Biography of Sri Hiriannaiah

I read the following biography of Sri Hiriannaiah at http://rajchat.info/vasudeva_kutumbukam/7_two_exemplary_officerst.html.

Sri Hiriannaiah also belonged to Bobburkamme sect and most probably our family is related to his family, exactly how I don't know but may learn in the future.

What was interesting is the propensity of descendants of Sri Kalappa to pursue law and serve in justice profession.

The entire biography is copied from the above source.

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Sakleshpur Hirianniah (S. Hirianniah for short) was born on 24th of June 1877 in Sakleshpura which is a taluq headquarters town in Hassan district. The taluq is situated in the high mountainous area of the Western Ghats, The mountains are covered by tropical forests where grow teakwood, rosewood, sandalwood and other tropical trees, and there is very heavy rain during the monsoon months. The ground under the trees are covered by all sorts of plants and creepers and the sun's rays penetrate very little through all this growth. Some parts of this area has been cleared to make way for coffee plantations. Also spices like the cardamom and black pepper are grown. It is the Arabs who first introduced the coffee plant in this thick forested area of the Western Ghats several hundred years ago. When the British ruled India, a few enterprising British made large coffee plantations in this area of Hassan district and the neighbouring districts of Kodagu and Chickmagalur. Hence this part of Karnataka State (originally the native state of Mysore) accounts for nearly 80 or 90 per cent of India's coffee production.

Hirianniah's father was Pattabhiramiah and his mother was Subbamma. Pattabhiramiah and his twin brother Venkataramiah were the children of the first wife of their father Kalappa. Kalappa had several acres of land near his original village called Malali, where coffee and cardamom were grown. He did not have any formal education, but knew how to write his mother tongue Kannada. Some of his neighbours were British coffee planters who had big estates. Coming into contact with them, he probably knew enough English to converse with them and an elementary knowledge of reading and writing English.

The mother of the twins died when they were very small. So Kalappa married one Gowramma, soon after the funeral. This was the custom those days, because a widower cannot do any of the auspicious ceremonies of the family. Besides, he needed a housewife who could take care of the household duties and take care of his children. Gowramma was quite a few inches taller than her husband Kalappa.

Gowramma gave birth to four sons Manjaiah, Venkakrishniah, Sitaramiah, Venkateshiah, and two daughters Parvatamma and Rannathe. A few children died in childbirth, which was very common those days.

Kalappa was of a short stocky build and had a dark complexion, and he became darker because of his work in coffee and cardamom plantation. He was a hard working and kind to his workers on the estate. These workers belonged to the Vokkaliga or farmer caste or "untouchable" castes. Kalappa was a Babburkamme Smartha Brahmin. For several generations, his forefathers had given up the traditional priestly duties of the study of the Vedas, and had become gentleman farmers. He held the position of Shanbog of Malali village and its surrounding land which he had inherited. A Shanbog's duty was to keep accounts of land taxes paid by the farmers. This post was usually held by a Brahmin because the members of the other castes were mostly illiterate. In this position, Kalappa came to be very familiar with the surrounding coffee and cardamom estates and the people living there.

Kalappa was certainly a very trusted leader of the surrounding population, and the farmers and others used to bring him their meager savings to be kept safely with him. He made small cloth bags and he kept each man's savings in them, and a sheet of paper on which he wrote the accounts of that man. He was a sort of banker to these illiterate neighbours. I do not know whether he gave them any small interest on their savings, but he probably gave them small loans on a very small interest. In fact, those days ,there were some better-off men who used to give loans to the poorer people on very high interests which continued for years, and the poor debtors were debtors for ever. These were the well known money lenders of India, and they exist even today, though modern banking industry has expanded all over the country.

There were a government primary school, a middle school and a high school in Hassan town which was the district headquarters. Kalappa could not send his sons to these schools, because of the distance. So the boys grew up with no formal education and were running around the house and the estate.
One day, Hassan district Deputy Commissioner Krishna Iyengar came to Sakleshpur on his horse accompanied by his junior officers. Kalappa welcomed him along with other important men of Sakleshpur. His six sons followed him and were very eager to see the horse on which Krishna Iyengar was riding. When Krishna Iyengar observed the eagerness with which the boys were examining the horse, he asked Kalappa "Who are these boys?". When Kalappa replied that they were all his sons, he bluntly told him, "Why are you keeping these sons of yours home instead of trying to give them an education". The boys heard the talk.

Two days after this visit, the third son Manjaiah was missing from the house. Everybody got worried and searched for him everywhere, but could not find him. All of a sudden, Kalappa remembered what Krishna Iyengar had told him about his children's education and he went at once in his bullock cart to Hassan and went straight to the primary school there. To his surprise and joy, he found his son Manjaiah sitting in one of the classes.

Kalappa tried to persuade Manjaiah to return home, but the boy refused. Seeing boy's enthusiasm, the school headmaster had made arrangements with an old lady to keep the boy with him and give him his meals. This made Kalappa very happy and he met the old lady and thanked her and agreed to pay her five rupees a month for doing this kind service for his son.
After this, Kalappa's younger sons Venkatakrishniah, Sitaramiah, Venkateshiah also followed the older brother Manjiah and finished their high school education in Hassan and Kalappa encouraged them.

After Manjaiah passed the Madras matriculation examination, he was eager to go to Madras University. He and his father took the advice of their neighbours, the British coffee planters, and he applied to the Christian College in Madras, and he was admitted. When Manjiah first went to Madras, he stayed in a rented house with a few other students from Mysore State, and they had a cook to cook for them. After him, his younger brothers Venkatakrishniah, Sitaramiah and Venkateshiah joined the same college in Madras and lived in the same house. Later on, his two nephews Hirianniah who was the son of his late step brother Pattabhiramia, and Srikantia who was the son of Manjaiah, also followed them to Madras to study in the Christian College.

