For the lovers of antiques, the Chennai-based Murray & Co evokes the sound of the gavel and the ring of a bell announcing the end of an auction. But this company of auctioneers, estate agents and valuers had another side, known only to the lovers of Tamil classical literature. Late S. Rajam, the proprietor of Murray & Co, was a passionate lover of Tamil, who ventured to publish all classical Tamil literary works. His foray into publishing was an effort that remains unmatched for the quality of printing and error-free text at unbelievably cheap prices.
To the business world, he was Murray S. Rajam, but the Tamil literary world remembers him as Saakai S. Rajam. Saakai, a small village in Nagapattinam district, is his hometown. A chartered accountant by profession, he joined his brother S. Vedantham, who started Murray & Co in 1927. Later, Rajam became the sole proprietor and used the great wealth he earned on philanthropy.
“He set up a trust Santi Sadhana for his publishing venture and the books were sold at Re 1 though it cost him Rs 2 for production. But he never compromised on quality,” says Hemant Srivatsa, the partner of Murray and Co. Besides there are three other trusts for specific purposes. “He decided to publish Tamil classical literary works at the suggestion of the late Tamil scholar Vaiyapuri Pillai and his friend and writer P.N. Appusamy. His aim was to ensure that great literary works reached the common man at an affordable price. In 1955, he published the first 1,000 verses (Mudhalaayiram) of the Naalayira Divya Prabhandam, the verses of Vaishnavite minstrels,” said Prof V. Arasu, head of the Tamil Department of Madras University. Mu. Shanmugam Pillai, a scholar who learnt the art of editing and publishing under Vaiyapuri Pillai, was with Rajam throughout his mission.
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The late Prof A.S. Gnanasambandan, who was involved in Rajam's effort along with two other great scholars of the time, T.P. Meenakshisundaram Pillai and Karaikudi Sa Ganesan, has recorded his reminiscence of the release of the ‘Mudhalaayiram' by C.P. Ramasamy Iyer at a function held in the Parthasarathy Temple, Triplicane. P Sri Acharya and K.V. Jagannathan were the other literary figures who helped Rajam. “The cream of Tamil erudition participated in the effort at that time — which was the late 1950s and early ‘60s. They were not after money. I have personally seen my father K. Pakshirajan working late in the night to edit the ‘Yudha Kaandam' of Kamban's Ramayanam,” recalls retired civil servant and novelist P.A. Krishnan.
Some Tamil scholars did not appreciate his publishing format in which he separated compound words in the ancient original for better comprehension. They questioned it as it was seen as violating the rules of ‘sandhi'. However, Prof Gnanasambandan hailed Rajam for breaking the traditional approach in the interest of the lay reader. “When his version of ‘Silapathikaram', one of the five ancient Tamil epics, was published, a Tamil scholar accused Rajam of mutilating the verses. The late M.P. Sivagnanam, however, came to his defence, explaining that Rajam's intention was to serve the layman who had difficulty in reading the ancient Tamil literary works in their original form and not to serve Tamil scholars,” recalled Prof Arasu.
Rajam roped in famous artist Gopulu to draw the cover of his Ramayanam editions, which became an instant hit. For Sangam literary works, the theme of the songs became the basis for the drawings. Prof Arasu considers the five-volume Dictionary/Glossary of Historical Tamil Literature and the three- volume Glossary of Historical Tamil Vaishnava Prose as monumental works from the Rajam publishing house.
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