SRIMATHI RANGAMMA AKA RANGU AKS RANGANAYAKAMMA

SRIMATHI RANGAMMA AKA RANGU AKS RANGANAYAKAMMA


Smt Rangamma was a very intelligent girl. I do not know much of her past except that she was distantly related to our father ..As per the custom during those days she was married when she was quite young. She passed the rs5/- examination (that is lower secondary examination) with distincton. Her parents refused to send her to the high school. She appeared privately and passed the re 12/- examination (secondary school leavin certificate) again with flying colours. Mean while the boy to whom she ws married died. As rangamma had not yet attained pubety her head was not shaved.
She was not sent outside the house. after she attained puberty her head was shaved and given white cloths to wear without any blouse or anything…I don’t know as to when she moved to “Pusthakam Krihnan temple situated on the college road. She spent her entire itme there. She used to get up early morning and sweep and wash the temple premises and decorate it white powder (rangoli). On special occasions she will draw designs using rice paste diluted and also red earth. What all the temple priest used to offer as neyvediam to the God ( the priest was not a paid servant but the hereditary owner of the temple belonging to the pushtakam family) he will give it to Rangamma. This was all Rangamma used to have. No snacks no tiffin no coffee . very rarely she usedto visit her relatives . her wold was the Temple.
Our father knew only kannada, tamil and a bit of Sanskrit. When ever he received the judgement copy of the documents from the court whether from Highcourt or local courts he used invite Rangamma to our house. she will come home after the pooja at the temple .. evesn though she was aged she never used glasses. Our mother usually used to offer milk to Rangamma in a silver tumbler. This is the only exception and Rangamma used to drink it. She will take the documents and she will read it as though it is in kannada.!!! Whenever our father wanted he used to ask her the mark the relevant portion/sentences in pencil and make a note of it in kannada on the margin. I was young and used to wonder as to how she can read the text that is English in kannada. She never ever used to take food in any house.. It appears that her husband” share of ancestral property was ususrped by her husbands relatives. She did not make any efforts to get back the property…she never asked any one for any help.
Once she told our father that on the south west of the present day palace outside the rampart wal and in a deep tunnell lots of jewellery ,gold and treasure such as precious stones are hidden. When our father asked as to how she knows about it she simply said that when the old palace was burnt all the trasure were traqnsported to this under ground tunnel. Nobody knows the exact location at that period there was a moat and one has to go under water and emerge in the tunnel which was dry. Al l the treasure were bundled in bees wax coated clothes. For traqnsporting this treasure all the palace premises were cleared of all men and only service of some tribals from Biligiri Rangan Hills and Brahmins were used. After wards the Brahmins were gifted with good amount and they were asked to hold the tail of cow and swear upon God that they will not reveal the secrets. It appears that the Grand father or great grand father of the present hereditary priest while in death bed blabbered this information when Rangamma had gone to visit him in his death bed. Also she told me that the Red sanders pillars of old palace were taken by some of the Brahmins and used for the construction of their houses. When I had been to Ramanujam’s house (hereditary priest and owner of the temple) recently I found all the pillars in their house gaudily painted!!!.
Rangamma very much wanted to hold “ Dhatri Havana” a sort of taking food in the forest during certain day in the year. Some one objected stating that for Dhatri Havan at least one Mountain Amla tree should bethere. Immediately Rangamma got one plant of Mountain Amla(Bettada Nelli kai) and took care of it. With in one year the plant grew inot a sufficiently good tree and also yielded some amla also.This amla tree has grown into a big tree and is in the left front side sourt yard of pustakam temple on the college road of mysore. So the Dhatri Havana festival started. Even though Rangamma is not there this festival is conducted by Ramanjam even to this day.
Due to advent of old aage Rangamma fell ill and the owners of the temple took good care of her. When she passed away none of her relatives cared to visit. The owners of krishan temple conducted the last rites as per the orthodox custom of srivaishnavites. Even her nephew and so called niece did not attend. Her only possession was 3 white sarees one of which is known as Narumadi. She had two towels and two blankets.
