|
He subsequently joined the Government High School, afterwards
the Presidency College. He distinguished himself in the college
as a good English and Telugu scholar and won some prizes.
In 1864, he commenced life as a teacher in the Anderson School,
the now famous Christian College.
In 1866, he joined the Inam Commission and on the abolition
of that office he took up service in the Madras Bank—now
called Imperial Bank—as Assistant Cash-keeper of the
Bank in 1886. As Cash-keeper he won the extreme commendation
of the general public and the mercantile community. But his
life-work, the work by which he would be longest remembered,
was what he accomplished for the Hindu High School. He assumed
charge of the school then known as Balura Patasala on 5th
Fubruary 1869 when its prospects were very gloomy. He was
so devoted to the work that he devoted all his leisure hours
to it. Whenever he could spare a few hours from his office,
he came out and took some classes.He was particularly careful
about finances and his object was to build up a capital for
the school, which would make it permanent and not the plaything
of varying fortunes. He succeeded in giving the school a local
habitation and secured for it a name with which his own would
long be lovingly associated. Besides the building and a fund,
his anxiety to make the school a permanent institution showed
itself in his constituting a committee for its management
of which he was the President until his death. Besides this,
as the President of the Veda Vedanta Vardhini Sabha, he rendered
all the encouragement and assistance he could to the cause
of education.
Sri Singarachariar always evinced a zeal for systermatic and
silent work and was scrupulous to a degree in everything that
he said or did. He worked disinterestedly in the public cause
and was actuated by a suncere desire to advance the cause
of education.
In his 67th year, on 10th February 1908, he departed this
life leaving behind two sons, the late Dewan Bahadur M.A.Parthasarathy
Iyengar, who succeeded him in the Bank and the late Rao Bahadur
M.A.Thirunarayanachariar, Retired Advocate of the High Court.
The big hall on the first floor was dedicated to the memory
of Sri Singarachariar in 1909 at a meeting presided over by
Sir John Wallis, the then Chief Justice of Madras. In 1942,
another storey was added to the building and as the original
Singarachariar hall was converted into six classrooms, the
present hall in the second floor just over the original one
is now dedicated to his memory.
|
