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J Indian Philos (2011) 39:589597
DOI 10.1007/s10781-011-9126-z
Anne E. Monius
Published online: 5 April 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2011
Abstract U. V. Cmintaiyar (18851942) is arguably one of the most inuential gures of the so-called Tamil Renaissance of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; his work has profoundly shaped the study of Tamil literature, both in India and the Euro-American academy, for more than a century. Among his many literary works is a long and incomplete autobiographical treatise known as En Carittiram, literally My Life Story, initially published in 122 installments between 1940 and 1942. What little scholarly attention this fascinating autobiographical narrative has received thus far has largely read the text as an artless, transparent documenting of South Indian literary culture in the late nineteenth century. Yet the text reveals substantial rhetorical art on close reading. Greater attention to Cmintaiyars specic context and probable concerns when composing (and publicly publishing) En Carittiram suggests alternative ways of reading Tamil literary history and those texts that he rst made widely available.
Keywords Cmintaiyar Tamil literature Autobiography Brahmins
U. V. Cmintaiyara prolic scholar born in the Tacvr District of the Madras Presidency in 1855 and who died at Tirukkalukkunrram in 1942is arguably one of the most inuential gures of the so-called Tamil Renaissance of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.1 His work, in short, has profoundly shaped the study of Tamil literature, both in India and the Euro-American academy, for more than a
1 The Tamil Renaissance commonly refers to the late colonial period during which the rediscovery and publication of classical Tamil literary texts spurred dramatic changes in understanding Tamil history and literary culture and contributed to the rise of Dravidian (southern, non-Brahmin) forms of nationalism. See Arooran (1980) and Sivathamby (1986).
A. E. Monius (&)
Harvard Divinity School, 45 Francis Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA e-mail: [email protected]
U. V. Cmintaiyar and the Construction of Tamil Literary Tradition
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century. Along with his Sri Lankan contemporary, TmMtaram Pil:l:ai,2 Cmintaiyar is credited with rediscovering the ancient classics of Tamil literature, from the
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nkam poetic anthologies to the long narratives of the Cilappatikram, the Man:imkalai, and the Cvakacintman:i that were largely unknown in his day. He authored or edited 91 books (Zvelebil...