Vardharajan Mudaliar

Vardharajan Mudaliar, affectionately known as Vardha or Vardha bhai, was a formidable Tamilian don in Mumbai whose influence stretched across the city's illicit economies and into the lives of the women who would become its most notorious figures. A Hindu of immense local generosity, he was a pivotal figure in the post-prohibition underworld, building a bootlegging empire and a network of patronage that would launch the careers of Jenabai Daaruwali and Mahalaxmi Papamani. His story is one of rise and fall, a trajectory that mirrors the shifting tides of Mumbai's criminal landscape from the era of hooch to the age of drugs and real estate.

Identity and Background

Vardharajan Mudaliar, whose full name was Vardharajan Muniswami Mudaliar, was a Tamilian don based in Mumbai. He was a Hindu, yet his benevolence was widely spoken of among the Muslim devotees of the 260-year-old shrine of Bismillah Shah Baba at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, where he was known to distribute niyaz, sacred food, to the faithful. This act of cross-communal generosity earned him a reputation for kindness that extended beyond his own community. He was described as a burly, dark man in his mid-thirties when Jenabai first encountered him, a figure of considerable physical presence and local renown. His power was rooted in the illicit liquor trade that flourished under Bombay's prohibition, and he was known to have a significant following among south Indians, having brought hordes of men from the poverty-stricken regions of Salem to work in his enterprises.

The Bootlegging Empire and the Rise of Jenabai

Vardharajan's primary enterprise was an illicit hooch liquor distillery, known as a khaadi, located at Sion-Koliwada in central Mumbai. After prohibition was imposed, he, like many others, decided to start his own local, illicit liquor trade, setting up his base in the marshy lands of central Mumbai and getting his men to brew their own liquor. It was this business that drew Jenabai into his orbit. In the late 1940s, Jenabai, then known as Jenabai Chaavalwaali for her illegal grain dealings, was tired of making minuscule profits. She met Vardharajan at the shrine of Bismillah Shah Baba, where she approached him, crying about her financial situation and pleading for a small job. Her wily tone made him foresee a bankable option for his bootlegging business. After a long pause, he asked her directly, "Will you get into the liquor business?" Her initial response was a refusal, citing her qaum, or community, but this meeting marked the beginning of her transformation. Vardharajan was also the man who later introduced Jenabai to Haji Mastan, the notorious gold smuggler, a meeting that would cement her role as a power broker in the underworld. Jenabai, who came to be known as Jenabai Daaruwali, would go on to become a significant figure in her own right, and her connection to Vardharajan was foundational to her rise.

Patronage and the Making of a Drug Baroness

Vardharajan's influence extended to the creation of a mini-Tamil Nadu in Mumbai. In 1980, Mahalaxmi Papamani relocated to Mumbai as part of his plan to build a Tamilian enclave in the city. Vardharajan, who owned the illicit hooch liquor distillery at Sion-Koliwada, brought hordes of men from the poverty-stricken regions of Salem to work in his khaadi, while the women were employed in red-light areas. Over several years, the Tamilians started settling in makeshift homes around Sion-Koliwada, and the slum came into being. Papamani became one of Vardha's most favoured companions, and because of her proximity to the don, men and women in the Sion-Koliwada area treated her with respect. This patronage was crucial to Papamani's early standing, giving her a status that would later prove useful. However, with prohibition being lifted in the '80s and the simultaneous decline of Vardharajan, Papamani's fortunes plummeted. The same people who once looked at her with awe now turned their backs on her, leaving her to fend for herself. This decline forced her to reinvent herself, eventually leading her to become the wealthiest drug baroness in Mumbai, a trajectory that began with the fall of her patron.

Decline and Legacy

The decline of Vardharajan was a turning point for the Sion-Koliwada slum, which had been infamous for his illicit hooch distillery in the '80s. After his fall, the area became notorious for being a drug den under Mahalaxmi Papamani. The slum, built on a hill that leads to a Hindu temple, still bore the marks of his influence, but the nature of its criminal economy had shifted. Vardharajan's legacy is thus a complex one. He was a man who built an empire on the back of prohibition, providing illicit liquor to a city that was denied it by law. He was also a patron who lifted up women like Jenabai and Papamani, giving them a foothold in a world that was otherwise closed to them. Yet his decline left them vulnerable, forcing them to adapt and survive in a changing underworld. His story is a reminder of the transient nature of power in Mumbai's criminal landscape, where the same forces that elevate a person can also abandon them. The spaces he shaped, from the Sion-Koliwada slum to the lives of the women he patronized, continued to be defined by his influence long after his own star had faded.