L S Rajaramanatha Iyer
(1892 – 1961)
L S Rajaramanatha Iyer was my paternal grandfather. I am not sure of his period as mentioned above. I am sure he died in 1961, when I was in 2nd year B.Sc., in Madura College, Madurai. I also faintly remember his 60th birthday celebrated in 1952 along with thread ceremony of my brothers LVMahadevan and LVSundaram. He was the first son of one L A Samy Iyer. He had two brothers L S Srinivasa Iyer and L S Krishna Iyer. I am not sure whether they had any sister or any other siblings. I understand, it was Sri L A Samy Iyer, who was the first one to settle down in Sholavandan, a very fertile village near Madurai on the banks of river Vaigai. Sri Samy Iyer was a well educated man from Lalgudi who became a Deputy Collector in British regime. He was in service in erstwhile Madras Presidency which included Andhra and parts of Karnataka also. During the last days of his service, he was in southern Tamil Nadu. Most of his family settled in Madurai, whereas he himself, post-retirement, moved to Sholavandan. Even today old timers of Sholavandan know us as of Collector’s family. Even 10 years back when I was roaming around our village, an old man recognised me as Collector’s grandson, though I was only his great grandson. My grandmother is Sow Akhilandam, more popularly known as Ammalu. She was from a village near Lalgudi known as Edayatru-mangalam. Her brother, our mama-thathha, was one E R Kalayana Sundaram, who was a landlord of quite a bit of fertile land in Cauvery delta region. He lost almost all his lands, during an unprecedented season of floods in river Cauvery in 1930s, when his lands became full of sand. And he became very poor. He was a very good mathematician and an astrologer. After he lost his lands, he was eking out a living by giving astro-predictions and by marriage matching. As he got older, he used to stay with his relatives in rotation. Whenever he visits Sholavandan, he will spend with us 2/3 months. He used to give the children a lot of math-puzzles.
My Grandfather LSR was a professional level musician and a Veena player and great fan, friend and contemporary of the Veena legends Karaikudi Brothers. My grandma used say, “Karaikudi brothers invariably will alight at Sholavandan station, during their concert trip to Chennai. They will have days long practice sessions in the hall upstairs”. Not only was he a veena player he was also a veena technologist. He will completely dismantle veena and assemble it all over again, including the waxing-in the frets. He will also tune up the veena from the Aadhar sruthi of 250 Hz. He had an accurate tuning fork for this purpose.
LSR’s daughter and his student Smt. Janaki Dorairajan
Our Thatha was teaching veena to several people in our village. He was teaching Music and Veena to her daughter, my Aunt Sow. Janaki. Unfortunately she died very early at the age of 25 due to mysterious illness. I was just born and three month old. She had two lovely boys, my cousins, Ramalingam and Balu. They were respectively 9 yrs and 4 yrs of age when the tragedy stuck.
This is what my cousin Ramalingam remembers emotionally about the incident.
THE MATERNAL GRANDFATHER
I had only one Thatha, Sholavandan thatha as my paternal thatha was no more when I was born. I lost my mother when I was 8yrs and Balu 3 and a half yrs. We were studying in Thirupuvanam, me in 4th class and Balu in 1st class. As usual, we came to, Sholvandan for vacation. Amma was ailing for some time. We visited her in the hospital in Madurai. Now she was lying on the floor in the big koodam in our house at sholavandan. Appa went to fetch milk for her. By the time he came, she was shaking her head up and down. I saw her life coming to an end slowly.
It was in 22.6.1944
That made my thatha and paatti showering immense love on us. Sholavandan was our vacation place till we went to college, Balu and I shifting to North, Balu to Pilani and I to N. Delhi.
We visited thatha when he was ailing. It was a pathetic sight to see him on dialysis. I was staying with Jayarama mama at King Edward Mess, N. Delhi, I working at National Productivity Council. When thatha breathed his last, mama proceeded to SDN for two weeks, leaving Geetha under our care of me and Kodumudi Sundaram.
Thatha conversed with me a lot. Enquired about our Delhi stay, what we do for eating. He equired about my study content. He gave me two books, A Tale of Two Cities and David Copperfield for reading. They were kept so tidy that they looked as new. Thatha was a tall and a magnetic personality. Whenever he went to Madurai for meetings, he was in panchakatcham, jibbah and a flowing angavasthram, so majestic.!
He took me to his strong room to show how money was kept. No banks then. ₹ 100 notes kept in between the pages of a notebook.. His normal place of work was always at the strong room entrance. A steel trunk on the table, key on his poonal and Correspondence on a drawboard resting on the arms of the chair. Morning walk by him with his walking stick was inspiring. Appa would show me thatha’s letters. Such a steady and clear hand writing. I am proud to be his தௌஹித்ரன் (grandson).
These are the emotional words from Ramalingam who himself is now a grandfather of 85 years.
LSR’s Music Notes
I wish to add something here about my Aththai Sow Janaki. My thatha wanted her to become a performing artist in Veena. He was so dejected after her death for the next almost 15 years he did not touch his Veena. My brother Mahadevan once asked him to teach Veena. He flatly refused saying that ‘you go and look after your livelihood”. Suddenly he restarted his practice.
He was a very noble person with great personality. He had served, as Madurai District Board President, after contesting elections. When he goes to Madurai for those meetings, he dresses up very grandly, with Pancha-Kacha, Jubba and Turban etc. He was one of the founders of Madura College and was a board member of the college. I remember our college was closed for half a day when he expired as a mark of respect.
