Tapovan Maharaj

Who was Tapovan Maharaj?

Tapovan Maharaj was a Hindu Sannyasi and Vedanta scholar who taught both Swami Chinmayananda, the founder of the Chinmaya Mission Movement and Swami Sundaranand.

Sri Swami Tapovan Maharaj is one of the most renowned saints of the 19th century. He was a contemporary of Swami Sivananda Maharaj and was the Guru of Swami Chinmayananda Maharaj. Swami Tapovan Maharaj was born in 1889 on the auspicious Suklapaksha Ekadasi day of Margaseersha month. His mother, Kunchamma belonged to an ancient aristocratic Nair family in Palghat Taluk of Kerala. His father, Achutan Nair, belonged to Kotuvayur in Kerala. Even as a little boy, Swami Tapovan Maharaj exhibited a marked partiality for spiritual life. He delighted in worshipping idols fashioned with his own hands. He was admitted to the local English school, but not liking the thoroughly materialistic education, he decided to quit the school and continued his studies in English, Malayalam and Sanskrit with still greater vigor by himself. Under competent teachers he mastered poems, dramas, grammar and logic. He read all available religious literature in Malayalam, Tamil, English and Sanskrit. He also engaged in spiritual exercises.

Born in Palakkad, Kerala as Subramanian Nair, Tapovan Maharaj exhibited a thirst for spiritual knowledge and self-realisation, also being an accomplished public speaker. He left the modern education system early and dedicated himself to the study of Sanskrit and the Vedanta. After his brother became employed as a lawyer, he entered the order of Sannyasi.