Society is a mirror of literature. Both society and literature are inter-twined and integral part of each other, said Ponneelan, noted Tamil writer and Sahithya Akademy awardee.
Delivering a lecture in memory of Sivathambi, a noted Tamil writer and critic, at a function organised by Tamizhnadu Kalai Ilakkiya Perumandram here on Monday, Mr. Ponneelan referred to the arduous efforts made by Sivathambi in founding a new dimension to research programmes in Tamil literature. Sivathambi's contribution was not an isolated one as he always worked with Kailasapathy, another scholar.
“It was always this pair of scholars who toured various colleges and educational institutions and propagated a new theory,” he said.
Prior to Sivathambi, research programmes in Tamil language was largely confined to a few select topics such as 'Kamban and Raavanan'. But it was Sivathambi who unearthed a variety of topics in classical literature. Mr. Ponneelan said that Sivathambi was courageous enough to establish his identity with Marxism. He saw Marxism not as a political tool but as a social order. He traced the influence of a few articles which appeared in the magazines including “Saraswathi” and “Shanthi”.
Vee. Na. Somasundaram, state president of the forum, G. Kaliyamurthy, state secretary, R. Kamaraj, general secretary and Sathishkumar, coordinator, spoke. They said that Sivathambi realised the fact that the English language spread its roots all over the world through the gift of the literature by Shakespeare.
Mr. Kamaraj specifically referred to the hard efforts taken by Sivathambi in establishing evidence-based literary collections to bring out the heritage value of Tamil.
