Muthu Coomaraswamy

Who was Muthu Coomaraswamy?

Sir Muthu Coomaraswamy, FRGS was a prominent colonial era legislator from Sri Lanka. He was the first native Asian and Sri Lankan to be knighted by Queen Victoria.

He was born to Gate Mudaliyar Arumugampillai Coomaraswamy of Point Pedro, who was of Sri Lankan Tamil ancestry. Educated at Colombo Academy from 1842 to 1851, where he won the Turnour Prize in 1851 and was the Editor of the college magazine. He joined the Ceylon Civil Service as a cadet, went on to become a police magistrate, assistant government agent of Mullaitivu. He was called to the bar as Advocate of the supreme court in 1856. In 1861 he was elected as a member of the Legislative Council of Ceylon. Resigning from CCS to left for England in May 1862, where he became a Barrister after he was called to the bar at the Lincoln's Inn in 1863 and returned to Ceylon in 1865. In 1867 he became an advocate High Court of Madras.

On August 11, 1874 he became the first Asian and Ceylonese to be Knighted. He was a member of the CMC from 1868 to 1873.

He was married to Elizabeth Clay Beeby of Kent, England in 1877. He was the father of Indologist Ananda Coomaraswamy.