Natteri Veeraraghavan was born on 1 November 1913 in Parangipettai, Tamil Nadu, to Natteri Venkatesa Iyer and Balambal. He graduated in medicine from Andhra University in 1936, topping his class, and completed a DSc in microbiology from the same university in 1944.

In 1937 he joined the Pasteur Institute of India at Coonoor as a research officer. By 1941 he was Assistant Director, and in 1947 — still a young man — he became Director, a post he held with distinction until his retirement in 1972. Under his leadership the institute grew into an international centre for virology. Researchers from around the world came to train under him, especially in rabies, poliomyelitis and influenza.

He became a leading global authority on rabies. He refined the Semple vaccine, developed a shorter and more effective course of treatment, introduced fluorescent-antibody techniques for diagnosis, and served repeatedly on the World Health Organization Expert Panel on Rabies, chairing it in 1959. He also chaired the WHO International Reference Center on Rabies. At the same time he pioneered the production of polio and influenza vaccines in India.

After retirement he directed the Vector Control Research Centre in Pondicherry (1975–1977), establishing laboratories for filaria, genetics and ecology, and later worked at the Voluntary Health Services Medical Centre in Madras, where he turned his attention to the difficult problem of cultivating Mycobacterium leprae. He remained associated with the Indian Council of Medical Research for decades.

Colleagues remembered a scientist of quiet intensity and deep humanity. One younger researcher, watching him examine slides late into the evening, later recalled Veeraraghavan saying:

“The virus does not negotiate. Our only answer is better science, applied with care to every patient who needs it.”

In 1967 the Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri. He died on 6 August 2004 at the age of ninety.

In the story of Indian doctors, Natteri Veeraraghavan stands as a pioneer of medical microbiology — the man who turned a hill-station institute into a global reference centre and helped protect countless lives from the ancient terror of rabies.