According to him, Tamil and Rationalist movements of the sixties stimulated his poetic zeal. The ambience of the village is said to have inspired him to write poems. When he was four, the village gave way to Vaigai Dam and the family moved to Vadugapatti village, a farming community in Theni near Periyakulam. Vairamuthu was born to Ramaswamythevar and Angammal of Mettur in a middle-class family.
