Pure Tamil Movement (Thanithamizh Iyakkam) – Origin 1916, Maraimalai Adigal, Devaneya Pavanar, Perunchitranar, Karanthai Tamil Sangam & Classical Tamil 2004 | TNPSC Notes

The Thanithamizh Iyakkam (Pure Tamil Movement) is a twentieth-century language movement of Tamil Nadu that asks people to speak and write Tamil with native Tamil words in place of borrowed words, mainly from Sanskrit and later from English. It took a definite form in 1916 under Maraimalai Adigal and his daughter Neelambikai Ammaiyar, was given a scholarly base by Devaneya Pavanar, and was spread by Pavalareru Perunchitranar, Tamil societies such as the Karanthai Tamil Sangam (1911) and many journals. Its long campaign for the dignity of Tamil formed part of the background to Tamil being declared India's first classical language in 2004.

தமிழில் படிக்க

These notes are written for TNPSC Group 1, 2/2A and 4 aspirants and are meant to be complete on their own. The Pure Tamil Movement is a core topic in History, Culture, Heritage and Socio-Political Movements of Tamil Nadu (the Tamil renaissance and language movements). Its scholars, journals and pure Tamil word usage are asked in General Tamil (Tamil scholars and their service to Tamil); the Official Language Act, the Tamil development institutions and the classical language status come under Development Administration in Tamil Nadu and History, Culture of India and Indian National Movement (Indian languages and culture). The life of Maraimalai Adigal is covered in a separate note; this note concentrates on the movement as a whole. Read each section, then use the tables, the quick revision table and the key points at the end.

What "Thanithamizh" Means

Thani means "separate" or "pure", so Thanithamizh means Tamil used on its own, without mixing in words from other languages. The movement is also described as Tamil linguistic purism.

• Aim: to use Tamil words in speech and writing and to avoid words taken from other languages when a Tamil word exists or can be formed.
• Main target: Sanskrit-derived words that had entered Tamil over many centuries (for example, writers used sareeram or thegam for "body" instead of the Tamil udambu). Later, English words also came under the same effort.
• Method: people changed their own names, journals and societies into Tamil; scholars collected lists of borrowed words with Tamil equivalents; new Tamil words were coined for new ideas.
• Wider goal: to establish that Tamil is an independent, ancient language that can express every idea by itself.

Background: The Tamil Renaissance of the Nineteenth Century

The Pure Tamil Movement grew out of a wider Tamil renaissance – a revival of interest in Tamil language and literature. The Tamil Nadu school textbook lists printing, the study of Dravidian languages and the publishing of old Tamil classics as the base of this revival.

Once the Sangam classics were back in print, scholars could show how rich old Tamil was with few borrowed words. Caldwell's work also gave scholarly support to the idea that Tamil can stand without Sanskrit. These two strands – pride in old literature and the Dravidian-language theory – fed directly into the Pure Tamil Movement.

Causes of the Movement

• Heavy mixing of Sanskrit: by the nineteenth century a mixed style of Tamil with many Sanskrit words was common in prose.
• Rediscovery of the classics: the printed Sangam texts showed a rich Tamil vocabulary with few borrowed words.
• Dravidian-language studies: the work of Ellis and Caldwell argued that Tamil belongs to a separate language family.
• Status of Tamil in education: Tamil was called a "vernacular" in university usage. Parithimar Kalaignar demanded that the University of Madras should not call Tamil a vernacular, and in 1902 he argued that Tamil is a classical language. Later, when the University of Madras made Tamil an optional subject while English stayed compulsory, the place of Tamil and of Tamil teachers in the colleges was weakened; Maraimalai Adigal left Madras Christian College in 1911.
• Social and political climate: the movement began in 1916, the same year as the beginning of the Justice Party and the Non-Brahmin Manifesto; historians note that the language movement and the non-Brahmin movement strengthened each other.

Forerunners: Parithimar Kalaignar and the Tamil Sangams

• Parithimar Kalaignar (V. G. Suryanarayana Sastri, 1870–1903): born at Vilacheri near Madurai; head of the Tamil department of Madras Christian College from 1895. He turned his Sanskrit name into the Tamil form Parithimar Kalaignar and was among the first scholars to point out the influence of Sanskrit on Tamil. In 1902 he wrote that Tamil is a classical language – the earliest such demand on record.
• Madurai Tamil Sangam (1901): founded on 14 September 1901 by Pandithurai Thevar at Madurai; known as the "Fourth Tamil Sangam". It ran the journal Senthamizh and conducted Tamil Pandit examinations, which trained a generation of Tamil teachers.
• Karanthai Tamil Sangam (1911): founded on 14 May 1911 at Karanthai (Karunthattankudi), Thanjavur (details below).

Origin of the Movement in 1916 – Maraimalai Adigal

Maraimalai Adigal (1876–1950), born Vedachalam, taught Tamil at Madras Christian College until 1911 and was a scholar of Sangam literature and Saiva Siddhanta. He had argued for the independence of Tamil from Sanskrit even in his early journal writing, but in 1916 he made a public resolve to use only pure Tamil. This is taken as the beginning of the Thanithamizh Iyakkam. The Tamil Nadu school textbook calls him the father of Tamil linguistic purism.

He began with his own names and institutions:

Neelambikai Ammaiyar

• Daughter of Maraimalai Adigal; the school textbook says she played an important role in founding the Pure Tamil Movement.
• She compiled Vadachol Tamil Agaravarisai, a dictionary that lists Sanskrit words used in Tamil with their pure Tamil equivalents – a practical tool for anyone who wanted to write pure Tamil.
• She followed her father in speaking and writing pure Tamil and spread it through her essays.

