V. V. S. Aiyar Biography 
Varahaneri Venkatesa Subramaniam Aiyar, better known as V. V. S. Aiyar was a revolutionary and freedom fighter from Trichinopoly, Tamil Nadu. Also known as a writer, he is credited to ‘The father of modern Tamil short story’. Known for his translation of Ramavatharam of Kambar and Tirukkural into English, he was a literal known for his contributions in the first quarter of 20th century. He died at a comparatively young age of 44 in 1925, drowned in Papanasam Falls while saving his daughter. He was a close friend of Shuddhananda Bharati.
V. V. S. Aiyar was born in the year 1881 in Madras presidency. After graduation in Arts, he passed the Pleader (junior lawyer) examination from the Madras University in 1902 and started his profession as the pleader in the District courts of Tiruchi. He also worked in Rangoon for a short while before he moved to London in 1907 and studied at Lincoln's Inn. It was during those ‘Barrister at Law’ studying days, he came into contact with Vinayak Damodar Savarkar and plunged into Indian freedom struggle movement as a revolutionary.
Associated with militant attitude to fight against British, he was involved with an anarchist conspiracy in London and Paris and British government issued an arrest warrant against him. Aiyar resigned from the Lincoln's Inn and escaped to Paris. He returned to Pondicherry in 1910 disguised as a Muslim and remained there for 10 years in exile. During this period, he met Subramanya Bharathi and Aurobindo and got involved in the conspiracy of killing Ashe, the Collector of Tirunelveli which they succeeded. Ashe was assassinated by Vanchinathan.
Later French police was brought in to deport Aiyar and his companions to Africa. By that time, Aiyar had started a new phase of life as a writer. He translated the Tirukkural into English, as he desired to leave a legacy behind if he were forced to leave the country. But the French failed to convict the revolutionaries. He returned to Madras after World War I, and started his career as a journalist. He got arrested for sedition charges in 1921 and jailed for 9 months. During this time Aiyar wrote the book A Study of Kamba Ramayana.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 18, 2016
