Alasinga Perumal was an ardent supporter of Swami Vivekananda and a propogator of vedanta. Besides helping sponsor Vivekananda's journey to USA, he started the magazine Brahmavadin, which would later inspire Vedanta Kesari.
Alasinga Perumal belonged to Mandayam Iyengar family from Karnataka. He was born at Chikkamagalur in the year 1863. His father Chakravarti Narasimhacharya was a Tengalai Sri Vaishnavite and he migrated to Madras in search of a job. Young Alasinga grew up at Triplicane near Parthasarathi temple and finished his education and became a teacher at Pachayyappa' s High School at Madras. He rose to the position of the Head Master of the school. One day Alasinga requested his master Swami Vivekananda to go to America and participate in the World Religious Conference to be held at Chicago, as suggested by the Maharajas of Mysore, Ramanad and Khetri. The Swamiji agreed to this suggestion and Alasinga and his friends decided to collect the required amount through public donation. He died on May 11, 1909 when he was just forty four years old.
The following passage illustrates Vivekananda's feelings towards Alasingachar:
| “ | We arrived in Bombay on the twelfth of February where Mr. Alasinga met us, who wore the vertical red marks of the Vaishnavite sect. Later on, once when I (writer of this narrative) was sitting with Swami on our way to Kashmir, I happened to make the remark, “What a pity that Mr. Alasinga wears those Vaishnavite marks on his forehead!” Instantly Swami turned and said with great sternness, “Hands off! What have you ever done?” I did not know what I had done then. Of course I never answered. Tears came to my eyes and I waited. I learnt later that Mr. Alasinga Perumal was a young Brahmin teaching philosophy in a college in Madras earning 100 rupees a month, supporting his father, mother, wife, and four children, and who had gone from door to door to beg the money to send Vivekananda to the West. Perhaps without him we never would have met Vivekananda. Then one understood the anger with which Swamiji met the slightest attack on Mr. Alasinga....[1] | ” |