At a very early age, Ananda Ranga Pillai emigrated with his father to Pondicherry where the family pursued their business interests.

On his father's death in 1726, Ananda Ranga was made dubash and served in his capacity until his removal on grounds of ill-health and deteriorating performance.

[citation needed] Pierre Christophe Le Noir who succeeded La Prévostière had great regard for Tiruvengada Pillai and his family.

[5] Ananda's fortune reached greater heights during the tenure of Le Noir's successor Pierre Benoît Dumas who, too, seemed to have had a favorable opinion of him.

[7] When Dupleix became the Governor, the chief dubash was one Kanakaraya Mudali with whom Ananda Ranga Pillai had a bitter rivalry.

[7][8] However, Kanakaraya Mudali died in the year 1746[8] and in 1747, after many consultations and decision-making, Ananda Ranga Pillai was made chief dubash.

[8] In November 1738, the bitter rivalry that had existed between Ananda Ranga Pillai and the chief dubash Kanakaraya Mudali flared up into a conflagration.

Observing that Ananda Ranga Pillai had not remitted the interest for the loan he had borrowed to pay coral merchants, Kanakaraya Mudali reported the same to the Governor.

[19] During Dupleix's tenure, Ananda Ranga rose to the zenith of power and prominence in French India[7] and exercised firm control over the internal affairs of the territory.

[6] Ananda Ranga Pillai, however, reported heavy criticism from guests for inviting people of non-Christian faiths for the feast celebrating the consecration of a church.

There was at least one occasion during the period when Ananda Ranga was questioned by Dupleix regarding payment of the large sum of money he owed to the company.

[33] Ananda Ranga Pillai, however, soon cleared off his debts by paying one Suga Singh the money the Company owed him.

[36][37] Chinna Mudali was deputed to interrogate two eyewitnesses Tandavarayan and Rangan and they swore that Ananda Ranga's conduct towards Mari Chetty was, in no way, objectionable.

[38] Throughout Dupleix's tenure, Ananda Ranga Pillai entertained dignitaries as the dubash of Fort St David, Indian merchants, and even Mahé de Labourdonnais.

On 12 June 1746, de Bausset, a longtime companion of Ananda Ranga Pillai urged him to campaign for Chief Dubash-ship.

The official appointment of Ananda Ranga Pillai was delayed by a couple of years due to the stoppage of trade arising out of the outbreak of hostilities between the French and the British.

[56] This invasion launched by Admiral Boscawen ultimately failed to capture Pondicherry but hostilities soon came to an end by the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle.

[58] The British felt compelled to intervene and support Muhammad Ali in order to check the rise of French influence in the Deccan.

[59][60] During the later stages of the war, Pillai notes, Dupleix's temperament grew highly irritable and officers, including himself, feared to approach him.

Pillai was given the charge of collecting the revenue of a few villages in Karaikal and he performed his duties satisfactorily despite the prevalence of inconsistencies and unreliability of the records kept by his subordinate agents.

[8] By 1756, his health had deteriorated to such an extent that the Governor-General Georges Duval de Leyrit was obliged to remove him from service.

[64] Since the discovery and translation of his diaries during the 19th and early 20th centuries, Ananda Ranga Pillai has accumulated a great deal of posthumous fame and recognition for his depiction of 18th century South India, the intrigues and deals in French Pondicherry and his description of the French conquest of Madras and the Carnatic Wars.

Ananda Ranga Pillai has been referred to by V. V. S. Aiyar in his journal Balabharati and had attracted the curiosity of Subrahmanya Bharati, Aurobindo Ghosh and Mandyam Srinivasa Iyengar.

[68] Madurakkavirayar wrote that when he saw Ananda Ranga Pillai, he beheld the whole town of Pondicherry in him who was generous enough to offer him all the wealth that he wanted.

[68] In the poem, Tyagaraja venerated Ananda Ranga as the sovereign whose kingdom extended from Gingee to Vijayapuram and Delhi and praised him for the "conquest of Vanga, Kalinga and Telinga".

In 1894, Julien Vinson, Professor of the Special School of Livino-Oriental Languages at Paris who had published the second translation (which was, obviously, incomplete) published a supposed full translation of Ananda Ranga Pillai's diaries titled Les Français dans l'Inde, In 1892, the existence of the diary was brought to the notice of Lieutenant General H. Macleod, the British Consular Agent in Pondicherry.