Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi Biography 
Soolamangalam Rajalakshmi was a vocalist and musician from Tamil Nadu best known for devotional songs. She has also done playback singing in old Tamil movies of 1960s. She along with her elder sister Soolamangalam Jayalakshmi together formed the famous Soolamangalam Sisters. They were the first ones to start this trend, which was later followed by many. Sibling singing duos like Radha Jayalakshmi, Bombay Sisters, Ranjani-Gayatri, Mambalam Sisters, Bangalore Sisters and Priya Sisters are a few more names to mention. The duo received State government’s Kalaimamani award and many other honours. The album, Kanda Shasti Kavasam dedicated to Lord Subramaniya is very popular had a record sale in Tamil Nadu.
The younger sister Rajalakshmi was born on 6 November 1940 in Soolamangalam of Thanjavur district, Madras presidency. Karnam Ramaswmai Ayyar & Janaki Ammal were her parents. But she passed away in her early 50s in 1992. Jayalakshmi (born on 24 April 1937) lived a long life of 80 years and passed away on 29 June 2017 in Chennai. Jayalakshmi and her younger sister Rajalakshmi were the first Carnatic music sister-pair vocalists and musicians known for their devotional songs in Tamil.
The siblings received training in Carnatic music since young, and they learnt music from many gurus. They learnt music from K. G. Murthi of Soolamangalam, Pathamadai S.Krishnan and Mayavaram Venugopalayyar, and they later went on to establish a name in the field of Tamil devotional music in the post-independent era. They provided background music for films, and also did playback singing. They had a three decade long career till early 1990s, till the younger sister Rajalakshmi deceased at the age of only 51. Their devotional and spiritual songs were more popular comparing with film songs.
Published: January 28, 2019
Updated: January 28, 2019