I do not know as to how she used to sleep on the stone floor of the temple with one blanket spread.
THIS IS IN MEMOREY OF RANGAMMA. I AM SURE THAT SHE WOULD HAVE GONE TO VAIKUNTAM AND WILL BE DRAWING THE DESIGN WITH RANGOLI IN FRONT OF THE DOOR OF LORD NARAYAN’S RESIDENCE. .

SRIMATHI SEETHALAKSHAMMA AKA THAYAMMA

SRIIMATHI SEETHALAKHSAMMA AKA THAYAMMA.
(BORN 22-11-1915 VAIKUNTAPRAPTHI 7-3-1989)

It is said the Sri Vedantha Desika who composed “PADUKA SAHASRAM” says that if the ocean was made into an ink pot and evn when written and the inpot is exhausted it will not be able to write everything about paduka, Also if the thousand headed aadishesha has to sing in praise with all his mouth even afte ages he will not be able to complete.
This is true in case of our mother.
She married a man who was more than twice her age due to family circumstances. It seems the first question our father asked was whether she is marrying for the sake of money and whether she will take care if him until the very lat. For the firt one our mother replied that she is not marrying for the sake of money and she will definitely take care of him until the very last. This promise she kept up until the demise of our father
(Born 15-10-1872 Vaikunta prapthi 25-8-1949).
My grandfather from our mother’s side was not at all well to do. Inspite of his being poor(It was his own making) his anger and ego never deserted him. Even for small issues he will quarrel with his relatives and others. His next brother was a connossier of drama and was with Late Nagendra Rao for some time and ruch back to him after some interval.. He had one son and two daughters. All the while these children were taken care of by our grandfather. My grandfather had one sister who was married to Rajanna quite a rich village accountant of Sathegal. His another brother was emplyed in the then Mysore Stae Railways in accounts department and was a racegoer and card player. I donot think that he made any money. Whenever he lost heavily or when ever the Pathans who were usurious lenders from whom he had borrowed ;money he will rush up to our grandfather for help. So these unnecessary burdens made him poor.
Better I stop with this as the main theme will get distracted.
So our maternal grandfather had no choice and as our father was rich and on his own had come for the hand of the bride.
So the marriage took place . Our mother moved to Nadipuram alsong with our father.. she could not enter the kitchen as she had not yet got “smashrayanam” and “Bharanyasam” from our accepted Andavan of Srirangam.. Here is a small diversion in the narration. We actually belong to “Swayamacharya sampradayam.” In the long run our forefathers thought that the extre religious follow up of “Srivaishnava Dinacharya” is not possible in the long run. So they thought that attaching to an ancient order will be good in the long run. ( Even in the recent past late Sampathanna of sosale who happens to be a distance cousin of mine perfomed samasrayanam and bharanyasm to his daughter in law smt Mani. Also late lakhminarasimhachar (a cousin of our father) also known as “Pattanada Ayya performed the above rituals for his eldest daughter in law.) So they chose the Andavan Sannidhi and got attached to the Periashramam.. so for the samskarams of samashrayanam and bharanyasm our father not only took our mother but also Kanna son of Vadhyar srirangachar aka kullu vadhyar and younger brother Rangasami (who became known as Sri Ranga Maha Guru. His sisya is the pontiff Rangapriya swamy of Bangalore) of Late Hedathale Srinivasachar. They went on a sort of pilgrimage and returned after the function.
One chechamma (mother of Belluli Raju) was not satisified with the orthodox system as followed by our mother. So she taught the orthodox system as followed in the Nadipuram Households to our mother and her own daughter in law (wife of Belluli Raju) and Rajamma (wife of Harikathe Srinivasan. I do not know as how many weeks or months these three unfortunate ladies spent in learning the orthodox way . They were taught as to how to take bath in the river or pond modestly, how to maintain the kitchen how to wash and bring it to orthodox use of the various metal products how to become clean after answering the natures call etc etc. all these ladies passed with flying colours..
