T. Nagar Series – 2
Of the arterial roads that were designed to emanate from the centre of the Mambalam Town Planning Scheme, connecting it with Mount Road, the south-east diagonal commemorates Jannyavula Venkatanarayana Nayudu, a distinguished administrator of the Government of Madras and the corporation.
Diwan Bahadur J. Venkatanarayana, B.A., B.L., Commissioner, Corporation of Madras.
Born in 1875, Venkatanarayana Nayudu had his early education at Ellore and graduated from the Noble College at Masulipatnam. He obtained a law degree from the Madras Law College and joined the civil service in 1899 and slowly rose through the ranks of the government. He began his career with the Revenue and Land Records departments, being appointed Tahsildar in 1908 and Land Records Superintendent the following year. He was appointed the Director of Land Records in 1919 and the Inspector-General of Registration in 1922. He also served as the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies. In 1925, he was appointed Commissioner of the Corporation of Madras, a post he held for three years. It was a stint that saw him implement several reforms in curbing corruption and enhancing revenue. Writing about his tenure in the Justice Party Golden Jubilee Souvenir, T.P. Kothandarama Mudaliar, who served the corporation for a long time and was the chairman of the Taxation Finance Committee in the 1940s, states that Nayudu’s reforms with the backing of the Justice Party earned him the sobriquet “Reforming Commissioner”. Following the completion of his tenure in 1928, Venkatanarayana Nayudu was appointed Law and Education Secretary to the Government of Madras. He was recognised for his services with the titles of Rao Sahib in 1920, Dewan Bahadur in 1923 and C.I.E. in 1930.
Venkatanarayana Nayudu authored several books as well. Drawing from his experiences in the revenue administration, he wrote the Chain Survey Manual for Revenue Subordinates which was published by the Government of Madras and translated into all the vernacular languages of South India. He also authored The Students Manual of the History of England. He authored several philosophical works as well, such as Adoration of the Supreme Being, Essential Teachings and Sadhanas of the Bhagavad Gita and The Hinduism of the Upanishads, which won him the Sivananda Book-of-the-Year prize from the Divine Life Society for the best work on philosophy and religion in 1950-51. Nayudu was a patron of the fine arts and was associated with the Indian Fine Arts Society for a very long time.
Venkatanarayana Nayudu was married to Manickyamma. The couple were residents of Ritherdon Road in Vepery and had seven children, five sons and two daughters. One of his sons was J.V.P. Rao, who joined the Amalgamations Group in 1941 and after training with Nuffields in the UK and Chrysler in the USA, took over as General Manager of Addison and Co. in 1949. It was thanks to his efforts that the company rolled out the first car assembled in Madras — a Morris Minor in November 1950. His brother J.V.K. Rao too was associated with the Amalgamations Group, serving as General Manager of T. Stanes and Co. after various positions at the Indian Railways and Indian Oil. Yet another son was J.V. Satchidananda Rao, who followed his father’s footsteps and served as Commissioner of the Corporation of Madras in the 1970s.
Venkatanarayana Nayudu passed away in 1958. The eponymous road was one of the first set of roads named in the T. Nagar locality, with reference to it being found in the street directory of Madras as early as 1934.