Deshamanya Deshamanya (; ; Pride of the Nation) is the second-highest national honour of Sri Lanka awarded by the Government of Sri Lanka as a civil honour. It is awarded for "''highly meritorious service''", and is conventionally used as a title or prefi ...

Balakumara Mahadeva (; 29 October 1921 – 29 November 2013; commonly known as Baku Mahadeva) was a leading

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

civil servant.

Early life and family

Mahadeva was born on 29 October 1921. He was the son of

Arunachalam Mahadeva Arunachalam Mahadeva, KCMG (; 5 October 1885 – 15 April 1966) was a Ceylon Tamil lawyer, politician and diplomat. He served as Minister of Home Affairs (1942-1946) and High Commissioner to India (1948-1949). Early life and family Mahad ...

and Sivahamy Ammal. He was educated at

Royal College, Colombo Royal College, Colombo also known as; Royal Colombo, Colombo Royal College or Colombo Royal) is a Single-sex education, boys' school located in Cinnamon Gardens, Cinnamon Gardens, Colombo, Sri Lanka. Started by Joseph Marsh (priest), Joseph Mar ...

where he was classmates of C. A. Coorey. After school he obtained BA and MA degrees in mathematics from the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. Mahadeva married Sundari, daughter of Sega Theagarajah. They had two children, Kumar Mahadeva and Isvari.

Career

Mahadeva lectured in mathematics at the

University of Ceylon The University of Ceylon was the only university in Sri Lanka (earlier Ceylon) from 1942 until 1972. It had several constituent campuses at various locations around Sri Lanka. The University of Ceylon Act No. 1 of 1972, replaced it with the Univ ...

, Colombo before joining the

Ceylon Civil Service The Ceylon Civil Service, popularly known by its acronym CCS, was the premier civil service of the Government of Ceylon under British colonial rule and in the immediate post-independence period. Established in 1833, it functioned as part of th ...

in January 1945. During his civil service career he held numerous senior positions. He was Assistant Secretary to the Minister of Defence in 1949 and Assistant Secretary to the Minister of Lands in 1952. He became

Permanent Secretary A permanent secretary is the most senior Civil Service (United Kingdom), civil servant of a department or Ministry (government department), ministry charged with running the department or ministry's day-to-day activities. Permanent secretaries are ...

at the Ministry of Agriculture and Food in 1958. He also served as Secretary to the Ministry of Public Administration and Home Affairs.

Later life

After retirement Mahadeva served as Secretary to the Treasury. He then served with the United Nations in Malaysia. Mahadeva was chairman of the National Development Bank and DFCC Bank and a director of People's Bank. He was chairman of Lanka Tiles Ltd and Lanka Wall Tiles Ltd and director of several private companies. He was chairman of the Presidential Privatisation Commission and a member of the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mahadeva was chairman of the boards of trustees for Sri Ponnambalavaneeswara Temple and Sri Arunachaleswara Temple. He was awarded the

title, the second highest Sri Lankan national honour, in 1990. Mahadeva died on 29 November 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahadeva, Baku 1921 births 2013 deaths Academic staff of the University of Ceylon (Colombo) Alumni of Royal College, Colombo Coomaraswamy family Deshamanya Permanent secretaries of Sri Lanka People from British Ceylon Sri Lankan academics Sri Lankan Tamil people