V. V. S. Aiyar – The ‘all-rounder’ Maharishi who gave it all for Bharata Mata !

V. V. S. Aiyar – The ‘all-rounder’ Maharishi who gave it all for Bharata Mata.

There are rare occasions when superlatives become small words and attributes like all–rounder are made to look silly and humble.
Is he a revolutionary? Ahimsavadi? Linguist? Writer? Wordsmith? Historian? Novelist? Editor? Journalist? Translator? Fitness freak? Sportsman? Marksman? Swimmer? Chess player? Debater? Academician? Teacher? Amateur astronomer? Administrator? Lawyer? Stocktrader? Farmer? Western Classical Music connoisseur? Ballroom dance enthusiast? A Tamil revivalist? Social reformer? A sage, a Yati Purusha?

I am sure I missed many other facets of this great son of Bharata Mata, Sri VVS Aiyar. Varahaneri Venkatesa Subramaniam Aiyar. He was born in Varahaneri, a small village near Trichy, to Sri Venkatesa Aiyar1 and Smt Kamakshi on April 02, 1881. Affectionately called Mani, he matriculated when he was fourteen (1895) and was ranked fifth in the Madras province. He joined St Joseph’s College in Trichy and passed BA with credit in 1899. A recipient of a college scholarship and various other prizes, he studied History, Economics and Latin and stood first in Latin.

As a child, Aiyar devoured Kamban, Kalidasa, Virgil, Homer, Shakespeare, Spencer, Huxley, Schopenhauer, and Emerson. He was also an expert Chess player and an amateur astronomer who spent a lot of time stargazing using the telescope that St Joseph’s College had. Aiyar moved on to get a Pleader’s license, passing the examination in 1902 and started practising as a First Grade Pleader in the Trichy District Court. He had a thriving practice and spent much free time in his literary pursuits and solving chess problems for a few chess publications from England and Holland. He was also the Director of the Trichy Varthaga Sangham2, a cooperative sales and credit society in Trichy.

At this time, Aiyar was married to Smt Baghyalakshmi Ammal (we will see a little about this great lady later) and was living a prosperous and happy life. But what is material happiness for a Maharishi like Aiyar? He planned to start a Swadeshi Cotton Mill with VO Chidambaram Pillai and Subramania Sivam. But this venture never took off. When he was planning to go to Madras to fulfil the necessary qualifications to practice in the Madras High Court, a cousin of Baghyalakshmi Ammal, Sri KG Pasupati Iyer, who had a flourishing textile business in Rangoon (Burma/ Myanmar), Bangalore and Pondicherry talked to him about the opportunities that a legal practitioner had in Rangoon3. Aiyar couldn’t refuse the offer that he would also get to apprentice with a British Barrister.
Aiyar had a very good time professionally in Rangoon. His British Barrister boss suggested that he should go to London and get qualified as a Barrister. Pasupathi Iyer agreed to fund VVS Aiyar’s trip with the condition that he would be Pasupathi Iyer’s pointsman at the London Stock Exchange4, where he had some trading interests.

Aiyar landed in London in Western Clothing, complete with a hat. His objectives were clear: become a Barrister from Lincoln’s Inn, represent Pasupathi Iyer’s interest in the London Stock Exchange, learn Operatic singing (Western Singing), learn ballroom dancing, socialise, understand, and imbibe Western culture, which he had only read academically to date. All this without compromising the Bharatiya culture and practices5. But, the day and distance he had to travel to shed his Western outlook and come home to Maharishi Aiyar wasn’t far.

65, Cromwell Road, Highgate, London N—the address where the Western Aiyar was to metamorphose into the Maharishi he would become. Famously called The India House, it was a mess-cum-lodge for Indian students who came to London, started by a Gujarati scholar, revolutionary, philosopher, sociologist6, philanthropist, and barrister, Sri Shamji Krishna Varma.
Craving Indian food, Aiyar learned about India House and walked into the place, wanting to join them. Decked up in his Western outfit, he sent his visiting card through the maid-servant. Let us see what happened next in the words of another Maharishi of contemporary Bharata, Swatantra Veer Sri. Vinayak Damodar Savarkar was the man who also managed the affairs7 of India House then.

“In 1907 or somewhere thereabouts, one day the maid-servant at the famous India House in London handed a visiting card to us as we came downstairs to dine and told us the gentleman was waiting in the drawing-room. Presently the door was flung open and a gentleman, neatly dressed in European costume and inclined to be fashionable, warmly shook hands with us.”
“He assured us of his intention to study English music and even assured us that he was eager to get a few lessons in dancing as well. We, as usual, entered our mild protest against thus dissipating the energy of our youth in light-hearted pastimes when momentous issues hung in balance. The gentleman, unconvinced, though impressed, took our leave promising to continue to call upon us every now and then. He was Shrijut VVS Aiyar.”

This first meeting had a long-lasting effect on Aiyar and Savarkar, as they became very thick friends. It didn’t take much time before Aiyar moved to India House as a permanent boarder.

