The Jaya we never knew: ‘She was called Ammu and Jayalalitha, never Komalavalli’

There has always been much speculation over Jayalalithaa’s heritage, with many questions arising over where her families hailed from. In fact, the former Tamil Nadu CM had herself claimed that she had her roots in Srirangam, as she had roots from both her mother’s and father’s side in the town.

The third episode of Thanthi TV’s Jayalalithaa Enum Naan documentary explored this topic: though she was born in Mysore, Jayalalithaa’s native can be traced back to Nangavaram, a panchayat town in between Srirangam and Karur. This new information is confirmed by CP Rangachaar, son of her paternal aunt. Coincidentally, as the first MLA of Kulithalai, Karunanidhi’s maiden speech in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly was on the plight of the Nangavaram farmers.

Similarly, the episode that delves deep into the family’s history, her cousin Amitha Chari says that though Jayalalithaa’s mother (Veda, who later changed her name to Sandhya) hails from Nellore, they were Tamil Brahmins and Tamil was Jayalalithaa’s mother tongue right from the time she was born. There is also an anecdote referring to how many rumours came to the fore after Vice President Venkaiah Naidu was quoted as saying that Jayalalithaa always speaks to him fluently in Telugu.

Apart from tracing some of the houses Jayalalithaa was raised in (incidentally, her name is derived from the buildings ‘Jaya Vilas’ and ‘Lalitha Vilas’), there is one more mystery solved – was Komalavalli (also her grandma’s name) her birth name? In the recent film Sarkar, the controversy also arose due to Varalaxmi’s character being called Komalavalli.

But a resounding ‘no’ is the answer, as Jayalalithaa’s cousins Amitha and Anuradha recall she was always called ‘Ammu’ inside the house and ‘Jayalalitha’ formally in school. A visit to her first place of education, the Bishop Cotton Girls’ School in Bengaluru also brings up an attendance/mark register where her name is recorded as such. One of her school classmates Dorothy also confirms that nobody knew her by any other name.

The upcoming episode of J Jayalalithaa Enum Naan takes a look at her lesser known friendships and the lesser known facets of her famous friendships in the episode. Did Jayalalithaa ever give birth to a child? Where did these rumours begin? Those close to her speak up on the controversy that has surfaced intermittently throughout her life and even after her passing. Incidents that have yet to come to light around Jayalalithaa’s imprisonment in 1996, details of the last blood relative of Jayalalithaa to reside in Poes Garden, the reasons behind her adopting Sudhakaran as her son, her fallouts with Sasikala, her last promise from Cho Ramasamy and many more snippets from her life are featured in this episode.