Devan (R. Mahadevan) (8 September 1913 – 5 May 1958) was a 20th-century Indian writer who wrote in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nati ...

, known for his witty and humorous stories." Human traits — Devan’s forte"
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Early life

Devan was born in 1913 at Thiruvidaimarudur in Thanjavur district,

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil languag ...

, India, where he did his schooling. He came to Kumbakonam Government College to complete his B.A. degree. He worked as a school teacher for a year, before joining the popular

weekly magazine,

Ananda Vikatan ''Ananda Vikatan'' is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India. History and profile ''Ananda Vikatan'' was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 ...

in 1933. Devan's first foray into the world of writing was through the humorous short story "Mister Rajamani", written when he was in his twenties.

Life as an editor

Devan started as a Sub-Editor at

in 1933. After

Kalki Krishnamurthy , birth_name = Ramasamy Aiyer Krishnamurthy , birth_date = , birth_place = Puthamangalam, near Manalmedu , death_date = , death_place = Chennai, India , occupation = journalist, critic and writer , nationality = Indian , education = H ...

left Vikatan, worked as Managing Editor from 1942 to 1957. During this time, he wrote about 20 serials, more than 500 stories, articles and travelogues. A common feature in all his works was his gentle sense of humour. He was a very popular writer and stories abound of how, when a new issue of

came out, everyone in the family would fight to get hold of the copy first. Devan worked under famous writers like Kalki Krishnamurthy and

S. S. Vasan Subramaniam Srinivasan (4 January 1904 – 26 August 1969), popularly known by his screen name S. S. Vasan, was an Indian journalist, writer, advertiser, film producer, director and business tycoon. He is the founder of the Tamil-language maga ...

. It was his wish that his stories get published as books, but sadly this did not happen in his lifetime, due to the nature of his contract with Vikatan. During this time, he also served as Chairman of the Tamil Writers' Guild twice, and helped to promote

Tamil literature Tamil literature has a rich and long literary tradition spanning more than two thousand years. The oldest extant works show signs of maturity indicating an even longer period of evolution. Contributors to the Tamil literature are mainly from T ...

. Devan was the editor of Ananda Vikatan until his death in 1957. In his short life, he experimented with different types of writing – travelogues, detective novels, articles, short stories, current affairs. Devan's books are a joy to read even today, when social values and techniques in fiction writing are so different. About ten of Devan's writings were also dramatised by several Tamil drama troupes, even during his lifetime. He himself wrote most of the dialogues for the plays. More recently, some of his works like Thuppariyum Sambu, Sriman Sudharsanam and Mister Vedhantham were made into television serials also. Only one of his novels, gOmathiyin kAdhalan, was made into a movie, starring T. R. Ramachandran and Savithri.

Bibliography

All of Devan's stories and travelogues were serialised in

(with, perhaps, one exception, 'Mythili' which was serialised in 'Naradar'). His writings are copyright of the Devan Endowments. Recently, many of Devan's works have been published by Alliance Publishers,

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

, India. 'Kizakkup padhippagam' has also recently started publishing Devan's writings. One of his novels, Justice Jagannathan, has been translated into English. His writings include : Novels: * Mythili (1939 ) * Malathi ( 1942) *

Thuppariyum Sambu Thuppariyum Sambu is a detective short-story series in Tamil, written by Indian writer Devan in the early 20th century. The novel's protagonist is Sambu, a not-very-intelligent bank clerk in middle age, who solves difficult crime puzzles out of s ...

(1942) * GOmathiyin KAdhalan * KalyANi (1944) * Miss JAnaki * SrimAn Sudharsanam * Mr VedhAntham (1949–50) * Justice JagannAthan (1953–54) * Lakshmi KatAksham (1951–52) * CID Chandru (his last novel) (1955–56 ) Other collections of stories, articles and travelogues include: * Mister RajAmaNi – a series * Vichuvukku Kadithangal – a series * AppaLak KachchEri – a series of articles with a recipe at the end of each article * Aindhu NaadugaLil ARupathu NaaL (60 Days in 5 countries) – Travelogue * POkkiri MAmA * PallisAmiyin Thuppu * MOtAr AgarAthi * Chinna KaNNan katturaigaL – a series * RAjiyin PiLLai – a series * Adhisaya thaambathigaL – a series * Kamalam SolgirAL – a series * Podaatha Thapaal – a series * Sarasuvukku Kadithangal * manidha subAvam * chInup payal * chinnan chiRu kadhaigaL – a series * pArvathiyin sangalpam * mallAri rAo kadhaigaL – a series * En indha asattuththanam * jAngiri sundharam * peyarpOna puLugugaL * prabuvE! uththaravu! – a series * nadandhathu nadanthapadiyE – a travelogue * rangUn periyappA * chonnapadi kELungaL * rAjaththin manOratham – a series on building a house

References

* "dEvanin ezuththulagam" Tamil Book by S. Vaitheeswaran, vAnathi publishers, April 1995. * Prefaces in Devan's books published by Alliance Publishers.
Books listed by Tamilbooksonline

Early life

Life as an editor

Bibliography

References

External links