Mahankali Seetharama Rao

Colonel Mahankali Seetharama Rao FRCP (1906–1977) was an Indian physician best remembered for his services as chief physician to Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and honorary physician to Indian President Rajendra Prasad.

Born to a poor family, Rao completed his secondary schooling at Muthialpet Boys School in Chennai whereupon he matriculated to Madras Medical College. He qualified for his MBBS in 1929 and was admitted as a Member of the Royal College of Physicians[1] a few years later. Rao received his first commission to the Indian Army in 1936, and served during World War II as a medical specialist in India’s Persia-Iraq force.

In 1954, Rao left the military to serve as Head of Medicine at New Delhi’s Safdarjang Hospital while also acting as a faculty of Medicine at the University of Delhi. From 1952-1964 he was personal physician to Prime Minister Nehru and Honorary Physician to the President of India from 1962.

In 1962, Col. Rao was awarded India's Padma Bhushan award for distinguished service in the field of medicine.[2] In 1964, he relocated to London after being appointed medical adviser to Britain’s High Commissioner for India. The following year he was awarded Fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians.[3]

He later returned to New Delhi upon retirement, where he provided free medical services to the needy until his death.

## References[edit]

1. ^ "British Medical Journal". BMJ. 2 (3904): 844–849. November 1935. doi:10.1136/bmj.2.3904.844. S2CID 220150461.
2. ^ "Padma Awards" (PDF). Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. 2015. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 15, 2015. Retrieved July 21, 2015.
3. ^ Gillam, S.J. "Munk's Roll". Royal College of Physicians, Munk's Roll. X: 401.

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Padma Bhushan award recipients (1960–1969)

1960|

* Haridas Siddhanta Bagish
* Rabindra Nath Chaudhuri
* Nilakantha Das
* Rajeshwar Shastri Dravid
* Kazi Nazrul Islam
* Hafiz Ali Khan
* Bal Krishna Sharma Naveen
* Ayyadevara Kaleswara Rao
* Acharya Shivpujan Sahay
* Vithal Nagesh Shirodkar

1961|

* Rustomji Bomanji Billimoria
* Seth Govind Das
* Verrier Elwin
* Niranjan Das Gulhati
* L. Venkatakrishna Iyer
* Rai Krishnadas
* Sumitranandan Pant
* Svetoslav Roerich
* Bhagwan Sahay
* Bindeshwari Prasad Verma
* Krishnasami Venkataraman
* Ardeshir Ruttonji Wadia

1962|

* Ramchandra Narayan Dandekar
* Prem Chandra Dhanda
* Asaf Ali Asghar Fyzee
* Bade Ghulam Ali Khan
* Daulat Singh Kothari
* Mithan Jamshed Lam
* Sudhansu Sobhan Maitra
* Sisir Kumar Mitra
* Tarabai Modak
* Niaz Fatehpuri
* Jal Ratanji Patel
* Narayan Sitaram Phadke
* V. Raghavan
* Dukhan Ram
* T. S. Soundram
* Mahankali Seetharama Rao
* Moturi Satyanarayana
* Sitaram Seksaria
* Santosh Kumar Sen
* Tarlok Singh
* Raja Radhika Raman Sinha

1963|

* Makhanlal Chaturvedi
* Omeo Kumar Das
* Nitish Chandra Laharry
* Badri Nath Prasad
* Kanuri Lakshmana Rao
* Rahul Sankrityayan
* Ramanlal Gokaldas Saraiya
* T. R. Seshadri
* Sardar Harnarain Singh
* Ramkumar Verma

1964|

* Sheikh Abdullah
* Nuruddin Ahmed
* Rafiuddin Ahmed
* Jacob Chandy
* Kunji Lal Dubey
* Tushar Kanti Ghosh
* Dara Nusserwanji Khurody
* Anukul Chandra Mukherjee
* Jnanendra Nath Mukherjee
* Bhola Nath Mullik
* R. K. Narayan
* Chintaman Govind Pandit
* Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel
* Bal Gandharva
* T. N. Ramachandran
* Khushwant Lal Wig

1965|

* Joginder Singh Dhillon
* Bhalchandra Babaji Dikshit
* Narasinh Narayan Godbole
* Nawang Gombu
* Sonam Gyatso
* Akbar Ali Khan
* S. L. Kirloskar
* Mohan Singh Kohli
* Harbaksh Singh
* P. O. Dunn
* Kashmir Singh Katoch
* Pratap Chandra Lal
* Ramaswamy Rajaram
* Mohammad Mujeeb
* Jayant Narlikar
* K. R. Ramanathan
* Satyajit Ray
* Triguna Sen
* Vrindavan Lal Verma
* Manikya Lal Verma

1966|

* Babubhai Maneklal Chinai
* Puliyur Krishnaswamy Duraiswami
* Verghese Kurien
* Zubin Mehta
* K. P. Kesava Menon
* Mannathu Padmanabha Pillai
* K. Shankar Pillai
* Vikram Sarabhai
* Vinayak Sitaram Sarwate
* Homi Sethna
* Jodh Singh
* Haribhau Upadhyaya

1967|

* Mulk Raj Anand
* Tara Cherian
* Krishna Kanta Handique
* Akshay Kumar Jain
* Pupul Jayakar
* Ali Akbar Khan
* D. P. Kohli
* Ramanathan Krishnan
* Cheruvari Lakshmanan
* S. I. Padmavati
* D. C. Pavate
* Datto Vaman Potdar
* B. Shiva Rao
* Khwaja Ghulam Saiyidain
* Mihir Sen
* Ravi Shankar
* M. L. Vasanthakumari

1968|

* Acharya Vishva Bandhu
* Prabhu Lal Bhatnagar
* Mary Clubwala Jadhav
* K. Shivaram Karanth
* Bismillah Khan
* Vishnu Sakharam Khandekar
* Sam Manekshaw
* Mansukhlal Atmaram Master
* M. G. K. Menon
* Waman Bapuji Metre
* Gujarmal Modi
* Murugappa Channaveerappa Modi
* Benjamin Peary Pal
* Brahm Prakash
* Manikonda Chalapathi Rau
* C. R. Rao
* Radhanath Rath
* Mariadas Ruthnaswamy
* Firaq Gorakhpuri
* Shripad Damodar Satwalekar
* G. Sankara Kurup
* Periyasaamy Thooran
* Mamidipudi Venkatarangayya

1969|

* Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay
* Rahim-ud-in Khan Dagar
* Mohanlal Lallubhai Dantwala
* Keshavrao Krishnarao Datey
* Keshav Prasad Goenka
* Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer
* Vithalbhai Jhaveri
* Prithviraj Kapoor
* Kesarbai Kerkar
* Krishna Kripalani
* Adinath Lahiri
* Gobind Behari Lal
* Kasturbhai Lalbhai
* Lata Mangeshkar
* V. K. Narayana Menon
* Saghar Nizami
* Nanasaheb Parulekar
* Yashwant Dinkar Pendharkar
* Vitthal Laxman Phadke
* Raja Rao
* Niharranjan Ray
* Prafulla Kumar Sen
* Haroon Khan Sherwani
* Naval Tata
* S. S. Vasan

# Posthumous conferral

* 1954–1959
* 1960–1969
* 1970–1979
* 1980–1989
* 1990–1999
* 2000–2009
* 2010–2019
* 2020–2029

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