The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Madurai News : Tamil scholar's house to be made a memorial

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 12, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

Tamil scholar's house to be made a memorial

T. Saravanan

First to seek classical language status

LANDMARK: The house of `Parithimar Kalaignar'. — Photo: G. Moorthy

MADURAI: The long winding road that breaks off from the highway leads one around the Pasumalai Hill into Vilacheri.

All hands at the village, located at about three km from Pasumalai in the south of the city and better known for its doll making units, point to a renovated house in the Agraharam where Tamil scholar V.G. Suryanarayana Sastri, popularly known as `Parithimar Kalaignar,' was born and lived through his formative years.

The house shot into limelight when the State Government declared to convert it into a memorial and sanctioned a sum of Rs.15 lakh towards nationalising the books authored by the scholar. The Government's action had come as a mark of respect to the man, who was the first to voice a demand to declare Tamil as a classical language .

"Different people at different times have sacrificed their lives for the development of Tamil.

Of them, `Parithimar Kalaignar' is remembered for his sustained efforts to declare Tamil as a classical language in 1902, when the University of Madras planned to remove Tamil from the syllabus," said V.S. Govindan, grandson of the scholar and retired Tamil professor. "His contributions for the development of the language are great. Within a short span of time (as he expired at the age of 33 due to tuberculosis) he had authored many books, including those on grammar of drama and history of Tamil language ,"said Mr. Govindan.

"We have met Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and thanked him for the gesture," he said

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