Calamur
Calamur
The Calamur Viravalli family, inclusive of closely intermarried "merged" lines (e.g. the Chetpet, Pennathur, Vellur Nott) was one of the two preeminent Brahmin dynasties in the Madras Presidency who dominated the Mylapore clique, alongside the Vembaukum family.[1] They were originally Vadama Iyers from Kalambur and nearby hamlets in North Arcot, who traced their ancestry to Appayya Dikshita, and before that, Deshastha movements from the North.[2] They were traditionally by hereditary profession renowned Sanskritists,[3] as with Anantharama, father of patriarch C. V. Runganada Sastri, Anantharama's father, and Anantharama's father's father,[4] but rapidly adapted to the practice and administration of law and English-style governance, with many Calamurs coming to rank among India's most celebrated lawyers, jurists, administrators, and statesmen.
Intercaste adoptions by the clan were, in general, unsuccessful, as in the case of the Raja of Panagal, who was fostered with and raised by C. V. Sundara Sastri, only to adopt diametrically opposed politics, and become the central figure of then-inchoate Anti-Brahminism and Dravidianism. The traditional votive engagement with Sanskrit did not dissipate; 'younger' members were known to be able to fluently communicate in written and spoken Sanskrit, and Sundara Sastri composed the late Mahakavya: Sundararāmāyaṇa, with the unfinished Satīvilasita, while Bhāratīkṛṣṇatīrtha authored the Stotra-Bhāratī-Kaṇṭhahāraḥ and C. Sundararamamurthy wrote the Rasāsvāda-taraṅgiṇī, a commentary on the Rasaniṣyandini of his great-grandfather, Paruthiyur Krishna Sastrigal.[3] Many members were academics, either as their primary occupation, or in conjunction with other work.
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