Chithira Tirunal Bala Rama Varma was born on 7th November, 1912 (Deepavali Day) in the royal family of Travancore, the descendants of the ancient Chera dynasty, as the eldest son of Maharani Setu Parvati Bayi and Sri Revi Varma Kochukoil Thampuran. Chithira Tiruniil ascended the throne on 6th November, 1931 and ruled the State of Travancore as Maharaja from 1931 to 1949. He was the Rajpramukh of Travancore-Cochin State from 1949 to 1956.
Chithira Tirunal had his education under eminent teachers, Indian as well as European and had his administrative training at Bangalore under reputed. statesmen. He also travelled widely in Europe and the Far East.
During  his  reign, Chithira  Tirunal  made many progressive reforms in the fields of legislation, agriculture, education, industry and commerce,  public  transport,  judiciary,  public health, hydro-electric power and water supply, etc. In the field of social welfare, he worked for the upliftmet of Harijans and backward communities by establishing a Harijan Welfare Department and institutions like  Chitra Poor Home, Harijan Hostel etc. Almost all these reforms, like the abolition of the death penalty which was the first of its kind in the whole of Asia, were pioneer  and progressive  steps. The most important of these was the Temple Entry Proclamation by which Chithira Tirunal removed untouchability and threw open all the temples of the State to Harijans and all the Hindus. For this reform, he was hailed as "Asoka the Second" and Mahatma Gandhi praised it as a "historical wonder".
Even after retirement from public life, he founded many charitable trusts that are donating substantial funds for charitable purposes and to numerous poor and needy patients for costly treatments like open heart surgery and kidney  transplant  etc. throughout the country. He has also established institutions of  public  utility  like the Geriatric Centre, Sri Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences & Technology and  Maharani Setu Parvati Bayi Surgical Centre, where  the most  modern and sophisticated  treatment  is  made  available  to everyone, even the poorest of the poor patients.
Whenever and wherever there was a disaster or calamity, Chithira Tirunal was the first to respond quickly with spontaneous donation s and deep feelings for the suffering of the victim s which he always tried to alleviate whether within or outside the state.
Chithira Tirunal Bala Rama Varma passed away, after a brief illness, on 20th July, 1991 at the age of 78.
Source : Information Folder issued by Indian Posts & Telegraph Department, Government of India