Maraimalai Adigal

Maraimalai Adigal (15 July 1876 – 15 September 1950) was a Tamil orator and writer and father of Pure Tamil movement. He was a fervent Tamizh Saivite. He wrote more than 100 books, including works on original poems and dramas, but most famous are his books on his research into Tamil literature. Most of his literary works were on Saivism. He founded a Saivite institution called Podhunilaik Kazhagam. He was an exponent of the Pure Tamil movement and hence considered to be the father of Tamil linguistic purism. He advocated the use of Tamil devoid of Sanskrit words and hence changed his birth name Vedhachalam to Maraimalai. Politically he was inclined towards non-Brahminism and hence he and his followers considered that the Self-respect movement was born out of his efforts. Though he was a scholar of Tamil he had good scholastic study over Sanskrit as well as English. The ideologies of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy were shunned by Maraimalai Adigal and caused years of differences between the two. Maraimalai Adigal spent most of his income on buying his books and after his death his collection were made into a library according to his will. Maraimalai Adigal was born on 15 July 1876 to Cokkanata Pillai and Cinnammai. His birth name was Vedhachalam. He did his early schooling at Wesley Mission High School in Nagappattinam, but had to abandon his formal education with Fourth Form after his father's death.