[1] He and his brother Rajaratnam owned large pieces of land in the old Batticaloa District, from Verugal to Pottuvil.
[2] Dharmaretnam's son Puvirajakeerthi (known as Keerthy or Dharmakeerthy) was one of the first Batticaloa Tamils to attend the University of Cambridge.
[2] Dharmaretnam was the paternal grandfather of Taraki Sivaram, a journalist murdered during the Sri Lankan Civil War.
[2][4][5] He represented the Batticaloa South constituency until November 1943 when he resigned due to ill-health.
[1] He didn't die and was found a few days later in a jungle clearing, delirious, his physical and mental health irrecoverably damaged.