Thulaseevanam was born on 23rd April 1939 at Kottayam to Sri. N. Ramakrishna Pillai of Thumbunkal House Ettumannoor and Smt. L. Bharathi Amma of Mangombil House Kottayam. He was the fifth son of his parents. He learned Sanskrit from Vidwan P. Rama Panicker (Harippad), and had his primary education at home. At the age of six, he directly entered 'preparatory class' at the Sree Moola Vilasam High School, Poonjar and passed SSLC exam at the age of 13, in first class. He then joined the Government Arts College Thiruvananthapuram and subsequently took his B Sc & MA (English Literature) from University College, Thiruvananthapuram. He stood first in the University for his MA examinations in 1958. He then had a brief teaching career, at Mar Ivanios College Thiruvananthapuram, Government Arts College, Thiruvananthapuram, Government Brennen College, Thalassery and Government Victoria College, Palakkad. In 1961, he joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). In 1965, he married Smt. Lakshmi, daughter of Prof. V R Pillai. He served as District collector of Kannur and of Kollam Districts, Managing Director of Travancore Cochin Chemicals, Udyogamandal, Kochi, Director of Public Instruction, Secretary to Government in various Departments, Chief Electoral Officer, First Vice Chancellor of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady and retired as Chief Secretary of the Government of Kerala in 1999. Thulasevanam was an admirer of Sri Vidyadhiraja Chattambi Swamikal, a saint cum social reformer of Kerala. He was interested in Kathakali, the traditional Kerala dance drama. He has composed four Attakathas for Kathakali: Bhattaraka Vijayam (1974), Bhama Vaasudevan (1975), Parvathi Parinayam (1975), Kaarthikeya Vijayam (1976). From 1971 onwards Thulaseevanam has been composing Karnatic Krithis. Initial compositions were on Chattambi Swamikal himself. Later on Thulasevanam specialized in composing krithis on deities of popular and also unknown temples in Kerala. Perhaps the credit of putting maximum number of Kerala temples on the map of Karnatic compositions is due to Thulaseevanam. Ettumanoor Mahadeva temple, Kumaranalloor Devi temple, Pazhavangadi Ganapathy temple, Sankumukhom Devi temple, Thirunnakkara Mahadeva temple, Kidangoor Subramaniya Swami Temple, Poonjar Ayyappa Temple, Panachikkad Bhagavathi temple, Kollur Mookambika temple, Sri Padmanabha Swami temple, Sabarimala Ayyappan, Guruvayoor Sree Krishna temple, Sreekanteswaram temple, are some of the temples covered in Thulaseevanam compositions.