Rao Sahib Saravanapperumal Vaiyapuri Pillai (12 October 1891 – 17 February 1956) was a renowned lawyer and

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 ...

scholar. An advocate by profession, he edited and published several Tamil classics from original manuscripts. He is best remembered as the editor of the

Tamil lexicon ''Tamil Lexicon'' (Tamil: தமிழ்ப் பேரகராதி ''Tamiḻ Pērakarāti'') is a twelve-volume dictionary of the Tamil language. Published by the University of Madras, it is said to be the most comprehensive dictionary of ...

published by the

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

in the 1920s. He was a voracious reader and had in his own private collection thousands of books in Tamil,

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

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 ...

and

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 2 ...

. His collection also included hundreds of

palm-leaf manuscript Palm-leaf manuscripts are manuscripts made out of dried palm leaves. Palm leaves were used as writing materials in the Indian subcontinent and in Southeast Asia reportedly dating back to the 5th century BCE. Their use began in South Asia and ...

s. This collection was later donated to the

National Library of India The National Library of India is a library located in Belvedere Estate, Alipore, Kolkata, India. It is India's largest library by volume and public record. The National Library is under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Currently, Dr. ...

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

. .

Early life and education

Vaiyapuri Pillai was born in 1891 to Saravanapperumal Pillai and Pappammal in a Saiva Vellalar family of Tinnevely District. After graduating in 1912, he studied law and practised as a lawyer in

Trivandrum Thiruvananthapuram (; ), also known by its former name Trivandrum (), is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala. It is the most populous city in Kerala with a population of 957,730 as of 2011. The encompassing urban agglomeration populatio ...

and Tinnevely from 1915 to 1926.

Editor of the Tamil lexicon

On November 25, 1926, Pillai was appointed editor of the Tamil lexicon committee of the

. Until then, Voume I of the lexicon and the first part of Volume II had been published over a span of fourteen years. But once Pillai took over, the remainder of the lexicon which comprised six volumes was completed in just ten years.

Later years

From 1951 to 1954, Pillai served as Honorary Professor of Tamil at the

University of Travancore University of Kerala, formerly the University of Travancore, is a state-run public university located in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala, India. It was established in 1937 by a promulgation of the Maharajah of Travancore, Chit ...

in Trivandrum. Retiring in 1954, he returned to Madras city where he died on 17 February 1956.

Controversies

In June 1940, the government of

Madras State Madras State was a state of India during the mid-20th century. At the time of its formation in 1950, it included the whole of present-day Tamil Nadu (except Kanyakumari district), Coastal Andhra, Rayalaseema, the Malabar region of North and ...

appointed a committee headed by V. S. Srinivasa Sastri to frame general principles for coining words for scientific and technical terms in Tamil. The constitution of the committee was opposed by Tamil purists who felt that Sastri was strongly anti-Tamil. Sastri precipitated matters further by recommending the inclusion of Vaiyapuri Pillai, who was also perceived to be anti-Tamil. The committee eventually recommended the retention of words of English and Sanskrit origin. Vaiyapuri justified the decision as a necessity for promoting national integration and cited the poetry of

Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai Manonmaniyam P. Sundaranar (4 April 1855 – 26 April 1897) was an Indian scholar, noted for the famous Tamil drama '' Manonmaniyam''. as well as the state song of Tamil Nadu Tamil Thai Valthu. Career Sundaram showed his respect for Harvey, ...

. The decisions of the committee were opposed tooth and nail by activists of the Madras Presidency

Tamil Sangam The Tamil Sangams (Tamil: சங்கம் ''caṅkam'', Old Tamil 𑀘𑀗𑁆𑀓𑀫𑁆, from Sanskrit ''saṅgha'') were assemblies of Tamil scholars and poets that, according to traditional Tamil accounts, occurred in the remote past. ...

and were eventually reversed after Sastri's death in 1946.

Literary works Nationalised

In February 2009, the

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

state government announced that the works of 28 scholars would be nationalised and the literary critic, Vaiyapuri Pillai's works were among them. In his budget address, finance minister

K. Anbazhagan Kalyanasundaram Anbazhagan (19 December 1922 – 7 March 2020) was an Indian Tamil politician. He was a long-standing leader of the Dravidian movement and was the General Secretary of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party (DMK) for nine terms. He h ...

said compensation would be paid to the legal heirs of the authors having regard to the number of books written by them, their social impact and literary value. With a view to ensuring that the views and thoughts of great Tamil savants who dedicated their lives to the language benefitted the present and future generations, the government implemented the nationalization scheme.The Times of India: Literary works of 28 Tamil writers to be nationalised
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References

External links

* Tamil writers 1891 births 1956 deaths Tamil scholars Tamil lawyers People from Tirunelveli district {{India-writer-stub