Known to his friends as CSV, Venkataraman was born at Chelakkara, a small village in Thrissur District, India, on 14 September 1918 as the son of late C V Subbarama Iyer, who was also a professor of mathematics at the University College, Trivandrum, for a long time and later as the principal in 1951.

Though CSV wanted to continue with full-time research, s sudden turn of events in his family circumstances forced him to be near his home town and hence he accepted an offer of a lectureship at Union Christian College, Aluva.

On account of his professional and academic achievements, his name finds, justifiably, a place in the World Directory of Mathematicians published in 1986 under the auspices of the International Mathematical Union.

Kerala has produced some world-class number theorists, among whom CSV occupies a pride of place along with his predecessors Sivasankarnarayana Pillai (whom Hardy described as Ramanujan's worthy successor) and P Kesava Menon.

[2] Tall, well–dressed, and with keen, searching eyes, CSV had a magnetic personality with his fair complexion and handsome appearance and was called "Lord Mountbatten" by the colleagues and students in his heyday.