By D.B.S.Jeyaraj/www.dbsjeyaraj.com
Colombo, February 24: Today (Feb 24) is the Birthday of yesteryear Actress and former Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalaithaa Jayaram. If she were among the living, the alluring actress- powerful poitico would have celebrated her 76th birthday today. She passed away eight years ago at the age of 68 in 2016.
Jayalalithaa was born on 24 February 1948 at Melukote in the Pandavapura division of Mandya district of present day Karnataka state. Jayalalithaa was given her grandmother’s name Koamalavalli at the time of birth.
The name Jayalalithaa was adopted later when she was enrolled in the kindergarten class at Bangalore (now Bengaluru) Bishop Cotton School. It was derived from the names of two houses where she resided in Mysore. One was “Jaya Vilas” and the other “Lalitha Vilas”.
The name Jayalalithaa was originally spelled with one ‘a’ at the end. Later in 2001 another ‘a’ was added for numerological reasons. Jayalalitha became Jayalalithaa. However, she was widely known by her pet name “Ammu”. In later years after becoming Chief Minister, she was referred to as “Amma,” meaning mother or Madam.
Srirangam Aiyangaar
Jayalalithaa is of Tamil Vaishnavite Brahmin Aiyengaar stock hailing from Srirangam in the Trichy district of Tamil Nadu state. Both her paternal and maternal grandparents relocated to the state of Karnataka which was formerly known as Mysore.
Jayalalithaa’s maternal grandfather, Rengasamy Aiyengar, had moved from Srirangam to Nellore in Andhra Pradesh and thereafter to Karnataka where he worked at Hindustan Aeronautics. Rengasamy had three daughters and a son. His second daughter was named Vedavalli, who later turned to acting in films and adopted the screen name Sandhya. She was Jayalalithaa’s mother.
Jayalalithaa’s paternal grandfather was Dr. Narasimhan Rangachary. He too moved to Mysore and served as the court physician to Krishnaraja Wodeyar IV, who reigned as the Maharajah of Mysore from 1894 to 1940. Rangachary had a son, Jayaram. Vedavalli was given in marriage to Jayaram as his second wife with the concurrence of both families. Jayaram’s first wife was Jayamma, a Kannada woman from Narasipur in Mysore.
Vedavalli had two children by Jayaram. One was a son, Jayakumar, and the other a daughter, Jayalalithaa. The children were born in the lap of luxury as their paternal grandfather Dr. Rangachary had amassed much wealth as the Mysore Maharajah’s personal physician. Fate however decreed that his daughter-in-law Sandhya and granddaughter Jayalalithaa become actresses due to financial difficulties.
Jayalalithaa’s grandfather Rangachary died before she was born. Thereafter things took a turn for the worse. Jayalalithaa’s father Jayaram though a BA graduate had never worked in his life. Worse still, he was a recklessly extravagant spendthrift and wastrel.
Within a very short period, he squandered away the family fortunes on alcohol, women and gambling. Jayaram died before his daughter reached the age of three. Whatever that remained of the family wealth went to Jayaram’s first wife.
The widowed Vedavalli was left destitute and returned to her father’s home in Bangalore. She learnt shorthand and typewriting to take up a clerical position to help support the family. Her younger sister Ambujavalli had moved to Chennai (then Madras) and was working as an air hostess. She also started acting in dramas and films using the nom de plume Vidyaavathy.
After a while Jayalalithaa’s mother also relocated to Madras and stayed with her sister. She worked in a commercial firm and began dabbling in acting.Soon Vedavalli became a full time actress using the name Sandhya. Sandhya as an actress never became a star but was able to garner many roles. Most of her roles however were in a supportive capacity.
Meanwhile Jayalalithaa lived with her maternal grandfather and unmarried aunt Padmavalli in Bangalore. “Padma chithi,” as she called her aunt, was like a foster mother to her. Jayalalithaa studied at Bangalore’s famous Bishop Cotton Girls school in her early life. She would go to Madras to be with her mother during school holidays.
In 1958 Padmavalli got married and left her father’s home. Sandhya then got down her children to Madras to be with her. Jayalalithaa was admitted to the prestigious Sacred Heart Matriculation School popularly known as Church Park Presentation convent or Church Park. She was 10 years old then.
