P. Iyaloo Naidu
P. Iyaloo Naidu (or Iyalu Naidu) was an Indian member of the Theosophical Society, and a good friend to the Founders. G. Narasimhulu Chetty was his son-in-law. Mr. Naidu was a retired Deputy Collector, a government official in charge of revenue collection and administration of a sub-division in India.
Henry Steel Olcott wrote of him: "that golden-hearted old man, P. Iyaloo Naidu, Retired Deputy Collector, whose acquaintanceship was a privilege, whose friendship an honor."[1] When Colonel Olcott and Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, upon seeing the property at Adyar for the first time, Mr. Naidu was the devoted member who advanced the money needed to secure the purchase.[2]
In 1884, Naidu was a member of the committee appointed by the Annual Convention of the Theosophical Society to advise Madame Blavatsky on letters published in the Christian College Magazine, and he signed the report.
His testimony figured in the Hodgson Report, Appendix XXII:
Mr. R. Ry. P. Iyaloo Naidu Garu (retired Deputy Collector of Arnee, now at Chudderghat, Hyderabad, Deccan, India) is an old and very devoted member of the Theosophical Society. On the 20th April, 1884, he wrote a letter to Damodar, enclosing therewith a letter for Mahatma K.H. Damodar was then at Ootacamund, and, as I was in charge of the office, I sent the letter to him. When it was returned to me, I found remarks and endorsements not only on the envelope (of the letter to Damodar), but also inside the letter to the Mahatma --- in his well-known blue pencil handwriting.[3]
Mr. Naidu was deceased by November, 1891, when a narrative was printed in The Theosophist recounting his son-in-law's experience with "Mahatma Help."[4] The account had been found in his notebooks.
Notes
- ↑ Henry Steel Olcott, Old Diary Leaves Second Series (1878-83), page 347. See this link.
- ↑ Henry Steel Olcott, Old Diary Leaves Second Series (1878-83), page 361. See this link.
- ↑ See Blavatsky Archives.
- ↑ P. Iyaloo Naidu, "Mahatma Help" The Theosophist 13.2 (November, 1891), 97-99.