Ravikiran is easily among the most prolific composers in the Carnatic arena today. His composing skills were evident even at a very young age. He discovered a new raga when he was two years old and named it Choodamani, after his mother. Since then he has introduced several new ragas like Keshavapriya, Mohini, Snehapriya, Shivamanohari and Andhakarini. He has to his credit in excess of 500 compositions. These include, apart from over 300 conventional musical forms, several short numbers that form a part of his music-dance productions as also those created for instrumental ensembles and orchestras. His Carnatic compositions cover a range of themes in various musical forms such as varnam, krti, padam, javali and tillana.

He has also employed a new musical form that he has named swarakrti (compositions sans lyrics but with well-defined structure similar to the krti). He has composed major pieces in majestic, traditional ragas like Yadukulakambhodhi, Shahana, Dhanyasi, Surati and Devagandhari, and also handled ragas such as Ranjani, Kadanakutoohalam, Bindumalini and Sindhubhairavi. His varnams and tillanas are a blend of the innovative and the intricate.

Ravikiran is a multi-lingual composer, at home in five languages - Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Kannada. Most of his compositions adhere to rules of classical Indian rhyme, but a few intentionally deviate from the conventional path. They are marked by alliteration, word play, swarakshara-s (where the word matches the solfa) and, on occasions, raga-mudra (raga name incorporated in the lyrics).

Ravikiran is the first composer to have composed in each one of the 35 talas of Carnatic music. He is also the first to have composed a 72-mela raga malika geetam, a concert-worthy practice piece intended to familiarise students as well as music lovers with the 72 parent ragas of Carnatic Music as well as their scales. His other unique pieces include a 5-raga-5-tala-5-jati tillana, a tillana that blends two different gatis - tishra (3) and chaturashra (4) - in every line and a 5-language multi-styled piece, Sree rama pattabhishekame.

Like most traditional Carnatic composers who used signature (mudra) for their compositions, Ravikiran signs his pieces with the phrase, ravi-shashi . However, many of his operatic pieces will not bear this signature and some pieces also have the word, 'Ravikiran' incorporated in the lyrics

Ravikiran's works more often rendered by his disciples than himself. He prefers to focus on the works of other quality composers and spends more time and energy championing the less-known creations of brilliant composers like Oottukkadu Venkata Kavi. On a lighter vein, he remarks, "My most noteworthy stat as a composer is being born exactly 200 years after Tyagaraja (1767-1847)!"

For a list of Ravikiran's Carnatic compositions, please click here.