Ponnambalam Arunachalam

Ponnambalam Arunachalam (; 14 September 1853 – 9 January 1924) was a Ceylonese civil servant and a member of the Executive Council of Ceylon and Legislative Council of Ceylon.

Early life and family

Arunachalam was born on 14 September 1853 in Colombo in south western Ceylon in a Tamil family. He was the son of Gate Mudaliyar A. Ponnambalam, a leading government functionary, and Sellachi Ammai. Arunachalam was educated at Royal Academy, Colombo where he won many prizes including the Turnour Prize. After school he joined Christ's College, Cambridge in 1871 on a scholarship, graduating in 1874 with BA degree in law and history. He received an MA degree from Cambridge in 1880. He started codifying Ceylon's law but only managed to produce the first volume of A Digest of the Civil Law of Ceylon. Arunachalam was an official member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon and a member of the Executive Council of Ceylon between 1912 and 1913. Efn|Other sources say Arunachalam was a member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon from 1906 to 1913.

Arunachalam's became interested in politics during his university days. He agitated for political reform whilst still working in the civil service. In retirement Arunachalam became involved in politics, founding the Ceylon National Association and the Ceylon Reform League, of which he was chairman, in 1917. He founded the Ceylon Tamil League in 1923.

In 1917 he became the first Ceylonese to be elected president of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. He founded the Senthamil Paripalana Sabai and was president of the Ceylon Saiva Paripalana Sabai. He and his wife founded the Sri Arunachaleswarar Temple at Mutwal. Arunachalam co-founded the Ceylon Social Services League in 1915 and served as its president. He was also involved in the fledgling trade union movement in Ceylon and founded Ceylon's first trade union, the Ceylon Workers' Welfare League, in 1919. He served as president of the Ceylon Workers' Federation from 1920 to 1921. Arunachalam led the campaign for a university in Ceylon and was known as the "father of the Ceylon University", having founded the Ceylon University Association in 1906. He died on 9 January 1924 in Madurai whilst on Hindu pilgrimage in southern India.

Works A Revel in Bliss (1895). A Few Hymns of Manikka Vachaka and Thayumanavar (1897). Sketches of Ceylon History (1906, Ceylon National Review) A Digest of the Civil Law of Ceylon Studies and Translations from the Tamil Studies and Translations – Philosophical and Religious (1937)

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