Tamil Nadu - Madurai   

Memorial for Deveneya Pavanar inaugurated

— Photo: K. Ganesan

Pet project: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi registering his comments in the visitors’ book at the memorial in Madurai.

MADURAI: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi declared open a memorial for Deveneya Pavanar, a Tamil scholar and linguist, here on Tuesday. He also unveiled an eight-foot-tall bronze statue of the scholar.

“This memorial is as sweet as Tamil,” he wrote in the visitors’ book after taking a look at the photographs and other memorabilia depicting the achievements of the departed linguist. He gave away an order appointing A.M.D. Paripooranam, granddaughter of the scholar, as the caretaker of the memorial.

Pavanar, who lived between 1902 and 1981, had written a number of books in which he had argued that Tamil is the most natural and oldest language of the world. He pursued autodidactic studies of Dravidian philology and comparative linguistics. The State Government had conferred on Pavanar, the title ‘Senthamil Selvar’ in 1979 and he is also addressed as ‘Mozhi Gnayiru’ (‘Sun of language’).

Earlier, addressing reporters, Collector S.S. Jawahar said that the 50 cents of land, meant for the memorial, was valued at around Rs.1.5 crore. The building, lighting, garden and others cost another Rs.40 lakh. “The Chief Minister took personal interest in the project,” he said.

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