In 1953 Krishna Gana Sabha came into being under the stewardship of Sri Maharajapuram Santhanam with his illustrious father , Sri Maharajapuram Viswanatha Iyer, as Founder – President. At the beginning , it was housed in the open-air theatre of The Hindi Prachar Sabha, T.Nagar and thereafter for sometime at Thakkar Baba Vidyalaya. In the year 1957, the Sabha came to reside in the vacant plot , adjacent to the Nalli Chinnasamy Chetti, on Nageswara Rao Road.

In 1956-57 , Sri R.Yagnaraman , having been connected with the Sabha from its inception as a Committee Member and Joint Secretary, took over as General Secretary, it was during his Secretaryship in 1961, that the 3 year old thatched roof arrangement adjacent to Nalli shop grew to a semi- permanent structure , at Griffth Road ( now known as Maharajapuram Santhanam Salai) , on a leased 10 .5 ground plot with an accommodation of 900 Chairs.

In 2001, the Sabha was renovated , through the stellar efforts of Sri R.Yagnaraman and the munificent contributions of Dr.Nalli Kuppuswami Chetty especially, and those of various organisations as well as the general public. The renovation involved retaining the existing structure , dias and building around it to give a classical Chettinad / Tanjore architectural flavour.

The auditorium was renamed as “ Dr.Nalli Gana Vihar” in recognition of Dr.Nalli’s Contributions to the effort. The air-conditioning of the auditorium was undertaken in 2004, completing the renovation in its entirety.

Today , Krishna Gana Sabha is one of the premier institutions in Chennai and also known for its architectural and structural beauty of the auditorium and the premises. The sabha has encouraged youngsters in music, dance & drama in all its years. The front ranking musicians of today have given his/her concert In a humble way as either noon or morning concerts in KGS. The sabha was the pioneer in collaborative concerts i.e jugal bandi concerts. KGS was the first to feature Lalgudi Jayaraman & Vilayat Khan.on carnatic violin and sitar. Further Ramani and Chaurasia were featured on carnatic and hindustani flute. Then again Lalgudi Jayaraman and Amjad Ali on violin and sarod subsequently. The sabha was the first to field Ustad Amir khan in the year 1964 and the Famed dancer Bala alias Balasaraswathi was sitting in the audience. KGS has featured Bade gulam Ali khan, Halim Jafar Khan, Pandit Ravishankar, Malabika kanan, Girijadevi , Pandit Bhimsen Joshi. etc apart from fielding all stalwarts of the carnatic music fraternity from the inception of the sabha . Likewise Krishna Gana Sabha is the pioneer in bringing all the Dance forms of India to the erstwhile Madras audience. The sabha has had Pandit Birju Maharaj , Pandit Devilal , Mohopathra, Javeri sisters.etc. The sabha is the first to field Upanyasam in the year 1964 with Kripananda Variyar and Sengalipuram Dikshidhar and Harikatha Annaswamy bhagavathar. Likewise Namasankeerthanam of swami Haridas Giri was first staged in KGS in the 70's and the tradition of the Namasankeerthanam festival has been sustained for the last 40 years. The sabha has received the 'best cultural institution award ' in the year 2018.from the Govt of Tamil nadu.The sabha has put in a service of 65 years in the cultural field of Tamil nadu and is still growing stronger.