Madhwanatha Sripadangalavaru (1834 - 1931) was a great scholar who came from an ancient lineage of wise souls. He lived in Telugu Brahmin street in the old town area of Coimbatore. Prior to his ordainment as a monk he was known as Madhwachar aka Chickachar. On learning about the philosophical conferences held at Travancore and Cochin, Chickachar desired to visit Travancore in order to have a darshan of Lord Anantha Padmanabha and also to meet the learned ruler.
Madhwanatha Sripadangalavaru (1834 - 1931) was a great scholar who came from an ancient lineage of wise souls. He lived in Telugu Brahmin street in the old town area of Coimbatore. Prior to his ordainment as a monk he was known as Madhwachar aka Chickachar. On learning about the philosophical conferences held at Travancore and Cochin, Chickachar desired to visit Travancore in order to have a darshan of Lord Anantha Padmanabha and also to meet the learned ruler.
It was the time when his wife was expecting and he was making a special study of the scriptures in order to present the same in front of Lord Anantha Padmanabha. It was said that she remarked that the child in her womb used to respond to the constant study of scriptures by her husband. One fine day Lord Anantha Padmanabha appeared in the dream of Chickachar and blessed him. The wise C.M. Padmanabhachar was born to the devout couple thereafter.
Chickachar's wife, who was known as "Akka", decided to send the boy Padmanabhachar to school and he joined the elementary school at Kulithalai near Trichy. However the boy did not neglect the study of Sanskrit and the mastering of religious scriptures. Subsequently he cleared the Matriculation and did his B.A. from the Presidency College in Chennai and his committed parents stayed with him in order to attend to his needs and also teach him Vedanta Sastra.
Since he was fond of writing books, Padmanahachar wrote a book on science in Chennai. D.V. Subbachar who happened to be the nephew of Padmanabhachar used to state that his uncle once impressed the descendant of the great scholar Vedagarbha Padmanabhachar by reciting one Krodapatra while also elucidating the purport of the same. While pursuing his B.L. in Chennai, Padmanabhachar worked for a while as the Head Master of the famed Hindu High School, Triplicane. On clearing the exams the young advocate enrolled himself as an apprentice under one Balaji Rao but quit the capital city for it did not suit him. He returned to Coimbatore and for a while served as the District Munsiff in Cuddappah before taking up his lucrative practice in Telugu Brahmin street.
Padmanabhachar was quick to become a doyen and made a huge fortune very quickly. He reconstructed his father's house at Telugu Brahmin street in 1900 and his father named it Padmalaya. Meanwhile he founded the Coimbatore Cosmopolitan Club along with S.P. Narasimhalu Naidu, Rao Bahadur A.T. Thiruvenkataswamy Mudaliar and 12 other leading lights of the city in 1891. Padmanabhachar continued to study the Nyaya Sudha by Jayathirtha and he used to remark that his success in practice was due to the logical acumen that he had acquired from the study of the same.
It was at "Padmalaya" that he rendered his works Dhruva's penance and Govardhanesa Vilasa in Sanskrit, which were later translated by him into English. He was the first to render in English," The Life and Teachings of Madhwachariar". Padmanabhachar has also given the Madhwakathamruta in Kannada but in Devanagiri script and also the Dwadasa Stotra commentary in Sanskrit. Thanks to works on the Bhagavad Geetha - Sri Geetha Bhavachandrika on the first six chapters in Sanskrit and ‘A Critical Study of Bhagavad Geetha’ in English he was conferred the title "Geethartha Vibhushana Sironmani" by the eight Swamijis of the Sri Krishna Mutt in Udupi in a Vidwat Sadas headed by the then illustrious Saint of the Sri Adhamar Mutt.
Padmanabhachar ultimately built a huge bungalow for himself and his family in 1909 near the District & Sessions Court (current Cheran Towers and its neighbourhood). He converted the bungalow into a virtual Brindavanam and used the Tulasi, Parijata and Jasmine flowers from his garden for worship. Several eminent judges including Gopala Rao used to seek his notes on the scriptures. Padmanabhachar was quite an active person who used to retire by 9.00 p.m. but used to read and prepare notes during his wakeful hours of the night. There were times when the whole night was spent in study and preparation. He had a bhajan programme every Saturday and eminent musicians like Palladam Sanjeevi Rao used to participate in that.
Padmanabhachar used to give an exposition on Srimad Bhagavatam and Ramayana everyday between 7 and 8 p.m. and the same used to be followed by children with wonder. However if a child were to get sleep at his exposition, he would stop the same by saying that it ceased to be interesting to the child.
Padmanabhachar used to visit Sri Rangam and get his works scrutinised by his father before tabling them in front of the public. In spite of being an acute diabetic he excelled in the exposition of religious works and his legal practice until his demise in 1919 when he was just 55. He performed the "Geetha Mangalam" exactly 100 years ago in 1917 at Srirangam right in front of his father His Holiness Madhwanatha Sripadangalavaru in a Vidwat Sadhas consisting of erudite scholars like Elattur Gururajachar, Kumbakonan Raghavendrachar, Mannargudi Ramachar, Karpur Srinivasa Rao, and Judge Gopala Rao.
It was on this occasion that the "Veerasangili" received by H H Madhwanatha Sripadangalavaru in front of Lord Anantha Padmanabha from the Maharaja of Travancore was presented to Padmanabhachar, the multi-faceted advocate who had done much for all sections of the society in Coimbatore and its neighbourhood.
The details pertaining to this great Coimbatorean are with us today due to the efforts of his nephew and leading auditor late D.V. Subbachar, who was a great scholar in his own right. It is time to celebrate the Centenary of the "Geetha Mangalam" performed by C.M. Padmanabhachar by rendering it in the same style once again.