The two eldest sons Pattabhiramia and Venkataramia who were the identical twins of Kalappa's first wife could not unfortunately get educated, because Kalappa did not think of sending them to Hassan. They stayed with him helping him in his daily affairs. They were both married at the proper age of seventeen or eighteen years. When he was twenty years old, Pattabhiramia died of typhoid fever, leaving his young seventeen year old wife Subbamma and a three months old son Hirianniah. Pattabhiramiah's twin brother Venkataramia became very sad and dull after his twin brother passed away. They were identical twins and were very close to each other. Slowly he recovered, and he went to a local lawyer and learnt some of the intricacies of the law through him, and tried to help the lawyer's clients with his knowledge. Without having a formal education and a law degree, he became quite knowledgeable about law.

Kalappa was very much affected by the passing away of his eldest son Pattabhiramia. But when his third son Manjaiah came back from Madras with a B.A. and a B.L. degrees, the father felt very happy to see that this son could come up well in life. Manjaiah had come into close contact with the Principal William Miller and his wife, and he learnt to appreciate their interest in doing social work among Indians, and he tried to help them in this work as much as he could. He even learnt sewing, embroidery and knitting from Mrs Miller. The Christian College clock tower was broken, and when Manjaiah came back to Sakleshpur for his summer vacation, he met their neighbouring British coffee planter and obtained a donation from him for the repair of this clock tower. When he gave this donation to Mr. Miller, Mr Miller was so pleased that Manjaiah became one of his very favourite students. In fact when he got his B.A. degree, Mr Miller mentioned at the convocation that Manjaiah was a student coming from the wilds of Malnad, Malnad being the area of the thickly forested area of the Western Ghats.

Also, when he was home for the holidays, Manjaiah practiced his sewing, embroidery and knitting, and taught those things to his mother and aunts, and told them not to waste their spare time but do useful work like these. In fact, he changed the whole atmosphere in the family. Also, he made use of his knowledge of carpentry which he had learnt during his social work with the poor people, to make some wooden furniture for the home. Those days, carpentry was done only by men belonging to the carpenter's caste and not by Brahmins! All this made his father Kalappa very happy. Very soon, he was appointed as a munsiff (a lower judicial position) by the Mysore Government and was posted at a small town called Edehalli. He went to live there with his wife Venkatalakshamma and his two children. Unfortunately, at the age of thirty-two years old, he died of typhoid fever. His son Srikantia became a famous lawyer in Bangalore in the early part of the twentieth century.

However, though his life was short and sweet, Manjaiah's life was certainly a very good example for his younger brothers and for his nephews Hiriannaiah and Srikantia. All of them were good students of the Madras Christian College and got into the legal profession or into the service of the Mysore Government.
Venkatakrishnaiah, the brother next to Manjaiah also obtained the B.A. and B.L degrees from Madras University retired as a sessions judge in the Mysore Government, and also held many honorary positions like the president of the Apex Bank, and he became a good expert in examining diamonds and used to give honorary advice on these matters. He lived a full active life till the age of ninety years old. The next brother Sitaramia had a B.A. degree from Madras University retired as an assistant commissioner of the Mysore government. The next brother Venkateshaiah became a prominent lawyer of Hassan, after he had obtained his B.A. and B.L degrees of the Madras University. He was active in the Red Cross Society and was an elected member of the Mysore State Legislative Council. He was also active as a Scout Commissioner., and he was honoured by the Maharaja of Mysore who gave him the honorary title of Rajasevasakta.

The next person in the Malali (or Sakleshpur) family was Hirianniah who was born in 1877. He obtained the B.A. and B.L. degrees in 1897 and 1900, and the M.A. degree in 1903. Starting as a judicial probationer in the Mysore Government in 1904, he climbed up in the Mysore Government service gradually till he was appointed as the private secretary of the most able of the Dewans of the Mysore State, that is, Sir M. Vishveswaraya in 1913. This was a very good opportunity for him to learn the best methods of administration and outlook on public service from a man like Vishveshvaraya, and he was fortunate to serve him for five years till 1918. Then he slowly climbed the ladder till he became the Inspector General of Police in 1927 where he served till 1930, and was then promoted as Revenue Commissioner till he retired in 1933.

In 1933, the Maharaja of Mysore conferred the title of "Rajasevasakta" (meaning a person who served the Maharaja excellently) on Hirianniah. Hirianniah also served as a member of the Mysore University Senate, served the management committee of the Bhadravati Iron and Steel Works and was the representative of the Mysore Government on the management of the Hindustan Aircraft Company in Bangalore.

When he was the deputy commissioner of Kolar district in 1926, there was acute famine in the district, and he did so much service to the people of that district, that the people went in petition to the Maharaja of Mysore that he should not be transferred from Kolar district.

Hirianniah was a scholar in Kannada, English and Sanskrit and he had a very good library of books in all these three languages.

Sakleshpur Srikantia, who was Manjiah's son became a very well known lawyer of Bangalore City. He also served as president of the Mysore Land Mortguage Bank, and was the Secretary of the Mythic Society in Bangalore for many years, He was very helpful to people who came into contact with him. I knew him best of all the people belonging to the Sakleshpur family, because his wife Kamalamma was the youngest sister of Devamma who was the wife of my late uncle B.M.Shri (B.M. Srikantia).

Hirianniah's daughters Subburatna and Leela were at school with me and they are my very good friends. Leela has been a very active social worker among women."