Singaravelu Sachithanantham (22 December 1936 – 13 January 2020) was a Malaysian

Indologist Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is ...

and lawyer. He was

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus/Emerita'' () is an honorary title granted to someone who retirement, retires from a position of distinction, most commonly an academic faculty position, but is allowed to continue using the previous title, as in "professor emeritus". ...

at the

University of Malaya The Universiti Malaya (lit 'University of Malaya'; abbreviated UM) is a public university, public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest Malaysian institution of higher education, and was the only university in ...

Early life and education

Singaravelu Sachithanantham was born in

Thopputhurai Thopputhurai, formerly known as Sethumadavapuram, is a town on the south eastern coast of Nagapattinam District, Tamil Nadu, India. Location Thopputhurai is near the east coast road of Vedaranyam-Nagapattinam, with a radius of approximately 2 ...

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 ...

in India on 22 December 1936. He obtained three Bachelor of Arts degrees: his first in Economics, History and Tamil from the

University of Madras 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 ...

in 1957; his second in Economics, History and Indian Studies from the University of Malaya (Singapore) in 1959, and his third in Indian Studies (First Class Honours) from the University of Malaya in 1960. He received his

M.A. A Master of Arts ( or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA or AM) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Those admitted to the degree have ...

and PhD in 1965 and 1981 respectively, both from University of Malaya.

Career

After retiring from full time academia, he pursued a legal career as an Advocate and Solicitor in the Malaysian High Courts, having obtained his

Bachelor of Laws A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

(LLB) Honours degree as an external candidate at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

in 1989 and called to the

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar ** Chocolate bar * Protein bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a laye ...

on 24 November 1995. Singaravelu was professor of

Indian Studies Indology, also known as South Asian studies, is the academic study of the history and cultures, languages, and literature of the Indian subcontinent, and as such is a subset of Asian studies. The term ''Indology'' (in German, ''Indologie'') is o ...

in the Faculty of Arts and

Social Science Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among members within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the ...

University Malaya The Universiti Malaya (lit 'University of Malaya'; abbreviated UM) is a public university, public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest Malaysian institution of higher education, and was the only university in ...

from 1980, becoming

from 2004. He wrote extensively about

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

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 ...

and

South-East Asian Southeast Asia is the geographical southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Australian mainland, which is part of Oceania. Southeast Asia is ...

culture, and served as Head of Department of Indian Studies, University Malaya between 1969 and 1984. His notable works include The Ramayana Tradition in South-East Asia, The Social Life of the Tamils and

Thirukkural 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 ...

Trilingual (a classic Indian text translated into English and Malay). He was one of the first lecturers in University Malaya to teach Indian Studies courses in

Bahasa Malaysia Malaysian Malay () or Malaysian ()endonymically known as Standard Malay () or simply Malay (, abbreviated to BM)is a standardized form of the Malay language used in Malaysia and also used in Singapore and Brunei (as opposed to the variety us ...

(the Malay language) in addition to the requisite

and English, which enabled a wider stream of students to pursue courses such as Tamil Culture and Civilisation in Malaysia's national language. Under the guidance of his mentor Professor Xavier Thaninayagam, he began researching links between Indian culture and South East Asia. His Ph.D. thesis on the Ramayana Tradition compared in detail the original literary Ramayana of

Valmiki Valmiki (; , ) was a legendary poet who is celebrated as the traditional author of the epic ''Ramayana'', based on the attribution in the text itself. He is revered as ''Ādi Kavi'', the first poet, author of ''Ramayana'', the first epic poe ...

version in

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 ...

with the later Tamil version of

Kambaramayanam The ''Ramavataram'', popularly referred to as ''Kamba Ramayanam'', is a Tamil epic that was written by the Tamil poet Kambar during the 12th century. Based on Valmiki's ''Ramayana'' (which is in Sanskrit), the story describes the legend of ...

, the Malay literary version

Hikayat Seri Rama ''Hikayat Seri Rama'' ( Jawi: ) is the Malay literary adaptation of the Hindu Ramayana epic in the form of a hikayat. The main story remains the same as the original Sanskrit version but some aspects of it were slightly modified to a local conte ...

and the Thai

Ramakien The (, , ; ; sometimes also spelled ) is one of Thailand's national epics. It is a Thai version of the ancient Indian epic ''Ramayana'', and an important part of the Thai literature, Thai literary canon. King Rama VI was the first person t ...

of King

Rama I Phutthayotfa Chulalok (born Thongduang; 20 March 1737 – 7 September 1809), also known by his regnal name Rama I, was the founder of the Rattanakosin Kingdom (now Thailand) and the first King of Siam from the reigning Chakri dynasty. He asc ...

Death

Singaravelu died on 13 January 2020 at his home in

Petaling Jaya Petaling Jaya (), colloquially referred to as "PJ", is a city in Petaling District, in the state of Selangor, Malaysia. Originally developed as a Satellite city, satellite township for Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia, it is part of the G ...

, Selangor at the age of 83.

Honours

He was made a Companion of the Order of Loyalty to the Royal Family of Malaysia in 1991.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sachithanantham, Singaravelu 1936 births 2020 deaths