Everything known about his life comes from the private diary of Ananda Ranga Pillai and the inscriptions found in the walls of St. Andrews church, which he built in the memory of his dead son.

Thanappa Mudaliar, who belonged to the Thuluva Vellalar community,[3] embraced Christianity with his son on 20 March 1671 and took the name Lazaro de Mota.

Thanappa Mudaliar invited weavers from neighboring places and made them settle down in areas with a view to procuring sufficient volumes of textiles for export.

He got constructed storehouses for the commodities so textiles, saltpeter, camphor, ivory, precious stones, and spices from other regions were brought to Pondicherry for export to France.

Even though the circumstances and the cause of death are not recorded, Ananda Ranga pillai being a well versed astrologist, suggests in his diary that this is due to a bad turn in Kanagaraya Mudaliyar's astrology.

He also records that Velavendra was buried the next day at 3:00 PM with silk attire and pearl earrings and ring to his finger.

He invited all the Brahmans, Vellazhas, Komuttis, Chettis, goldsmiths, weavers, oil-mongers, and people of other castes along all Europeans and Christians.

Natchathiram requested Jeanne Dupleix to seal her husband's house, in case of his passing away, so that his brother wouldn't claim his property.

It is described by Ananda Ranga Pillai in his diary as follows: The Mudali's body, handsomely dressed, girt with the laced sash which M. Dumas had sent from Europe, and adorned in many other ways — exactly as a king when coming out of his palace — was then put in a coffin ; and the corpse was brought out at 7 in the evening.

A stately horse, followed by forty soldiers, bearing arms, was led in front of the procession ; the drums beat a funeral march ; forty European boys studying in the mission college marched along in two lines, on either side of the cortege ; and the priests of the church of the Capuchins and that of St. Paul went along reciting prayers, according to the rites prescribed by their religion.

Then the Councillors and the ladies of their families, numbers of the European gentry of both sexes, natives, Muhammadans, and other people, including women, came out to look at the procession.

As the corpse was in this wise being borne along from the house to the burial ground, amidst general mourning, the Governor, his lady, and some of the Councillors, came, and waited near the Kalatti Iswaran temple.

When the coffin approached, the Governor and those with him stood up, holding candles in their hands, according to the rites of the Christian religion ; and after it had passed them, they gave these away, entered their palanciuins, and went home.

When the corpse reached the cemetery, the coffin was lowered into the vault wherein the body of the Mudali's son was buried; the soldiers then discharged eleven guns were fired from the fort.

Scarcely has it been the lot of any one else to live without interruption in the same style, for so long a period.When the question of deciding who should inherit Kanakaraya's property came up in 1748, a committee of 20 officials were appointed to arbitrate.

However, Chinna Mudali was not satisfied and the matter dragged on till April 1746, when Dupleix decided the case combining Mitakshara law and the concept of legitim from French jurisprudence.