Proud of her Tamil Ethnicity
Since she was born in Karnataka there are many who think Jayalalithaa is a Kannadiga. She is however a “Thamizhachi” (Tamil woman), fiercely proud of her Tamil ethnicity and Tamil Nadu roots.An incident that occurred decades ago when Jayalalithaa was a film star without any involvement in politics illustrates both her courage and pride in being Tamil.
It was the year 1970. Jayalalithaa had agreed to perform with her dance troupe at an exhibition held at Bengaluru (then Bangalore) in Karnataka. Due to her shooting schedule going awry, Jayalalithaa had to cancel the performance at the last minute. This led to Vatal Nagaraj, the leader of a Karnataka-based political outfit known as the “Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha,” issuing a statement condemning her for cancelling the event despite being a Kannadiga woman.
Vatal Nagaraj, a Kannadiga chauvinist, was a dreaded figure in Karnataka like Bal Thackeray of the Shiv Sena was in Maharashtra state. In spite of Vatal Nagaraj’s fearsome reputation, Jayalalithaa responded bravely by issuing a statement contradicting him.
Jayalalithaa said though born in Karnataka she was a Tamil and not a Kannadiga. An infuriated Nagaraj then warned her not to set foot again on Karnataka soil. Jayalalithaa replied that if and when necessary she would set foot on Karnataka soil.
A few weeks later Jayalalithaa was at the Premier Studio in Bangalore where the shooting of the film ‘Ganga Gowri’ was taking place. The director was the famous Kannadiga filmmaker B.R. Panthulu.. A gang of thuggish activists from Vatal Nagaraj’s outfit got to know of this and invaded the studio premises.
“I am not a Kannada woman. I am a Tamil Woman”
The mob surrounded Jayalalithaa and demanded that she withdraw her statement of being a Tamil woman and apologise to the people of Karnataka.Jayalalithaa was defiant. She refused to do so and kept repeating, “I am not a Kannada woman. I am a Tamil Woman” to the mob that had encircled her. It was with great difficulty that members of the film crew, studio workers and media personnel prevented the goondas from assaulting the unflinching actress.
Finally the Police arrived and dispersed the mob. Jayalalithaa however remained unbowed and unafraid to the very end.
This incident happened when Jayalalithaa was not engaged in politics or entertained any political ambition. Jayalalithaa reiterating her Tamilness even in the face of danger was therefore not a political stunt but a genuine reaction that reflected her inherent courage and Tamil consciousness.
In later life several of her political opponents tried to portray her as a Kannada woman in a cheap ruse to alienate her from voters in Tamil Nadu. This did not work. She was very popular in Tamil Nadu and treated as a living deity by some of her followers.
Jayalalithaa led the AIADMK from 1989 until her death in 2016. She was elected four times in general elections as Tamil Nadu Chief minister. She served three full terms in 1991-96, 2001-06 and 2011- 16.
However she had to step down as chief minister twice due to legal impediments caused by charges of alleged corruption and acquisition of disproportionate assets against her. She regained her post as chief minister on both occasions.Jayalalithaa was elected chief minister a fourth time in 2016 but fell ill and died a few months later in the same year. Had she not passed away, Jayalalithaa would have definitely been convicted and imprisoned for corruption and forfeited her chief minister post. Death through illness spared her that ignominy.
“Amma” or “Boss Lady”
Notwithstanding the corruption charges, Jayalalithaa was the sole repository of power in the AIADMK administrations she presided over. AS chief minister, she was in practice the ruling deity of Tamil Nadu. Her followers, supporters and sycophants referred to her respectfully as “Amma” which means both mother and also a superior woman.
Amma is both an endearing as well as respectful form of address. In Tamil Nadu under Jayalalithaa rule , there was only one “Amma” and that was her. From state administered cheap food restaurants to privately run cinema halls “Amma”was the brand name. Cardboard cut-outs and colouful posters hailing “Amma Jayalalithaa” dotted the landscape of Tamil Nadu then . “Amma” or boss lady was omnipresent and omnipotent until her demise.
END
(D.B.S.Jeyaraj can be reached at [email protected])
