Draft:Calamur

The Calamur family (also spelt Calambur, Kalamur, Kalambur, and Kolambur) is a Vadadeśa Vadama Iyer Brahmin lineage of Deśastha Brahmin ancestry, named for their hereditary seat in North Arcot, the hamlet of Kalambur, and historically known for erudition, brilliance, and mastery and scholarship of Sanskrit in particular.

The senior line, who use the designation Calamur Viravalli, achieved dominance in the law and its administration in the Madras Presidency, beginning in the late 19th century, with the ascent of C.V. Runganada Sastri, who ultimately became the first Indian judge in the British Raj, and establishment of his sons C.V. Sundara and P. Anandacharlu as central figures of the Madras bar.

By the early 20th century, Sir C.V. Kumaraswamy Sastri officiated as Chief Justice of the Madras Presidency; his younger brother C.V. Viswanatha served alongside him on the High Court as a puisne justice; his foster brother the Raja of Panagal was Chief Minister; his apprentice-cum-foster-brother-cum-brother-in-law Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Iyer, having declined a third seat on the High Court, was Advocate General, and then Law Member; his son-in-law V.N. Viswanatha Rao, Law Secretary, and additionally Education Secretary and Finance Secretary; his son-in-law's brother, whose son and two daughters would each marry into the Calamur house, a judge; his uncle, President of the Congress party; his cousin, Shankaracharya of the Dwaraka and then Puri Maths.

Members of the family, including sons-in-law, would eventually account for two justices, including the Chief Justice, of the High Court; the Advocate-General, the Law Member, and the Law Secretary, as well as numerous appellate and district judges, the Registrar and Chief Interpreter of the High Court, and such sinecures as Registrar of Trademarks. Affiliates of the family served also as Chief Justices of the respective highest courts of Travancore and Pudukkottai; and nationally, as Law Member of the Viceregal Council. Criticism of Calamur influence began to mount as early as the late 19th century; Sir Kumaraswamy Sastriar’s appointment to the High Court in his twenties was widely seen as both reflecting his personal brilliance, and the aggregate clout of his family. Together with the similarly preeminent Vembaukum family and their collective relatives and partisans, the Calamur comprised the Mylapore group, an influential centrist faction within the Madras Presidency and Indian independence movement.

Beyond law and jurisprudence, family members held the secretarial Education and Finance portfolios of the presidency, and served as Chief Ministers of the Madras presidency itself as well as Travancore; and on numerous special committees, the most notorious of which being the Rowlatt Committee, or Sedition Committee, which promulgated and sparked massive unrest which would lead to the Quit India movement. Numerous members of the family were personally created Dewan Bahadur; four were knighted — marks of both great distinction and the family’s close alignment with the colonial British. In contrast to the ordinary caste name of ‘Iyer’, Calamur men conventionally used the honorific Sastri, often in the superlative form of ‘Sastriar’, or ‘Sastriyar’; more rarely, 'Sastrigal'.

More recently, ambassadorships to Russia, China, and France, and the post of Foreign Secretary; chairmanship of the Atomic Committee,

The traditional expertise in Sanskrit and devotion to scholarly pursuits also remained: C. Sundara Sastri composed the Sanskrit kavya Sundararāmāyaṇa; C. Chandrasekhara Sastri and C. Sivaramamurti were professors of Sanskrit; C. Sundararamamurti, Sir C.V. Kumaraswamy Sastriar, Venkataraman Sastri as Shankaracharya Bharatikrishna Tirthaji, and Sir C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar wrote commentaries on Sanskrit works and the Indic cultural tradition. In secular disciplines, N. Subrahmanyam in geography, Calamur Mahadevan in geology, and C. Sivaramamurti in the history of art, are today known as pivotal figures in the establishment of their respective fields in India.

CV Ranganatha Sastriar reportedly commanded as many as twenty languages.

As a kin-group, the Calamur came to encompass those neighboring families of similar caste, creed, and rank with whom they alone intermarried, in particular the Chetpat, Pennathur, and Vallur Nott, even fostering selected boys seen to have great potential. Eminent figures adopted or fostered as children by the Calamur Viravalli include Sir P. Ananda Charlu, the Raja of Panagal, Sir Panaganti Ramarayaningar, and Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer, who, concurrently received the hand of a Calamur daughter in marriage.

As with a handful of other elite North Arcot Brahmin families, the Calamurs descended from Appayya Dikshita.

The familial tradition of occupations relating to the High Court continues today, with C. V. Karthikeyan sitting as a justice.

Members

 * C. V. Runganada Sastri
 * C. V. Sundara Sastri
 * Dewan Bahadur Sir C.V. Kumaraswami Sastri
 * Dewan Bahadur C.V. Viswanatha Sastri
 * Dewan Bahadur Sir C. P. Ramaswamy Iyer
 * Dewan Bahadur V. N. Viswanatha Rao
 * Bharati Krishna Tirtha
 * C. V. Karthikeyan
 * C. Sivaramamurti
 * Calamur Mahadevan
 * N. Subrahmanyam
 * M.R. Srinivasan