Chandrasekaran Krishnaswamy

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K. CHANDRASEKHARAN: A TRIBUTE

DR. D. ANJANEYULU

           “Those whom the Gods love die young,” says an English pro­verb. It is not clear if this sentiment is in keeping with the Indian or Hindu view of life, longevity and death. What about those who are blessed with a full and fruitful life, followed by an easy end? “Anaayaasena Maranam” is commended as a blessing to be desired by any human being. But this desire is not always fulfilled, even in the case of good men and women, who had followed the straight and narrow path of personal virtue and public welfare.

Mr. K. Chandrasekharan, who passed away on 28 August 1988, at the ripe age of 84, was one of those good and virtuous men, who was lucky in his death, as well as in his life. Though he was not in the best of health during the past few months, after having been hospitalised for a respiratory complaint earlier, no one knew that his end was so near. He was not bedridden and was in full possession of his faculties till the last, when he collapsed on the morning of that Sunday. That was how he wanted the end to come; and his prayers were answered.
Only the previous evening, he was to have attended a meeting of the Sanskrit Education Society (of which he was Vice-President), at the Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute, addressed by Mr. G. V. Ramakrishna, Adviser to the Governor of Tamil Nadu. He had to keep away from it, as he was feeling too weak. But he later made enquiries of his nephews (Mr. B. Ramamurti, Mr. B. Venkataramani and Mr. B. Madhavan) about the details of that function.
Not only the Kuppuswami Sastri Research Institute (KSRI, for short), of which he was the Chairman, for the last few years, but all the educational and cultural institutions in the Sanskrit College complex have lost a father - figure in him, (which he had been for long), after the death of his elder brother, K. Bala­subramania Aiyer. He was also President of the Samskrita Academy and the Samskrita Ranga and Secretary and Trustee of the Sanskrit College, and Secretary of the Arya Mata Sabha.
In fact, he gave his heart and soul, in a filial spirit to the institutions founded, sponsored or inspired by his father, Mr. Justice V. Krishaswami Iyer, a brilliant lawyer and leader of public life in the first decade of this century, a personal friend of Gopalakrishna Gokhale, who stood for liberal values in politics. They include the Venkataramana Ayurveda College and Dis­pensary, the Arya Mata Sabha, the South Indian National Association, and Ranade Library, of which he was Secretary and Trustee or President for a long time. He was also Vice-President of the Music Academy and a founder-member of the Kalakshetra and closely connected with Tamil Writers’ Association.
Though his work on all these organisations was only a labour of love, Mr. Chandrasekharan was extremely conscientious in the discharge of his duties. He never missed any of their meetings, if he was in town and in a physically fit condition to attend. He used to ask other members or regular visitors like the present writer why they did not turn up at the previous meeting, if they didn’t. It was a friendly rebuke as well as a formal enquiry. He would feel genuinely happy whenever he found the hall of K. S. R. I. (the old one named after Sri Chandrasekha­rindra Saraswati or the new Vimarsini hall) full. When he pre­sided over a lecture by a scholar, visiting or local, it was not as a nominal chairman that he served. He would make perceptive observations on the subject of the talk (be it familiar and popular, or obscure and abstruse), which left the listener in no doubt the substantial homework put in by him. In introducing the speaker, he would always follow the golden mean of the apt and appro­priate, and would be neither excessive nor grudging in his praise, where it was due.
In an age of relentless specialisation, in which the one - track mind tends to dominate the intellectual life, Mr. Chandrasekharan was the archetypal liberal and humanist, with a wide variety of interests. He was indeed a truly cultivated man, with a refinement of taste. His main interests included law and literature, music and the arts.
Born with a silver spoon in his mouth (in 1904) Mr. Chandra­sekharan had his early education in P. S. High School, Mylapore, (where the late V. K. T. Chari was one of his classmates). After taking his M. A. degree (in History and Economics) from Pre­sidency College (where Dr. John Matthai and Prof. M. A. Candeth were among his teachers) he did the law course and was enrolled as an advocate of the Madras High court. Though he interested himself in the Madras Law Journal (started by his brother-in-law, Narayanaswami Aiyer) and the Indian Law Reports (of which he became editor, in succession to Dr. V. V. Choudary) it cannot be claimed that the practice or study of law absorbed all his energy and attention.
