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Paavaanar Devaneyan was a great Tamil scholar, philologist and renowned writer who championed the cause of the Tamil Language. Born in Sankaran Koyil in Tirunelveli district, Paavaanar evinced a keen interest in Tamil language and literature from a very early age. A purist who was devoted to ‘Thanith Tamil’, he changed his name from Devanesan to its pure Tamil equivalent Devaneyan. His love for the Tamil language coupled with his efforts at reviving its glory earned him the title ‘Mozhi Gnayiru’. Through his books and research articles, he extolled the glory and antiquity of the Tamil language. He urged the need for pure Tamil and devoted much of his time to the coining of new words and terms in Tamil. He spearheaded the ‘Senthamil Sorpirapiyal Agara Muthali Thittam’, a project funded by the Tamilnadu Government to trace the etymology of Tamil words. His contributions as the director of this project are commendable.

Paavaanar is credited with more than 40 books and 200 research articles. The chief aim of these books and articles was to expound the greatness and antiquity of Tamil. Paavaanar’s prose style is characterized by several unique and interesting features. His prose is in ‘thanith Tamil’, completely free of words from other languages. Through his writings he proved that it was possible to write in pure Tamil. Paavaanar usually wrote in long sentences. Sometimes a sentence ran into one whole paragraph. He was also the master of short, pithy sentences i.e., (kurunthodargal). He often used the question- answer form to explain his ideas clearly and to strike a rapport with the readers. He used a number of literary devices such as alliteration and similes to strengthen his prose. He strictly adhered to the ‘punarchi vidigal’, the grammatical rules governing the inflections that result when a word is combined with another word. As a philologist and etymologist, he had a penchant for coining new words and terms in Tamil. He created Tamil equivalents for several English words and terms. His works testify to his laudable efforts in this direction.