The title "Navaratna", which means Nine Gems, was given to him by the seer of Uttaradi Mutt for the scholarly services rendered to the orthodox Deshastha Madhwa Brahmin Society by the nine scholar-brothers in that family.
[1] He was a member of the legislative council ( senior parliament of India) and a close ally of the Maharaja of Mysore during his career with a significant influence on the government.
He attended Central College of Bangalore along with C. Rajagopalachari, who would become a lifelong friend,[2] and was influenced by Scottish teacher John Guthrie Tait.
Rajaji’s Ramayana and Mahabharata, two early works of Indian literature in the English language, were revised by Rama Rao, as C. Rajagopalachari himself acknowledges in the preface.
Rama Rao’s literary work included his translation of Masti’s Kannada novel Chenna Basava Nayaka to English, translation of Niccolò Machiavelli’s book The Prince to Kannada, his Sanna Kathegalu and his chronicled life-sketches of the dynasty of Mysore Rulers besides several articles he wrote to the then Madras Times journal on Shakespeare’s works and contemporary national politics when he was studying law at Madras.