Tamil scholar Mu Va’s books reflected the morals and essence of ‘Thirukural’, said VIT Chancellor G Viswanathan.
The Chancellor said this while presiding over a function held to unveil the statue of Dr Mu Varadarajan, fondly known as Mu Va, on the VIT campus on Sunday.
“I look upon Mu Va as more than a Tamil scholar or a professor or a Vice-Chancellor. His literary works conveyed the quintessence of ‘Thirukural’ and he lived a life following it in letter and spirit,” he added.
Viswanathan said the need for installing the statue of the scholar in Vellore was first mooted by Dinamani editor Vaidyanathan, who had expressed such a desire while speaking at a function sometime back. “I immediately decided to install the statue here as Vellore is the native district of Mu Va,” he noted.
Mu Va, through his books and other literary works, has remained a great source of inspiration for Tamils across the world and he had been a guiding spirit for youngsters, Viswanathan said.
The Dr Mu Va Centenary Celebration Committee had also decided to install the statue at VIT since the campus housed a large number of students from over 50 countries, who would be better positioned to learn about him. The committee donated `3 lakh towards organising Mu Va Memorial Lecture every year, he added.
Dr Silamboli Sellappan, former director of the Tamil Development Department, government of Tamil Nadu, who unveiled the statue wanted Mu Va’s family members to publish a book by compiling information about him. “Mu Va has become a role model to all teachers and the present-day teachers should learn from his life’s messages,” he said.
Vaidyanathan, in his address, said that it was a dream-come-true for people of this district to get the statue of the son of the soil installed as he had made an indelible mark in Tamil literature. Most of the readers of the books, written by Mu Va, were so fascinated by his writings that they had named their children after the characters created by him in his works. Also, the editor suggested that a brief note on the scholar and his achievements could be inscribed under the statue so that the message could be a source of motivation for youngsters.
Parliamentarian Era Sezhiyan, former Vice-Chancellor of Madras Medical College and Research Institute Dr V P Narayanan, former head of Department of Tamil at Pachaiyappa’s College-Chennai Dr T Gnanasundaram and Mu Va’s son Dr V Nambi also spoke.