After undergoing all these shall I say ordeals and teaining our mother was brought to Mysore by out father.
In the course of time they had one daughter and one. Both dies in their infancy. Some one suggested that this is dur to Naga Dosha and if Naga Prathistay is done this will ward off the evil effects and my parents will be blessed by children. So they went to Sathegal and got one Nagar Stone done by Stapathi Siddalingachar at Kollegal. (This sthapathi became a famous carver and also the head of a mutt at Mysore later on and his children and grandchildren are good carvers in stone even today)
Necessry rituals were conducted and this Nagara Kallu was instrlled on the banks of cauvery under a huge banyan tree..I have seen this stone in the year around 1946 or so and our mother performed pooja to it, It was really a very good statue with Lord Krishna standing on the 5 headed snake. This in turn was surrounded by 2 inteevined serpents.. the total height was about 2 1/2 feet exposed above ground
Next time when I went in 1993 I could not find it. May be somebody has stolen it. Even today there are hundreds of Nagar stones. But they are not as artistically created as the one I have described.
Our mother also undertook the vratam of “Subbarayana shashti” where in a Brahmachari in invited and he is fed with all the items cooked in orthodox way. After wards he is gifted with a paid of dhotis and given beterleaves betelnuts and some honoratium as well as a silver Naga ( a silver wire made into a shape of a serpent). This rituals our mother strictly followed and our parents got totally 5 children as follow
1)Sundara Varada Char AKA Ranga 24-1-35. (it seems when I as a child was brought
home from the hospital our youngest maternal uncle said that if the child is not called Ranga it will also die. So my shortened for remained as Ranga. My father insisted that I should be called Muththanna by my younger sisters and brothers but this was ignored as they grew up. But this nick name remained with my close friends)
2)Alamelamma AKA Pushpa 9-1-1938
3)Ananthakrishnamachar AKA KIttanna AKA A.K.Char 13-6-1939
4)Anathalakshmi AKA Paddu 26-3=1941
5)Anatharangachar AKA Raju AKA A R Char 25-2-1943

All the above are happily married and leading a comfortable life.
If you observe the last 3 names “Anantha “is common. It seems that our mother had a dream when she was pregnant for the third time. In that dream a serpent appeared and said that she has entirely forgotten the serpent. She told this to our father and our father said that they will name the children with the name “Anatha “ before the actual name so that the memory of the serpent will always be there. So this name anantha added to the last 3 children.
Our mother not only took care of the children but also her husband. She never stored any old clothes. Whenever any of our sharecropper came she used to enquire as to how many children he has and their ages and approximate height. She will simply hand over our old clothes and not very old clothes to them . the same case with the milk vendor.. usually during our child hood we will have some attachment to some colour clothes or the other ..when some of our share cropper came we used to hide out favourite clothes inside the bed or some corner of the house. but our mother knew the trick and will give it away. For our part we used to get new clothes replacing what has been given. When ever any well to do persons invited our parents for any function she will dress in all finery and attend the function. When some not so rich people used to invite she used to dress in a very simple clothes and use minimum of jewellery. When Brahmopadesham of Dr V S Achar took place long long ago when Dr Achar was simply known as “srinivasa” somebody commented that the boy did not wear even a simple gold chain. Our mother who over heard it just came there and except for the “Thali” chain she ws wearing she removed all the neck chains and put it around the boys neck and asked the lady who commented as whether she is now satisified... Even now “Ramu” the boy now a man remembers this incident and says with gratitude Now of course Ramu is very well off.
Another incident is that one of our known lady who was very junior in age gave birth to a boy. Unfortunately she did not lactate. So the doctor suggested then that they can give the child diluted cow’s milk This they did and somehow this feed did not suit the child and it started having loose motion. When they cosulted the doctor once again he told that the only way for the boy to survive is to gt the boy breast milk and he finds no other solution. Our mother came to know about this and volunteerd to breast feed the child as she had Raju by then. The child’s mother was. thankful and she did not know as how to show her gratitude. Along with Raju our mother fed this boy also. Recently I had the opportunity of meeting this boy/man and with gratitude he said that without our mothers timely help he would have died in his infancy (this boy is the nephew of seenu and son of Kamal a) He also told me that he is a brother to all of us as he has shared the same food source as we did..
