CHENNAI: “It is enough if we save what our ancestors have left us,” said the founder of VIT, G Viswanathan, during the release of the eighth edition of ‘Pathupaatu’, an anthology of 10 ancient Tamil poems, at the diamond jubilee celebrations of the U V Swaminatha Iyer library here on Wednesday.
The Uttamadhanapuram Venkatasubbaiyar Swaminatha Iyer (UVS) library was inaugurated in 1942 in remembrance of the late UV Swaminatha Iyer, popularly known as ‘Tamil Thatha’.
His works spanning five decades included his search for the original texts of ancient literary works and as a result he was able to give a new lease of life to as many as hundred books which mostly describe ancient Tamil lives.
“It is our Tamil Thatha’s work that led Harvard University to publish a research article on ‘A Tamil biography’ and we are always indebted to him,” said P Duraisamy, Vice-Chancellor of Madras University.
“Literatures of many countries were written based on their histories, but Tamil Nadu is the only place where history was written based on literature,” G. Viswanathan said and added “It is this collection of UVS which gave us the knowledge of Raja Raja Cholan who conquered as many as 13 countries and Karikala Cholan who built a dam 2000 years ago.”
“We do not need anything new; it’s enough if we take good care of what our ancestors have already given us,”he concluded The eighth edition of the book was funded by R Krishnamurthy, editor of Dinamalar, who was not present to receive the first print for health reasons.