The Param Vir Chakra was designed by Savitri Khanolkar, a Swiss national whose real name was Eve Yvonne Maday de Maros, married to an Indian Army officer, Vikram Ramji Khanolkar.

She was born in Neuchatel, Switzerland to a Hungarian father and Russian mother. In 1929, she met Vikram Khanolkar, a young Indian Army cadet undergoing training at Sandhurst, who had come to Switzerland for a break.

She came to India in 1932 - though her father was not too keen on it - and married Vikram in Lucknow. She changed her name to Savitri Bai after marriage.

It was due to this that Major Hira Lal Atal, the first Indian Adjutant General of independent India, asked her help in designing the Param Vir Chakra.

Drawing on her extensive knowledge of the Puranas, Savitri Bai thought of Rishi Dadhichi, who had given up his own body for Indra to make the deadly Vajra. She came up with the design of a double Vajra, a common Tibetan motif then. 

Incidentally, the first recipient of the PVC, Major Somnath Sharma, was the brother-in-law of Savitri Bai's elder daughter Kumudini, who died while fighting at the Battle of Badgam during the 1948 war with Pakistan.

She passed away on 26 November 1990 at the age of 77 after leading a truly remarkable life. A Swiss national of mixed Hungarian-Russian descent, married to an Indian Army officer, who adapted to the Hindu ethos extremely well, had designed the Param Vir Chakra, the highest military award in India.

Image Source: Business Standard