaniam, Madurai Mani Iyer, K.V. Narayanaswamy, Maharajapuram Santhanam, D. K. Jayaraman, M. Balamuralikrishna, T. V. Sankaranarayanan, T. N. Seshagopalan and flute maestros N. Ramani along others.

He passed away at 82 after he had a stroke.

Commenting on Shri Lalgudi, Mr. R Thyagarajan, Founder Chairman, Shriram Group said, “For a very large number of music lovers across the world, Lalgudi Jayaraman was the musician of the century and not merely a violinist of the century. He was a great composer giving beautiful shape to a large number of old kirtanas thereby embellishing the beauty of ragas in which they were known”.

He added, “As a teacher he was the greatest teacher ever as his disciples would emotionally agree. Teaching was a passion for him and he put his heart and soul into the job of communicating music to his disciples.  As a human being, he was equally great”.

Lalgudi breathed music, dreamt of music and lived a life only for music.