T. Vijayaraghava Charlu
T. Vijayaraghava Charlu (186x-1906) was one of the earliest Indian members of the Theosophical Society. He Stepped in as Recording Secretary after the departure of A. J. Cooper-Oakley. Later he served as the Business Manager for the Theosophist and the Treasurer during the administration of Henry Steel Olcott. His reports appear frequently in The Theosophist and the General Reports of the Theosophical Society from 1888-1906.
Theosophical Society involvement
He seems to have been devoted to the Founders. During a White Lotus Day observance at Adyar in 1898:
Mr. T. Vijiaraghava Charlu, Mr. C. Sambiah Garu, and Mr. S. V . Rangaswami Aiyangar spoke of the way in which they had been led to join the Society and of their relationships with Madame Blavatsky, to whom they all felt deep gratitude for the work she had done.[1]
Colonel Olcott mentioned him several times in his diaries. Mr. Charlu was one of the few people who was with the Colonel at an important event in establishing the Adyar Library and Research Centre:
In my Diary of 1886 the entry for January 1st, says:
"In the name of the Masters and for the sake of their cause, I, Henry S. Olcott, President of the Theosophical Society, this day turned the first rod for the Sanskrit Library and Museum at Adyar. The only witnesses present were T. Vijiaraghava Charlu and two of the gardeners. The impulse to do it came so strongly — after staking out the ground for the building — that I did not call any of the other people in the house."[2]
In another example, when Olcott was traveling with Miss Edger in 1898:
Some of the faithful ones, among them T. V. Charlu, V. C. Seshacharri and S. Ramaswami Iyengar, saw us off at the pier, leaving with us baskets of fruit and some money towards Miss Edger's travelling expenses.[3]
He is among the faithful workers who was mentioned in Letter 19 in the Letters from the Masters of the Wisdom, First Series.
Writings
- "Another Hindu Stone-Shower Medium" The Theosophist v3 (June, 1882), 232.
Notes
- ↑ "White Lotus Day at Adyar" The Theosophist Supplement 19.9 (June, 1898), xxxiv.
- ↑ H. S. Olcott Old Diary Leaves Second Oriental Series, Chapter XXIV, as printed in The Theosophist 20.7 (April, 1899), 385.
- ↑ H. S. Olcott Old Diary Leaves Sixth Series, Chapter XVII, as printed in The Theosophist 27.8 (May, 1906), 562.