Parithimar Kalaignar (born V. G. Suryanarayana Sastri at Vilacheri near

Thirupparankundram Thiruparankundram, also spelled Tirupparankundram or Tiruparangundram, is a neighbourhood in Madurai city in Tamil Nadu, India. It is about from Periyar Bus Terminus, the centre of the city and constitutes the southwest part of the Madurai cit ...

on 6 July 1870 – 2 November 1903), a

Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an Academy, academic rank at university, universities and other tertiary education, post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin ...

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

at the

Madras Christian College Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institut ...

, was the first person to campaign for the recognition of Tamil as a

classical language According to the definition by George L. Hart, a classical language is any language with an independent literary tradition and a large body of ancient written literature. Classical languages are usually extinct languages. Those that are still ...

Life

Suryanarayana Sastri was born at Vilacheri near

in a

Tamil Brahmin Tamil Brahmins are an ethnoreligious community of Tamil-speaking Hindu Brahmins, predominantly living in Tamil Nadu, though they number significantly in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Telangana in addition to other regions of India. The ...

family to Govindan Sivan. He studied philosophy and after graduation was soon employed as a

of Tamil in the Madras Christian College. In 1895, Suryanarayana Sastri rose to become the Head of Department for Tamil at the Madras Christian College.

Campaign for recognition of Tamil as classical language

Suryanarayana Sastri had immense love for Tamil and wrote plenty of books. He even changed his Sanskrit name to its Tamil translation (although "Parithi" பரிதி and "Kalai" கலை are Dravidian loanwords from Sanskrit परिधि and कला, respectively). When the

Madras University The University of Madras is a public university, public State university (India), state university in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and most prominent universities in India, incorporated by an ...

proposed to exclude Tamil from its syllabus, Parithimar Kalaignar vehemently protested against the proposal forcing the authorities to drop the move. In 1902, he proposed that Tamil be designated as a "classical language" thereby becoming the first person to make such a petition. Parithimar Kalignar is also known as Dravida Sastri. Parithimar Kalaignar was also the first to use the Tamil name ''Kumarinadu'' for the mythical lost-land of

Lemuria Lemuria (), or Limuria, was a continent proposed in 1864 by zoologist Philip Sclater, theorized to have sunk beneath the Indian Ocean, later appropriated by occultists in supposed accounts of human origins. The theory was discredited with the dis ...

Death

Paritihimar Kalaignar died in 1903 due to

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

at the age of 33.

Legacy

Parithimar Kalaignar 2007 stamp of India

Parithimar Kalaignar is regarded as an inspiration for Tamil enthusiasts as

Maraimalai Adigal Maraimalai Adigal (15 July 1876 – 15 September 1950) was a Tamil Saivite writer, orator and father of the Tanittamil Iyakkam movement. He authored more than 100 books, including works on original poems and dramas and notable research works o ...

and the

Tanittamil Iyakkam () is a linguistic-purity movement in Tamil literature which attempts to avoid loanwords from Sanskrit/Prakrit, English, Urdu and other non-Dravidian languages. The movement began in the writings of Maraimalai Adigal, Paventhar Bharathidasa ...

. In 2006, the Government of Tamil Nadu declared Parithimar Kalaignar's house in his native village of Vilacheri as a memorial and sanctioned a sum of towards nationalizing his books. On 17 August 2007, postage stamps were issued in memory of Saint Vallalar, Parithimar Kalaignar and Maraimalai Adigal. On 13 December 2006, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, M. Karunanidhi extended an amount of to the Tamil scholar's descendants.

References

External links