Kalki Sadasivam was born in a Tamil Brahmin family on 4 September 1902 at Aangarai in Tiruchirapalli District, the third of 16 children of Tyagarajan and Mangalam Iyer. His maternal uncle was Aswathy Narayanan Iyer. Impressed by the fiery speeches and writings of Lala Lajpat Rai, Bipin Chandra Pal, Lokamanya Tilak and Aurobindo Ghosh,