When ever thre used to be left overs our mother used to send for the milk supplier lady and even before it became cold she will hand over all the left overs piping hot. Three ws a problem in this as the house of the milk supplier was in a area infested with street dogs . me or kittanna used to run to the house of the milk vendor and call “Mallamma” amma is calling you and run back home.
When Mallamma’s daughter became pregnant our mother prepared special dish of puliogara and kesari bhath to the pregnant girl..
When ever our sharecropper visitd mysore especially during the Dasara Festival our mother without flinching prepare food and serve them to their hearts content. Some times these people used to have difference with out father regarding the sharing of crops. This did not deter them from having food in our house. so whenever we used to go to the village the villagers specially the share croppers used to treat us lavishly. As we had plenty of land we used to go to the village during the second week of December with the entire family with masala powder, coffee powder, and othr essentials and cooking vessels. and all our books. God only knows whether we did our study or the books were there. We used to stay at our village upto the third week of January. When ever our father used to go for collection of paddy from the shar croppers I normally used to accompany him. If we left in the morning after morning abolution in the river Cauvery and two small covered vessels with “Sambar rice “ and “Curd rice” after visiting various villages we will return by late in the evening. Enroute we will have our lunch. Monday was a holiday for all the farmers so our father also enjoyed holiday then. In addition to the paddy he used to collect either the amount advanced as personal loan or the interest for the money advanced.. all the children used to feel that their independence has been clipped when we returned back to the Mysore City. Again the same routine.
During everyyear our father got sufficient paddy for our consumption fron the village. We had two bins in our house. we will clean up the one where we had stored the previous years paddy clean it up and our father used to perform pooja. Into this the paddy will be stored. The paddy ws enough for the entire year . this included the three mandatory functions our father used to perform. One was during Navarathri whrin he used to read Rmayana and on the last day he will read the “Pattabhishekam” portion. For this he used to invite all the known people and our relatives. Professional orthodox cooks were used for the prepration of food items. For this about 15 to 20 course lunch was served. Invitees used to come from the afternoon upto 8-00 p m. all the guest will be given extra sweets for them to carry home. This was handled by our mother . she was lavish in this regard. All the sweet were prepared in pure Ghee. Another festival ws the celebrating the birth day of “Peria andavan” for this also all the relatives and friends were invited. Another one was the yearly “Shraddha” of our grate grand father. For this only relatives used to be invited (Pangalis). Our mother never missed performing any religious function . our father also used to support her in this venture.
We used to visit Marahalli near Malavalli where lord Lakshminarasimha is the presiding deity every year during car festival. We used to be there for a week. In front of the temple there was a tank which was quite deep. Now this tank is almost filled with slush and mud and not at all deep. Long back when we were young we had gone to the tank for the bath. Somehow kittanna slipped and was going deeper into the water . at that period our mother simply swam and saved kittanna. Another occasion wa when raju had some sort of illness wherein his back skin started having some sort of lesion. The then doctors prescribed some lotion and boric powder. Raju could not sleep properly and a sort of colourless liquid started oozing our of the lesion. No amount of lotion or boric powder helped. Due to the pain raju could not even sleep. Our mother used to have him on her lap and fan him . may be her prayer healed him. May be our mother did not sleep for a week. This she considered as one of her duties in brining up the children.
As far as I remember our father never punished us. If at all he will just tap us . even for this I used to weep as if our father was bent on murdring me . our mother never ever punished our sisters. But she was a strict diciplinarian when it came to controlling the boys.. she will be harsh in her punishments if she finds that we were not studying properly or indulged in any street fight. Her brahmastra was that she will coe to the school to give complaint to the head master. This we know that results in corporqal punishment. After our father’s demise wherein I ws just 14 years old we did not know as to how much of property we had. For this purpose I got the help of late Hedathale Chakravarthi Srinivasachar an went to every village accountant and with great difficulty and paying “Masi Kanikay” or in simple words bribe to the every village accountant we wre able to get details of the land. Further we did not know the share of our crops. For this purpose we went to the village head man and without the knowledge of the actual share cropper we got the details of the our crop share. This was not as simple as I have mentioned as I had to get the dates on which srinivasachar was free and when we went to the village the village accountant would have gone somewhere. So only when srinivsachar, village accountant and me met. . I also could not apply for leave often which used to obstruct my studies.
