Vijaya Raghunatha Pallavarayar Dorai Raja (1872–1930) was an Indian civil servant and

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and a member of the royal house of Pudukkottai. He served as the

Chief Minister A chief minister is an elected or appointed head of government of – in most instances – a sub-national entity, for instance an administrative subdivision or federal constituent entity. Examples include a state (and sometimes a union ter ...

Pudukkottai state Pudukkottai was a kingdom and later a princely state in British India, which existed from 1680 until 1948. The Thondaman dynasty, Kingdom of Pudukkottai was founded in about 1680 as a feudatory of Ramnad estate, Ramnad and grew with subsequent ...

from 1909 to 1922 and

regent In a monarchy, a regent () is a person appointed to govern a state because the actual monarch is a minor, absent, incapacitated or unable to discharge their powers and duties, or the throne is vacant and a new monarch has not yet been dete ...

from 1922 to 1929.

Early life and education

Raghunatha Pallavarayar was born in 1872 in

Pudukkottai Pudukkottai Municipal Corporation is the administrative headquarters of Pudukkottai district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the oldest Heritage city located on the banks of the Vellar River. It has been ruled, at different t ...

, the eldest son of Princess Brihadambal, the elder princess of Pudukkottai and her husband M.R.Ry. Kolandaswami Pallavarayar Sahib. He was the grandson of

Ramachandra Tondaiman Raja Sri Brahdamba Dasa Raja Ramachandra Tondaiman Bahadur (20 October 1829 – 15 April 1886) was the ruler of princely state of Pudukkottai from 13 July 1839 to 15 April 1886. Early life Ramachandra Tondaiman was born in Pudukkottai on 2 ...

the then

Raja Raja (; from , IAST ') is a noble or royal Sanskrit title historically used by some Indian subcontinent, Indian rulers and monarchs and highest-ranking nobles. The title was historically used in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. T ...

of Pudukkottai and the eldest brother of Martanda Bhairava Tondaiman. Pallavarayar graduated in arts from the

University of Madras The University of Madras is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and most prominent universities in India, incorporated by an ...

and joined the

Madras Civil Service Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian censu ...

, serving as a Deputy Collector for a short period.

Administration of Pudukkottai state

Raghunatha Pallavarayar served as a member of the Pudukkottai State Council from 1898 to 1909. In 1909, he was appointed Chief Minister or Diwan of Pudukkottai and served till 1922, under his younger brother, the Raja of Pudukkottai. In 1922, when Martanda Bhairava Tondaiman formally gave up the administration of the state and agree to remain as "Raja" in title only, he appointed Raghunatha Pallavarayar to rule the state. When six-year-old

Rajagopala Tondaiman Raja Sri Brahdamba Dasa Raja Sri Rajagopala Tondaiman Bahadur (23 June 1922 – 16 January 1997) was the ninth and last ruler of the princely state of Pudukkottai. Early life Rajagopala Tondaiman was born to Prince Ramachandra Tondaiman an ...

succeeded to the throne on the death of Martanda Bhairava Tondaiman on 28 May 1928, Raghunatha Pallavarayar continued as regent formally relinquishing his office in February 1929, with the appointment of a regency council by the Government of India.

Personal life & Death

Vijaya Raghunatha Pallavarayar Dorai Rajah married a Scottish music teacher, Muriel Briggs, after his engagement to an Englishwoman was broken off in 1914. He was popularly known as Uncle Do. He lived with his wife Muriel at Tredis, the bungalow owned by the Tondaimans in Kodaikanal. Her memory still lingers in the bungalow along with her piano and her sheets of music. Raghunatha Pallavarayar died in 1930 at the age of fifty-seven or fifty-eight.

References

{{Reflist 1872 births 1930 deaths Pudukkottai state Administrators in the princely states of India People from British India 20th-century regents