Sabapathy was born in 1853 in Thalaiyali, Kokkuvil near Vannarpannai in northern Ceylon.

[3] Sabapathy married Sinnamma, daughter of Saravanamuthu Udayar and had two sons.

[1][4] Sabapathy was appointed to the Legislative Council of Ceylon on 9 January 1917 as the second Tamil member[5][6][7] He was founder secretary and president of the Jaffna Association, a political organisation representing the Tamils of Jaffna.

[2][3][6] The Jaffna Association and Sabapathy were persuaded to join the Ceylon National Congress (CNC) after P. Arunachalam gave them assurances in 1918 that the Sinhalese leaders of the CNC would do all that they could do to secure "as large a representation as possible to the Tamils".

[8] The First Manning Reforms did not live up to the assurances given by the CNC and in 1921 Sabapathy joined the newly formed Tamil Mahajana Sabha as its vice-president.