P. Sundaram Pillai

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Perumal Sundaram Pillai

P. Sundaram Pillai ( Tamil பெ. சுந்தரம் பிள்ளை ; born April 5, 1855 in Alleppey , Travancore ; † April 26, 1897 ; also Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai or Manonmaniam Sundaranar ) was an Indian philosopher, archaeologist and Tamil writer and literary scholar. He taught as a professor in Trivandrum and is considered the founder of South Indian history and Tamil literary studies. In addition, he was one of the first Tamil scholars to postulate that the " Dravids " of South India were independent from the " Aryans " of North India.

Life

Father Sundaram Pillai was born in 1855 in Alleppey , the most important port city of the formally independent, but practically under British protectorate, princely state of Travancore (today's state of Kerala ). He came from a Tamil family belonging to the Vellalar caste who had been brought from Tirunelveli to Alleppey by Raja Kesavadas , a former divan of Travancore, to take on accounting duties. His mother was called Madathy Ammal, his father Perumal Pillai traded in general cargo . He gave his son a broad knowledge of Tamil literature, especially of the Tirumurai belonging Shaivite poetic works of Tevaram and Tiruvasagam .

Sundaram Pillai studied philosophy at Maharaja's College in the capital, Trivandrum , where Bensley Seshayyar, Pillaveettil Mathevan Pillai and Pandithar Swaminataha Pillai were his teachers. In 1876 he left the facility as the best in his year. Shortly after completing his studies, he was employed there as a lecturer in philosophy and history. The following year he was appointed director of the bilingual (English-Tamil) school in Tinnevelly on the proposal of Colonel Mac Donald, who was responsible for educational policy . Under his direction, this rose to the Second Grade College and is now called MDT Hindu College . In Tinnevelly he was influenced by the important Vedanta philosopher Sri Sundara Swamigal, who taught him and who decisively deepened his understanding of Hindu philosophy. Pillai married Sivakami Ammal in 1877. The marriage resulted in a son, PS Nataraja Pillai , in 1891 . He later embarked on a political career and served, among other things, as Finance Minister of the state of Travancore-Cochin and as a member of the Lok Sabha .

In 1879 Pillai was appointed to the chair of philosophy at Maharaja's College in Trivandrum to succeed his academic teacher Robert Harvey, who went to Scotland . In 1880 he was the first person in Travancore to acquire the title of Masters of Art (MA). In the years from 1882 to 1885 he was Commissioner of Revenue (Peravagai Sheristadar) for the administration of Travancore, but then continued his academic work at the university. Together with Thanu Pillai, he founded the epigraphic / archaeological institute for Travancore and Madras , of which he was also the first director. At the University of Madras he was an examiner for Tamil, history and philosophy. Together with Ayyavu Swamikal he founded the Saiva Prakasha Sabha in Trivandrum. During his time as a lecturer, he also studied law at WE Ormsby. He built his residence "Harvey Bungalow" in a 1000 acre (approximately 400 hectare) mountainous area, which he had bought and called Harveypuram ; both designations were intended to honor his teacher and predecessor Robert Harvey. His own students included CV Raman Pillai, R. Eswara Pillai, KP Sankara Menon and Swami Vivekananda , who later became an important Hindu monk and scholar and was introduced to Shaiva Siddhanta , a form of Shivaism, through Pillai .

On April 26, 1897, Fr. Sundaram Pillai, who had not been of robust health throughout his life, died at the age of 42 from a boil caused by diabetes mellitus .

Fonts

His most important literary work is the drama Manonmaniam (மனோன்மணீயம்), which appeared in Tamil in 1891. Manonmaniam is a closet drama in verse. It is about Manonmani, the daughter of the Pandya king Jivakan, and her love for the Chera king Purodottaman, whom she finally marries after a series of trials and tribulations. Manonmaniam is based on the Shakespeare model , the plot is based on Edward Bulwer-Lytton's The Secret Way: A Lost Tale of Miletus . In his drama, Sundaram Pillai processed, among other things, the impression that his philosophical teacher Sundara Swamigal had made on him. He dedicated it to his predecessor Robert Harvey. After the title of this piece, the author was quickly named Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai . The drama is preceded by an invocation of the Tamil language stylized as a deity ( Tamil Tay ) with the title Tamil Tay Valttu . This was adopted in 1970 in a modified form by the DMK government of Tamil Nadu as the national anthem. Sundaram Pillais Manonmaniam was filmed in 1942 by the director TR Sundaram under the title Manonmani .

Among Sundaram Pillai's literary writings, the most important is Some Mile Stones in the History of Tamil Literature (1895), in which he wrote the Nayanmar Sambandar (for whose lifetime the information had fluctuated between 1200 BC and 1200 AD) due to literary studies Considerations could date to the 7th century. This was later confirmed by finds of inscriptions . In addition, he wrote together with Harvey the writing Some Early Sovereigns of Travancore ("Some early rulers of Travancore", 1894) on the history of the Principality of Travancore. In Tamil he wrote the work Nutrokai Vilakkam (நூற்றொகை விளக்கம், "Explanation of the Bibliography", 1888), in which he tried to classify the scientific disciplines from an Indian perspective. He also translated three works of Old Tamil Sangam literature - Tirumurugatruppadai , Nedunalvadai and Maduraikkanchi - into English.