The next issue was the question of promisary notes and other papers regarding the money transaction. Our father had advanced money to some of our close relatives. Even though their children were in good position these people used to come with family. Tying the top dhothi to their waist and request our mother to stand by the photo our father which was in the hall. Even though the visitor was senior in age by realationship he was junior as per protocol. As soon as our mother emerged the entire family will prostrate and request our mother that as they are unable to repay the loan amount may be written off. I do not know as what made our mother to yield to such request. She used to ask me to give her the concerned paper and hand over the promissory paper to the person who had prostrated. I can remember two prominent persons in this category one is late Annamuthu and another one is Oyanna’s (of Bannur) sons. Now annamuthu’s youngest son is a multimillionire and oyannas grandson is having a very big bungalow with swimming pool at Bangalore. These are only 2 cases and there are more than this. For emergency our father had advanced quiet a good amount of money with out any documents to one Deshikachar and Ramanuja (nephews of our father) They simply forgot to return. Now they are no more.
Another incident was that one person was given gold gold for making of ornaments. He was working with a jeweler as accountant . this chap forged the receipt under the signature of the owner and gave it to our mother. Somehow this came to light after two weeks as our mother went direct to the jeweler and asked as to why he has not yet delivered the finished product. The owner was taken aback and asked our mother to produce the receipt for the giving of gold. He immediately came to knw of the fraud and told our mother so. The only option was to go to the police or drop the issue. Our other did not do this and told the person that if she did not get the gold she would go to the police and the person has to face the music.. this had the desired effect and the gold was returned within two days. This person is still living and has developed good relationship with me???!!! Another case was that one ramaswamy a friend of our maternal uncle kittu( who failed in all undertaking he took) came along with kittu to our house. our mother knew ramaswamy well . after preliminaries ramaswamy suggested to our mother that as we own 3 houses and we are well off kittu may be presented with one house and an amount of rs 5000/- when our mother heard this she became very angry and told ramaswamy that as he has lot of open space at the back of his house he may present it to kittu. Also he is getting good quantity of paddy from his lands . from this he can share a portion with kittu . if he is so friendly with kittu why he should not start helping his so called bosom friend before he tells others. So saying she asked both of them get out of the house and told them in uncertain terms not to enter her house on any account.. as soon s they left she closed the door with a bang and may be that sound was heard throughout the world!!!
By the grace of our mother we all came up in life.
Evseryday upto the middle of January I had no rest. Going to the court and finding out about the cases pending reminding the lawyer about the cases. I was puny then. Our mother used to give me milk in the night but it did not help as I was worrying a lot at all times.
Only after the harvest season that is the middle of January I could forger about other works and start studying.
My joining the Engineering college was another chapter. One krishnahall srinivasaiyengar aka setty owed us quite a good amount of money. As the percentage of marks I earned ws not enough to get me a seat by merit at NIE. So our mother requested setty to to give the donaton to secure seat in the engineering college. Until the very last moment settee dodged the issue and our mother did not know what to do . so she pleged one gold waist band at AR MA LA Nattukottai Bank situated in Srirampet and got the money. This I paid and got the seat undr the donatin quota. In this even headathale srinivasachar did not help. His view was that as so many engineers are not having a job there is no point in studying engineering. If I studied some graduate course I may be able to get a good clerk’s post in the Government department in Mysore. Thanks to our mother and LORD NARAYANA none of us became clerks!!
