The Kumbakonam connection of MGR, M.K. Nambyar and M.S. Swaminathan

What unites Meloth Krishnan Nambyar, a distinguished constitutional lawyer; Marudur Gopala Menon Ramachandran, the iconic film star and former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu; and Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, the celebrated agricultural scientist with roots in Kerala? The answer is Kumbakonam, the historic temple town of Tamil Nadu. Though they hailed from families with origins in Kerala, each of these towering personalities spent a formative part of their lives in Kumbakonam. The town, known for its rich cultural heritage, temples, educational institutions, and vibrant intellectual climate, shaped their life before they rose to national prominence in law, politics, cinema and science.

Nambyar, who appeared for Communist leader A.K. Gopalan in India’s first constitutional case in 1950, belonged to the Meloth, a powerful and wealthy Tharavad family in Kerala. Born in 1898, he completed his SSLC at St. Aloysius High School in Mangalore before joining the Government Arts College in Kumbakonam, after his brother Kunhambu Nambyar secured a government job in the Agriculture Department in the town.

Discriminatory treatment

His biography, M.K. Nambyar: A Constitutional Visionary, written by his son and former Attorney-General K.K. Venugopal, along with Suhrith Parthasarathy and Suhasini Sen, recounts an incident during a visit to a restaurant that illustrates the social climate of the time. “Three of his friends who were Brahmins were accommodated in the dining hall, while he and his non-Brahmin friend had to sit on a platform built on the veranda of the restaurant. He did not take this amiss because one had necessarily to adapt oneself to this discriminatory treatment,” the book says. Although Nambyar left Kumbakonam to study at Madras Law College, he retained his association with the town.

In 1957, when the Deputy Commissioner of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department attempted to take over the Varadaraja Perumal Temple and Sri Vedanarayana Perumal Temple, administered by the Sourashtra community, Nambyar appeared for the Sourashtra Dharma Paripalana Committee. He successfully argued before the Madras High Court that the Sourashtra community constituted a religious denomination and was therefore protected under Article 26 of the Constitution.

According to his biography, the trustees were deeply grateful to Nambyar for winning the case without charging any fee. Every year on Onam, they sent him gifts: an eight-foot silk dhoti, a four-foot silk angavastram, and a six-foot white silk sari for his wife, Kalyani Nambyar. The tradition continued until his death. Even today, a portrait of Nambyar adorns the office of the Sourashtra Dharma Paripalana  Committee at Kumbakonam.

A school at Anaiadi

The opening line of Mogamul, the novel by T. Janakiraman that immortalised Kumbakonam in modern Tamil literature, begins with Anaiadi, a locality in the town. It was at a school in this area that M.G. Ramachandran studied after his mother moved to Tamil Nadu (then Madras) from Ceylon (Sri Lanka). According to his biography by renowned epigraphist S. Rasu, the MGR family was supported during those years by Velu Nair, a well-known theatre personality and tantric practitioner, as well as MGR’s uncle Narayana Nair, who sang in theatre productions. Recalling the theatrical culture of the period, legendary mridangam maestro Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman spoke recently about Velu Nair’s powerful stage presence. “Velu Nair excelled in his role as Yama Dharman. Old people told me that pregnant women were barred from watching his performance because his appearance and dialogues were so terrifying that they might go into labour,” he told this correspondent.

While still in school, MGR swam in the Cauvery and began acting in stage plays. He was also a devotee of the Mariamman temple located along the route to the river. His early theatre career began when he joined the Madurai Sree Original Boys Company in Kumbakonam, owned by M.S. Satchidanandam Pillai. He later performed with theatre troupes run by Kandasamy Mudaliar, the father of actor M.K. Radha, as well as the Uraiyur Mohideen theatre company.

It was perhaps sheer coincidence that M.S. Swaminathan, one of the key architects of India’s Green Revolution, was born in Kumbakonam, then part of the composite Thanjavur district, a region known since ancient times as the rice bowl of Tamil Nadu.

A village as a gift

M.S. Swaminathan: The Man Who Fed India by Priyambada Jayakumar notes Swaminathan’s ancestor, Enji Venkatachella Iyer, was a learned and respected Tamil Brahmin scholar in the Thanjavur court. He later moved to the court of Ambalapuzha at the request of its king, who was impressed by the scholars of the Thanjavur court. The king gifted him enormous tracts of land, including the beautiful village of Monkombu. Swaminathan’s ancestors thereafter came to be known as the Monkombu Swamys, and his father Sambasivan was born there.

After completing MBBS, Sambasivan moved to Kumbakonam and established a hospital. He later became the chairman of the Kumbakonam Municipality. When Mahatma Gandhi visited Kumbakonam in 1933-34, he stayed at Swaminathan’s home; members of the family donated gold ornaments at his request.

As a six-year-old boy, Swaminathan once jumped into the rapidly swelling Cauvery to test his swimming ability and was nearly swept away by the current. “His mother dove in after him but she too was caught in the currents. Fortunately, they were spotted in time by some men standing on the banks who rescued them,” writes Priyambada  Jayakumar.

Swaminathan and his siblings had their early education at the Native High School and later at Little Flower High School. After his schooling in the town, he moved to Thiruvananthapuram to pursue higher education at Maharaja’s College.