Sukkanya Ramgopal is the first woman ghatam artist of India and is one of the frontline musicians of the country today. Born in Mayiladuthurai in Tamilnadu, Sukkanya hails from a family of musicians and Tamil scholars. She is the great granddaughter of the well known scholar Mahamahopadhyaya Dr. U.V.Swaminatha Iyer, known as ‘Tamil Tatha’ (grand old man of Tamil). Ghanam Krishnaier, the famous musician of yesteryears is Dr. Swaminatha Iyer’s uncle. Sukkanya exhibited an inclination towards percussion instruments right from her childhood. She used to buy the toy “DAMARU”(a small percussion toy instrument) sold in streets during PONGAL festival (harvest festival celebrated in Tamil Nadu during mid January every year) and play them . The Great Ghatam Maestro Padmabhushan Sh. Vikku Vinayakaram was in the neighborhood of her Triplicane house in Chennai which provided the golden opportunity for her to come under his tutelage. Sukkanya began training in the mridangam at the tender age of 12 at Sri Jaya Ganesh Talavadya Vidyalaya in Chennai. But, it was the ghatam that was her true calling. Under the able guidance of Sri Harihara Sharma and later under his son, ghatam maestro Sri Vikku Vinayakram, Sukkanya trained on the ghatam. Over the last four decades, Sukkanya has mastered the unique ghatam fingering techniques and is today considered as one of the true torchbearers of the Vikku baani of ghatam playing. She is also a proficient performer on the Konnakol (vocal percussion). Sukkanya has provided ghatam accompaniment to several senior Carnatic musicians. She has performed in India and abroad too.