Autobiography of Adhyatma Ratna Kumbakonam C N Guruswami Sarma Chapter 19-I learn about my father's Madura connections

AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 

ADHYATMA RATNA KUMBAKONAM C N GURUSWAMI SARMA (1900-1968)

CHAPTER 19

I learn about my father's Madura connections

Thaiyu Ammal recounted how my father was informed by his Guru of my birth at Kulappa Naicken Choultry. She took me to that Choultry which belonged to the Zamindar of Neikkarapatti near Palani whose Tutor her husband Ramappa was and hence he was allowed to reside in that choultry as a part of his remuneration. My mother seems to have run there - it being her paternal uncle's residence with birth pangs and in a dark kitchen with the aid of this Thaiyu ammal and with no other mid wife I was given birth in a dingy and dark kitchen on the ground. I saw the place in that choultry in her company years after my birth and I was elated. It left in my mind a very deep impression. That lady took me to various places in Madura including the temple of the Devi my mother's Ishta devata who granted her boon of a child-this brat. I was awe stricken and inspired at everything I saw in Madura. It was a grand city and I felt a pang when I learnt that even the house where I lived till my fourth year had been sold away. I had nothing -no tie with this beautiful and charmed city. I was a wayfarer though I was born there and I did not know where my next stop in life was going to be.i felt like crying and I sobbed silently with none to comfort me in the nights at the desolate "Brahma Gnana hall" where I had my residence along with my father. the routine was to have get up along with the elders in the early morning and have bath in the society well along with the elders who were learning under my father repeat Acharya's slokas and one or two upanishads. In the morning on some days, one of the gentle men who learnt under my father took me to his home and fed me with cold rice and on most of the days I had to accompany my father for  a meal in any one of his friends' houses or had it done at Thaiyu's house.  My maternal grand father's younger brother and her husband was kind to me and it was decided later that I stayed at Madura I might come for my meals in his house and the kind lady fed me with the frugal meal which was their accustomed menu. They had an adopted son who was born to their elder brother one Krishna Iyer who was a leading lawyer of that place. some twenty/thirty years before, my father who got transferred to Madura on service got friendly with a gentleman from Batlakundu who was a merchant and a broker of sorts. he was married to one of the sisters of my maternal grand father and he prevailed over my father to have his sister in law married to my father. she seems to have been a very beautiful woman though slightly squint eyed and a pet child of the family. My father yielded and opened a house in Madura, along with Krishna Iyer, the Vakil and Ramaswamy iyer  who was sent to Madras for graduating and the sisters of his second wife Kamu Athai, Ammalu athai as they were called the former being the wife of the Batlakundu friend above mentioned. This joint venture seemed to have run for quite a decade and more and my father pooling his earnings with the other gentleman had probably the most enjoyable years of his wedded life. My second step mother I was told was petted by her sisters and she was fond of dresses , flowers and jewels and every night was a happy nuptial night for my father. He himself used to tell my sisters during the last years that his second wife was a "Dasi" and he had a lot of married happiness. (Ref 1). During that time, my father's friend at Thasildar at Tirumangalam had only one daughter. Thaiyu and my father got the girl married to Ramaswami Iyer who had by then become his wife's brother and was graduating at Madras. The Gods never left this happy nest to continue in comfort. My stepmother died The cup of bitterness was full for my father, the Pudukkottah Mappillai as he was called by all in Madura. the vakil brother in law had by then a number of boys and he left and set up a different household in Sandaippettai street having pourchased a house himself, the other brother in law shifted with his wife Thaiyu, got employed s a logic professor  in the Madura College after his graduation. At this stage my father's Batlakundu friend died probably without any assets leaving his wife Kamu Athai taking the helm of affairs of my father's household continued and she pressed my father with dexterity and he got married to his second wife's father's brother's daughter and the marriage with my mother took place. her aunts were helpful to her  in carrying on such a big household. My mother seems to have been a pet of her parents and my father, probably because of his own occupation  and freuent camps and public duties in which indulged in, was not quite closely attentive to her. Soon four daughters were born. My father got naturally interested in the family of his deceased friend who was materially instrumental in getting him into Madura fold. His widow Kamu athai who was just about thirty years of age when she got widowed with three sons on her hand was highly philosophical inclined and she sat with other people who learnt under my father.  Though she was not proficient in sanskrit she had such a remarkable working knowledge in Tamil that as my father used to say surprised him with parallel quotations from Tamil "Kaivalya Navaneetham" (Ref 2)and other Tamil philosophical treatises. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Editor's note:
1.  I seek the forgiveness of my great grandmother, wherever she is,and I wish to affirm to her that I have only acted in the capacity of a scribe in transcribing this sentence written as it was in the notebook. I realise how inappropriate it sounds today when some one so small in stature to the elders who lived and passed away to write like this in an article so openly. I wish my grandfather had avoided this epithet.
2. Kaivalya Navaneetham is a vedanta treatise in Tamil written in 1500s by Thandavrayar swamigal. It is supposed to be the extract of philosophy (like the butter is obtained from milk) and is written like a conversation between father and son or a student and teacher.The first few commentaries were written in nineteenth century.   
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