K. Balasubramania Iyer: Last of the

K. BALASUBRAMANIA IYER

LAST OF THE “MYLAPOREANS”

[K. Balasubramania Iyer was greatly interested in Triveni almost from its inception. So also his brother K. Chandrasekahran who was very closely associated with Triveni as a member of its Advisory Board until his demise in 1988. Their help was immense for its survival. The “Ashrama” their residence gave Ashraya to Triveni. This note whose birth centenary of Sri Iyer which was celebrated this year. –Editor]

Mylapore is, of course, familiar today to the outsiders who don’t know it well enough, as one of the many postal districts of South Madras. To those a little older, old enough to have known it before the Second World War, it might be recognised as one of the quieter, middle-class residential areas, with old style bungalows and garden-houses, where life was leisurely and people, by and large, were known to be cultured and courteous, their superiority complex notwithstanding.

By Mylapore is here meant not so much a geographical area as a place representing a form of culture, a way of life and an attitude to social, political and other problems. Festina Lente(Hasten slowly) might be its dominant motto. C. P. Rarnaswami Aiyer, for instance, was, strictly speaking, not a resident of Mylapore, for “The Grove” was on Eldams Road in Teynampet. But he was, otherwise, an archetypal Mylaporean – intelligent and enterprising, law-abiding though individualistic and none too orthodox in social life.

But, K. Balasubramania Iyer (whose birth centenary was celebrated this year) was a Mylaporean in every sense. Not unlike his father, V. Krishnaswami Aiyer (a friend and colleague of Gopal Krishna Gohale), whose sprawling residence, “Ashrama” was on Luz Church Road, close to Luz centre. It can hardly be located now, as it has long since been broken up into numerous bits of different sizes occupied by shops, housing tenements, petrol bunks and the like, not to speak of a popular cinema theatre.

Balasubrarnania Iyer, the eldest son of his father, who was born on 6 May 1892, was trained for the Law, like the latter, but did not take it as a full-time profession, though he started with it and kept his formal links with it till the end. He died on 30 September 1970, at the age of 78, that “education is the key to progress and prosperity.” Not only was he a scholar in Sanskrit, Tamil and English, but quite familiar with many of the disciplines, covered by the university curriculum.

He was, for many years, associated with the University of Madras, as a member of the Senate, Syndicate, Academic Council and various other bodies connected with its administration. He thought it was the Government’s primary duty to provide free and compulsory elementary education, employing part-time teachers and social workers, if necessary. He was a source of great strength to Dr. A. L. Mudaliar, who was Vice-Chancellor for a record number of years, with whom he was able to see eye to eye on most matters.

Dr. Mudaliar was, in fact, his chief in another field as well. That was in the Legislative Council, in which Mudaliar was the Leader and Iyer was the Deputy Leader. Their speeches on all subjects of public interest were heard with respect by the leaders of different parties, including the D.M.K. Balasubrahmania Iyer was a member of the Council from 1952 to 1968, when he declined to contest, even at the importunity of the then Chief Minister, C.N. Annadurai.

Balasubramania Iyer was a great devotee of His Holiness Sri Chandra sekharendra Saraswati, Paramacharya of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham. The Swamiji conferred the title of “Dharmarakshamani” on Balasubramania Iyer. The Government of India honoured him by awarding “Padmabhushan”.

No sketch of Balasubramania Iyer, however brief, can be complete without a reference to his close association and that of his family with this periodical, Triveni, almost from its inception in 1928. His sister, K. Savitri Ammal, and brother K. Chandrasekharan, both contributors to it, were on the Advisory Board, ever interested in its fortunes and progress. Balasubramania Iyer also presided over its Silver Jubilee Celebrations in Bangalore in 1953, though he didn’t live to see its Golden Jubilee in Madras in 1979.

Balasubramania Iyer belonged to a group of cultured and affluent men, who contributed their best to our public life, without being caught in the rough and tumble of party politics. Circumstances might have favoured him, but he worked hard to make the best use of them. His might be a vanishing tribe, but his memory will be cherished by those who knew the value of his work for our society.

During his fairly long span of life, he did many things, making himself useful to society, without affecting the fortunes of his own family, by taking a plunge in the agitational politics of the Congress, with which he had close sympathies in his early days. It is mentioned that he was the treasurer of the Madras session of the Congress in 1927.

Like a loyal and dutiful son (of a distinguished father who died in 1911, before he was fifty), he not only took care of the family, whose responsibilities automatically devolved on him, but chose to look after all the educational, charitable and medical institutions founded by his father. They included: the Madras Sanskrit College, the SSV Pathasala, the Venkataramana Ayurvedic Dispensary and College and many others. He was on the Board of Directors of the Indian Bank, founded by his father and others, after the liquidation of the Arbuth­nott Bank. In fact, there was no cause dear to the heart of his father, which he did not try his level best to promote and perpetuate.

Two of them stand out from the rest. One was his ardent love of Sanskrit. The other was his serious commitment to and deep involvement in the cause of education at all stages, university education in particular. In his case, these two were complementary to each other.

Not only was he an erudite scholar in Sanskrit, but a fluent speaker in that language, not easy to master. It was a pleasant experience for the present writer to have heard him speak in lucid and simple Sanskrit on a wide variety of subjects from Kalidasa’s Sakuntalam to Adi Sankara’s Viveka Choodamani. On one of such occasions, the veteran orator in Tamil, Maposi, wondered whether Balasubramania Iyer was speaking, singing or chanting.

Balasubramania Iyer was one of the founder-Secretaries of the Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute and was responsible for transfer­ring the Journal of Oriental Research, managed by him to the Institute. It was also, thanks to his untiring efforts, that the Golden Jubilee of the Madras Sanskrit College was celebrated on a grand scale in January 1957, under the presidentship of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, the then Vice-­President of India.

Radhakrishnan had obviously a soft corner for Iyer, with whom he used to crack jokes, at times. He it was who publicly mentioned the close similarity in physiognamy between Balasubramania Iyer and his father. At a public meeting once in Rajaji Hall, the invocation song was rendered by Srimati M. S. Subbulakshmi, with Dr. Radhakrishnan in the chair. In his vote of thanks at the end, Balasubramania Iyer, obviously by a slip of the tongue, referred to the good “speech” of Subbulakshmi, to the amusement of the audience. While Radhakrishnan was coming down from the dais, he was greeted by Subbulakshmi, to whom he said: “It appears you spoke very well at the meeting”, to her embarrassed merriment.

As an educationist, who had a lot to do with policy-making at various levels, Balasubramania Iyer believed, with Dr. Radhakrishnan.