He had disciples who have carved names for themselves such as P. Unnikrishnan, S. Sowmya, Savithri Sathyamurthy, Anuradha Subramanian, Seetha Narayanan, Vasumathi Nagarajan, Sukanya Raghunathan (veena), his daughter Geetha Ramanathan Bennett (veena player and a renowned short story writer in Tamil) and her husband Frank Bennett, [2] Vidya Hariharan (veena and vocal), Thiagarajan/Raju (Vocal), Banumathy Raghuraman (veena), Latha Radhakrishnan (violin and vocal), Padma Gadiyar (veena), Vanathy Raghuraman (Vocal), and the Krishnan Sisters (Padmapriya (veena and vocal), Harini (vocal) and Subhapriya (vocal).
He also has composed many varnams and kritis, which have been popularized by his disciples. The American ethnomusicologist David Nelson studied with him.
In 1981 Ramanathan released an album of Carnatic music, Navagraha Krtis (The 9 Planets), Cāturdaṡa Rāgamālika (The 14 Worlds) and Srī Gurunā: By Muttuswāmī Dīkṣitar (1775-1835), on Folkways Records.