BENGALURU: Nobel laureate C V Raman spent the better part of his life in Bengaluru. His residence, Panchavati, is located in Malleswaram and is regarded by locals and tourists with pride and delight.
The 113-year-old building on 15th Cross, 8th Main is now managed by the Raman Trust.
Built in 1903 by the then Deputy Commissioner Jagadeo Naik, the house was sold to Raman when he was working at the Indian Institute of Science in the 1940s.
“He was invited by the Maharaja of Mysore to work for the IISc but he didn’t join until much later. He served as the institute’s director from 1933 to 1937 and headed the Physics Department till 1948,” says Arun Prasad, historian and researcher.
The Maharaja gifted Raman a 10-acre land for setting up the Indian Academy of Science. Arun says, “It became his temporary place of residence as he worked towards the development of science. Eventually, though, he wanted a house of his own and looked for one near his institute.”
Raman worked at the Indian Academy of Science till he died in 1970.
According to C V Raman: A Biography by Uman Parameswaran, there were several stately houses on the 8th Main Road in Malleswaram, with each compound enclosing two acres or more. Three houses were up for sale at the time Raman was house-hunting.
While he had a two-storeyed house in mind, his wife Lokasundari Ammal (referred to as Lokam in the book) thought of it as extravagant for a retiree. They found a single-storeyed house that had a character of its own, standing at the back of a large plot with a beautiful space in the front for a flower garden.
According to the biography, the house was being sold by a bankrupt businessman in the cinema industry. There were rumours that the house was haunted and Raman is said to have joked that he was a greater ghost capable of driving away the resident ghost.
S Sundar, member of Malleswaram Residents’ Welfare Association, says, “His wife liked the place. Amidst the cosmopolitan buzz of the city, she found the atmosphere of the house calming. There were lots of trees around.”
Lokam used to play the veena in the hexagonal hall, as Raman and other guests sat around, enjoying the music.
High-profile Neighbours
Other houses in the neighbourhood were occupied by high profile people and acquaintances of the Maharaja of Mysore. “Veena exponent Doreswamy Iyengar, poet and writer G P Rajaratnam and artist Venkatappa were some of them,” notes Arun.
Panchavati
Lokam suggested that the house be named Panchavati after the hermitage where Lord Ram and Sita spent their lives. Raman liked the name and its association with Ramayana. He went to the post office the same day to get it registered.
Raman had a huge library in Panchavati. There were several glass-doored floor-to-ceiling almirahs in the central hall and the bedroom, stacked with English and European classics. “Lots of scientists came to visit Raman and discuss science,” Sundar says.
“The Nobel laureate worked late hours and spent a lot of time with his students. He was setting up the Indian Academy of Science while simultaneously working at the IISc. He did not want to waste a day,” says Arun.
The academy is now known as Raman Research Institute.
M K Krishna, a resident of Malleswaram, says, “Raman and his wife shopped in the local market like common people.”
Krishnama Raju K N from the Raman Institute Research Trust says, “The premises were given to AMBA Trust temporarily to house their Centre for the Economic Empowerment of the Intellectually Challenged in 2007. They vacated it in mid-2015. In the meantime, the place was also being used by science clubs to host workshops.”
An ardent follower of Raman, M K Krishna says, “When I was a child, visiting Panchavati was like an educational tour. Raman is India’s one and only home-grown Nobel laureate.”
For The Love of Science
The Innovation and Science Promotion Foundation (ISPF) recently conducted a hands-on scientific toy-making workshop at Panchavati. On May 23, a demo of 70-80 of their toys was presented in front of the house, under the canopy. Over hundred adults and children attended the event. Akhila Damodaran
Nobel laureate C V Raman spent the better part of his life in Bengaluru. His residence, Panchavati, is located in Malleswaram and is regarded by locals and tourists with pride and delight.
The 113-year-old building on 15th Cross, 8th Main is now managed by the Raman Trust.
Built in 1903 by the then Deputy Commissioner Jagadeo Naik, the house was sold to Raman when he was working at the Indian Institute of Science in the 1940s.
“He was invited by the Maharaja of Mysore to work for the IISc but he didn’t join until much later. He served as the institute’s director from 1933 to 1937 and headed the Physics Department till 1948,” says Arun Prasad, historian and researcher.
