Sangita Kalanidhi, Isai Perarignar Dr. S. Ramanathan 
(1917-1988)

Guru and father of Geetha Bennett
was a musician and musicologist of high calibre.

Through the oral tradition he was the recipient of the masterpieces of the most famous 17th century composers, Sri Tyagaraja, Sri Muthuswamy Dikshithar and Sri Syama Sastri, having been bequeathed to their descendants.

He was a disciple of Tiger Varadachariar, Sabesa Iyer, Ponniah Pillai, and Sathur Krishna Iyengar. Among his accomplishments are number of varnams and kritis, residencies at several American universities and a Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut. He also had trained a number of students who achieved recognition in the carnatic music field like P.UnniKrishnan, S. Sowmya, Savithri Sathyamurthy, Seetha Narayanan, Vasumathi Nagarajan, Sukanya Raghunathan (veena), Banumathy Raghuraman (veena/vocal who runs a mucic school "Alapana" in a grand scale in Singapore with her husband Raghuraman), Vidya Hariharan (veena and vocal), Vanathy Raghuraman, Latha Radhakrishnan (violin and vocal), Padma Gadiyar (veena), Thyagarajan/Raju,Sucharithra, Lavanya, and Kalpana (Pavithra) to name a few. Acclaimed as a Vidwan of Vidwans by none other than Sri Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, his dedication to reach the masses also was evident in the regular meetings he addressed at the Gandhi Peace Centre, called "Music for Layman". His translation of Subbarama Dikshitar's Sangeetha Sampradaya Pradharshini as also numerous books on music & musicology serve as authentic reference material on Indian music for all times to come.