August 17, 2024 is the 140th birth anniversary of T P Kailasam. He was a gifted playwright and his plays can be compared with the best in any language. He revolutionised the Kannada drama of our times by taking up our everyday common life onto the stage and making us see for ourselves what we really are. Kailasam had the distinction of becoming a legend in his own lifetime. His fame grew to dizzying heights but his personal life plunged to despairing depths.
Text by Arvind Krishnaswamy
Howard Earl Gardner, eminent American cognitive psychologist said that the genius personality is a two-sided coin and the dark side had the potential to engage in erratic or antisocial behaviour. The perfect example of this was T P Kailasam. His genius was beyond doubt but at the same time, he was a nonconformist who was notoriously indisciplined with a nomadic lifestyle. How did this happen? Was he a difficult or neglected child? Why did he rebel against societal norms? What happened to his family when he abandoned them? We cannot get into Kailasam’s mind but this is an attempt to present the dark side of a genius whose brilliance and work is still admired today.
There is much debate and confusion about when and where Thanjavuru Paramasiva Kailasam was born. Some say it was in an area called Taramandalpet, close to today’s Avenue Road. Others write it was in Mysore. The year of birth ranges from 1884 to 1886. His relative R S Venkatarama Iyer, a freedom fighter wrote in his family biography that Kailasam was born on August 17, 1884 and his original name was T P Swaminathan before it was changed to Kailasam. Kailasam’s father Paramasiva Iyer was a disciplined man of few words. He was very strict with his children who were fearful of even being in his presence. Naturally, Kailasam was drawn more to his mother Kamalambal.
Kailasam’s early education was in Hassan and Mysore followed by high school and college in Madras (as Chennai was known earlier). He completed his B.A degree in Geology winning the Cromarty Prize for distinguished merit. He went to England under the Damodar Das foreign scholarship for higher studies in 1908 and stayed there until 1915. Paramasiva Iyer, who was keen on his son’s education, wrote to the Government of Mysore to increase the amount of the scholarship because Kailasam found it difficult to survive in an expensive city like London.
One year before he sailed for England in 1908, 23 year-old Kailasam married Kamala aged 10 in Madras. She was the daughter of R V Sundaram Iyer, deputy chief engineer in Mysore State. Though Kamala was just a child, the first year of married life seemed blissful. When Kailasam left for England, she went back to her parent’s home in Mysore.
During his stay in London, Kailasam lost his mother Kamalambal when she passed away in 1913. This seems to have affected him badly. Till the end, he kept his mother’s vyasa peetha (holy book stand) and rail chombu (water jug used by travelers) close to him saying his mother was in them.
On his return to India, Maharajah Krishnaraja Wodeyar issued orders for Kailasam to join the Mysore State Department of Mines and Geology as a geological probationer on December 16, 1915. Two years later in December 1917 he was confirmed as a geologist. He was deputed to Bowringpet (today’s Bangarpet) to look for graphite deposits. But Kailasam had no interest in a routine government career and on July 1, 1920 he resigned from the job. There was also some talk that Kailasam had been careless with government funds and his job was in jeopardy. Paramasiva Iyer was very upset at this and stopped speaking to Kailasam.
Family photograph without T P Kailasam
This was a turning point in Kailasam’s life. While his literary and theatrical career blossomed, his personal life disintegrated. After his return from England, his wife Kamala had joined him in Bengaluru. Kailasam and Kamala had two daughters named Kamala and Lakshmi. Interestingly, all three women in Kailasam’s life – the mother he revered, the wife and daughter he neglected – had the same name.
While Kailasam was working, everything seemed normal and Kailasam had a good relationship with his wife. It has been written that Kailasam was sometimes seen coming back with his wife and daughters after watching a movie at a nearby cinema theatre in the evenings.
However, he changed after he quit his job. Coming from a orthodox, religious background Kailasam’s wife could not stand his smoking, drinking, association with theatre and wayward life. Neither his aged father’s anger nor his young wife’s appeals made any difference to him. If anything it made him more obstinate. Kailasam eventually left White House (Paramasiva Iyer’s house on Alur Venkata Rao Road, then known as Albert Victor Road opposite Minto Eye Hospital), while his wife stayed back to look after their children. There is a striking family photograph taken in front of the White House with his father, his wife and daughters but Kailasam is conspicuously absent. Ironically, Kailasam’s genius described this unfortunate situation in one sentence when he described himself as “the only black spot in White House”.