Next to the practice of law, came his interest, rather his in­volvement, in literature and literary journalism. He began to write both in English and in Tamil, quite early in his career. He made a mark in contemporary writing with his profiles of men, eminent and not so eminent, which were published in book-form in 1932, under the title, Persons and Personalities. Obviously inspired by A. G. Gardiner and other masters of the craft, it came close on the heels of Sparks and Fumes by K. Iswara Dutt. Along with sketches of lawyers and statesmen like T. R. Venkatarama Sastri, the Rt. Hon’ble V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, Sir C. P. Ramaswami Aiyer, Sir S. Varacharai, S. Satyamurti, there were those of “My Family Friend” and “My Teacher” etc., Some of his essays in the lighter vein were collected in the booklet Waifs and Strays. In the PEN series, sponsored by Sophia Wadia. Chandrakeharan wrote the handbook on Sanskrit Literature, in collaboration with Pandit V. H. Subrahmanya Sastri. Studies and Sketches is a collection of his miscellaneous writings on men and things.
Among the master-spirits of this century that inspired the admiration of Chandrasekharan were: the poet and thinker Gurudev’ Rabindranath Tagore and Dr. Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, the great interpreter of the Indian tradition in art and culture. The lectures delivered by him as Tagore Professor of Humanities in Madras University were brought out under the title Golden Harvest, comprised essays on Coomaraswamy and other topics relating to art and culture. During the birth Centenary year of Tagore he brought out Tagore: A Master Spirit.
As a biographer, Chandrasekharan was ambidextrous, hand­ling English and Tamil, with equal facility and skill. The massive biography of his father, in Tamil, which he wrote in his Thirties, is detailed and well-documented as also restrained in expression and balanced in judgement. Curiously enough, but understandably too, in undertaking this ambitions project, the son had to infringe the specific instructions left by his father. It can well be regarded as his magnum opus.
Sir P. S. Sivaswarni Aiyer, lawyer and jurist, scholar and statesman, was a friend and contemporary of Krishnaswami Aiyer. Chandrasekaran knew him well, along with a few other liberals and elder statesmen. His biography of Sivaswami Aiyar, done for the Publications Division, in the Builders of Modern India Series, is informal, giving an objective account of the life and work of a great man, known for his integrity of character, precision of mind, as also reserve and reticence of temperament.
In the field of law legislation, Chandrasekharan wrote a standard work on Administrative Law and Delegated Legislation. He was a member of the Election Tribunal during the elections held in 1952, the first of their kind, under the new Constitution.
No picture of Chandrasekharan, the man of letters, would be complete, without a reference to his close association with TRIVENI Quarterly, founded by his life-long friend, K. Ramakotiswara Rau. He was not only a member of its Advisory Board, along with his sister, K. Savitri Ammal, since almost its inception, but a regular contributor. There is no issue of the periodical within the memory of the present writer, which did not contain a review or two by Chandrasekharan. His reviews were informative, fair, and balanced rather than stylish, flashy and brilliant. He was, essentially a “Sahridaya” who believed in justice, with empathy. Soon after receiving a copy of the periodical he would write to the Editor, giving his impressions of that issue in as dispassionate a manner as possible.
There are one or two other aspects of his personality which are not so well known to the outer circle of his friends and acquaintances. Chandrasekharan was a gifted mimic with a glint of boyish mischief in his eyes. It would be an unmixed delight to watch him mimicking the old-time celebrities of Mylapore like C. P., Alladi, Sivaswami Aiyer, Srinivasa Sastri and others. But that privilege was reserved for the chosen few only!
He was also a talented vocalist, trained in the nuances of classical carnatic music. He was specially fond of Tyagaraja, Dikshitar, Shyama Sastri and Sadasiva Brahmendra, purity of enunciation, along with a sound grasp of the spirit of the sahitya was his forte. His musical voice is luckily preserved on tape.
Normally reserved by temperament, Chandrasekharan could be an engaging raconteur in proper company. He was a conver­sationalist without being garrulous or egoistic. A happy blend of modernity and tradition, he was a civilized human being, a rare species in a period of frantic hurry and cut-throat competition for success. He was also the last link with a more specious and leisurely age of gracious and compassionate men and women.
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