Born in a musical family, of Mahalingam Pillai and Seethalakshmi Ammal at Thanjavur, Thanjavur M. Theagarajan inherited the expertise and legacy of his great grandfather (bharatanatyam) and grandfather (mridangam), who were both asthana vidwans at Baroda and his father, a leading mridanga vidwan. Theagarajan states that members of his family are still at Baroda and are called ‘Tanjorekar’. Had his initial training in music under his father and then underwent gurukulavasa under Semmangudi Dr. Srinivasa Ayyar during 1941 -43 at Trivandrum. Actually, he started giving concerts very early, the first being at Tiruvaiyaru at the age of eight. The percussion maestro, Pudukottai Dakshinamurthi Pillai, who took pleasure in providing mridangam accompaniment, was so delighted at the rendering of Theagarajan that he took him in his arms when the concert ended. Theagarajan’s dedication to the art will be clear from the fact that just after seven days of his joining training under Semmangudi Srinivasa Ayyar, he had to act as ‘second’ to him. He learnt all the ten songs listed out for .the concert and followed his master with capability. 
T.M.T, as he is generally known, has been giving concerts in hundreds on the All India Radio, Television, Sabhas, etc. His father and brother Thambuswamy had accompanied him on mridangam and his other brother Balasubramaniam had provided him violin accompaniment. Unfortunately, both the brothers – Balasubramaniam and Thambuswamy – died in the same month, depriving the family of the flowering of an excellent and rare combination of vocal, violin and mridangam artistes as a team. T.M. Theagarajan was Lecturer, Professor and Vice Principal at the Tamilnadu Govt. College of Music, Madras and retired as Principal in 1981. Later he was Principal, Teachers’ College of Music run by the Music Academy, Madras. T.M.T is n accomplished Mridangam artist and a good teacher. 
He has a large repertoire of compositions and his rendering is rich with creative and imaginative music with balanced raga alapana and swara. His voice acts as a constraint in giving shape to his rich knowledge and improvisation now and then. He has been honoured with the following titles:
Publications:
Concerts abroad: Ceylon – Twice Photos: Research by Team eAmbalam Photo Courtesy: www.inbaminge.com; others
