CHENNAI: Polite, kind and genteel in manners, Dr Calumbur Sivaramamurti was more of a friend and a resourceful companion to his two children. Sundararamamurti (68), the elder son of the art icon, says his father never behaved like a world renowned scholar. “He was an affectionate father, simple and down to earth. I did not understand till his death that he was a great mahapurusha venerated the world over,” he shrugs.
Tracing his family’s ancestry to the 16th-century savant and mystic Appayya Dikshitar, Sundararamamurti says his father was taught at home by his grandfather C Sundara Sastrigal (1859-1920), a Sanskrit scholar from Calumbur in present-day Tiruvannamalai district, about 10 km from Arni, who worked as a tahsildar in Telugu districts of the erstwhile Madras Presidency. “Till his 10th year, he never went to school. He learnt English, Telugu and Sanskrit literatures from my grandfather, besides ithihasas and Puranas,” reveals Sundararamamurti, with a hint of pride.
Born at Salur in the Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh on July 11, 1909, Sivaramamurti migrated to Royapuram in Chennai with his uncle after his father’s death. After his schooling from Pachaiyappa’s School, he went on to do his graduation and postgraduation in Sanskrit at the Presidency College. “Besides excelling in studies (a gold medallist in Sanskrit), he demonstrated his artistic skills during his student days. A portrait of his guru Kuppuswami Sastrigal drawn by my father still adores the walls of Presidency College,” adds the icon’s son.
Recalling another incident that proved his father’s expertise, Sundararamamurti says when the then Superintendent of Chennai Museum, Dr F H Gravely (during 1920-1940), retired from service in 1940, his father gifted him a Nataraja bronze statue. “Fascinated by its artistic beauty, the English official asked if it was a 10th century Chola bronze. When my father said it was made by him a month ago, the official was stunned.”
In recognition of Dr Sivaramamurti’s scholarship, he was elected the Executive Council member of the prestigious International Council of Museums (1962-1968) and was awarded by many institutions, including the Mumbai Asiatic Society (MAS). “He was posthumously awarded the Campbell Medal of MAS and I had the opportunity to receive it from the then Vice-President Hidayatullah. He was also the first to be awarded the Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship and the outcome was a celebrated book on Nataraja in art, form and thought.”
Reminiscing the death of his father on February 6, 1983, Sundararamamurti says it was a bolt from the blue. “Kanchi Paramacharya said a pillar of the Math collapsed. Describing him as a renowned scholar, PM Indira Gandhi said his death was a big loss to the nation.”
An ardent devotee of Siva, his last words were “Shambo Shankara” while signing a cheque as chairman of the Arts Purchases Committee of the National Museum in Delhi. “His end came at the very same institution which he served so passionately,” says Sundararamamurti.