T P Sundara Rajan

Trivandrum Padmanabha Iyengar Sundara Rajan (1941 - July 17, 2011) was a former IPS Officer and Supreme Court lawyer. He was a bachelor and preferred to be known as "a humble supplicant (saranagata) of the great Lord Sri Padmanabha". He had indepth knowledge of Hindu scriptures. People used to address him reverentially as Valia Swami.
Parents
Sundara Rajan was the youngest son of T K Padmanabha Iyengar (retired Headmaster of Killippalam School) and Seshi Ammal (niece of one of India's biggest industrialists T. V. Sundaram Iyengar). He was born on April 18, 1941 (Uthradom in the Malayalam month of Medam). He was a Vadakalai Iyengar belonging to the Srivatsa Gotra.
Career
An officer of the 1964 West Bengal cadre, Sundara Rajan served as Assistant Director in the Intelligence Bureau and was also a close confidant of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He resigned from the IPS after a few years and enrolled as an advocate in the Supreme Court. But he gave up his practice to return to his native place Thiruvananthapuram in the '80s "only to take my father to the Padmanabhaswamy Temple everyday".
Sundara Rajan and Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple
Sundara Rajan used to wake up at 2.30 am daily. He would take his bath and rush to Sri Padmanabhaswamy Temple for Nirmalya darsan at 3.30 am. He would visit the Temple at least seven times a day. He scrupulously observed the rule of 'trikala snanam and ekakala bhukti',i.e., bathing thrice and eating once. He cooked his own food, offered it to the Lord and had it. He was the first person coming to Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple and the last person going from temple in a day. He was the neighbor of Lord Sree Padmanabha swamy (his house was at the West entrance gate. opp to Mathilakam Office (Temple Executive Officer's office). We can see Valiya Swami sitting in front of his house during the day time after his temple visits and was active in communicating with the temple devotees/visitors.
Though Sundara Rajan was extremely close to the Royal Family of Travancore which administered the Temple, he fell out with the incumbent Maharajah, His Highness Sri Uthradom Thirunal Marthanda Varma. Sundara Rajan wanted the administration of the Temple to be " pure and transparent thereby maintaining the dignity of the Lord". It was his writ petition filed before the Kerala High Court that ultimately culminated in the opening of the Temple's vaults (kallaras). According to some estimates, the worth of the valuables runs into thousands of crores of Rupees. His case before the Kerala High Court was spearheaded by his nephew, Advocate T.K. Anandpadmanabhan. The case is now pending before the Supreme Court of India.
Death
Sundara Rajan died on July 17, 2011.
Tributes
West Bengal Governor and former colleague of Sundara Rajan at the Intelligence Bureau of India, M K Narayanan told Jake Halpern of The New Yorker that Sundara Rajan had "nothing to gain" by involving himself in the Temple lawsuit, and had acted only because "he felt that things were not being done according to the rule book." Former Chief Minister of Kerala V S Achuthanandan visited Sundara Rajan's residence and paid rich tributes to him. Achuthanandan described Sundara Rajan as "a tireless seeker of truth."
Interviews with T P Sundara Rajan
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lby-0FkYJY8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEJASjysiUA

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