In a bid to secure the literature treasure troves of our state, Hindi translations of eighteen books of Sangam literature — Pathupattu and Ettuthogai — were released at the Tamil University here on Wednesday. Pon.Kothandaraman (Portko), former Vice chancellor, University of Madras, gave the first copy of the translations to Asko Parpola, Professor Emeritus, University of Helsinki, Finland.
Reiterating the fact that Sangam literature is secular, Dr. Kothandaraman said that translations help in reaching out to people of other cultures. Translations of Sangam books into other foreign languages such as French, Russian, English, and other Indian languages like Bengali, Marati, Gujarati, should follow suit.
The occasion also witnessed publishing of ten volumes of papers, on a website, that were presented at the world classical Tamil conference held in Coimbatore recently . Lauding that the classical Tamil Conference was unique in many aspects, Mr. Kothandaraman said that it is an achievement that papers presented at the conference have been published within nine months after the conference. The compilations in Hindi were taken up by a team of ten Hindi experts headed by P.K.Balasubramanian, Former Hindi professor of Christian College and Dr.Sundaram, former Hindi professor of Presidency College.
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Avvai Natarajan, former Vice Chancellor of Tamil University launched the website of “Valar Thamizh” radio of Tamil University. Commenting that listening contributes to enhancing knowledge better than reading, he said that the frequency will entertain as well as enrich the knowledge of people on Tamil.
Mr. Asko Parpola spoke on the common characteristics of various ancient civilisations at the international seminar held on the occasion. M.Rajendran, Vice Chancellor, Tamil University, presided over the function. S.N.Kandaswamy, Director, in-charge, Kalaignar Advanced Centre for World Classical Languages welcomed the gathering. S.Parimala, Registrar, proposed a vote of thanks.