Some one told our mother if a marriage takes place within the year of death of our father the merit will reach him. Even though pushpa was aged 12 years the bride groom selected was sri ramaswamy iyengar from K R Nagar. The marriage was celebrated lavishly. All the presents and gifts were given to the bride groom. The joke is that even after paying money to settee to get a cycle to the bridegroom setty did not care to give it. The elder brother of ramaswamy iyengar was the son in law of setty. With the intervention of Hedathale at lost he paid the amount to ramaswamy iyengar. Setty did not have any shame or regret for the action he did but still he was still considered as a leading figure of srivaishnava group then.
With the passing away of our mother one great soul was lost for us but it ws an addition to the VAIKUNATAM.
Now I have to close as I am tired and ther is more to write about our grat mother. If there is any equivalent for “Karna” referring to a Lady our mothr deserves it.
To be continued when I feel free. . . . .
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NADIPURAM KADAMBI SAHUKAR SRIRANGACHAR

NADIPURAM KADAMBI SAHUKAR SRIRANGACHAR.

Our father was born at Nadipuram aka Aacharainahundi. The former name was prevalent among the Srivaishnavas of the village and others including the Survey Of India used the latter name.
Our father and his younger sister were born to Sri Sundara Varada Char and SMT Alamelamma. Our Grand father was a chthushastra pandit. These were the subject in which he was a pandit. 1)Thraka (Logic) 2)Mimasa 3)Dharmashastra and 4)Vykarana.
In addition he knew 1) Krishna yajurveda and 2)Nalayira Divya Prabandam.
When our father was around 10 years of age he was married to one Lakshamma aged around 7 or 8 of Chakravarthi family of Sosale. Dr V S Achar happens to be the grandson of Lakshamma’s elder brother. Our father was taught the subjects know to his father by his father. This started from a very early age and continuted.
The daughter was married to one Dikshitar of T Narasipur She died young without any issues. Our father and grandfather urged Dikshitar to marry for the second time. He got married and had issues. One of his grandsons is Seetharamu.
When our father was around 12 years of age he was attacked by some viral disease and was bedridden for sometime. When he recovered his hearing capacity was reduced .. For this our grandfather was grief striken as it is difficult to follow what is taught by him by his son . So our father who was averse to stay at home went with some small amount to Mysore. Our father wa the first one to migrate to Mysore from the nadipuam family. He wanted to do paddy business or agriculture on his own at his own village . for this our grandfather was against as “ A BRAHMIN SHOULD NOT INDULGE IN BUSINESS OR AGRICULTURE” He purchased a small house at chaluvamba agrahar and appeared for what is known as “ 5 rupee examination or upper primary examination” English was not a subject of the examination. He passed the examination and after sometime he joined as a teacher in the Methodist Mission school which was situated at the present Gandhi square for classes 1 to 8. He was supposed to handle all subjects except English. As our grand father had only son the entire property got as a share by him went to his son. Nadipuram Kadambis never knew pompous living and were satisfied with what they got. My father from his savings from the crops got from the land and sold utilized this money for banking purposed . Also he was a pawn broker, purchaser of on demand (notes executed by some and the person who lent was not be able to collect but within time limits). Our father has all the time in the world to proceed against the defaulter in the court of law and in 90% of the cases he used to succeed.
This was also a sort of fame and if any borrower defaults the lender used to say that he will made over (this is the term used ) to our father. This purchase of demand or promissory notes was giving good return.
In the school one christian head master known then as principal was there. All the teachers were expected to pass Bible course. This gentleman asked our father to write the exam stating that he will allow him to refer to the books. The examination was not at all difficult. He told the principal that as he is a follower of orthodox srivaishnava religion he does not want to even read or write glorifying any other religion. So the matter was dropped. After some time another principal was posted . the first thing he did was to find out as to how many have paased the bible examination . To his surprise he found only our father ‘s name.. so the principal called our father and asked him to pass the exam by referring to the bible or atleast he can choose one or two books of his choice and referring to the books he can answer as the questions will be solely based on those two books of his choice.
