Citizen philanthropy: An old Bangalore tradition

Hindustan Times

22-04-2025

Last week, a lovely new cultural space called Sabha officially opened its doors to Bangalore. Except it isn't new at all. Located on Kamaraj Road in the heart of the city, Sabha, now lovingly restored by the Ammini Trust, was originally the Chaturveda Siddhanta Sabha (CVS) School, a co-ed Tamil-medium school established over 150 years ago under the aegis of the RBANM's Educational Charities, founded in 1873. To this day, RBANM's runs nine different educational institutions, focused, as per its charter, on serving low-income, first-generation learners in marginalized communities around the Ulsoor area. The letters RBANM, as many old Bangaloreans who grew up in the Cantonment know, are the initials of the 19th century merchant-prince-turned-philanthropist, Rai Bahadur Arcot Narrainsawmy Mudaliar.
The Mudaliars – also referred to as Vellalars – were originally a community of prosperous landowners from the Marutham (agricultural terrain), one of the five landscapes of the Tamil country (the others are Mullai – forest, Kurinji – mountains, Palai – arid land, and Neital – seashore) as described in Tamil Sangam literature some 2000 years ago. One branch of the Mudaliars, believed to have originated in the Tulu country (also known as the Thuluva Vellalars), eventually settled in the Thondaimandalam, the fertile doab between the rivers Penna and Ponnaiyar (both of which originate in Nandi Hills near Bangalore). The erstwhile Thondaimandalam today covers a large swathe of northern Tamil Nadu, including cities like Chennai, Kanchipuram, Vellore, Thiruvannamalai, and Arcot. It is from these cities that large numbers of Thuluva Vellalars moved to Bangalore in the 19th century, to help build and serve the upcoming Bangalore Cantonment.
One of them was RBANM (1827-1910). Compelled into earning a livelihood while quite young, he was denied a formal education, but his entrepreneurial smarts made him very wealthy indeed. A turning point in his fortunes was winning the contract to build the New Administrative Offices (today the High Court Building) in 1864. One of the first things this noble soul did after the project was completed in 1868 was to establish free dispensaries and schools – both Tamil and English-medium, for both boys and girls, to serve the poorest and the most marginalised. After he died at 82, having been honoured by both Queen Victoria and Chamarajendra Wadiyar X, his remains were interred in his own coconut grove at Veerapillai Street, very close to where Sabha stands.
Another Thuluva Vellalar who, following in the footsteps of RBANM, contributed greatly to Bangalore's development, was BP Annasawmy Mudaliar, whose name is immortalized in the street that skirts Ulsoor Lake. Graduating with honours from the United Mission School in Bangalore, Annasawmy was also a contractor, involved in the building of the City Railway Station (1881) and Mayo Hall (1883). In 1907, he turned philanthropist, setting up the Tamil-medium Annasawmy Mudaliar School in the Fraser Town area for children of 'night-soil carriers'. Two years later, he set up the Rao Bahadur BP Annasawmy 'Mood' Dispensary, the quaint shortening of Mudaliar perhaps prompted by the need to accommodate the long name in the small space under the pitched roof. Both institutions still serve the community today.
There were several other noteworthy Vellalars who contributed immensely to the city, but three worth mentioning are Mangalam Chinnaswamy Mudaliar, the cricket administrator after whom RCB's home stadium is named; Dr TV Arumugam Mudaliar, senior surgeon and Superintendent of Victoria Hospital in the early 1900s, and physician to Nalvadi Krishnaraja Wadiyar (the Arumugam Circle in Basavanagudi is named after him); and Dr T Seshachalam Mudaliar, also Superintendent of Victoria Hospital from 1939 to 1949, who has a rather unique distinction – his 1930 paper on the 'accessory appendicular artery', which supplies blood to the appendix, was such a breakthrough that it came to be known as the 'artery of Seshachalam', making him the only Indian, Mudaliar or otherwise, to have a body part named after him.
(Roopa Pai is a writer who has carried on a longtime love affair with her hometown Bengaluru)