Kamil Václav Zvelebil (November 17, 1927 – January 17, 2009) was a Czech scholar in Indian

literature Literature is any collection of Writing, written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially novels, Play (theatre), plays, and poetry, poems. It includes both print and Electroni ...

and

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...

, notably Tamil,

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; stem form ; nominal singular , ,) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in northwest South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural ...

, Dravidian

and literature and

philology Philology () is the study of language in Oral tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...

Life and career

Zvelebil studied at the

Charles University in Prague Charles University (CUNI; , UK; ; ), or historically as the University of Prague (), is the largest university in the Czech Republic. It is one of the oldest universities in the world in continuous operation, the oldest university north of the ...

from 1946 to 1952 where he majored in Indology, English, literature and philosophy. After obtaining his PhD in 1952 and until 1970 he was a senior research fellow in Tamil and Dravidian linguistics and literature at the Oriental Institute of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. He held the role of associate professor of Tamil and Dravidian at Charles University in Prague until 1968, when he and his family (including his son, the later archaeologist, Marek Zvelebil) were forced to flee after the

Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia On 20–21 August 1968, the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four fellow Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Republic of Bulgaria, and the Hungarian People's Republic. The ...

. They fled to the United States at first, but later settled in the Netherlands. During the late 1960s, he made many field trips including those to South India. From 1965 to 1966, he was a temporary professor in Dravidian studies at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

in the United States and was a visiting professor at Heidelberg University between 1967 and 1968. Furthermore, he is very well known among the scholars in Tamil Nadu and has earned a permanent place in the educational syllabus of the Dravidian states. In 1970, after more time at the

, he was a visiting professor at the in Paris. After more travel through European universities he became the professor of Dravidian linguistics and South Indian literature and culture at

Utrecht University Utrecht University (UU; , formerly ''Rijksuniversiteit Utrecht'') is a public university, public research university in Utrecht, Netherlands. Established , it is one of the oldest universities in the Netherlands. In 2023, it had an enrollment of ...

until his retirement in 1992. Zvelebil also made the only known translation of the ''

Tirukkuṛaḷ The ''Tirukkuṟaḷ'' (), or shortly the ''Kural'' (), is a classic Tamil language text on commoner's morality consisting of 1,330 short couplets, or kurals, of seven words each. The text is divided into three books with aphoristic teaching ...

'' into Czech. It included some selections that appeared in ''Novy Orient'', a Czech journal, during 1952–54.

Books

He has authored numerous books and articles on Dravidian linguistics and literature. Some of them are: *''Comparative Dravidian Phonology'', Published by Mouton, ASIN: B0006BZAIK *''Dravidian Linguistics: An Introduction'', PILC (Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture), 1990 *''Tamil Literature'', E.J. Brill, Leiden, 1975, *''Companion Studies to the History of Tamil Literature'', Handbuch Der Orientalistik Series, Brill Academic Publishers, *''The Smile of Murugan: On Tamil Literature of South India'', , Brill Academic Publishers (not to be confused with Michael Wood's book "The smile of Murugan: a south Indian journey") *''The Poets of the Powers: Magic, Freedom, and Renewal'', *''Literary Conventions in Akam Poetry'' *''Two Tamil Folktales: The Story of King Matanakama, the Story of Peacock Ravana'', UNESCO Collection of Representative Works: Indian Series, *''Lexicon of Tamil Literature'', , Handbuch Der Orientalistik, Brill Academic Publishers *''Nilgiri areal studies'', Acta Universitatis Carolinae, Charles University in Prague, Karolinum Press, 1st ed edition (2001), *''Introducing Tamil literature'', ASIN: B0007JK3TC *''Ananda-tandava of Siva-sadanrttamurti: The development of the concept of Atavallan-Kuttaperumanatikal in the South Indian textual and iconographic tradition'', Institute of Asian Studies; 1st ed edition (1985), ASIN: B0006EL29I *''Introduction to the Historical Grammar of the Tamil Language'', Oriental Institute in Academia (1970), ASIN: B0006CIL44 *''The Irulas of the Blue Mountains'', Foreign & Comparative Studies (June 1988), *'' Tamulica et Dravidica: A Selection of Papers on Tamil and Dravidian Linguistics'', Prague: KAROLINUM/CHARLES UNIVERSITY PRESS, 1998

Bibliography

Kamil Zvelebil has authored more than 500 bibliographic items including books, articles and reviews and translations.

References

External links

Prof. Dr. Kamil Vaclav Zvelebil
(tamilnation.org bio)

(marketaz.co.uk bio)
Bibliography of Prof. Dr. K.V. Zvelebil
(digilib.phil.muni.cz) *https://www.dutchstudies-satsea.nl/deelnemers/zvelebil-kamil-veith/ *https://data.bnf.fr/en/12026532/kamil_zvelebil/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Zvelebil, Kamil 1927 births Linguists from the Czech Republic Czech philologists Dravidologists 2009 deaths Tamil scholars of non-Tamil background Charles University alumni Tamil–Czech translators Czech Indologists Translators of the Tirukkural into Czech 20th-century Czech linguists 20th-century philologists 20th-century Czech translators Tirukkural translators Academic staff of the Collège de France

Life and career

Books

Bibliography

See also

References

Further reading

External links