TAMIL
Monograph on Tamil poet
S. N. KANDASWAMY
PARITHIMAAL KALAIGNAR: V. S. Govindan; Sahitya Akademi, 35, Rabindra Bhavan, Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi-110002. Rs. 25.
THIS BOOK is a monograph on the life and letters of the great Tamil savant V.G. Suryanarayanasastriar (1870-1903) who out of deep love for his mother tongue rendered his name into pure Tamil as Parithi (surya), Maal (narayana), Kalaignar (sastriar). The credit goes to him who in the year 1902.first propounded that Tamil richly deserved the status of a classical language, since it possessed an independent and well- built grammatical system, original theory of prosody and poetics, besides rich and varied literature of a very high antiquity.
Sahitya Akademi has been rather too late in bringing out a book on him. Yet, it is appropriate that the monograph hs come now — when Tamil has just been declared as one of the Indian Classical Languages by the Government of India in 2004. Subsequently, the Tamil Nadu Government nationalised all his literary works in 2006.
The author of this book, grandson of Parithimaal Kalaignar, has adequately dealt with not only his educational and family life, but also his many-sided contribution to the enrichment of Tamil language and literature. His erudition in English and Sanskrit literatures with a comparative outlook on the Tamil works has also been brought out. He was an efficient teacher, dramatist, novelist, essayist, commentator, and editor of rare literary works. His book on the history of Tamil language was the first of its kind and it was dedicated to Dr. Miller, Principal of Madras Christian College where he served for a decade as Head of the Department of Tamil. His musical poems and sonnets deserve special mention.
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