a page first printed tamil book - luso-tamil catechism (cartilha) printed in lisbon in 1554 ce. rediscovered thaninayagam in 1950s.
born xavier nicholas stanislaus, later came called xavier stanislaus thaninayagam (his last name written 2 words - thani nayagam) , respectfully thaninayagam adigal . thaninayagam born in kayts, jaffna peninsula in british ceylon. parents naganathan stanislaus , cecilia bastiampillai. chose surname thaninayagam (literally lone hero ) after becoming roman catholic priest. during 1920-22, studied @ st.patrick’s college, jaffna. in 1934 obtained ba in philosophy st. bernard s seminary, colombo. though tamil birth, did not learn language until older. during younger days, learnt , became fluent in many european languages such english, latin, italian, french, german, spanish , portuguese.
he first learnt tamil while working teacher in st. theresa convent, vadakkankulam in tirunelveli district. in 1945, enrolled in annamalai university study tamil literature. masters thesis on sangam literature , titled nature in ancient tamil poetry . after finishing studies, embarked on world wide tour promote tamil language , literature. lectured on these subjects in japan, chile, brazil, peru, mexico, ecuador , america. during tour, searched european libraries medieval tamil manuscripts , identified several tamil printed books. cartilha (1556), tambiran vanakkam (1578), kirisitiani vanakkam (1579) , first tamil-portuguese dictionary, compiled antem de proenca few of them. founded quarterly academic journal called tamil studies , ran till 1966. during 1961-66, served dean, faculty of arts , head of indian studies department @ university of malaya.
in 1964, thaninayagam along kamil zvelebil , v. i. subramaniam convened meeting of tamil scholars attending oriental scholars conference @ new delhi , formed international association tamil research (iatr). instrumental in organising first world tamil conference @ kualalampur in 1966. iatr went on become primary body directing research in fields related tamil , has since organised 7 more such conferences. leaving malaysia in 1969, thaninayagam taught @ universities of paris , naples before retiring , returning home sri lanka.
thaninayagam died in 1980. university of jaffna conferred honorary doctorate on him after death.
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