2. THE FAMILY

THE family Deity was Sri Venkateswara. Sundaram
Iyer's elder brother was named after him as
Venkateswara Iyer — a fine person who used to offer half of
his earnings to the goddess Sahayamba. He became
disinterested in worldly affairs even by the time he was
eighteen. Saying that he would pay a visit to
Tirupparankundram near Madurai he left home for good.
He lived as a renunciate at Chidambaram and spent his
time cleaning up the pathways surrounding the temple, for
the benefit of devotees. The new born was named
Venkateswara after the paternal uncle and the family Deity.

      One of Sundaram Iyer's paternal uncles was also a
renunciate by name Sivananda Yogi, which was why when
his father, Nagaswami Iyer passed away before the children
came of age, the burden of the family fell on Sundaram
Iyer. As a boy of sixteen he took up a job as a clerk on a
monthly wage of two rupees. Intelligent, hardworking
and popular he quickly learnt how to draft legal documents.
He was tactful in his dealings with the officials as well as
common people. Even without appearing for any tests he
obtained a licence to be a pleader, a facility then available.
He quickly established himself and became prosperous.
He built a large house which had two portions — one to
serve his domestic needs and the other to be a guest house.

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      Officials who were posted to Tiruchuzhi stayed there until
they secured their own accommodation.

      Sundaram Iyer knew what hardship was and so his was
an open house for the needy. Alagamma never turned away
anyone who needed food. She was Goddess Annapoorna
herself! The couple became well known for their goodness,
generosity and appropriate conduct. In fact both the words
Sundaram and Alagu mean the same — beauty!

In the house, regular worship of Siva, Vishnu, Ganesa,
Surya and Sakti was carried out. As one of the village
elders Sundaram Iyer helped in organizing purana-
kalakshepas at the temple and was generally helpful in
temple affairs also. He never went about exhibiting his
devotion openly, possibly he had a preference for the jnana-
marga. He was of a serious temperament and was not
quite free with or very close to his wife, brothers or children.
Alagamma, on the other hand was quite open about her
devotion — she went about reciting the Dakshinamurti
stotra and similar Vedantic hymns. She made it a point to
learn as many devotional songs as possible and used to go
to anybody's house in the village to learn a new song. She
got initiated into the sakti-panchakshari japa. She was
quite orthodox and performed Surya namaskaras regularly.

      Sundaram Iyer's family belonged to the Dravida,
Smarta, Brahacharana lineage. They followed the Yajus
sakha, Apasthamba sutras. They belonged to the Parasara
gotra with Vasista sakti Parasara rishis. Their family name
was Tiruchuzhi.