Here are ten important things about Aiyar that we might not know and should never forget

1. Both Madan Lal Dhingra and Veera Vanchinathan trained under Aiyar. He taught them to shoot and to face British interrogators. VVS Aiyar was probably the first Indian to put together a ‘toolkit’ for protests against the British. A diary he bought when he started in England on October 10, 1907, has this entry: “Hindu National Yell8.” This was supposed to be the war cry that was to be used during protests.
2. After his course in Lincoln’s Inn, he refused to take an oath of allegiance to the British crown in order to get his Barrister degree. He went for the convocation, refused to take the oath and walked out forfeiting his degree. Incidentally, he stood first in his Roman Law course.
3. A group of Indians under Aga Khan met in Caxton Hall on July 5, 1909. They were planning to pass a resolution unanimously condemning Madan Lal Dhingra. When Aga Khan proposed the resolution, a loud voice came from a corner, “No, not unanimously.” It was Sri VD Savarkar. The crowd that wasn’t expecting a voice of dissent became irate and rowdy. Savarkar was punched in the face by a Eurasian called Palmer and had his eyeglasses broken. MPT Acharya, who was next to Savarkar, trashed Palmer. Aiyar was about to draw his pistol to shoot Palmer. Savarkar winked and asked him not to.
4. Aiyar was part of the party waiting in the Marseilles beach to rescue Savarkar while he was transported to India. They objected to the French police handing him over to the British as he was already on French soil and also went to court. But the case was lost as the French didn’t want to antagonise the British.
5. Aiyar made a daring escape from France to Pondicherry (1910), disguising himself as a Parsi, Rustom Sait, and later a Muslim Dervish Fakir. He took a circuitous route from Rome to Constantinople, Cairo, Bombay, Colombo, and Cuddalore. He took a bullock cart from Cuddalore to Pondicherry, where he spent the next decade.
6. His Pondicherry days were spent in the company of other venerated Swadeshis, such as Sri Aurobindo, Mahakavi Bharathi, Mandayam Srinivasacharya, Parali S Nellaiappa Pillai, Harihara Sarma, etc. This was when he trained and provided Veera Vanchinathan with the Browning Pistol. Why the British didn’t implicate Aiyar in the Tirunelveli Conspiracy Case remains a mystery.
7. Aiyar is called the Father of Modern Tamil Short Stories. His short story, Kulathankarai Arasamaram (Eng Tr: Peepal tree on Tank Bund), which he wrote in 1917, is much celebrated9.
8. Aiyar is a translator par excellence. His English translations of Tirukkural – The Kural or The Maxims of Thiruvalluvar by VVS Aiyar and Kambaramayanam – A Study are celebrated by scholars both in and outside India.
9. Aiyar met Gandhiji for the second time, in Pondicherry (1917). His discussions with Gandhiji turned him into the path of Ahimsa. Till his last breath, he celebrated Gandhiji as a Satyavaan and Tejasvi.
10. Aiyar was a social thinker, reformer and a great Savant of Tamil. Bharadwaja Ashramam, the school he started in Cheranmahadevi near Tirunelveli, reflected his thoughts on bringing about a classless society. His benchmark for a classless society was the Khalsa Panth or Sikhism and his hero was Guru Gobind Singh. It is another story that he was willfully hounded by a section of Congressmen, including EV Ramasamy Nayakar, Salem P Varadarajulu Naidu and Thiru. Vi.Ka. This vile campaign continued even after Gandhiji wrote a note in “Young India” about inter-caste dining and trying to put a full stop to the poisonous anti-Brahmin campaign, which had then transformed itself into a battle to take over the assets of Bharadwaja Ashram that Aiyar had set up. The premature demise of Aiyar only hastened the end of a great institution he wanted to build to rival Taxila and Nalanda of the olden days and a contemporary Shantiniketan.

There is a famous saying in Tamil10: V O Chidambaram Pillai for the spoken word, Mahakavi Bharatiyar for songs, and VVS Aiyar for his writing. These are the three gems of Tamilnadu—Bharata Mata’s potent Trident. Tamils can never forget them, and the world won’t.

Maharishi VVS Aiyar was another great son of Bharata Mata, who, like Swatantra Veer VD Savarkar, was misunderstood, blacked out, ignored, and maligned by vested interests. The Bharadwaja Ashramam controversy is a big story in itself – as to how people with vested interests and poisonous intentions killed what was blooming into a great institution. We would have had more Bharatiyas, and the Dharmic renaissance we are seeing now would have come about decades back. And of course, there would have been a Tamil language renaissance too, a real one.
When Aiyar passed away on June 3, 1925 (he was just 44), one of his thickest friends, Swatantra Veer Savarkar wrote thus (reproduced partly)
“For indeed he was a pillar of strength, a Hindu of Hindus, and in him our Hindu race has lost one of the most exalted representatives and perfect flower of our Hindu civilisation – ripe in experience, and mellowed by sufferings and devoted to the service of men and God, the cause of the Hindu Sanghtan was sure to find in him one of its best and foremost champions in Madras.”

