Dr. Periyar Dasan or Dr. Abdullah (born Seshachalam; 21 August 1949 – 19 August 2013) was an Indian scholar, professor, eminent speaker, and activist from

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is 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 India ...

. He propagated

atheism Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no d ...

and rationalist ideologies for most part of his life and later converted to

Islam Islam (; ar, ۘالِإسلَام, , ) is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic Monotheism#Islam, monotheistic religion centred primarily around the Quran, a religious text considered by Muslims to be the direct word of God in Islam, God (or ...

. He has also appeared in around 15 Tamil-language films.

Early life and background

Seshachalam was born in a

Shaivite Shaivism (; sa, शैवसम्प्रदायः, Śaivasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu traditions, which worships Shiva as the Supreme Being. One of the largest Hindu denominations, it incorporates many sub-traditions rangin ...

family on 21 August 1949 at Agaram in Perambur. He was attracted towards the rationalist ideals of

Periyar E. V. Ramasamy Erode Venkatappa Ramasamy (17 September 1879 – 24 December 1973), revered as Periyar or Thanthai Periyar, was an Indian social activist and politician who started the Self-Respect Movement and Dravidar Kazhagam. He is known as the 'Fa ...

, the founder of the Dravidian movement. During his days in

Pachaiyappa’s College Pachaiyappa's College is one of the oldest educational institutions in Chennai, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. In addition, it is the first sole Indian college in Madras Presidency. History Pachaiyappa's College, Chennai is the resul ...

, he changed his original name to Periyar Dasan (ardent follower of Periyar). He was well-versed in Tamil literature, various religious studies, and English. He has authored around 120 books. He served as a professor in his alma mater,

, for 34 years and as a corporate trainer, psychologist, psychotherapist, and students counsellor for many years. In 1991, Dasan embraced

Buddhism Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and gra ...

and added Siddhartha as a prefix to his name. He translated the

Dhammapada The Dhammapada (Pāli; sa, धर्मपद, Dharmapada) is a collection of sayings of the Buddha in verse form and one of the most widely read and best known Buddhist scriptures. The original version of the Dhammapada is in the Khuddaka ...

, a compilation of Buddhist virtues, authored by

B. R. Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who headed the committee drafting the Constitution of India from the Constituent Assembly debates, served ...

, into

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, nativ ...

. This took him to learn

Pali Pali () is a Middle Indo-Aryan liturgical language native to the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pāli Canon'' or ''Tipiṭaka'' as well as the sacred language of ''Theravāda'' Buddhism ...

and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

. Taking everyone by surprise, he embraced

as his way of life on 11 March 2010 during a visit to

Mecca Mecca (; officially Makkah al-Mukarramah, commonly shortened to Makkah ()) is a city and administrative center of the Mecca Province of Saudi Arabia, and the Holiest sites in Islam, holiest city in Islam. It is inland from Jeddah on the Red ...

and rechristened his name as Abdullah, and his wife Vasantha was given the name Fathima. Thereafter, he started giving a series of lectures on Islam. Before embracing Islam, he spent 10 years knowing the key aspects of that religion and learning the

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

and the

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

language.

Publications

Tamil

* Translator: Dr. Ambedkar's புத்தரும் அவரது தம்மமும் - Buddharum avarathu dhammamum - Buddha and his Dhamma. * Author: இந்திய மரபும் பார்ப்பன திரிபும் - Indhiya marabum paarpana thiriyum - Indian practice and Brahminical fudging. * Author: கல்வி கற்கும் பிள்ளையே கேளாய்... - Kalvi karkum pillaye kelaai... - Oh child being educated, listen...

Filmography

Death

Dasan died on 19 August 2013 at the age of 63, after fighting liver cancer. He is survived by wife Vasantha and two sons Valavan and Suratha. As per his last wish, his body was given to the Madras Medical College for Research on August 20. Immediately after death, his eyes were donated to

Sankara Nethralaya Sankara Nethralaya is a not-for-profit missionary institution for ophthalmic care (i.e., an eye hospital) headquartered in Chennai, India. In the name "Sankara Nethralaya", "Sankara" is a reference to Adi Shankaracharya and "Nethralaya" means " ...

References

External links

Blog
on

Blogger A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Dasan, Periyar Male actors in Tamil cinema Indian male film actors 1949 births 2013 deaths Converts to Islam from atheism or agnosticism Islam in Tamil Nadu