Nearly two hundred years ago, the great scholar Venkataramanachar migrated to Coimbatore and began living at the Telugu Brahmin street. His unique dream caused an ancient icon of Lord Hayavadana to be brought to the growing town and it is generally believed that this was beginning of the great quest for knowledge and harvest of the benefits that accrue due to the same. Decades later, another migrant S.P.Narasimhalu created a wonderful setting which brought in both industrialisation and modern knowledge to this region. Subsequently K.Narayana Sastriar championed the free library movement. The Statesman from Peelamedu, Diwan Bahadur P S G Rangaswamy sought the guidance of the famous Ranganathan who had championed the cause of establishing libraries in order to establish one for Peelamedu. The city was smitten by knowledge that even the Clock Tower on Big Bazaar street built in the memory of Rao Bahadur A.T. Thiruvenkataswamy Mudaliar had a reading room in the ground floor. G.D.Naidu had also created a vast library consisting of a lot of reference material during his life time and his family continues to nurture it in a nice manner. However the lovely private library of Dr.R.K.Shanmukham Chetty (First Finance Minister of Independent India) happened to be the most stately and each and every book in it breathes of life. The library which was once in his mansion "Hawarden" at Trichy road is now housed at the R.K.Sreerangammal Higher Secondary School on Avinashi road. It is interesting to learn that books were lawful booty at the times of war and the Royal Library at Stockholm was augmented with books! Its pertinent to know that "Hawarden" was the name of the residence of the Victorian era Prime Minister, The Rt. Honourable Gladstone who had an admirer in RKS.
Dr.R.K.Shanmukham Chetty or RKS as he was affectionately known happens to be the Coimbatorean who put the city on the global map. The voracious reader had more than 2400 books on a diverse range of subjects which virtually included everything under the sun. With his passing away, the books were under the care of his younger brothers R.K.Venkatachalam and R.K.Kandaswamy. It was after their times that it was shifted to their family school. Late Sundarraj who happened to be the grandson of RKS used to recall the interest of T S Avinashilingam Chettiar with regard to the library. Those were the days when international travel was done by travelling on ships and RKS being a frequent traveller used to purchase books and read them while the vessel was moving over the high seas. Eventually his bungalow became the destination for all his books and his was the second largest private library belonging to an individual of his era.
Now, let us look at a sample from this great collection through the typed catalogue created by him. While doing so it becomes equally important to browse through some of the books and its interesting to notice the many book marks, small narrations with regard to purchase and also a few autographs. One of the most impressive books in the collection include a double volume on Sanchi. This is leather bound, a piece of art with nice print, illustrations, index and references. The books on drama and poetry include works by Shakespeare, Sheridan, Bernard Shaw, Tennyson, Huxley, Bharathi, Tagore, Sarojini Naidu, Hardy, Somerset Maugham, Jayadeva etc., The works on poetry & drama belong to a period extending over thousands of years. From the Rubiayat of Omar Khayyam to the Illiad of Homer to Mudrarakshasa, the collection is all encompassing. The books on general literature consist of - A shilling for my thought, Society and Solitude, Constructive Citizenship, Bushido: The Soul of Japan by authors as wide as Emil Ludwig, K.S.Venkataramani, Masani and Bertrand Russel.
RKS was one great leader who had mastered the art of drawing inspiration from people belonging to his stock and its not a wonder to notice the existence of autobiographies and biographies of great people in his collection. The list includes the lives of personalities like Lord Kitchener, Sir Pherozeshah Mehta, Bismarck, Shyama Sastri, Rasputin, Caesar etc., and some of them have been penned by Trevelyan, Prince Youssoupoff etc., A number of books on British history and Constitution are found in the collection. While general history and politics can be discovered through books like Plato's Republic, Sun Yat Sen, Searchlight on Spain etc., India features in one of the categories and the books include Nationalism in Hindu Culture, Women in Ancient India, Maharana Kumbha, Racial Synthesis in Hindu Culture by authors like Percybrown, Paul Brunton, Aurobindo, Nilakanta Sastri, Churchill, Munshi and Coomaraswamy.
Since RKS was the economic ambassador of our country its not at all surprising to notice over 300 books on the subject for he was greatly interested in the upliftment of the society from its abyss. The collection contains books like Christianity and Economic Science, A Plea for effective Gold standard, How to compete with foreign cloth, Monetary reconstruction, How to pay for war? by authors like G.D.Birla, Adam Smith and Groves. "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" and RKS was no exception. One can imagine him reading fiction and fun on the decks of ships on the high seas and oceans of the world. "Fiction" must have enabled him to galvanize his strength and beat the loneliness of travel. No wonder fiction forms the largest part of his collection. The works of Charles Squire, Sir Walter Scott, T.K.Venugopal, Alexander Dumas, P.G.Wodehouse, Voltaire, Lewis Caroll, Victor Hugo and Nathaniel Hawthorne are part of the collection.
Being a part of the Government naturally meant an accumulation and creation of reports. One can find about 500 reports on subjects like Pioneers of Science, Round Table Conferences, Oil industry, Printer's ink industry and some reports by the Indian Tariff Board. The collection of this vast repertoire of books are well preserved at the R.K.Sreerangammal Kalvi Nilayam, thanks to the efforts of its Correspondent and family member, The UK educated textile scientist Dr.V.R.Sivakumar and he shared some golden nuggets about RKS, "He was a dynamic, learned and courageous individual who used to constantly request members of his family and close friends to nurture creativity in order to promote newer enterprises at all times". Another well aware grand nephew, R.Rammohan of INTACH is ever ready to share the details pertaining to this great man. Now Dr.V.R.Sivakumar is in the process of trying to create a new facility for the library of RKS and make it accessible to knowledge enthusiasts.
Nowadays, publishers like Goutham Jetley of Asian Education Services are keen to republish old books and thanks to him that we get to read books like the "Arctic Home in the Vedas" by Lokamanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak. After having gone through a tour of the world of books that have presented a portrait of RKS, it can be safely surmised that the quest for knowledge is continuous and Statesman like Dr.R.K.Shanmukham Chetty who was once the Diwan of Kochi while also being the one Coimbatorean who had hosted Mahatma Gandhi at Race Course will continue to be a beacon of our society for good.