saravanamuttu was born in 1898 in colombo, ceylon. he was the son of vetharniam saravanamuttu, a physician from colombo. his mother's family were from vaddukoddai in northern ceylon. his paternal grandfather vetharniam is reputed to be the founder of chunnakam, a small town in northern ceylon. saravanamuttu had five eminent brothers: ratnasothy, nanasothy, tharmasothy, paikiasothy and manicasothy. he was educated at s. thomas' college, mount lavinia where he was captain of the cricket team (1916–18) and scored the fastest century in ceylon. he was also head prefect and boxing champion at s. thomas. he then joined st catharine's college, cambridge to study engineering. he played cricket at cambridge between 1921 and 1923 but failed to win a blue for cambridge university cricket club.