LiteratureEast India Company rule
Birth of Tamil scholar Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai
Tamil poet and teacher Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai, later the teacher of U. V. Swaminatha Iyer, was born near Tiruchirappalli.
Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai was born on 6 April 1815 at Somarasanpettai near Tiruchirappalli. He learned Tamil from his father and from scholars at Tiruchirappalli. He became a Tamil teacher at Mayiladuthurai and trained many students in classical Tamil literature. He wrote a large body of Tamil poetry and is also remembered for his work on Saiva literature. Among his students was U. V. Swaminatha Iyer, who later recovered many classical Tamil texts.
