Early Life
M. Krishnan was born in Tirunelveli on 30 June 1912 and was the youngest of eight siblings. His father was a Tamil writer and reformer A. Madhaviah who worked with the Salt and Abkari Department of the Government of Madras. His father's writings included one of the first realistic Tamil novels, Padmavathi Charithram published in 1898 and an English novel Thillai Govindan published in 1916. His father voluntarily retired from Government service and started a press from which he published a Tamil magazine called Panchamritam. When his father died in 1925, he was taken care of by his eldest sister, Lakshmi.
Krishnan studied in the Hindu High School and developed an interest in literature, art and nature. His family lived in Mylapore, and in those days it was covered in shrub and teemed with bird life, jackals and blackbucks. Krishnan even had a pet mongoose. In 1927 Krishnan joined the Presidency College and graduated with a BA in 1931. He also took a keen interest in botany, taught by Professor P. F. Fyson. He accompanied Fyson on field trips to the Nilgiris and the Kodaikanal hills and also acquired watercolour painting techniques from Professor Fyson's wife. Krishnan did not do well in his education and jobs were not easy. One of his older brother's who was married to the daughter of Sir T. Vijairaghavachari of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute at Pusa, took Krishnan to his father-in-law for advice. Krishnan was told that unless he managed to do well in studies, he could not be helped.
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