The Maharaja gifted Raman a 10-acre land for setting up the Indian Academy of Science. Arun says, “It became his temporary place of residence as he worked towards the development of science. Eventually, though, he wanted a house of his own and looked for one near his institute.”
Raman worked at the Indian Academy of Science till he died in 1970.
According to C V Raman: A Biography by Uman Parameswaran, there were several stately houses on the 8th Main Road in Malleswaram, with each compound enclosing two acres or more. Three houses were up for sale at the time Raman was house-hunting.
While he had a two-storeyed house in mind, his wife Lokasundari Ammal (referred to as Lokam in the book) thought of it as extravagant for a retiree. They found a single-storeyed house that had a character of its own, standing at the back of a large plot with a beautiful space in the front for a flower garden.
According to the biography, the house was being sold by a bankrupt businessman in the cinema industry. There were rumours that the house was haunted and Raman is said to have joked that he was a greater ghost capable of driving away the resident ghost.
S Sundar, member of Malleswaram Residents’ Welfare Association, says, “His wife liked the place. Amidst the cosmopolitan buzz of the city, she found the atmosphere of the house calming. There were lots of trees around.”
Lokam used to play the veena in the hexagonal hall, as Raman and other guests sat around, enjoying the music.
High-profile Neighbours
Other houses in the neighbourhood were occupied by high profile people and acquaintances of the Maharaja of Mysore. “Veena exponent Doreswamy Iyengar, poet and writer G P Rajaratnam and artist Venkatappa were some of them,” notes Arun.
Panchavati
Lokam suggested that the house be named Panchavati after the hermitage where Lord Ram and Sita spent their lives. Raman liked the name and its association with Ramayana. He went to the post office the same day to get it registered.
Raman had a huge library in Panchavati. There were several glass-doored floor-to-ceiling almirahs in the central hall and the bedroom, stacked with English and European classics. “Lots of scientists came to visit Raman and discuss science,” Sundar says.
“The Nobel laureate worked late hours and spent a lot of time with his students. He was setting up the Indian Academy of Science while simultaneously working at the IISc. He did not want to waste a day,” says Arun.
The academy is now known as Raman Research Institute.
M K Krishna, a resident of Malleswaram, says, “Raman and his wife shopped in the local market like common people.”
Krishnama Raju K N from the Raman Institute Research Trust says, “The premises were given to AMBA Trust temporarily to house their Centre for the Economic Empowerment of the Intellectually Challenged in 2007. They vacated it in mid-2015. In the meantime, the place was also being used by science clubs to host workshops.”
An ardent follower of Raman, M K Krishna says, “When I was a child, visiting Panchavati was like an educational tour. Raman is India’s one and only home-grown Nobel laureate.”
For The Love of Science
The Innovation and Science Promotion Foundation (ISPF) recently conducted a hands-on scientific toy-making workshop at Panchavati. On May 23, a demo of 70-80 of their toys was presented in front of the house, under the canopy. Over hundred adults and children attended the event.
About The Laureate
Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman was born on November 7, 1888 in the former Madras Province. His ground-breaking work in the field of light scattering earned him the 1930 Nobel Prize in Physics.
It is said that his endeavour happened on a voyage to England in 1921. S Sundar, member of Malleswaram RWA, says, “When his ship was on the Mediterranean Sea, he observed that the waters had a darker shade of blue. He worked on the optics and dispersion of light which is known as Raman Effect. He found out why light changes colour when it passes through a transparent medium.”
Did You Know?
National Science Day, celebrated on February 28, is a commemoration of the day the Raman Effect was discovered, not Raman’s birthday.
When Raman was a freelance teacher at Central College, Albert Einstein offered him a job in Europe. But he declined the offer saying that he would only work in India.
When Raman was invited to receive the Nobel Prize, he was told to dress in Western attire. He refused. He was among the few notable personalities -- like S Radhakrishnan and Visvesvaraya -- who wore a turban all the time. He was the only guest to be allowed to dress the way he wanted to.
A few years before winning the Nobel Prize, Raman said if he got a spectrometer, he would get the prize for India in four to five years.