As one of the first Tamil scholars, Fr. Sundaram Pillai dealt with the theories put forward by Western science about a distinction between the “ Aryans ” of North India and the “ Dravids ” of South India. In an essay that appeared in the Madras Standard in 1897 , he formulated the view that the Dravidian South was the "real India" and culturally independent of Sanskrit and the culture of northern India. In doing so, he laid the spiritual foundation for the emergence of the Dravidian Movement , which postulated an independent identity for the Tamils ​​as "Dravids" compared to the "Aryans" of northern India and ultimately even called for a sovereign Dravid state. Sundaram Pillai was also the first in the Tamil discourse to formulate the thesis that the ancient Indian epic Ramayana describes a battle between the Aryans, led by Rama , and the Dravids, represented by the demons under the leadership of Ravana . Against this background he tried to reinterpret the Ramayana by criticizing Rama from a moral point of view and justifying Ravana's actions. This interpretation of the Ramayana was later adopted by EV Ramasami and other actors of the Dravidian movement.

Honors

Pillai was from 1891 a Fellow of the University of Madras , from 1897 a member of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland and through a proposal by Mountstuart Elphinstone Grant Duff a member of the Royal Historical Society . He is said to have been offered an honorary doctorate from a German university on the condition that he come to Europe for a visit. In May 1896 (according to other sources as early as 1894) the British administration awarded him the honorary title Rai Bahadur for his services to the study of South Indian history.

Manonmaniam Sundaranar University is named after Pillai .

literature

  • Prof. P. Sundaram Pillai. In: KK Pillai, AS Narayana Pillai, VI Subramaniam (eds.): Professor P. Sundaram Pillai Commemoration Volume. The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, Tirunelveli 1957, pp. V f.
  • KG Sesha Aiyar: A Short Sketch of Prof. P. Sundaram Pillai, MA In: KK Pillai, AS Narayana Pillai, VI Subramaniam (Ed.): Professor P. Sundaram Pillai Commemoration Volume. The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, Tirunelveli 1957, p. 161 f.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Prof. P. Sundaram Pillai. In: KK Pillai, AS Narayana Pillai, VI Subramaniam (eds.): Professor P. Sundaram Pillai Commemoration Volume. The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, Tirunelveli 1957, p. V f., Here p. VI.
  2. ↑ Profile PS Nataraja Pillais on the Lok Sabha website.
  3. ↑ See the information on Robert Harvey on the University of Glasgow website , accessed June 25, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b K. G. Sesha Aiyar: A Short Sketch of Prof. P. Sundaram Pillai, MA In: KK Pillai, AS Narayana Pillai, VI Subramaniam (Ed.): Professor P. Sundaram Pillai Commemoration Volume. The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, Tirunelveli 1957, p. 161 f., Here p. 162.
  5. ↑ Kamil Zvelebil: Tamil Literature (= A History of Indian Literature . Volume 10.1). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1974, ISBN 3-447-01582-9 , p. 295.
  6. ↑ KG Sesha Aiyar: A Short Sketch of Prof. P. Sundaram Pillai, MA In: KK Pillai, AS Narayana Pillai, VI Subramaniam (Ed.): Professor P. Sundaram Pillai Commemoration Volume. The South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society, Tirunelveli 1957, p. 161 f., Here p. 161.
  7. ↑ Sumathi Ramaswamy: Passions of the Tongue. Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891-1970. University of California Press, Berkley / Los Angeles 1997, pp. 17-18 ( online ).
  8. ↑ Manonmani 1942. In: The Hindu, December 19, 2010, last updated October 17, 2016, accessed June 25, 2017.
  9. ^ Eugene F. Irschick: Politics and Social Conflict in South India. The Non-Brahman Movement and Tamil Separatism 1916–1929. University of California Press, Berkley / Los Angeles 1969, pp. 282-283.
  10. ↑ See Paula Richman: EV Ramasami's Reading of the Rāmāyaṇa. In: Paula Richman (ed.): Many Rāmāyaṇas. The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia. Oxford University Press, Delhi 1992, ISBN 0-195-63518-3 , pp. 175-201.
  11. ^ Department of Philosophy. University College Thiruvananthapuram website , accessed June 9, 2017.
personal data
SURNAME Pillai, P. Sundaram
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Pillai, Manonmaniam Perumal Sundaram; Pillai, Cuntaram
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Indian philosopher, archaeologist, writer and literary scholar
DATE OF BIRTH April 5, 1855
PLACE OF BIRTH Alleppey , Travancore
DATE OF DEATH April 26, 1897