Scholar with deep historical insight
S.GANESAN
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Celebrations are on to mark the centenary of M.Rajamanikkanar, a prolific writer and Tamil teacher.
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M.Rajamanikkanar.
The centenary of M. Rajamanikkanar (1907-1967), pioneering Tamil scholar and historian, commemorated through seminars and lectures across the State this year, has thrown up an opportunity to recall the contributions of the man who broke new ground in historical research and writing.
His seminal works, `History of Pallavas' and `History of Cholas,' rank among the time-tested historical records ever authored by a Tamil scholar.
Passionate pursuits
A prolific writer with varied interests, Rajamanikkam went on to document his passionate pursuits even while pursuing his profession as a Tamil teacher.
Rajamanikkam was born on March 12, 1907, at Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh where his father worked as a tahsildar.
For all his scholarship in Tamil, Rajamanikkam, interestingly, learnt only Telugu initially. He learnt his mother tongue only after the family relocated to Nilakottai in Madurai district in 1916. He lost his father when he was 13 and came to stay with his brother, Ramakrishnan, and mother Thayarammal at Dindigul, where he developed an interest for visiting historical sites and taking notes of the visits.
Soon the family shifted to Thanjavur, where Rajamanikkam continued his school education. Tamil stalwarts such as Umamaheswaran Pillai, Venkatachalam Pillai, J.M.Somasundaram Pillai and Venkatasami Nattar helped him develop a love for the language, says his son R.Kalaikkovan, himself a Tamil scholar, historian and epigraphist.
After a brief stint as a clerk at a school at Orathanadu, he joined Sri Thygarajar Middle School, Chennai, where he worked for eight years. He cleared his degree examination by the time and it was during this period that he bloomed as a writer. His first book, `Naarperum Vallalgal,' was published when he was just 23.
In 1936, he joined the Muthialpet High School at Mannadi. He worked here for nearly 11 years, during which time he passed the Bachelor of Oriental Languages (BOL) and MOL degrees. The MOL came after extensive research on Periyapuranam, where Rajamanikkam presented its author Sekkizhar as a historian and the work itself as historical material.
The `History of Pallavas' and `History of Cholas' were written during this period. Rajamanikkanar joined the Vivekananda College as a Tamil lecturer in 1947. His book, `Development of Saivism in South India from A.D. 300 to A.D. 1300' written during this period, brought him many laurels apart from Ph.D.
In 1953, he became the Head of the Tamil Department of Thyagarayar College at Madurai. By then he had published 70 books covering a gamut of subjects. Rajamanikkanar also published nearly 30 biographies of freedom fighters, national leaders, scientists, thinkers, kings and poets. In 1959, he took over as Reader in Tamil at the University of Madras and went on to write `Pathupattu Araichi,' a massive research work on the Ten Idylls, an anthology of the Sangam age. The book was published posthumously in 1970 and speaks of his critical acumen and deep historical insight. Rajamanickkanar attended the first World Tamil Conference at Kuala Lumpur. He died in May 1967, leaving behind a rich collection of high quality research works.
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