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T. K. Ramamoorthy

Indian Tamil musician (1922-2013)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ3521193
Source-derived summary

Trichirappalli Krishnasamy Ramamoorthy (18 May 1922 – 17 April 2013) was an Indian Tamil music composer.

Ramamoorthy was known as Mellisai Mannar (Tamil: மெல்லிசை மன்னர்; "The King of Light Music"), along with M. S. Viswanathan. His major works are in Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films. He and M. S. Viswanathan, as the duo Viswanathan–Ramamoorthy, composed musical scores for over 100 films in the South Indian film industry during the 1950s and 1960s. The duo parted amicably in 1965, but eventually rejoined in 1995 after 30 years for Engirundho Vandhan.

At age 91, he died in a hospital in Chennai on 17 April 2013.

Early life

Tiruchirapalli Krishnaswamy Ramamoorthy was born in Tiruchirapalli into a family that was musically inclined. Both his parents, Krishnasamy Pillai and Nagalakshmi, and grandfather, Malaikkottai Govindaswamy Pillai, were well-known violinists in Tiruchirapalli. Ramamoorthy gave several stage performances along with his father in his childhood. When he was fourteen, C. R. Subbaraman noted the young boy's talent and hired him as a violinist for His Master's Voice.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “T. K. Ramamoorthy” is indian Tamil musician (1922-2013). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Ramamoorthy, Indian and Tamil, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1922, 2013, 1965, 1995—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1922-05-15. For this dossier, Ramamoorthy, Indian and Tamil is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “indian Tamil musician (1922-2013)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3521193. VIAF identifies the subject as 53757303. The Library of Congress control number is no97055063. 2 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1922, 2013, 1965 and 1995.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “T. K. Ramamoorthy”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow T. K. Ramamoorthy primary sources, T. K. Ramamoorthy archive and Ramamoorthy research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “T. K. Ramamoorthy”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from T. K. Ramamoorthy” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.