The Hindu : Front Page : Call for translation of all Tamil literary treasures

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 25, 2010
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Call for translation of all Tamil literary treasures

T. Ramakrishnan and M. Soundariya Preetha

— Photo: M. Vedhan

Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi speaking at the inauguration of a seminar at the World Classical Tamil Conference in Coimbatore on Thursday. Sri Lankan Tamil scholar K. Sivathamby is in the picture.

COIMBATORE: Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi on Thursday gave a call for translating all the literary treasures of Tamil into other Indian and world languages.

Inaugurating the Tamil Internet Conference (TIC) and the seminar of the World Classical Tamil Conference here, Mr. Karunanidhi also said the writings on Tamilology and Tamil race in Greek, French, German and other languages should be translated into Tamil.

Books and documents on Tamilology available in any part of the world should be converted into electronic format and arrangements should be made to provide universal access to the treasures. Emphasising that Tamil should be used in every field, the Chief Minister said dictionaries of different kinds and encyclopaedias of different fields should be produced.

He appealed to scholars and other participants of the seminar and TIC to advise the State government on the future course of action to be taken in this regard.

Giving an exhaustive account of the findings of different historians, scholars and literary personalities on the antiquity of the Dravidian race, the Chief Minister said that if the 4th Century BC were to be taken as the starting point of the Sangam age, the Dravidian civilisation could be known from the Sangam literary works. He quoted V.R. Ramachandra Dikshithar who, in his book, had mentioned that the civilisation of Tamils had spread in the Mediterranean region, Kumari continent, Indus Valley, Egypt and Sumeria.

K. Anbazhagan, Finance Minister, K. Sivathamby, Chairperson of the Academic Committee of the WCTC, Gregory James, Director of the Language Centre, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Ulrike Niklas, Tamil Professor at the University of Cologne, and V.C.Kulandaisamy, vice-president of the International Association of Tamil Research, spoke.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page