Mar̲aimalaiyaṭikaḷ, 1876-1950

Maraimalai Adigal (15 July 1876 – 15 September 1950) was a Tamil language orator and writer and father of Tanittamil Iyakkam. He was a fervent 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 Tanittamil Iyakkam 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.