Parithimar Kalaignar Biography 
Vilacheri Govindasivan Suriyanarayana Sastri, better known as Parithimar Kalaignar was an educationalist and Tamil scholar from Tamil Nadu. He worked as a Professor of Tamil at the Madras Christian College in the late 19th century and early 20th century. He is best remembered to be the first person to campaign for the recognition of Tamil as a classical language, a status achieved by Tamil language later. He passed away at a very young age of 33 following tuberculosis and he became an inspiration to many writers and scholars later. He lived during the period, Aug 11, 1870 - Nov 2, 1903. His biography was later written by his grandson and published by Tamil Sahitya Akademi. A postage stamp has been issued by Indian Postal Department in his honour.
He was known by different names - V. G. Suryanarayana Sastri, Vilacheri Govindasivan Suriyanarayana Sastri or simply Parithimar Kalaignar. Sastri was born at Vilacheri village near Thirupparankundram in a Brahmin family in Tamil Nadu. He was born on , Aug 11, 1870. After completing his graduation in Tamil, he started his career in teaching profession. He worked as Professor of Tamil in the Madras Christian College. In 1895, at the age of only 24 or 25, he became Head of Department for Tamil. He was associated with the same college till his unfortunate death in 1903.
He has also authored and published many books in Tamil. He immensely loved his mother tongue, and stood for its promotion and establishment. When the Madras University proposed to exclude Tamil from its syllabus, he protested the move. He also managed to convince the management and the decision was dropped. It was Sastri who first put forward the proposal to give classic status to Tamil language.
Published: September 15, 2018
Updated: September 15, 2018
