Vummidi Ethiraj

Vummidi Ethiraj died in Chennai on Wednesday 21 October 2026, aged 99, about a month before his 100th birthday. News agency UNI reported that he died of old age; no other cause was made public. His family announced his death the same day, inviting relatives to gather at the residence for his final rites, which were performed that evening in Besant Nagar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote that he was deeply saddened, that Ethiraj would always be remembered for his efforts in crafting the historic Sengol, and recalled meeting him in 2023 to thank him for what he had done for the nation and its culture. Vice President C. P. Radhakrishnan said his contribution to preserving India's tradition of jewellery craftsmanship left an enduring legacy, and the Governor of Tamil Nadu, R. V. Arlekar, said his life and craftsmanship had become part of a significant chapter in the nation's history.

Vummidi Ethiraj, also reported as Vummidi Ethirajulu, was born on 25 November 1926 into the Vummidi Bangaru Chetty family of Madras, now Chennai, a family his son later described as a traditional family of goldsmiths. His father was Vummidi Anjalelu Chetty, who died in the 1960s. Ethiraj grew up in the family trade, and by 1947, when he was about 20, he was a contributing member of the family business.

According to his son Uday Kumar Vummidi, the family's home, workshop and showroom were then all on one site in Sowcarpet in north Madras, and more than 25 people worked for them. Another branch of the family has described the original Vummidi Bangaru Chetty and Sons premises, known as the corner shop at Parry's Corner, as the place where the Sengol was designed and made. His younger brother, Vummidi Sudhakar, who was about 14 in 1947, later became chairman of Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers.

Ethiraj spent his working life in the family's jewellery business, which grew from its early twentieth century shop in Madras into Vummidi Bangaru Jewellers, a chain of stores in Chennai. News agency PTI described him at his death as the patriarch of the family that owns the 125-year-old firm.

His place in history rests on the Sengol. In 1947 the Thiruvavaduthurai Adheenam, a Shaivite monastery in Tamil Nadu, commissioned the Vummidi firm to make a sceptre that its seers would present to Jawaharlal Nehru on the eve of independence, following a Chola tradition in which a sceptre was handed to a new ruler. Vummidi Sudhakar told reporters in 2023 that it was mainly his elder brother who designed the Sengol and directed the work. Accounts from the family and the government say about ten craftsmen worked on it over a few weeks. It was made of silver plated with gold, about five feet long, and topped with a figure of Nandi, the sacred bull, standing for justice and stability, with motifs of rice and wheat for agricultural plenty and of the goddess Lakshmi for wealth. Ethiraj later recalled that there had been uncertainty over Nandi's proportions and that the makers went to Kumbakonam for references before settling on the final design, which followed a drawing sent by the Adheenam.

On the evening of 14 August 1947 the Adheenam's representatives presented the sceptre to Nehru at his residence at 17 York Road in New Delhi. It was later kept in the Allahabad Museum, labelled as Nehru's golden walking stick, and over the years even the Vummidi family forgot its story. Ethiraj himself, asked about it in 2018, had only a hazy memory of making something similar, and recalled more details after seeing photographs of the Nandi on top.

After a Tamil magazine article in 2018 credited the family, relatives traced the sceptre to the museum and confirmed it was the one Ethiraj and his father had made. In May 2023 the government announced that it would be installed in the new Parliament building. On 27 May 2023 Ethiraj, then 96 and using a wheelchair, was felicitated with about ten members of his family at Prime Minister Narendra Modi's residence in New Delhi, and on 28 May the Sengol was installed near the Lok Sabha Speaker's chair.

Ethiraj was married to Sumitra Vummidi, who died before him. They had three children, named in reports of his death as Vijaya Bharathi, Uday Kumar Vummidi and Vijayendren Vummidi. He was survived by his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, several of whom remain involved in the family's jewellery business. He lived in Chennai, where the family residence was in Besant Nagar.

Ethiraj was among the last people living who had worked on the Sengol in 1947, and his recognition in 2023 brought renewed public attention to the Vummidi family and to the artisans of Tamil Nadu. The sceptre he helped design stands in the Lok Sabha chamber of the new Parliament building, where it has become one of the best known symbols of India's parliamentary heritage, and the family has since made replicas of it. Tributes on his death described his life as a connection between India's traditions of craftsmanship and the moment of its independence.