 They had three sons (Padmanabha, Mahadeva and Ramanathan) and five daughters (Maheswari, Manonmani, Sivanandam, Pathmavathy and Sunthari).Arunachalam was called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1875.He wanted to start a career in law but was persuaded by his maternal uncle Muthu Coomaraswamy to join the civil service.