Tirumati Leelawathy Ramanathan (

née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...

R. L. Harrison in 1870) was the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

-born wife of

Ponnambalam Ramanathan Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, (; 16 April 1851 – 26 November 1930) was a Ceylonese lawyer and politician who served as Solicitor-General of Ceylon. Early life and family Ramanathan was born on 16 April 1851 at the home of his maternal gra ...

of the Ponnambalam-Coomaraswamy family. Lady Ramanathan was an Englishwoman who was born in Australia where her father was involved in gold mining. All references to her maiden name record her only as R.L. Harrison. She, as a young woman, had been attracted by the Theosophical Movement in Australia and, searching for further spiritual enlightenment, arrived in Ceylon where Ponnambalam Ramanathan became her guru. Later she married Ramanathan who had been a widower for many years. She became a Hindu and took the name Leelavathy. After the reformed Council years, they spent much of their time in Kodaikanal where they had three houses, Ammanadi, Sivanadi, and Muruganadi. When Sir Ramanathan died in 1930, she took to wearing the white of a widow, built the Kurinji Andavar Temple in her husband's memory, overlooking the Palani shrine of Lord Sri Muruga. Along its slopes that would be covered with ''kurinji'' flowers, she would perform a Puja and worship there every afternoon. It is said that she took solace in paying obeisance to the deities of the

Saiva ''Saiva'' is a genus of Asian planthoppers, family Fulgoridae. They are colourful insects, marked boldly in red, blue, white and black, with a prominent slender stalk like structure arising on the head that points upwards or forward. The know ...

and Saktha traditions and immersing herself in the study of

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

theology.

Hinduism

She studied

scriptures, and converted to

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Hypernymy and hyponymy, umbrella term for a range of Indian religions, Indian List of religions and spiritual traditions#Indian religions, religious and spiritual traditions (Sampradaya, ''sampradaya''s) that are unified ...

upon marrying

in 1906.

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

- January 31, 1953 She wrote many Hindu books, including a version of the

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

in English. She also published many of Ponnambalam's lectures on Hinduism.Family Information
Royal Family of Jaffna Kurinji Andavar Temple.jpg, Kurinji Andavar Lord (

Sri Murugan ''Sri Murugan'' is a 1946 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language film produced by Jupiter Pictures and directed by M. Somasundaram and V. S. Narayanan. The film featured Honnappa Bhagavathar in the lead role. M. G. Ramachandran performed a dance ...

) Temple built by Lady Ramanathan (R.L.Harrison) of Australia

References

1870 births Converts to Hinduism Hindu activists Hindu writers Australian Hindus Sri Lankan Hindus Australian emigrants to Sri Lanka Year of death missing {{hindu-bio-stub