Popular Tamil writers Ponneelan and Vikraman were awarded the Si Ba Adithanar Senior Tamil Scholar Award and the Si Ba Adithanar Literary Prize respectively at an event organised to mark the 108th birth anniversary of Daily Thanthi founder Adithanar on Friday.
Sahitya Akademi Award winner Ponneelan won the Adithanar Prize for his novel Marupakkam. Vikraman, well known for his historical fiction novels such as Nandhipurathu Nayagi, set in the Chola period, said, “It is like I am honoured with a doctoral award from Adithanar’s university. He had a mission of enriching the knowledge of Tamils through his newspaper. When he started ‘Naam Thamizhar Iyakkam’ in 1958, I was interested to join the movement.” Chief guest Dr Kalyani Mathivanan, Vice-Chancellor, Madurai Kamaraj University, said, “Adithanar brought the newspaper out at a time when we did not have access to newsprint papers due to their cost and delay in delivery. He brought out the newspaper using hand made newsprint. I learnt Tamil by reading the newspaper.” The Tamil Scholar Award carried a prize of Rs 1.5 lakh while the Literary Prize had a Rs 1 lakh cash dole.