SRUTI has initiated work on an in-depth profile and assessment of the late Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar. Meanwhile, we offer below, courtesy of the Ariyakudi RamanujaJyengar Trust, an article written by GNB and published in a commemoration volume brought out in 1963. The article was written in the present tense and it has been left as it is. To talk about modern Carnatic music is to talk of Sri Ariyakudi, the architect and maker of our music today. He is seventy-four years young and very much in his strides as a top performer and musician. His record is unique in the annals of music history, in its consistently high level of performance and reputation. As a man and as a musician, he is many-sided, being entertaining as well as instructive. Throughout, his career has been the cumulative result of professional dignity, business acumen and artistic ideals.