It is really painful to hear from Dr.JB that he is a lone ranger with agathiyam. His total dedication for this work - inspite of physical constraints - is something we all need to observe and take note of. There were efforts long back to cull out all the information from the archives of agathiyam and form a website. I don't think this fully matured.
For our group atleast, there are people like suji - who spend long hours, getting the gist out of archives.
If Dr.JB wishes, we will take out all the history related stuff from agathiyam, translate it and host it in PS and varalaaru website. What else we young guys can do for a man who has spent considerable portion of his life - sharing his amazing range of knowledge for the benefit of all ?
The contributions of agathiyam to the tamil community at large is immeasurable.Time will prove their worth.
This is also an yahoo group like ours - started by Dr.Jayabarathi(JB) of Malaysia.
It is one of the pioneering tamil groups in which you will find lots and lots of very interesting discussions. Mostly, you will find many people asking questions and Dr.JB answering them in great detail.
The discussions cover a range of topics - religion(mainly), history, tamil culture etc. Pl go through the archives - you will find very interesting bits of information.
Dr.JB, a doctor by profession - is a gentleman with multiple dimensions. His reading is very wide and can almost discuss any topic without much reference. He hails from singampunari in pudukottai dt - but spent the better portions of his life in Malaysia.
I don't have much info at hand to justify a full portrait of him - he has written a lot, spoken in many places, participated in many tv / radio interviews and - what not ?
Among the tamil egroups, Dr.JB is perhaps the most famous icon.
His presence and participation in our group is a great blessing to us.