Sivapatha Sekaran, popularly known as Avvai Natarajan (24 April 1936 – 21 November 2022) was an Indian scholar and educationist from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. He was theVice-Chancellor of Thanjavur Tamil University during 1992-95. The

Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...

honored Natarajan in 2011, with the fourth highest civilian award of

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

Biography

Avvai Natarajan, hailing from the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, was a secretary to the Government of Tamil Nadu in the Department of Tamil Language Development and Culture. Holder of an MLitt and a doctoral degree (PhD) in Tamil literature, Natarajan has also worked as the Vice Chancellor of Tamil University, Thanjavur. He was a member of the

Central Institute of Classical Tamil The Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) is a body established by the Government of India with a view to promoting the cause of Tamil language, Classical Tamil. It is located in Chennai. History The CICT was formerly known as the Centre ...

, an institute established by the

for propagation of classical

Tamil language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...

and culture. He also sat in the advisory councils of Sattakadir and the Madras Development Society. He has delivered keynote addresses in many seminars and held the chair of the selection committee of the ''Aram Award''. In 2011, the

honoured him with the civilian award of

, honoring his contributions towards Tamil language and culture.

Death

Natarajan died in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

on 21 November 2022, at the age of 86.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Natarajan, Avvai 1936 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Indian educational theorists Heads of universities and colleges in India People from Thanjavur Scholars from Tamil Nadu Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature and education