Calamur

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C. V. Runganada Sastri C. V. Runganada Sastri.jpg
C. V. Runganada Sastri
C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyar CP Ramaswami Aiyar.jpg
C. P. Ramaswamy Aiyar
C. V. Kumaramswamy Sastri CVKS.jpg
C. V. Kumaramswamy Sastri

The Calamur Viravalli family, inclusive of closely intermarried "merged" lines (e.g. the Chetpet, Pennathur, Vellur Nott) was one of the two preeminent Brahmin dynasties in the Madras Presidency who dominated the Mylapore clique, alongside the Vembaukum family. [1] They were originally Vadama Iyers from Kalambur and nearby hamlets in North Arcot, who traced their ancestry to Appayya Dikshita, and before that, Deshastha movements from the North. [2] They were traditionally by hereditary profession renowned Sanskritists, [3] as with Anantharama, father of patriarch C. V. Runganada Sastri, Anantharama's father, and Anantharama's father's father, [4] but rapidly adapted to the practice and administration of law and English-style governance, with many Calamurs coming to rank among India's most celebrated lawyers, jurists, administrators, and statesmen.

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Intercaste adoptions by the clan were, in general, unsuccessful, as in the case of the Raja of Panagal, who was fostered with and raised by C. V. Sundara Sastri, only to adopt diametrically opposed politics, and become the central figure of then-inchoate Anti-Brahminism and Dravidianism. The traditional votive engagement with Sanskrit did not dissipate; 'younger' members were known to be able to fluently communicate in written and spoken Sanskrit, and Sundara Sastri composed the late Mahakavya: Sundararāmāyaṇa, with the unfinished Satīvilasita , while Bhāratīkṛṣṇatīrtha authored the Stotra-Bhāratī-Kaṇṭhahāraḥ and C. Sundararamamurthy wrote the Rasāsvāda-taraṅgiṇī, a commentary on the Rasaniṣyandini of his great-grandfather, Paruthiyur Krishna Sastrigal. [3] Many members were academics, either as their primary occupation, or in conjunction with other work.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mylapore clique</span>

The Mylapore clique or oligarchy was a small coterie, amounting to a "handful" of politically moderate, elite Brahmins, many of them noted lawyers, administrators, academics or educators, or industrialists, in the Madras Presidency, who 'wielded almost exclusive influence and patronage in the service and government appointments', 'controlled the flow of resources out of the institutions of the capital' and 'dominated the professional and political life of [the presidency].' Informal and exclusive, it was historically controlled by two extended families, the Vembaukum Iyengars, and the Calamur Viravalli-Chetpet Iyers, and took its name from the luxurious Madras City neighborhood in which many leading members kept mansions. The clique coalesced and began its dominance in the 1880s and 1890s under the headship of Sir V. Bhashyam Aiyangar and Sir S. Subramania Iyer, with R. Raghunatha Rao as a tertiary leader; while some argue that it reached its zenith between 1910 and 1920, others highlight its remarkable successes in ministry and magistracy continuing in the 1920s and 1930s, with Sir C. P. Ramaswami Iyer as leader.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. R. Pattabhirama Iyer</span> Indian lawyer and jurist

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">C. V. Sundara Sastri</span>

Calamur Viravalli Sundara Sastri was a leading Vakil of the High Court of Madras, second in the Calamur line to bear the style Viravalli, and of a family line occupying a prominent position and status within the Madras Presidency; a "giant" of Madras jurisprudence, with a "very large" practice on the Original Side, which he shared with his partner and adoptive brother, Sir P. Ananda Charlu. Sundara Sastri published a Revised Set of the Rules of Practice for Original side litigation, which became de rigueur, and was noted as an orator with 'perfect' diction. He authored the Sundararāmāyaṇa.

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Calamur Chandrasekhara Sastri (1854–1887), sometimes Sastry or Sastriyar, was the first Principal and Professor of English and Sanskrit of the Maharajah's College at Vizianagaram from his appointment in 1875, developing it from a secondary school with four teachers into a graduate institution before his death at the age of 32 in 1887, with the support of the contemporaneously reigning Maharajas of Vizianagaram, Pusapati Vijayarama Gajapathi Raju III and Pusapati Ananda Gajapati Raju. He was the first Indian principal of any South Indian college at the time.

References

  1. Baker, Christopher John; Washbrook, D. A. (1976-06-18). South India. Springer. ISBN   978-1-349-02746-0.
  2. Jagannathan, Shakunthala (1999). Sir C.P. Remembered: To Thatha with Love : a Granddaughter's Reminiscences. Vakils, Feffer & Simons Limited. ISBN   978-81-87111-27-6.
  3. 1 2 Price, Pamela G. (1989). "Ideology and Ethnicity under British Imperial Rule: 'Brahmans', Lawyers and Kin-Caste Rules in Madras Presidency". Modern Asian Studies. 23 (1): 151–177. ISSN   0026-749X. JSTOR   312610.
  4. Piḷḷai, Govinda Paramēṣvara (1896). Representative Men of Southern India. Price Current Press.