DR. S R Ranganathan Biography Series Part - 1 [ ENGLISH ]

• Ranganathan was born in his maternal grandfather's house (Vadakku Madavilaga Theruvu) in North Rampart Street in Shiyali (then part of the Madras Presidency) in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, around 9.30 A.M. On 12 August 1892. It was Gayatri Japam's day in the month of Adi of Nandana. On that day and at that time, South Indian Brahmins recited the Gayatri of Mantram to redeem them from the sins they had committed so far. His Janmanakshatra Danishta and Lagna Kanya were
• He was the first child of his parents and the first grandson of both grandparents. His father, Ramamrita Iyer, was from the village of Ubayyveda Thiruvananthapuram in Nannilam taluk of Thanjavur district. He was a zamindar who owned a medium-sized property of wetland, growing paddy, the major food crop of the Cauvery delta. He was a scholar and a cultured man, gave Ramayana pravachanam to a small audience and was influential and was respected by the people of the neighborhood and by approaching the authorities.
• Ranganathan's mother Sitalakshmi was a simple and very kind woman. The parents had three sons and a daughter - one son died at an early age and the daughter had a posthumous child.
• Ramamrita Iyer died (on 13 January 1898) after a sudden illness at the age of 30, when Ranganathan was only six. Ranganathan's mother survived this loss for nearly 55 years and died in Delhi in January 1953 of a house fire. Another brother of Ranganathan, Nathan, died in Madras in 1964 and his sister survives.