New Delhi, Feb. 7 -- In 1930s Madurai, a city of temples and architecture, Thirukkurungudi Vengaram Sundram Iyengar's home smelt of two incompatible things: sandalwood incense and motor oil. The incense was an inheritance since he came from a line of Brahmins for whom ritual observance was as natural as breathing. The motor oil was a choice.

Born in 1877 in Thirukkurungudi, Iyengar had been trained as a lawyer, spent time as a clerk at the Bank of Madras, and might have lived out his days in respectable obscurity had the bank not passed him over for promotion after he took leave to attend his father's funeral. Slighted, he walked away from the security of a fixed salary, first into the timber trade, then into transportation.

In 1911, he...