Career
Thondaman was born in Muna Pudur, Tamil Nadu (then called Madras State) India, the son of Kumaravel Karuppaiah and Sithammai. Father Karuppaiah was from Thondaman clan that lived in parts of Ramanathapuram District in India. He lived with his mother and three elder sisters in Munna pudur and he saw his father for the first time when he was seven.
His father used to spend long spells of time in Sri Lanka (then called Ceylon) for work.
Thondaman"s father Karuppaiah was connected to the royal family of Pudukkottai. This branch of the family, however, underwent a decline in fortunes, and it was on the verge of impoverishment when Karuppaiah migrated to Ceylon, as Sri Lanka was called by the British, to become a "Kankani", or supervisor, of tea estate workers.
Through hard work and shrewd business acumen he became the owner of a prosperous tea plantation, Wavendon estate, in Ramboda in the Nuwara Eliya district. Thondaman attended the newly established local Tamil school in Munna Pudur till 1924, when he left for Ceylon to join his father.
At that time Thondaman"s father Karuppaia who was initially an estate labouer rose to become an estate owner in Nuwara Eliya District where was the first Indian origin Tamil from the indenture labourer stock to own a tea estate in Ceylon.
After joining his father Thondaman attended a small estate school for 3 years, later in 1927 he joined Saint Andrews College of Gampola. Thondaman was at Saint Andrew"s for five years, from 1927 to 1932.
