Narianiah
The date of birth of Narianiah is unknown, and very little is known of his family outside the fact that he belonged to the Cast of the Brahmans. His grand father had an important job with the West Indies Company and a solid reputation as a scientist and scholar, particularly in Sanskrit writings. His father, Jiddhu Narianiah, was also famous for his knowledge of Sanskrit. He became a civil servant attached to the Financial Ministry of the British administration. He earned the title of Tashildar (perceptor of rents) and district Magistrate. According to Indian standard, the family was far from being poor.
Narianiah married Sanjeevamma, his second degree cousin, who gave him eleven children, but only six reached adulthood. The marriage seems to have been a happy one. Narianiah described his wife as having a beautiful voice and loving to sing for him. Life in India, at that time, was primitive and the casts system was imposed with great severity. The "untouchable" servants were only allowed in brahman's homes to remove garbage. Food couldn't be cooked by non-brahmans, and a strict vegetarian diet was the rule, even eggs were prohibited. Nothing, however, prevented a brahman to become a servant in a brahman home.
Their eight child, J. Krishnamurti, was born on May 11, 1895 at half past twelve p.m. His mother got a particular intuition, and decided to give birth in the room reserved to the celebration of the puja, on the bear ground. The baby's horoscope was calcutated the same day by Kumara Shrowtulu, one of the prominent astrolog of the region. he announced that the boy would become a great man, but that many years wouls pass before the presiction would be realized.
Narianiah was transfered from the small mountain village of Madanapalle in November 1896, to the wellknown town of Cudappah, an important city known for Malaria infestion. The next year, the family suffered from severe famine and malaria. Fortunately, Narianiah was transfered again and settled in 1900 in the much more healthy city of Kadiri.
In 1903, the family is back in Cudappah after three short transfers. His older daughter, aged 20, died from malaria and in December 1905, Sanjeevamma died. After the demise of his wife, Narianiah took a vacation of several months and returned to Madanapalle to give an opportunity to his children to return to health. He was then appointed to that village, and remained there until 1909 .
When Narianiah retired at the end of 1907, he was 52 years old. His retirement was of 112 roupies per month, half of his previous salary. He had been a member of the Theosophical Society since 1881. He wrote to the headquarters that he was ready to work full time for the Society in exchange for a free place to live for him and his children. He claimed that when working for the government he was responsible for more than a thousand square kilometers containing 160 villages, and that he had thus the experience to manage large estates. He indicated that he was a widower with four sons, 5 to 15 years old, and that his only daughter was married, thus incapable to take care of them.
Madame Besant officially refused to give them shelter on the compound of the Society because the closest school was more than 5 kilometers from Adyar, and that no transportation was available. Unofficially, it was said that the children would be a nuisance to the residents. But Narianiah was not discouraged and applied three more times the following months. By the end of 1908, one of the Society's secretaries needed an assistant and choosed Narianiah for the job. He finally met with Mrs. Besant in December and she accepted his services. He settled in Adyar with his four sons and a relative on January 23, 1909. As none of the houses was available in Adyar, the family occupied an abandoned and delapidated cottage outside the compound. The building lacked running water and any sanitary system.
Narianiah's sister, who had left her husband, came to help her brother and took care of the children. She was famous as a bad cook. The children arrived in Adyar in deplorable physical health. Much credit must be given to Narianiah's resolve, as if didn't had managed to install his family in Adyar, none of his children would probably reach adulthood.
It is only on December 2nd, that Leadbeater descovered, by accident, the terrible conditions in which the Narianiah's family was forced to live. He wrote a hash letter to Mrs. Besant insisting that the entire family be moved to a vacant house on the property, after its restoration. He won, and soon the family lived in decent quarters.
Narianiah agreed that his sons, Krishnamurti et Nitya, would receive a college education in England. Mrs. Besant left with them and had to sustain a long battle with the british Tribunals to keep the boys in England long enough to complete their education, when their father changed his mind. Narianiah accused his son Krishnamurti to have sexual relations with Leadbeater, but it was proven that the accusations had no foundations. Later, the Tribunal convicted him of false testimony under oath.
When he accused her and Leadbeater, Mrs Besant expelled Narianiah's from the Adyar compound. The two sons, when interrogated by the British Tribunals, indicated that they wanted to remain in Europe and never to return to India. A rumor indicated that Narianiah had plans for the kidnapping of his sons to force their return to India. Little by little, he became a religeous extremist and left any form of spiritual life.
A few years later, at the request of Mrs. Besant, Narianiah's two sons visited Triplicane, a district of Madras where their father lived. They tried for a reconciliation and went to kneel before his feet. As they touched his feet, Narianiah stood up immediately to wash his feet because "he had been touched by pariahs".
Narianiah died in february 1924. is older son, Sivaram, became a physician, and died in 1952, survived by four daughters and four sons, of which the older one: Giddu Narayan taught Mathematics in a Rudolph Steiner School in Sussex, England. Krishnamurti's younger brother, Sadanand, lived with Sivaram until his death in 1948; his mental development was the one of a child, he loved to play with his nieces and nevews and was adored by them.
Nitya, Krishnamurti's beloved brother, died from tuberculosis in California, while K. was traveling. His death was partially responsible for the break with Leadbeater.