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

Malaysian Malaysian may refer to: * Something from or related to Malaysia, a country in Southeast Asia * Malaysian Malay, a dialect of Malay language spoken mainly in Malaysia * Malaysian people, people who are identified with the country of Malaysia regard ...

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 o ...

and lawyer. He was

Professor Emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

at the University of Malaya.

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 (, ), 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 th ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

on 22 December 1936. He obtained three

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

degrees: his first in Economics, History and Tamil from the University of Madras 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. and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

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 Bachelor of Laws ( la, Legum Baccalaureus; LL.B.) is an undergraduate law degree in the United Kingdom and most common law jurisdictions. Bachelor of Laws is also the name of the law degree awarded by universities in the People's Republic of Chi ...

(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-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

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 Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

on 24 November 1995. Singaravelu was

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

of Indian Studies in the Faculty of Arts and

Social Science Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soc ...

University Malaya The University of Malaya ( ms, Universiti Malaya, UM; abbreviated as UM or informally the Malayan University) is a public research university located in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It is the oldest and highest ranking Malaysian institution of highe ...

from 1980, becoming

from 2004. He wrote extensively about

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

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 ...

and

South-East Asian Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

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 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 (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 (; Sanskrit: वाल्मीकि, ) is celebrated as the wikt:harbinger, harbinger-poet in Sanskrit literature. The epic ''Ramayana'', dated variously from the 5th century BCE to first century BCE, is attributed to him, based on ...

version in

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 ...

with the later Tamil version of Kambaramayanam, the Malay literary version Hikayat Seri Rama and the Thai Ramakien of King Rama I.

Death

Singaravelu died on 13 January 2020 at his home in

Petaling Jaya ) , website = , image_skyline = , image_caption = ''From top, left to right:Skyline of Petaling Jaya, the 1 Utama Mall integrated with Bandar Utama Station, the Kota Darul Ehsan arch, the Petaling J ...

Selangor Selangor (; ), also known by its Arabic language, Arabic honorific Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity", is one of the 13 Malaysian states. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east ...

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