My thatha was an expert in selecting diamonds. He used to have special lens kit and wax boxes. In the wax-box he will fix the diamonds in the shape of ear-ring or pendent and then look through the lens for any dosha or defects. He chooses diamonds matching in shine, colour, size and cuttings. So much so, almost all the members of our extended family used to approach thattha for selecting diamonds. Krishnan Chettiar, a diamond merchant and Jeweller from Madurai city, used to bring his customers also to Sholavandan for impressing them and completing the business. Even the diamond ornaments used to be hand-made in our house by the jeweller. My mother also learned to look for doshams in diamonds from my Thatha.
He likes Madurai Mani Iyer’s Classical vocal music very much. Once during my cousin Lalithu’s marraige in Trichy, the reception concert was by Madurai Mani. My Thatha was occupying the first seat. He used to know the musicians of the day by their pet names. Semmangudi Cheenu, Serukalaththur Sama, etc. He does not like MS because he felt she made the song lighter to cover the audience. In those days she was somewhat nasal and using false voice in upper octaves. Later on she improved her music in leaps and bounds. I have two of his music manuscripts. His hand writing is just too good and clear both in English and Tamil. He also knows Telugu. His English was just too good.
Our cousin Babu Aththan, being the first grandson of our family, was a pet of LSR. Babu was once telling me, “LSR when he was in his 40s was offered a job in Imperial Bank (which became as RBI later), because of his language skills”. Very few Indians will get such a Job. Being a Nobility, he refused the job. As per Babu, had he accepted the job, he might have even become the Governor of RBI in independent India.
He had one bad addiction. He is a heavy user of snuff, a concentrated powdered tobacco, which people used to sniff through their nasal track. There used to be a brand known as TAS Rathnam. He is a long term client of a particular shop (at the Amman Sannidhi entrance to Meenakshi Temple) who, on his own, fries and grinds fresh branded tobacco specially for our Thattha. Once, my cousin Sekar was mandated to buy this out from Madurai. My Thatha found out that it was not bought from the right shop. He threw the whole thing out, and from next time it became my duty to buy this stuff.
In the last stages of his life, what he thought as piles turned malignant and finally died of cancer of intestine and urinary tract and expired in 1961.
(My brother Mahadevan Adds)
Out thattha LSR was a very well dressed man. I remember he was the only man in Sholavandan who used to wear white canvas shoes and go for walking at SDN. He had lot of friends in high places including collector of Madurai Mr.Fokes and another one Madhurapuli Gownder who had estates in Kodai hills. There is a photo in Sholavandan along with him taken at Kodai hills. LSR was once on a visit to Mumbai, post independence, to stay with his 2nd son, Comm’dor L R Jayaraman (Indian Navy), who was truly a hero of our family. He so much liked the disciplined life of Mumbai, he used to say “one should see Mumbai before dying”.
My brother Sundaram once told me that he saw Sri.L A Samy iyer’s name in a govt guest house near Kurnool. I was also told that our high school came to SDN because of his efforts and influence with the then collector of Madurai. LSR is a lover of British and their customs like punctuality etc. He used to take coffee like the English men with decoction and milk served separately. He loves eating, though he eats full meal only once a day as lunch. Patti will make lunch only after consulting him.
He was having rheumatism with pain in his knees. He removed all his teeth and went on full set of dentures, because somebody advised him that it will help.
He was learning Bhagavad Gita from someone I think one Mr. Sundaram Iyer in our house in the late afternoons. Whenever the school sessions started he will take the trouble of buying white paper and make note books 40 pages and 80 pages etc. He will neatly stitch them and give it to us. All the new books he will wrap with brown paper covers and write our names and give. Such a caring grandpa he was.
My sister, Sow Prema Ramakrishnan says: During Deepavali time our LSR thatha will buy long piece of colour cloth for trousers & shirts for my 4 brothers and cousins (Rajoo, Sekar, Gowri and Balu) and will get it stitched by our family Tailor Gopalu. Come summer, our barber Singaram will be called home and all the four boys will be given a close hair-cut under his special supervision. Thatha will insist on the same shape of SUMMER CROP (Hair Cut) for all boys at back yard by our family barber.
Sow (Dr) Geetha Pakash, my cousin (and daughter of Comdr. L R Jayaraman, I. N.) adds: I was only 10 years old when he died and secondly I spent very little time in Sholavandan, unlike my brothers Sekar, Gowri and Balu. I used to come there only for my vacations for three weeks so I don’t think I know about him as much as others do. So my contribution will not be much. I only know that I used to speak to him boldly and he was fond of me because I could speak English at an early age as I was the first ever convent educated child from our family.
I know there are many others who have been interacting with him a lot. My young uncle Sri L K Nageswaran (s/o LSR’s brother L S Krishnan, we call him as Kittappa Thatha or Kunjappa Thatha) was a pet of LSR, especially because he lost his father at a young age. He was working in the nearby city of Madurai. He comes home by 8:30 PM. Every day after dinner he will spend close to an hour with LSR’s bedside, giving him a body press and massage and generally sharing city news. Some days when he is delayed he will directly meet LSR in his bedside. When Thatha asks whether he had his dinner, he will lie and say yes. When his mother comes and calls him for dinner, LSR will pat him and say “Ada, Fool, Go and have your dinner, it is already 10 PM”. I cannot forget even today, the way Nagu Chittappa cried over the dead body of his Periappa when he came back from his office at 8:30 PM.
I expect after seeing this write-up many will share their experiences also. I welcome them to do so by commenting on this blog.
Appendix
I have mentioned names of several of LSR thatha’s children and grand children. Just to give an idea of exact relationdhips I am giving the LSR’s family chart below:
Let LSR’s memory linger forever
among the members of our family.
Let us all try and emulate his nobility throughout our life
– – – – – – – – – – – – – o0O0o- – – – – – – – – – – – –
OPEN MIND 