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Vakil in 1880. A year later he became a Master of the Laws,
the first M.L. Of the Madras University. In 1884, he became
an advocate of the Madras High Court, a rank in those days
definitely superior to that of a Vakil. He also took the degree
of Master of Arts in the same year. His academic career was
full of distinction and he obtained the Cobden Club Medal
for the highest number of marks in Political Economy in the
M.A. Degree Examination.
A scholar by instinct, Sri Parthasarathy Iyengar was naturally
learned in Law. His interests were, however, by no means cinfined
to his chosen profession. The study of Sanskrit was a person
with him and the rich treasures of English literature were
by no means neglected. He has more over the gift of humour,
and both as a judge and advocate, he made the fullest use
of it.
With these endowments, it is no wonder that he enjoyed a
lucrative practise at the Bar. He was appointed a Judge of
the Court of Small Causes in 1896; he presided over that Court
as Officiating Chief Justice in 1896-97. Later he became the
City Civil Judge and in 1906 went over to Rajahmundry as District
and Sessions Judge, a post which he held with distinction
till his retirement in 1912. After spending his retirement
in quite unassuming public service and study of Hindu Philosophy,
he passed away at the ripe age of sixty-nine in December 1926,
leaving behind him his wife and a large circle of friends
and admirers to mourn his loss.
Distinguished as was his career at the Bar and on the Bench,
Sri Parthasarathy Iyengar is more likely to be remembered
by the memories that he left behind him as an unostentatious
philanthropist. He was generous to a fault and long before
he made in 1913, a formal trust of a greater part of his estate
for chartiable benefactions, he made philanthrophy a part
of his life and tru to the old precept, "His left hand
never knew what his right hand gave." There would not
be many in Triplicane where he spent practically the whole
of his life, who had not received some help from him at some
time or other, and few could be found who could say that they
had applied to him for assistance in vain.
For over three decades he was actively connected with the
administration of the Hindu High School and was in a great
measure responsible for the pride of place that it holds today
among the Secondary Schools in the Presidency. During the
year 1921 when the non-co-operation movement was very active,
incessant propoganda by non-co-operators was carried on among
the immature pupils of the School to give up their studies.
The Dewan Bahadur by his tact and skill maintained not only
order and discipline in the school, but advised the pupils
to stick on to their studies. He greatly succeeded in his
efforts and thereby averted what would otherwise have been
a crisi.
Though he was temperamentally averse to the active life
of a politician, the fire of patriotism burned in him steadily,
and when repression greeted the uprise of Nationalism
in India, Sri Parthasarathy Iyengar gave expression to his
righteous indigation by renouncing the title of Dewan Bahadur.
In fitting recognition of the services he rendered to the
institution for over a period of thirty years, the public
of Triplicane presented to the Hindu High School Committee
a bromide enlargement of his, which now adorns the Singarachariar
Hall.
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