V. Nagam Aiya
Diwan Bahadur Veeraraghavapuram Nagam Aiya (December 1850 – 1917) was an Indian historian, civil servant and chronicler in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore.
Early life
Nagam Aiya was born in the village of Veeraraghavapuram in the Tirunelveli district of the then Madras Presidency. His ancestors were Telugu Brahmins who migrated to the Tamil country seven generations before him. He moved to Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Travancore state when he was a child and settled there. Nagam Aiya had his early education at Maharajah's High School and College in Thiruvananthapuram. He completed his matriculation in 1865 and his F. A. in 1866 and became the first graduate of Maharajah's College when he graduated in February 1870.
In the Travancore service
In 1870, Nagam Aiya was appointed as a clerk in the English Office by the then Diwan, Sir T. Madhava Rao. In 1872, he was appointed Tahsildar and rose to become Diwan Peishkar in 1883. In 1875, at the age of 24, Nagam Aiya conducted the first census operations in Travancore.
In 1906, Nagam Aiya was deputed to prepare a gazetteer of Travancore state[1] on the lines of the district manuals of Madras Presidency. The Travancore State Manual, comprising three volumes, which appeared in 1906, is considered to be Nagam Aiya's greatest work and is still in print.
References
- "Author's Biography". The Travancore State Manual. Kerala History.
Works
- Aiya, Nagam. TRAVANCORE STATE MANUAL ( New digital version). Deverkovil: VICTORIA INSTITUTIONS.