Early Life
Shankar was born in Madras, Tamil Nadu. Growing up in Jaffna, Ceylon, where his father V. Lakshminarayan was a professor at the Jaffna College of Music, Shankar was exposed to Carnatic music and other styles from an early age. His father was an esteemed violinist, his mother L. Seethalakshmi played the veena and all his five older siblings were also proficient in music. The most well known of his brothers is another acclaimed and renowned violinist - L. Subramaniam, who has recorded a number of records himself; another brother, L. Vaidyanathan was a music composer for Indian films. Shankar cites his family and Tyāgarāja as early inspirations.
Shankar began singing at the age of two, playing violin at the age of five, and learning to play drums at seven. At the age of seven L. Shankar gave his first public concert, at the Nallur Kandaswamy temple. He gained considerable reputation in his early youth as an accompanist to some of the most eminent names in Carnatic music such as Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, Chembai Vaithyanatha Baghavatar, Palghat Mani Iyer and Alathur Srinivasa Iyer. Following the ethnic riots in Sri Lanka in the 1950s his family escaped to India.
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