Kamil Zvelebil, 1927-2008

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Topic started by podalangai on Sat Jan 17 18:17:10 2009. [Full View]

Professor Kamil Zvelebil, one of the greatest modern Western scholars of Tamil literature, passed away on 17 January 2009.

It is impossible to overstate Professor Zvelebil's contribution to the understanding of Tamil literature, particularly in the west, but also amongst ourselves. It's difficult to describe just how differently Tamil literature was viewed by mainstream academics before Professor Zvelebil began writing on the topic. In 1955, when Nilakantha Sastry, in his History of South India, said that Sanskrit was "the magic wand whose touch alone raised each of the Dravidian languages from the level of a patois to that of a literary idiom", most of his readers agreed with him. Today, almost every serious researcher accepts that Nilakantha Sastry was totally wrong - Tamil was an exception and had its own tradition. And that is very largely thanks to Professor Zvelebil's work.

Professor Zvelebil demonstrated much of what we today take for granted, that Tamil literature was, genuinely, a national literature, in the same way that French or German literature was, with its own special characteristics, forms and approaches. He, too, was responsible for winning mainstream acceptance in the West for the early dating of Sangam literature - which, until then, was most commonly dated to the 8th or 9th centuries AD, following Robert Caldwell and Burnell.

Professor Zvelebil also demonstrated the unity that ran through Tamil literature. Until his time, it was common to divide Tamil literature into discrete periods - the Sangam period, the post-Sangam period, the didactic period, the epic period and so on. Professor Zvelebil showed how, instead, common threads ran through genres of Tamil literature - whether single stanzas, "short poetical works" (ciRRilakkiyam), epics or devotional poetry - across the entire history of Tamil literature.

And, in terms of sheer breadth of scholarship, his Lexicon of Tamil Literature will remain the standard reference work for concepts, work and authors in Tamil literature for the foreseeable future.

An epoch has come to an end with his passing.

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Responses:

From: P_R on Mon Jan 19 12:41:17 2009. [Full View]

கமில் சுவலபில் - முனைவர் மு.இளங்கோவன்
From: VeeJay on Thu Aug 27 11:44:45 2009. [Full View]

It was sad indeed to see such a great contributor to Tamil world, depart. You could red more on here http://www.tamilnation.org/literature/zvelebil.htm

Also, I remember that one of his children would be taking over his unfinished work?
From: disk.box on Tue Nov 17 14:29:11 2009. [Full View]

அனைத்துலக தமிழாராய்ச்சி மன்றக் கால்கோள் விழா 1964 ஜனவரி 7 ஆம் நாள் புது தில்லி விஞ்ஞான பவனின் முதலாம் மாடியில் 'எஃப்' அறையில் மிக எளிமையாக நடைபெற்றது.

அனைத்துலக தமிழாராய்ச்சி மன்றம் அமையவேண்டுமென அருட்தந்தை வண. ஸேவியர் எஸ். தனி நாயகம் முன்மொழிந்தார்.
பேராசிரியர் கமில் வி.ஸ்வலபில் வழிமொழிந்தார்.

மன்றத்தின் துணைச் செயலர்களாக அருட்தந்தை வண. ஸேவியர் எஸ். தனி நாயகம் அடிகளும் பேராசிரியர் கமில் வி.ஸ்வலபில் அவர்களும் தேர்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்டனர்.

தமிழியலாய்வின் முன்னோடிகளில் ஒருவரான பேராசிரியர் கமில் வி.ஸ்வலபில் அவர்களின் பிறந்த நாளில் அவரை நினைவுகூர்ந்து பெருமைகொள்வோம்.

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