On August 11, 1943, Shanmugam was born in the vicinity of Northamalai near Pudukottai. He was the son of the artist M. Iramaiah-Saundharam and later worked at a grocery store in Viralimalai. Shanmugam, who held a strong fondness for scholar Arignar Anna said; “O Tamilian! by seeing actions of people like me,
Wake Up! – Tamil Ancestral land are drenched in blood for freedom.” In his farewell letter to Arianjar Anna, Shanmugam wrote that; “he is going to see Sivalingam and Aranganathan, and ended his life on 25.02.1965 in the similar altruistic sacrificial fashion of Aranganathan & rally cry of Sivalingam; “My life is for Tamil and my body is for our ancestral soil”,