About Mani
Born on 13th Nov 1931, Sivasubramanian completed his BA from Delhi university and his MIETE telecommunication degree. Pursuing his passion for language and culture, he has diplomas in Hindi and Sanskrit.
After taking voluntary retirement from his engineering job at the Indian government department of Telephones, he has been pursuing his literary and cultural interests. In his youth he wrote poems under the pen name of Sakthi. Later on, when he wrote his first novel Yaadum Oorey, he adopted the pen name of Siddharthan, in honor of Buddha whom he much admires. There is a theme of Buddhist philosophy through much of his writings.
Siddharthan is a prolific Tamil writer, with over forty five books to his name. He has been writing from the early 1950s. Apart from poetry, he has written several novels as well as non-fiction.
Writings
His most notable work is Samrat Ashokan in Tamil, a historical novel in four volumes.
He has also translated his own novels Samrat Ashokan and Yaadum Oore to English. He was selected to write episodes about national leaders during the centenary of the War of Independence. His pen portraits of several patriots have been broadcast in All India Radio.
He has traveled widely in Europe and USA and written travelogues. He has
also written several books for children.
Music
He is a performing musician trained by Vidwan Tanjavur L. Venkatesa Iyengar and accompanied him for several years in his performances. He has also accompanied his guru in giving musical support for Melattur Bhagavatha Mela dance dramas.
Drama
He is a stage personality who has written, directed and produced several plays. He played the role of Yudhishtra in the poetic play Panchali
Sabadham (the vow of Panchali in The Mahabarata). His five plays have been published out of which, one is a translation of the Hindi play, Bakri. He was associated with S.V. Sahasranamam and Komal Swaminathan.
Magazines and editorial
He is an art critic and writes for Tamil magazines. He was the editor of Kalpana, a monthly magazine of Indian Society of Culture and Friendship. He was the secretary of Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association (IPTA). His interviews with artists like Smt. Padma Subramaniam and others have been published in the magazine Subamangalam.
Accolades
His short story collections Nadatharangini was awarded first prize by Kavithai Uravu. He received Ka Sri Sri award for one of his short stories.
Bharathi Kalai Kazhagam of Chennai, an exclusive poets’ organisation, awarded the title of Kavi mamani in the year 1995 for his poetry. He is a scholar of ancient Tamil literature. The title Thirukkural mamani was awarded by Thirukkural Vazhviyal Kazhagam, Chennai for his scholarship in Thirukkural.
