Ambat Sivarama Menon

Ambat Sivarama Menon was a pre-independence Indian politician. He was the second of four children and only son of Ambat Ikkali Amma and Champathil Nanu Mannadiar. He was born in 1870.

Graduating from Madras Law College, he practised at the Madras High Court and won acclaim as a brilliant advocate. His forceful arguments, ready replies to judges'querries, vast knowledge and prodigeous memory, were all legendary. No wonder, he was referred to as a walking encyclopedia. An authority on the Marumakkathayam law of succession, he served as examiner for the law degree examinations of Madras University.

Though a man of serious pursuits, he was always relaxed and often witty. Known for his patience and tolerance, he was generous to a fault, ever ready to help those who sought his assistance. The number is legion offriends, relatives and juniors at the bar who benefited from their association with him. One of the pioneers of the cooperative movement in India, Sivarama Menon was also one of the founders and many times president of the Triplicane Urban Cooperative Society, the first consumer cooperative to be started in the country. He was a director of Cochin Land Mortgage Bank. In the society of Freemasons, one of the world's oldest fraternal organisations, he was elected

Worshipful Master of Lord Justicia. Sivarama Menon was a founder-member of the Justice Party, and the editor of the party's official newspaper, The Liberator. In 1936, when he was first elected to the Cochin Legislative Council from Mulakunnathukavu constituency, he retired from legal practice and settled down in Thrissur. Two years later, in the elections held under a new Constitution ushering in dyarchy, he was returned to the Assembly from Cheruthuruthy. As leader of the Cochin Congress, he was appointed Minister for Rural Development on June 17, 1937. He was the first elected minister of an Indian state. He died due to cardiac arrest on August 30, 1939 during an official visit to his home town, Chittur, after becoming minister.

Sivarama Menon was married to Kalyanikutty Amma the only daughter of Pallissery Thekke Komarath Parukutty Amma and Kavithilakan Kundur Narayana Menon. They had six sons and three daughters: Sri Sankara Narayanan, Satyabala, Ananda Padmanabhan, Bhagyanathan, Swarna Kumari, Chandrasekharan, Sarojini, Sivaraman and Sivadas. Smt. Kalyanikutty Amma died in March 1960.