A multifaceted personality, Periasami was a patriot, poet, teacher and Carnatic music composer. He was a devotee of Mahakavi Subramania Bharati and Mahatma Gandhi.
Born at Manjakattuvalasu near Modakurichi in the Erode district of Tamil Nadu, he published an underground monthly magazine called ‘Pithan’ in his college days, to which he contributed poems and short stories, starting to use his lifelong nom-de-plume Thooran. A B.A. in Mathematics with Astronomy as a minor subject, he played a major role as the editor of the first Children’s Encyclopedia of Science in Tamil, and the Tamil Encyclopedia-General, in ten volumes each.
He wrote over six hundred simple songs which carried deep philosophical truths. They were set to tune by Sivaramakrishna Iyer. Vidwans K. V. Narayanaswamy, T.K. Govinda Rao and T. V. Sankaranarayanan also helped him. These songs were sung in many concerts by leading artistes of the day like DK Pattammal and NC Vasanthakokilam. For many years Thooran composed a poem a day after his puja.
His popular compositions include Gananathane (Saranga), Kaliyuga Varadan (Brindavana Saranga), Muralidhara Gopala (Maand), Muruga Muruga (Saveri), Pazhani ninra (Kapi), Punniyam oru (Keeravani), Thottu thottu padam in Bihag, and Taye Tripurasundari (Suddha Saveri).
His songs were published in five volumes entitled Isai Mani Manjari. His other publications include Thooran Stories (1962), Nalla Nalla Paattu (1965), Call of the Wild and Bharati for children.
Thooran wrote on a variety of topics. His collections include short stories, essays, plays, books on psychology, embryology and genetics, stories for children, musical compositions and notations and translations from English—Poet Kalamegam’s Chithira Madal, with annotations and explanatory notes, Vadivel Pillai’s Mohini Vilasam, and Avinashi Navalan’s Thingalur Nondi Natakam were published from palm leaf manuscripts. He wroite many books on the poet Subramania Bharati. Thooran was a worthy recipient of many honours and titles. The Padma Bhushan, Isai Perarignar, Kalaimamani and the Annamalai Chettiar Award were prominent among them.