Tamil Nadu Timeline

LiteratureBritish Crown rule

Death of Tamil scholar Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai

· Mayiladuthurai

Death of Tamil scholar Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai
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The poet Mahavidwan Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai, teacher of U. V. Swaminatha Iyer, died and left behind a large hoard of palm-leaf manuscripts.

Among the foremost Tamil poets and teachers of the nineteenth century, Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai started out teaching Tamil in Mayiladuthurai. At seventeen, U. V. Swaminatha Iyer, who would later recover and print the Sangam classics, became his pupil. Pillai was poor throughout his life and composed some works on commission for others. When he died on 1 February 1876, he left a large collection of Tamil palm-leaf manuscripts.

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