This page contains supplemental material for the book: Brahmin Pioneers in British Malaya, including oral histories and photographs contributed by families of the pioneers.
Undated photo: Seshi Ammal and her sister Pattamal; when Seshi was nine she was married to Sermadevi Sivaramakrishna Sankaranarayana (SSS) Iyer ; he was 13. After running away to Borneo and surviving the Dayak uprising of 1898 SSS Iyer moved to British Malaya and brought Seshi Ammal to his first posting as Postmaster in Rantau, Negeri Sembilan. Dayaks were headhunters, they killed the British postmaster right under the eyes of a petrified SSS Iyer who had been taken to a tree house for refuge by his Malay colleague.
Their first son was named Ramanathan (after the deity at Rameshwaram Temple) . He was born in Rantau on January 9, 1909, one of the first second generation Brahmins to be born in British Malaya.
After SSS Iyer died in 1932, Seshi Ammal went back to India, got her son married to Gomathi Ammal and managed the rice paddy fields in village until her death in late 1960s. Both sisters had to shave their heads bald and wear the traditional garb of widows.
more supplemental material will be added shortly
Professor Sankaran Ramanathan Malaysia 