Lawyer par excellence

The birth centenary of the late N. R. Raghavachariar, of the Madras High Court, falls on June 7. A tribute by V. C. SRIKUMAR.

RAGHAVACHARIAR belonged to Navalpakkam village in North Arcot district (now Thiruvannamalai dist.), renowned for a galaxy of Sanskrit scholars and Vaishnavite pandits.

Raghavachariar was a self-made man. He had his high school education in Chidambaram and his educational expenses were met from the charity funds given to him for his academic distinctions which included many a gold medal. After finishing the school final examination in 1920, he joined Presidency College, Madras, where he was a pet student of Prof. Duncan, during 1920-24.

He studied in the Law College during 1924-26 and was enrolled as an Advocate of the Madras High Court on October 19, 1927, after serving his apprenticeship under the late V. C. Seshachariar, Advocate. He was in the Editorial Committee of the Law Weekly, the premier Law Reporter of Madras. As an Associate Editor of the Weekly, he did yeoman service to Legal Journalism for nearly 50 years.

Raghavachariar underwent an indepth study of the scriptures, Hindu Smritis and Dharma Shastras and the Manu Needhi Shastras under his uncle Aravamudachariar, an erudite Vedic scholar of Navalpakkam. The knowledge he gained during this period, later on formed the basis of his well-known work ``Principles of Hindu Law''. It was first published in 1935 and has since had nine editions. The ninth edition of the book was revised by S. Gopalratnam, Sr. Advocate and was brought out last year to coincide with the birth centenary of the author.

Raghavachariar built up a fairly good practice in the High Court, mainly on the Appellate side, and was one of the respected seniors at the Bar.He was very hard working and was known for working 20 hours a day. He wielded a facile pen and his pen- sketches of many giants of the past generation were published in the Law Weekly frequently, particularly between 1949 and 1954 and were read with great interest. Besides his magnum opus on ``the Hindu Law'', he was also the author of several other books which were well received and the chief among them was his Commentaries on the Constitution of India published in 1955, which invited appreciative references from Dr. Rajendra Prasad, Rajaji, Jawaharlal Nehru and a host of eminent personalities.

Raghavachariar was of a pious disposition and a man of firm convictions and principles. He was a Trustee of the Vedanta Desikar Temple in Mylapore for 10 years during which period, he streamlined the procedure for conducting of the pooja by well- informed priests.

Raghavachariar was the founder-president of the Kalyana Nagar Association in Mandaveli, Chennai. According to him, religion should never be polticised nor politics communalised. He passed away on December 5, 1973, at the age of 72.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Features
Next     : The Lord of Wisdom