For this also our father replied in the same way as he had replied to the previous principal. So the principal told our father that as he has to obey the directions of the Methodist Mission he has no other go but to send our father home. Our father told the principal that he is not angry with the principal as he is obeying the instructions of his higher ups. Now our father completely immersed himself in the banking and pawn business and he started giving loans on the lands that were made collateral to the money advanced Additionally he was lending money on the lands and buildings alienated for a specific period.
He was also lending to a few traders of Santhepet on a short term basis. Even though the traders had lots of goods in their godown they could not sell it and it will be a sort of a run and the commodity price will come down. It was also not easy to get cash at short interval from banks.
Our fathers wealth increased gradually. This was also due to the fact that smt Lakshamma was very much involved in the economically running the house and taking good care of the ornaments pledged. Our father started purchasing houses and lands and some times if the person who has borrowed by pledging the land is unable to repay for a price our father used to purchase them. Similarly when most of the Nadipurians left Nadipuram due to flood of 1924 our father paid a fair amount and purchased the lands.
As I remember we had lands in Melapura, Anandur and ,Belagola of Srirangapatna Taluk
Kestur koppal in K R nagar taluk. Poorigali in Malavalli Taluk Aacharaiana Hundi,Doddabbagggilu ,chikkabbagilu and sosale of T Narasipura taluk.
Do not imagine that all the lands were in one plot.
Our father had problem at Melapura , and Anandur as these villages had only Vokkaliga Gowdas and they refused to cultivate on share cropping basis. None of the villagers came or volunteered to cultivate the lands. As our father was a cent percent absentee land lord he had no option but to sell it. The yajamans of the village fixed the price and when it was registered in the name of one it was reauctioned and the excess amount was given to Rama Mandiram.
Our father and smt Lakshamma had one boy and one girl. For some unknown reason both died at their infancy.. Later on they did not have any issues.. So they thought of
Adopting one of the young boys from Nadipuram clan. Initially they selected three boys and later on they narrowed down to one boy. The boys family were over joyed as their son is inheriting a rich property... This boy had one elder sister and one younger brother. After finalization the only thing left was to fix up an auspicious date. For this purpose the couple proceeded to Nadipuram. One day when smt Lakshamma went to Cauvey for a bath early in the morning it was misty. She could see two women absorbed in conversation. One was telling the othe the mother of the boy that she is lucky as his boy is going to inherit lots of money. For this the mother of the boy said “my son is going to get his shaved when the adopted parents die. So what is great about it?” Immediately smt Lakshamma returned home weeping. When our father asked the reason smt Lakshamma told our father about the conversation she heard. She also told that even before adoption the boy’s mother is talking about our death. This does not bode well..
Without telling anyone in the Nadipuram household they simply left for Mysore. Later on they told the boy’s mother that taking her son for adoption is off and they did not give any reason. During harvest the couple used to go to the village by the middle of december and stay their until the beginning of February. Almost the entire paddy collected used to be stored and during the Ganesha festival or during august they used to sell the excess paddy after retaining the portion required for their year long use. The paddy prices used to raise during august month . so this practice. If they had asked some one to plant sugarcane they used to arrange for the crushing of sugarcane and prepare jaggery . 50% of the produce will go to the sharecropper. This jaggery had to be transported to neaerby weekly shandis and sold. This also gave good profit. When during one year the jaggery prices used to crash the next year not many used to cultivate sugar cane . during such periods our father used to ask the sharecroppers to grow sugar crane. The trick never failed as the demand for jaggery ws high but the supply was in short supply.
During 1924 floods smt Lakshamma was t Nadipuram . our father was at Mysore . when the flood water was raising most of the villagers came to nadipura house of our forefathers as that is the only house built on a raised ground. The cowshed could accomadate perople in hundreds. When there wsa no sign of the cuvery water raising what smt Lakshamma did was to take all the important documents cover it with clothes put it in a steel trunk and tie it to a roof beam. Then ther was her favourite black cow with calf. She perfomed pooja for it and aked it to bestow long life and prosperity to her husband and helf the tail of the cow. The level did not raise further and went on decreasing and finally subsided. Knowing about the flood situation our father rushed to the village from Mysore and by the time he reached the flood water had receeded.
