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- P102316 THE PLAYS OF PAMMAL SAMBANDA MUDALIAR
From this lesson you can learn all about Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar, one of the great playwrights who lived during the 19th century, and his service to the art of drama. You can also appreciate how he became involved in writing plays, how many plays he wrote, and the innovations which he brought about in stage plays.Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar's contribution to the development and revival of Tamil drama is very significant. He was born in 1873 and lived upto a ripe old age of 92. He was awarded the title of Rao Bahadur in 1916, in recognition of his service to art. He was also awarded the Padma Bhushan title in 1959. He is considered as the Father of Tamil Drama.
Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar's service can be classified as:
1) Service to society and
2) Service to art and literature.
Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar graduated from Pachaiyappa's college, Chennai, and went on to do his B.L in Law College. For some time, he was an advocate and then a judge. He was also the Trustee of may temples, a Member of the Tamil Development Committee in the Universities of Madras and Annamalai, a Member of the School Text Book Committee, the President of the South Indian Sports Club and a Member of the Working Committee of the Annadaana Samajam. These are indicative of his social services.
With a view to developing the dramatic art systematically, Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar established in 1891, the Suguna Vilas Sabha -- an amateur drama group.
Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar is believed to have written 80 plays in all. These include original plays, plays translated from Sanskrit and those translated from English. He also eliminated the musical component from drama and restricted it to dialogues alone. This paved the way for the effort to express emotions through action, proper dialogue delivery, modulation of voice etc. By translating plays from other languages, he introduced new plots and stories into Tamil drama.
Thus, this lesson teaches you all about the genius of Pammal Sambanda Mudaliar, and his contribution to Tamil literature in general, and Tamil drama in particular.