Maraimalai Adigal
| Maraimalai Adigal | |
|---|---|
| Born |
Vedhachalam July 15, 1876 Nagapattinam, Madras Presidency, British India |
| Died | September 15, 1950 (aged 74) Madras, Madras State, India |
Maraimalai Adigal (15 July 1876 – 15 September 1950) was an eminent Tamil orator and writer. He was a devout Hindu as a staunch follower of Saivism. He has authored more than 100 books, including works on original poems and dramas, but most famous are his books on his research into Tamil literature. Most of his literary works were on Saivism. He founded a Saivite institution called Podhunilaik Kazhagam. He was an exponent of the Pure Tamil movement and hence considered to be the father of Tamil puritanism. He advocated the use of Tamil devoid of Sanskrit words and hence changed his birth name Vedhachalam to Maraimalai.
Politically he was inclined towards non-Brahminism and hence he and his followers considered that the Self-respect movement was born out of his efforts. Nevertheless, the atheist ideologies of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy were shunned by Maraimalai Adigal and caused years of differences between the two. Maraimalai Adigal spent most of his income on buying his books and after his death his collection were made into a library according to his will.
Maraimalai Adigal was born on 15 July 1876 to Cokkanata Pillai and Cinnammai. His birth name was Vedhachalam. He did his early schooling at Wesley Mission High School in Nagappattinam, but had to abandon his formal education with Fourth Form after his father's death.
His stint as a student in Wesley Mission High School Nagapattiam made him proficient in English language. When refused to be taught Sanskrit by a Sanskrit teacher on his being a non-Brahmin at his early age, he found a way out by teaching a fellow Brahmin student English, learnt from that boy Sanskrit on daily basis and became proficient in Sanskrit.
Maraimalai Adigal in spite of discontinuing his formal education after 9th grade, continued learning Tamil from the Tamil scholar Narayana Pillai, who was making his livelihood by selling Tamil palm-leaf manuscripts. He learnt Sanskrit and English through his own effort. He later authored several articles in Tamil monthly called Neelalochani. He later studied Saiva philosophy under Somasundara Naicker. With the help of Sundaram Pillai, author of Manonmaniam, he learned Tamil poetic dramas and thus acquired employment as a Tamil teacher in a school in Trivandrum.
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