TIRUVARUR: The 155th birth anniversary of Uttamadhanapuram Venkatasubbaiyer Swaminatha Iyer, popularly called as "Thamizh Thatha", was celebrated at his memorial in his native Uthamadhanapuram village in Valangaiman taluk in the district on Thursday.
Collector M. Chandrasekaran and Vice-Chancellor of Tamil University M. Rajendran garlanded the bust of U. Ve. Sa at the memorial and paid their tributes to the great Tamil scholar who published around 100 books.
Mr. Chandrasekaran said that the social history of Tamils came to light because of the literary collections of U. Ve. Sa. But for him many great Tamil literary works might not have seen the light of the day. He traversed Tamil Nadu and collected palm leaf manuscripts of great Tamil works and published them.
Mahatma Gandhi evinced interest in learning Tamil from him. Tamil is spoken in many countries, and in some it is the official language. Tamil is in no way an obstacle to scientific development.
"There is a hesitation to speak Tamil among some people in the State. They should not be shy of speaking and thinking in Tamil. Tamil got its classical language status thanks to the work done by U. Ve. Sa, Mr. Chandrasekaran said.
The State Government spent Rs. 25 lakh and converted U. Ve. Sa's house into a memorial and inaugurated it on April 27 last year. It now has a library.