The man who revived ancient Tamil literature, a great teacher, a liberal, a meticulous documentation expert, a pragmatic philosopher. This is how speakers described Uttamadhanapuram Venkatasubbaiyer Swaminatha Iyer (U Ve Sa), popularly known as ‘Tamil Thatha’, at a book discussion session organised by Chennai International Centre.
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The book, U Ve Sa, The man who revived ancient Tamil literature, was translated from Tamil to English by Prabha Sridevan, a retired judge, and Pradeep Chakravarthy.
N. Ravi, Chairman of Kasturi and Sons Ltd., who moderated the discussion, said U Ve Sa went around collecting palm-leaf manuscripts in Tamil and revived Tamil literature. “He helped Tamil gain recognition,” he said.
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Giving his views on the book, retired IAS officer V. Thiruppugazh said, “Translation is a tricky business. Some of the challenges are — focus on the author or the target audience? How to translate the connotation, not just the meaning? One should also keenly look at the cultural, contextual and historical weight behind words.” He said U Ve Sa’s essays have a narrative style with evidence but without rigorous arguments; his essays are informative and have learning lessons and moral implications. “Some of them are autobiographical and biographical, similar to the style of Michel De Montaigne, who merged casual anecdotes and autobiography with intellectual insights,” he pointed out.
When Mr. Ravi asked why this book was chosen for translation, Ms. Prabha Sridevan said, “It was a pure chance but it was meant to happen. We went through his essays and realised that he made writing come alive. It was like a history book coming alive now.”
Mr. Pradeep Chakravarthy explained how U Ve Sa wrote about people and places in his essays. “Even a beggar was able to recite a poem. We have lost that kind of scholarship today. How rich Tamil was then,” he said.
To a question by Mr. Ravi on what kind of a person U Ve Sa comes across, Mr. Thiruppugazh said he comes across as a liberal and Ms. Sridevan agreed with him. Mr. Pradeep Chakravarthy said that at a deeper level, U Ve Sa was obsessed with Tamil and only Tamil.