By Girija Madhavan
Recently, the Oriental Research Institute (ORI) in Mysuru marked its 125th anniversary. It was set up in Mysore in 1891 by Maharaja Chamaraja Wadiyar Bahadur. Now called the Oriental Research Institute, it is a magnificent building, which combines graceful Romanesque arches with classical Indian sculptures. Star of Mysore has published articles on the treasures of the Institute and the preservation of its priceless documents. For me there is a more personal connection: My paternal grandfather, Alladi Mahadeva Sastry, was the first Curator of the Oriental Library in 1891, the year it was founded. He was born in May 1861 in Pudur, Nayudupeta in Nellore District, Andhra. He studied Telugu, Sanskrit and the recitation of the Vedas in his village and passed the Matric from Kurnool High School. He got a BA degree from Presidency College, Madras in 1883. In 1891, he settled with his family in Mysore and became the first Curator of the Oriental Library. My father, M. Venkatesh, was the third of his several children. He remembered his father to be a disciplinarian, recalling that the boys once ate up all the “Medu Vadas” made for tea, and were duly punished. In those days boys had their hair shaved in front in a semicircle, the long hair at the back, worn in a plait or knot called “juttu.” The costumed actors in Kung Fu movies with tonsured heads and plaits remind me of those children. My eldest sister-in-law, Gomathi, recounted how Venkatesh and his brothers decided to be modern and went to a barber and had their hair “cropped” much to the anger of their father.
