Vaiyapuri Pillai

Vaiyapuri Pillai Biography

Rao Sahib S. Vaiyapuri Pillai was an advocate, literary critic, renowned scholar and Tamil Professor from Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He has given significant contributions to Tamil studies during 20^th century. He has edited and published many manuscripts of Tamil language. He served as the editor of the Tamil lexicon published by the Madras University in the 1920s. He owned a huge collection of books and manuscripts belonging to different languages, which was later donated to the National Library of India in Kolkata. When literary works of 28 Tamil writers were nationalised in 2008, Pillai’s works were also included, with compensation to be paid to the legal heirs of the authors.

He graduated in the year 1892 and was recruited to the faculty of Tamil department of University of Madras by Principal Miller. In 1902, when the university planned to remove Tamil from syllabus Parithimar Kalaignar recalled that Tamil is a classic language and it definitely deserves a position to be taught in college syllabuses. Tamil was then taught as a second language. When he passed away at the younger age of 33, he left MCC a strong legacy in its Tamil Department. S. Vaiyapuri Pillai, one of the best students nurtured by Maraimalai Adigal at MCC. Vaiyapuri’s connection to MCC is less known.

Pillai joined the University of Madras team working on the definitive Tamil lexicon, in the year 1924 and he became the chief editor in 1926. The work was completed in 1936 and is regarded as the best contribution towards the field. It listed nearly 1,05,000 words in 4,000 pages. Vaiyapuri Pillai passed away in the year 1956.

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Updated: April 01, 2014