Kailasam rented a decrepit room nearby for some time for ₹2 per month and this dark, dirty place was known as Kailasam’s Nook. The room was worse than a dark dungeon, never cleaned and his few belongings were thrown all around. Plates of leftover food would lie around for days. When the owner asked him to vacate, he moved to another room near Tipu Sultan’s palace which was originally used as a horse stable. Dejected at his pitiful state, Paramasiva Iyer allowed him to move back – not into the home but to an unused car garage at the rear. Kailasam stayed here between 1927 and 1935. He had instructed his friends to jump over the backside wall when they came to meet him so that they did not get caught by his father who would take a walk in the garden. Kailasam also spent some nights at a room belonging to K V Iyer near Lakshmi cinema on St John’s Road where he would dictate his new plays.
Kailasam had adopted a wayward lifestyle waking up around 10 am and did not bathe more than once or twice a week. He would sleep again between 2 and 5 in the afternoon. In the evening, Kailasam would cycle over with friends to the Parade Grounds near Pavarino’s Restaurant on Cubbon Road to spend time chatting with friends and drinking Tennent’s Lager Beer.
Kailasam did not write his own plays as he could not write fluently in Kannada. He would dictate and one of his ardent followers he usually addressed as ‘magu’ (child) would write it down. These sessions usually started at about 10 pm and could go on all night amidst his drinking and varied moods. The transcribers had to write them down in total silence. If anyone talked or interrupted, Kailasam often got angry and stopped the writing session. Of course, it was no surprise that many nights did not result in any writing.
Over time, most things that mattered to normal people did not hold any fancy to him. He would eat infrequently. Smoking and drinking had become necessities even though he had stopped enjoying them. Some days he smoked up to 15 packs of cigarettes. He did not care how he was dressed or where he stayed. He once said that he was inspired by characters in Mahabharata more than Ramayana because characters in the former were all like living people – both good and bad. He thought he was too impure to understand characters from Ramayana who were divine.
Between 1941 and 1943, Kailasam traveled within the state and outside with his theatre group and rarely spent time with his family. Paradoxically, he spoke of the importance of family ties in Hinduism and how it made the society stronger but he was never with his family to support them.
On September 22, 1943, Paramasiva Iyer passed away. Life had kept father and son apart but death “brought them together” as Kailasam had accidentally returned to the city just a few days earlier. White House was eventually sold but Kailasam did not inherit anything. Kailasam’s wife and daughters moved to a smaller home near the present APS College in N R Colony.
On November 11, 1946, Kailasam returned from Bombay to Bengaluru. He came to the Basavanagudi home of his relative V T Sreenivasan in a tonga (horse cart). Even though he looked physically fit, he had become mentally weak. He could not remember much or easily recognise people. He became delusional but was still drinking. He would cry remembering his family and friends. During the night of November 23 and early morning of November 24, 1946, Kailasam passed away in his sleep on a couch at the age of 62. His body was carried to the cremation grounds near Kempambudhi lake by his followers after the brahmins who normally carried the body demanded more money. At the insistence of Masti Venkatesha Iyengar and D V Gundappa (DVG), his wife and daughters came to the cremation grounds and paid their last respects to a person they had hardly seen over the years. Contrary to the tradition, his younger daughter Lakshmi lit the pyre.
Despite Kailasam’s absence, Kamala had single handedly brought up her daughters and ensured they had good education. In 1937, Kamala, the first daughter, married Dr. V S Subramaniam. Kamala wrote many popular books on Ramayana, Bhagawadgita and Mahabharata published by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan. If someone introduced her as Kailasam’s daughter she disliked it, countering why can’t it be said that Kailasam was her father. Perhaps she wanted to be known as a writer in her own right but there may have been a touch of resentment about her absentee father. She passed away in February 1983. Interestingly, her sister Lakshmi married Dr. Subramanyam’s brother V S Gananathan, who taught geology in Pune. Lakshmi passed away in 1987.
Kailasam’s wife Kamala lived alone in the rented accommodation where Kailasam’s portrait adorned the walls along with other family photographs. She had been a good veena player in her younger days and went to Gayana Samaja for music concerts. Distraught by her daughter Kamala’s death, she passed away in April 1983.
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