MU Ramalingam born in Alwarkurichi was one among the star pupils of Kondiah Raju, Born in 1933 he joined the Master Kondiah Raju’s Gurukul in the year 1947 at the age of 14. Following in the footsteps of his Guru, Ramalingam also evolved into a master artist. He had a prolific output and at times churned out 100+ pictures in a year with some pictures running into print runs of 1 lakhs plus with the printers of Sivakasi such as Coronation, Orient Litho etc thus becoming one of the most published painters in the calendar art history. Ramalingam initially for his works signed his guru’s name from 1956 to 1958 and joint names from 1958 to 62 and his own name from 1962 onwards.

Ramalingam’s first picture was printed for Ambal Coffee in 1956. After the demise of Kondiah Raju in early 70’s Ramalingam started his studios as Chitralayam and “Lakshmi pictures” after that signed his works as Chitralayam Mu Ramalingam.

A very notable achievement of Mu. Ramalingam was the drawing of the life history of Veerapandiya Kattabomman the freedom fighter who opposed the British and paid for it with his life, in the memorial erected for the freedom fighter by the Government of Tamilnadu in 1974. These pictures have since been changed, but the pencil sketches of these paintings are provided on this website.

The other son’s of Mu. Ramalingam were also talented artists but did not pursue this vocation fully. His youngest son K.R. Jayakumar took up painting as a passion especially “line drawings” and his works have been exhibited in the galleries at Chennai, Jaipur and other locations and received a very good response.