Tirumati Leelawathy Ramanathan (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

R. L. Harrison in 1870) was the

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

-born wife of

Ponnambalam Ramanathan Sir Ponnambalam Ramanathan, CMG, KC ( ta, பொன்னம்பலம் இராமநாதன், translit=Poṉṉampalam Irāmanātaṉ; 16 April 1851 – 26 November 1930) was a Ceylon Tamil lawyer, politician and Solicitor-General o ...

of the Ponnambalam-Coomaraswamy family. Lady Ramanathan was an

Englishwoman The English people are an ethnic group and nation native to England, who speak the English language, a West Germanic language, and share a common history and culture. The English identity is of Anglo-Saxon origin, when they were known in ...

who was born in Australia where her father was involved in gold mining. All references to her maiden name record her only as R.L. Harrison. She, as a young woman, had been attracted by the Theosophical Movement in Australia and, searching for further spiritual enlightenment, arrived in Ceylon where Sir

Thiru In Tamil, honorifics ( ta, முறை, muṟai) governs daily speech and register of both written and spoken communication. Traditionally, Tamil has been classified into two registers ''viz'' செந்தமிழ் (Centamiḻ) meaning 'c ...

Ponnambalam Ramanathan became her guru. Later she married Ramanathan who had been a widower for many years. She became a Hindu and took the name Leelavathy. After the reformed Council years, they spent much of their time in Kodaikanal where they had three houses, Ammanadi, Sivanadi, and Muruganadi. When Sir Ramanathan died in 1924, she took to wearing the white of a Hindu widow, built the Kurinji Andavar Temple in her husband's memory, overlooking the Palani shrine of Lord Sri Muruga. Along its slopes that would be covered with ''kurinji'' flowers, she would perform a Puja and worship there every afternoon. It is said that she took solace in paying obeisance to the deities of the

Saiva ''Saiva'' is a genus of Asian planthoppers, family Fulgoridae. They are colourful insects, marked boldly in red, blue, white and black, with a prominent slender stalk like structure arising on the head that points upwards or forward. The known ...

and Saktha traditions and immersing herself in the study of

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

theology.

Hinduism

She studied

scriptures, and converted to

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

upon marrying

in 1906.

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

- January 31, 1953 She wrote many Hindu books, including a version of the

Ramayana The ''Rāmāyana'' (; sa, रामायणम्, ) is a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic composed over a period of nearly a millennium, with scholars' estimates for the earliest stage of the text ranging from the 8th ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

. She also published many of Ponnambalam's lectures on Hinduism.Family Information
Royal Family of Jaffna Kurinji Andavar Temple.jpg, Kurinji Andavar Lord (

Sri Murugan ''Sri Murugan'' is a 1946 Indian Tamil-language film produced by Jupiter Pictures and directed by M. Somasundaram and V. S. Narayanan. The film featured Honnappa Bhagavathar in the lead role. M. G. Ramachandran performed a dance number, ''Shiva ...

) Temple built by Lady Ramanathan (R.L.Harrison) of Australia

References

1870 births Converts to Hinduism Hindu activists Hindu writers Australian Hindus Sri Lankan Hindus Australian emigrants to Sri Lanka Year of death missing {{hindu-bio-stub