Researcher in Tamil literature, Grandfather of Tamil (Tamil Thatha).
Birth
U.V.Swaminatha Iyer (Utthamadhanapuram Venkatasubramanian Swaminatha Iyer) was born on 19th February 1855 to a musician Venkatasubramanian and Saraswathi Ammal in Sooriyamoolai of Thanjavur District in Tamil Nadu.
Education
For five years, Swaminatha Iyer studied Tamil grammar and literature from Mahavidvan Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai. His guru Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai was a scholar and a great poet.
Personal Life
U.V. Swaminatha Iyer was married at the age of 14.
Life Career of U.V. Swaminatha Iyer
During 1880s, Tyagaraja Chettiar had been the head of the Tamil Department at the Government Arts College. After the retirement of the Tyagaraja Chettiar, Chettiar himself suggested Swaminatha Iyer for the post of Head of the Tamil Department. On 16th February 1880, Swaminatha Iyer became the Head of the Tamil Department.
On insistence by Desikar, Swaminatha Iyer met the District Munsiff Salem Ramaswami Mudaliar. His friendship with Mudaliar, gave him a turning point in his life. Mudaliar made Swaminatha Iyer to edit and publish his works of the ancient Tamil classics. From that period, he began his publication works.
He published nearly 100 books containing the lyrics, puranas, minor poems and devotional works. He got the retirement from the active teaching in 1919. After that, he made more research works. He used to travel to many places. His travel was to find the palm leaf manuscripts. So that he could modify and publish them. For the period of 1924 to 1927, Swaminatha Iyer became the principal of the Meenakshi Tamil College at the Annamalai University in Chidambaram. Due to his poor health condition, he left that job and came to Madras. After he came to Madras, he was continuing his work.
The important work made by U.V. Swaminatha Iyer, was his contribution to the Tamil music. He was the publisher of the books namely Cilappatikaram, Ettuthokai and Pattupattu. He got the musical training from the musician and author of the Nandan Sarithiram. He was lovingly known as Tamil Thatha. In 1906, Swaminatha Iyer got an honorary doctoral degree from the Madras University. Later he got an honorary title “Mahamahopathiyaya” for his excellence in literary contributions in 1906. The literary meaning of this title Mahamahopathiyaya is the “Greatest of great teachers”.
U.V.Swaminatha Iyer literary works
His publications were Seevaga sinthamani in 1887, Pattup pattu mulamum uraiyum in 1889, Purananuru in 1897, Manimegalai in 1898 and Tiruvarurula in 1905.
His book Seevaga sinthamani was based on the Jain epics. To write this, he made the visits to the Jain family in Kumbakonam, where he cleared his doubts. In 1887, he had done the publication of Seevaga sinthamani. This epic starts with the treachery due to which, a Prince is brought up in a servant’s house. Later it tells how the Prince regains his Father’s kingdom. Thus the epic ends with the Prince victory against the treachery.
After Seevaga sinthamani, he published Pattupattu. He began working with C.W.Damodaram Pillai in search of the original texts in the literary works till his death.
His book Purananuru was the narration of the lifestyle of Tamil people in the Sangam period. This book was the collection of 400 poems on Kings and people, whose composition was made by 157 poets. Out of these poems, 13 praises the Kings of Chola Dynasty, 18 praises the Chera Dynasty Kings and 12 the Pandyan dynasty Kings. Next his epic Manimegalai under the composition of Kulavanikan Cittalaic Catanar is a Tamil epic, that revolves around th story of the 6th century. This epic Manimegalai is an anti-love story with the characters of Silappadikaram and their offspring. This epic has 4861 lines in the 30 cantos. This is the story about a Buddhist nun Manimegalai who was the daughter of the epic characters Madhavi and Kovalan. It tells about the struggles, she faced to escape from the Chola Prince Udhayakumara. This palm-leaf manuscript of Manimegalai was preserved in the Hindu temples for many years and found along with the Tamil epic Silappadikaram
His work on Tamil music
For the previous 400 years, the Sanskrit and Telugu languages were dominating the Tamil music in Tamil Nadu, due to which Tamil music became non-significant . His work on the Tamil music, had been a startup to other researches in this topic. By knowing the work of the Swaminatha Iyer, many of them voluntarily gave their manuscripts as an encouragement to his work. He made a visit to all the houses in small villages to find the manuscripts. Due to his efforts, many of the Tamil leaf manuscripts came out from the boxes and lofts, to gain recognition.
Achievements of U.V.Swaminatha Iyer
Only because of Swaminatha Iyer, the literary works of ancient Tamil and their lifestyle was known to the world. Swaminatha Iyer had got an appreciation from the Tamil National poet Subramaniya Bharathiyar for his works. Bharathiyar made comparision of Swaminatha Iyer with Agastya and called him Kumbamuni as a Tribute to Iyer in his poem.
Honors of U.V. Swaminatha Iyer
In 1906, Swaminatha Iyer got the honorary D.Litt from the University of Madras. In the same year, he also got the honor at a function in which the Prince and Princess of Wales were the chief guests.
He got the Dakhshinathya Kalanidhi title in 1925. In 1932, he got the honorary Ph.D from the Madras University in honoring the services he had done for Tamil.
His autobiography was En Saritham, which he published in the Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan from a period of January 1940 to May 1942 as many parts. Then the collection of this autobiography as a book was published in 1950. His autobiography with 762 pages in simple Tamil, tells about the life in the villages during the 19th century. One of the historical moment that took place in Chennai was the meeting of grand old man(Tamil Thatha) and Rabindranath Tagore in 1926.On 18th February 2006, Swaminatha Iyer’s house in Uthamadhanapuram was converted to Memorial. On 18th February 2006, the Indian Postal Department introduced a commemorative stamp after his death.
Death
U.V Swaminatha Iyer died on 28th April 1942 in Tirukalakundram in Madras Presidency.