Guruvayur Dorai Biography 
Guruvayur Dorai is a senior mridangam artist from Kerala. He received Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in the year 1996, followed by Sangeetha Kalasikhamani in 2003 given by The Indian Fine Arts Society, Chennai. With experience of more than 6 decades in the field he has accompanied many leading vocalists of present times, Musiri Subramania Iyer, M. D. Ramanathan, Semmangudi Srinivasa lyer, M. S. Subbulakshmi, G. N. Balasubramaniam, Dwaram Venkataswamy Naidu, S. Balachander, Chitti Babu, T G. Harishankar, R. Mahalingam, Mysore T. Chowdiah etc to name a few. He is an exponent of the Pudukottai style of mridangam.
Guruvayur Dorai was born on July 2, 1935 in Guruvayur of Thrissur District, Kerala. His father G.S. Krishna Iyer was a temple priest. He has 5 siblings and they are associated with the field of music. His sister Guruvayur Ponnammal is a leading vocalist, his brother, G. K. Rajamani is a violinist and one of his sisters in a Music teacher at Chennai. Since the age of 5, he was deeply drawn towards drums and mridangam. He was struck by polio at the age of five. Their family included so many musicians and as no mridangam artist was there in the family, his father decided to give him training in this art form so that he can accompany his siblings for concerts and earn a living.
Thus at the age of 6, Dorai started learning Mridangam from Palghat Subba Iyer, followed by E.P. Narayana Pisharody of Eranallur. The legendary Chembai Vaidhyanatha Bhagavathar used to teach his sister Ponnammal whenever he comes to Guruvayur and he encouraged young Dorai. Thus Dorai made his first public appearance at the age of 8 for Chembai Vaidhyanatha Bhagavathar.
In the late 1940s Dorai gained success and also received offers from Malayalam films. But seeing better future for his children in Chennai, Krishna Iyer took Dorai, Ponnammal and Rajamani to Chennai. He met mridangam artist Palani Subramaniam Pillai the same year, which was the turning point of his career. He stayed with Palani in his house for long 9 years where he continued with his studies in Gurukulam style.
Published: N/A
Updated: March 12, 2016
