"It is not the favourable conditions, but most deprived circumstances that mould an artist” - about the struggles that he had undergone in his life a… - Mani Madhava Chakyar

“Mani Madhava Chakyar was the personification of all the greatness of this rich Indian classical art tradition” - Kapila Vatsyayan (leading scholar of classical Indian dance), 1990

“When i say Abhinaya, oh, I can't do the abhinaya like what the great man did here yesterday” - Great Bharatanatyam dancer Balasaraswati next day after Chakyar's lecture-demonstration at Madras Music Academy in 1973.

"My own people condemned my action (performing Koothu and Kutiyattam outside the precincts of the temples), Once, after I had given performances at Vaikkom, they even thought about excommunicating me. I desired that this art should survive the test of time. That was precisely why I ventured outside the temple" - Guru about the difficulties he had faced from hardliners when he tok Koothu and Kutiyattam outside the temples and performing it for common man.