He was dumbfounded to know the action of smt Lakshamma. When smt Lakshamma passed the age of menopause she urged her husband to have a second wife. But our father refused and said as long as smt Lakshamma is alive he will never think of marrying for the second time. Then smt Lakshamma got these two promises from him. One was that he should marry after her death. The second one was that if he does not marry after our fathers death he should hand over all the property to some charity or the other and never to leave anything to our relatives. The reason for this was that she and her husband were not treated properly by their relatives. Our father promised this whole heartedly..
After the death of smt Ladhamma our father went on bride HUNT. During those periods the girls used to be married very early in their teens. And another thing ws that he could not marry a widow .. so one Desika char and Ramanuja were entrusted with the work of selecting a bride. They used to collect money from our father for their trips. God only knows how much of false claim they made . both of them were nephews of our father.
At last they found our mother who was staying at Sathegal with her parents.. our maternal grandfather was rich once upon a time and he had become poor due to some circumstances. This I do not want to elaborate as it will another long story.
The difference in age between our mother and father was about 43 years.
In due course they had one girl and one boy who died in their infancy and then 3 boys and 2 girls who are doing well in their life. Someone told our father that if he promises to pay Lord Srinivasa of tirumala the next child will definitely live. So our father prayed that if the next child survives he will offer rupee coin worth the weight of the child when it is born. So after the birth of the first child he offered the weight equivalent of rupee coin to the Lord of seven hills. Later on I used to ask ou father as to how he manage to find out the equivalent of rupee? He said that the weight is given as in tems of pounds and for every pound weight the rupee equivalent was rs 40/- so for the equivalent of weight of the child the deuivalent rupee can be found out and offered to the Lord..
They led a good life together. They also had sometimes some issue or the other on which they disagreed. Our mother took good care of our father and all their children are in good position. . ..
One Basavanna now a famous firm name in santhepet as a wholesale dealer of cereals had a relative. He had pledged his house which was near the K R Police station , the house had roads on three sides. In the back open yard it had six coconut trees. After 3 years he could not pay back and the owner who had pledged came with sri Badavanna.
He told our father that for a certain amount he will sell the house even though he had offers for a higher amount . the reason ws that our father had helped during their trying period. Immediately our father proceeded to the next door neighbour (two houses to the south of our house at chaluvamba agrahar) sriman Ranga josyar. He consulted him whether he can purchse the house . immediately the Josier told our father as the house is situated on the south of our house it is not good to purchase that house as it is situated in the direction of Rudra Bhoomi.. we should know that the house is situated several kilometers away. Our father had lots of faith in the Josier. So our father dropped the idea of purchasing that house. on another occasion the nexthouse was auctioned. For ths also the Josier was against the purchase as it is on the south and it is in the direction of Rudras Bhoomi. So this ws also scuttled. I do not know as to what made Josier say such things . He said in such a dramatic way that any one who had seen him would have thought that Lord Yama is waiting for the one who purchases property situated on the south. Later on our father purchased two other houses which we his sons inherited .
Our father died due to age and illness .
I (sundara varada char) was the eldest and aged 14 years. The rest two younger brothers and two younger sisters were all two young to understand the meaning of death. Our mother took great care of us. In fact those who volunteered to help stole from our house using the innocence of or mother. So our mother lost faith in our relatives and refused if anyone says that they want to help. The following were the property I remember to have been stolen from our relatives after our fathers death.1)about 6 valuable saligrams 2)one big navaratna ring. 3)one very costly Kashmir shawl 4) one six inch border kanchi very heavy dhoti. 5) two silver big tumblers. This is as I remember and may be there are other items which I do not remember and our mother never mentioned.
We did not sell, hypothecate any of our property nor borrow from others after our fathers demise. All of us came up in life and are well off . This is due to the fact . that our mother took care of the property very well after being deceived earlier. Added to it our mother used to help really those who are in heed.
I shall write about our mother later on.
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