Thirukkurungudi Vengaram Sundram Iyengar (22 March 1877 – 28 April 1955) was an Indian industrialist and automobile pioneer. He started his career as a pinewood dealer and later in 1911, he founded T. V. Sundram Iyengar & Sons, a bus company which later diversified into automobile production and emerged as the parent company of the

TVS Group TVS Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate with its principal headquarters in Madurai and international headquarters in Chennai. It has more than 50 subsidiaries including the two-wheeler manufacturer TVS Motor Company and TVS Supply ...

, one of India's biggest business conglomerates.TVS Iyengar
With his humble beginning as a lawyer, he grew into one of the most successful industrialists of his time. The flagship company of the group is

TVS Motors TVS Motor Company is an Indian multinational motorcycle manufacturer headquartered in Chennai. It is the third-largest motorcycle company in India by revenue. The company has annual sales of three million units and an annual production capacit ...

established by his son T. S. Srinivasan. He laid foundation for road transport industry in the erstwhile

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

through the state's first bus service. The TVS group he thus started now extends from motor industry, auto services to financial services.

Birth and early life

T. V. Sundram Iyengar was born in a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

Iyengar family in early 1877 in Thirukkurungudi, in the state of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. Sundram Iyengar started his career as a lawyer. As per his father's wishes, he then moved to work for the

Indian Railways Indian Railways is a state-owned enterprise that is organised as a departmental undertaking of the Ministry of Railways (India), Ministry of Railways of the Government of India and operates India's national railway system. , it manages the fou ...

and later in a bank.

As an industrialist

Sundram Iyengar later quit his jobs60 years in business – Outlook Business
/ref> and laid the foundation for the motor transport industry in South India when he first started a bus service in the city of

Madurai Madurai ( , , ), formerly known as Madura, is a major city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District, which is ...

in the year 1911.T.V. Sundram Iyengar dead
/ref> He established the T. V. Sundram Iyengar and Sons Limited in 1911, which by his death in 1955, operated a number of buses and lorries under the title of Southern Roadways Limited. This paved the way for the genesis of the

. During the times of the second world war, Madras Presidency was met with petrol scarcity. To meet the demands, Sundram Iyengar designed and produced the TVS Gas Plant. He also started a factory for rubber retreading, besides two more concerns, the Madras Auto Service Ltd and the Sundaram Motors, a division of T. V. Sundram Iyengar & Sons Ltd. The former was the largest distributor for General Motors in the 1950s. What started as a single man's passion soon became the business of a family. Sundram Iyengar had five sons and three daughters, and in his patriarchal Tamil Brahmin family all male members got into the business. With his son, T. S. Doraisamy's early death, four other sons — T. S. Rajam, T. S. Santhanam, T. S. Srinivasan and T. S. Krishna – became an integral part of the business, and ever since there have been four largely distinct branches that have worked under the TVS umbrella. The group established by Sri Sundram Iyengar, according to the company, is currently the largest automobile distribution company in India, enjoys a turnover of about US$8.5 Billion and has an employee strength of over 60,000. The group operates in diverse fields like automotive component manufacturing, automotive dealerships, finance and electronics, as well as into IT solutions and services.

Personal life

T. V. Sundram Iyengar married Lakshmi Ammal and they had eight children - five sons and three daughters. Their son T. S. Doraiswamy, died at an early age. T. V. Sundram Iyengar accepted his daughter T. S. Soundaram, then a teenage widow who remarried G. Ramachandran (social reformer), under the compulsion of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

. T. S. Soundaram then involved herself in the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

along with Gandhi. She was later honoured with a

postal stamp A postage stamp is a small piece of paper issued by a post office, postal administration, or other authorized vendors to customers who pay postage (the cost involved in moving, insuring, or registering mail). Then the stamp is affixed to the f ...

released in her honour. Apart from being a successful business man, T. V. Sundram Iyengar was a patron of the arts. He was praised by

C. Rajagopalachari Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and Indian independence ...

, a senior statesmen and governor general of India at that time, for his gesture of retiring and handing over the trade to his sons.

Later years and death

He died in the early hours of 28 April 1955 at his residence in

Kodaikanal Kodaikanal () (English: ) is a municipality and hill station in Dindigul district in the state of Tamil Nadu, India. It is situated at an altitude of in the Palani hills of the Western Ghats. Kodaikanal was established in 1845 to serve as a r ...

at the age of 78 and at that time was survived by his wife, four sons and three daughters.

Honours

Sundram Iyengar was honoured by the

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

by unveiling bust in bronze and in marble in the city of

on 7 August 1956.Tributes to TVS Iyengar
/ref>

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Iyengar Businesspeople from Tamil Nadu 1877 births 1955 deaths Automotive industry in India People in the automobile industry TVS Group Industrialists from British India People from Tirunelveli district TVS family