C. V. Raman

Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman

(7 November 1888 – 21 November 1970) was an Indian physicist, born in the former Madras Province, whose ground breaking work in the field of light scattering earned him the 1930 Nobel Prize for Physics. He discovered that, when light traverses a transparent material, some of the deflected light changes in wavelength. This phenomenon is now called Raman scattering and is the result of the Raman effect. In 1954, he was honoured with the highest civilian award in India, the Bharat Ratna.

Early years

C.V.Raman was born to a Tamil Brahmin Iyer family in Thiruvanaikaval, Trichinopoly, (present-day Tiruchirapalli), Madras Presidency Tamil Nadu, in British India to Parvati Amma.

Family

Raman's father initially taught in a school in Thiruvanaikaval, became a lecturer of mathematics and physics in Mrs. A.V. Narasimha Rao College, Vishakapatnam (then Vishakapatnam) in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, and later joined Presidency College in Madras (now Chennai).

C. V. Raman Pillai

Cannankara Velayudhan Raman Pillai (C.V.Raman Pillai) (Malayalam:സി.വി. രാമന്‍പിള്ള) (19 May 1858 – 21 March 1922) was one of the great Indian novelists and playwrights and pioneering playwright and journalist in Malayalam. He is often called and known as C.V.

Early life

Born in Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), capital city of the erstwhile native State of Travancore, on 8 November 1858 to Neelakanta Pillai, a Sanskrit scholar and Parvathy Pillai, who were both from middle-class families and were employees at the Palace of the Maharaja of Travancore. C. V.'s mother, Parvathi Pillai, was a scion of an ancient matriarchal family. Her matriarchal ancestral family abode, was called Cannankara, the "C" in C.V. Named Raman and fondly called Ramu by near and dear ones, the boy had a traditional Sanskritized education, early in life, under his father's tutelage which included lessons in Ayurveda and even magic and Tantra. When he was 12 years old, under the patronage of Sri Kesavan Thampi,great grandson of Raja Kesava Das, a former great Dewan of Travancore, and Kaaaryakkaar (Manager) of Bhajanappura Madhom Palace, residence of the heir-apparent to the throne of the then Travancore State, Raman entered the first English school in Thiruvananthapuram and later graduated from H. H. Maharaja's College in Thiruvananthapuram, the first-ever College in Travancore, and at the end of a brilliant academic career under European Professors, Principal John Ross of Scotland and Dr. Robert Harvey of England,whose favourite disciple C.V. was, and took his B. A. Degree from the Madras University in 1881, securing the 7th rank in the Madras Presidency.