About

• Dr. Uttamadhanapuram Venkatasubbaiyer Swaminatha Iyer, known as U.V. Swaminatha Iyer, was one of the famous Tamil Scholars, born on February 19th 1855 in Uthamadhanapuram nearby Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu. For his efforts in the publishing field, he is respectfully referred to as “Thamizh Thatha”. The grandfather of Tamil Literature. His father Venkata Subbu Iyer was a leading Musician.

Education

• Dr. Swaminatha Iyer did his schooling and music in his own town.
• In his 17th year, he started learning Tamil from Thirisipuram Sundaram Pillai, who was a teacher in Thiruvaduthurai Saiva Athinam.
• U.V. Swaminatha Iyer learned Tamil for 5 years and later he worked in a college at Kumbakonam in the year 1880 and then he worked for some time in Presidency College, Madras.

Contribution to Tamil Literature

• He was instrumental in bringing many long-forgotten works of classical Tamil literature to light.
• Due to his efforts, a large number of literary works which were gathering dust as palm-leaf manuscripts in lofts, storerooms, boxes and cupboards saw the light of day.
• Cilappatikaram, Manimekalai and Purananuru were received by Tamil lovers with a lot of enthusiasm.
• Purananuru, which mirrored the lives of Tamils during the Sangam period, prompted scholarly research on the subject.
• Iyer published over 90 books in his lifetime, on a variety of matters connected to classical Tamil literature, and collected over 3,000 paper manuscripts, palm-leaf manuscripts and notes of various kinds.
• Swaminatha Iyer published books, including minor poems, lyrics, puranas and bhakti (devotional) works.

Contribution to Tamil Music

• Swaminatha Iyer made a significant contribution in the realm of Tamil music.
• Until the publication of Cilappatikaram, Pattupattu and Ettuthokai by Swaminatha Iyer, music was a grey area in Tamil research.
• During the previous four centuries, Telugu and Sanskrit dominated the music scene in Tamil Nadu in the absence of any valuable information on Tamil music.
• Swaminatha Iyer's publications threw light on the presence of Tamil music in the earlier centuries and paved the way for serious research on the subject.
• As the son of a famous musician of his time, Swaminatha Iyer learnt music from Gopalakrishna Bharathi, a musical exponent and the author of Nandan Sarithiram.

Autobiography

• Swaminatha Iyer published his autobiography, En Saritham, serialised in the Tamil weekly Ananda Vikatan, from January 1940 to May 1942.
• It was later published as a book in 1950. It Ran into 762 pages.
• The book is an excellent account of the life and times of villages, especially in the Thanjavur district in the late 19th century.
• The Tamil is simple and peppered with many observations on people as well as descriptions of school life, life in monasteries (Mutts).
• The book also reveals the enormous perseverance of U V Swaminatha Iyer in his quest to master Tamil and save manuscripts.

Honours

• Rabindranath Tagore met Swaminatha Iyer in 1926 in Chennai.
• Tagore penned a poem in praise of Iyer’s efforts to salvage ancient classical Tamil literary works from palm leaf manuscripts.
• The honorary doctoral degree (D.Litt.) was conferred on Iyer by the University of Madras in 1906. In recognition of his outstanding literary accomplishments and contributions, he was also honoured with the title, Mahamahopathiyaya, literally: "Greatest of great teachers".
• In the same year, when the Prince and Princess of Wales visited Madras, a function was arranged where Swaminatha Iyer was honoured. Iyer was awarded the title of Dakshinathya Kalanidhi in 1925.
• In 1932, the Madras University awarded an honorary PhD to him in recognition of his services in the cause of Tamil.
• Indian Postal department issued a commemorative postage stamp on 18 February 2006.
• His house in Uthamadhanapuram has been converted as a Memorial.