The greatest of tributes for Maharishi Aiyar when he passed away prematurely came from Kavyakanta Ganapathi Sastri. He quoted a verse from Kuvalayanda.
रात्रिर्गमिष्यति भविष्यति सुप्रभातम् भास्वानुदेष्यति हसिष्यति पङ्कजश्रीः ।
इत्थं विचिन्तयति कोशगते द्विरेफे हा हन्त हन्त नलिनीं गज उज्जहार ॥

• कुवलयानन्द
  “The night shall pass, dawn shall arrive, the sun shall rise, and the lotus shall bloom”—even as the bee stuck in the lotus bud was thinking; alas, an elephant uprooted the lotus!!
  The greatest tribute one can give Maharishi VVS Aiyar is to read about him and his works and understand and appreciate the great, selfless service he has done for us Tamils, the Bharatiya society, and our Dharma.
  Epilogue

Any discourse about Maharishi VVS Aiyar would be incomplete if we didn’t talk about the greatness of his Srimathi. Srimathi Bhagyalakshmi was probably Jhansi Rani Lakshmi Bai reborn. Imagine a young lady hounded by society, the secret service and the establishment as a whole when your husband is evading their net laid as bare as today’s worldwide web. Imagine her losing a child when she is living incognito to avoid all these prying eyes. What would her mental makeup be? How did she carry on in a sane and brave fashion? Now, when she thinks life is turning its corners, she loses a child and her pillar of support, her husband. Anyone else would go into a shell. Not our Bhagyalakshmi Amma. She went on to participate in the Non-cooperation and other Gandhian movements. She passed away at the ripe old age of 73.

Let me close with a Tirukkural from Chapter 27, Tapas, Kural 267 that fits our Maharishi perfectly.
சுடச்சுடரும் பொன்போல் ஒளிவிடும் துன்பஞ்
சுடச்சுட நோற்கிற் பவர்க்கு
Here is the translation from Aiyar’s The Kural or The Maxims of Thiruvalluvar
The fiercer the fire in which it is melted the more brilliant becometh the lustre of gold: even so the severer the sufferings endured by the austere, the purer their nature shineth.
Notes and References

1Venkatesa Aiyar cleared the FA exam (First Year in Arts) as the top student in the Madras Presidency. He started off as a postmaster in Ramanathapuram. Not satisfied with it, he resigned, started a banking business in Vadavoor in Trichy, and then moved it to his native Varahaneri, called Varahaneri Subramania Janopakara Nidhi.
2Trichinopoly Vartaga Sangam was founded in 1888 by a group headed by Aiyar’s father, Venkatesa Aiyar. At the time, this cooperative sales and credit society was thriving in the Trichy area.
3 Tamil-speaking legal practitioners with English knowledge were in great demand in Rangoon in those days. This is primarily because most of the affluent people there were from the Nagarathar community of Tamilnadu and couldn’t speak any other language except Tamil. They were mostly in the import-export business. The British Barristers of Rangoon needed a translator to speak to their affluent Tamil clients. So, getting a trained lawyer who was fluent not just in Tamil, his native tongue, but also in English was a bonus for VVS Aiyar’s bosses.
4Among the many other business interests of Sri KG Pasupathi Iyer was his interest in the London Stock Exchange. He had a difficult time managing this without a trusted pointsman in London. So he wanted Aiyar to double up as his pointsman at the stock exchange while he did his studies in London. Aiyar trained with Pasupathi Iyer on the nuances of stock trading and the rules and regulations of the market and managed to master it in a few months.
5Aiyar performed his daily oblations, including Trikala Sandyavandanam, during his time in London. He was a stickler for traditions. When his mother passed away, he couldn’t go back to India for the ceremonies. He performed the obsequies in absentia on the banks of the Thames.
6 Shamji studied Sociology under the English Philosopher Herbert Spencer. He was so wedded to his master that when Spencer passed away in 1909, Shamji announced at his funeral that he was going to set up a lecturership in his master’s name at Oxford University for a thousand pounds. He also erected a statue for his teacher, much before even Britain understood the greatness of Herbert Spencer.
7Shamji Krishna Varma gave two scholarships to deserving Indian students who came to study in England. Swatantra Veer VD Savarkar was the recipient of the Shivaji Scholarship when he came to become a Barrister studying at Gray’s Inn. He was also in charge of the India House at that time
8Here is the “Hindu National Yell” of Aiyar: Hindu, Hindu, Hindustan (3 times). Hindustan (slow) aaleshaan. Patha Hai Nishaan. Shaan, shaan, shaan. Teri Hindustan.
9According to Mahakavi Bharatiyar, Aiyar is a melancholic writer. His writings are full of sorrow and pensiveness. May be the Mahakavi said this in jest, we are not sure.
10Famous saying in Tamil that goes like this, “பேச்சுக்கு சிதம்பரம் பிள்ளை, பாட்டுக்கு பாரதியார், எழுத்துக்கு அய்யர். இம்மூவரும் தமிழ்நாட்டின் மும்மணிகள். பாரதமாதாவின் வீரத் திரிசூலங்கள். இவர்களை தமிழர் மறக்கமுடியாது. உலகமே மறக்கமுடியாது.”

-Article by Raja bharathwaj