LiteratureEast India Company rule

Birth of U. V. Swaminatha Iyer

· Kumbakonam

Birth of U. V. Swaminatha Iyer
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U. V. Swaminatha Iyer, later famed for recovering and printing many lost classical Tamil texts, was born near Kumbakonam.

Born on 19 February 1855 at Suriyamoolai, Uthamadhanapuram Venkatasubbaiyer Swaminatha Iyer spent his childhood at Uthamadhanapuram, close to Kumbakonam. From 1870 to 1875 he studied with the Tamil scholar Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai. Across fifty years he hunted down palm-leaf manuscripts and brought out more than 90 books. Through his editions, numerous classical Tamil works that had long been forgotten became known again.

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