Tamil Revival Institutions

Societies, publishers and later the State created the institutions through which the movement reached schools, writers and readers.

Karanthai Tamil Sangam (1911)

• Founded: 14 May 1911 at Karanthai (Karunthattankudi), a part of Thanjavur.
• Leaders: founded by T. V. Radhakrishna Pillai; his brother Tamilavel T. V. Umamaheswaram Pillai (Umamaheswaranar, 1883–1941) led it as president.
• Journal: Tamil Pozhil, a literary monthly started in 1925.
• Classical language demand: soon after the First World War it passed a resolution asking that Tamil be declared a classical language (sources give 1919 or 1920).
• Anti-Hindi stand: it opposed the imposition of Hindi in educational institutions.
• Education: it runs schools and the Umamaheswaranar Karanthai Arts College; it promoted Tamil free of foreign words.
• Tamil scholars of the time used its platform; a postage stamp on Tamilavel Umamaheswaranar was issued in 2006.

Devaneya Pavanar – "Mozhi Gnayiru"

Gnanamuthu Devaneyan (Devaneya Pavanar, 1902–1981) was the leading linguist of the movement. He used comparative and etymological study to argue that pure Tamil equivalents exist for borrowed words and that Tamil is one of the oldest languages of the world.

• Born: 7 February 1902 in the Sankarankovil area of the then Tirunelveli district. Died: 15 January 1981 at Madurai.
• Teaching: taught Tamil at Salem Municipal College (where Perunchitranar was his student) and worked in the Dravidian linguistics department of Annamalai University.
• Titles: known as Mozhi Gnayiru ("Sun of linguistics"); the Government of Tamil Nadu conferred the title Senthamizh Selvar in 1979.
• Etymological Dictionary: in 1974 the Government of Tamil Nadu set up the Senthamizh Sorpirappiyal Agaramuthali (Tamil Etymological Dictionary) Project, and Pavanar became its first director.
• Works: more than 35 books, including Oppiyal Mozhinool (comparative linguistics), Tamilar Varalaru (history of the Tamils), Tamil Ilakkiya Varalaru (history of Tamil literature) and Thiravidathai (Tamil as the mother of the Dravidian languages).
• Views: he held that Tamil originated in a land in the south now under the sea (Kumari Nadu / Lemuria). Mainstream linguists, geologists and historians do not accept this theory – note it as his view, not as an established fact.
• Honour: India Post issued a commemorative stamp on him in February 2006.

Pavalareru Perunchitranar

Perunchitranar (1933–1995), a student of Devaneya Pavanar, was the poet-journalist of the movement. Through his journals he took pure Tamil to ordinary readers and to children.

• Born: 10 March 1933 at Samuthiram village in Salem district; birth name Rajamanickam (also called Duraimanickam). Died: 11 June 1995.
• Title: known as by the title Pavalareru.
• Thenmozhi: his pure Tamil journal, run with Devaneya Pavanar as special editor.
• Thamizhchittu: a pure Tamil journal for children, founded and edited by him; he also ran Tamil Nilam.
• Works: the poetry collections Kanichaaru (in volumes) and Koyyaakkani, the pure Tamil short epic Aiyai, and the Thirukkural commentary Thirukkural Meypporulurai.
• Agitations: jailed during the anti-Hindi agitation of 1965, under MISA during the Emergency (1976), and many other times.
• Recognition: the Government of Tamil Nadu has nationalised his works.

Other Propagators

• Bharathidasan (the "Revolutionary Poet") supported pure Tamil and spread it through his poems.
• Subramania Siva supported the pure Tamil idea in his journal Gnanabanu.
• Dravidian movement: historians note that Periyar's Self-Respect Movement and later C. N. Annadurai gave many of the movement's ideas a wider social and political voice.

Key People of the Movement

Journals of the Movement

From Movement to State Policy

Ideas first spread by societies and journals were later taken up by the State.

The State also coins and publishes Tamil technical and administrative terms and has nationalised the works of many Tamil scholars, including Perunchitranar, so that they are freely available.

Tamil as a Classical Language (2004)

• Early demands: Parithimar Kalaignar (1902) and a resolution of the Karanthai Tamil Sangam (1919/1920).
• Declaration: the Government of India created the category of "classical language" and declared Tamil the first classical language on 12 October 2004.
• Criteria in 2004: (1) high antiquity of early texts / recorded history of over 1,000 years; (2) a body of ancient literature valued as heritage by generations of speakers; (3) an original literary tradition not borrowed from another speech community.
• Revision (2005): the antiquity requirement was raised to 1,500–2,000 years; Sanskrit was declared classical in 2005. The criteria were revised again by the Linguistic Experts Committee on 25 July 2024.
• Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT): began as the Centre of Excellence for Classical Tamil at the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru, and moved to Chennai in 2008 as CICT, an autonomous body under the Union Ministry of Education; its own campus at Perumbakkam opened in 2022.
• Benefits of the status: national awards for scholars of classical languages, university chairs, research centres and translation of ancient texts.

Impact on Tamil Usage

• Vocabulary: many Sanskrit-derived words gave way to Tamil words in writing, speeches, textbooks and the media. Coinages of pure Tamil words by Pavanar and others have entered common use.
• Names: scholars, poets and ordinary families began to take Tamil names (Vedachalam → Maraimalai; Suryanarayana Sastri → Parithimar Kalaignar), and journals and societies took Tamil names.
• Reference works: lists and dictionaries of borrowed words with Tamil equivalents (Neelambikai's Vadachol Tamil Agaravarisai) and the State's Etymological Dictionary.
• Education and administration: Tamil became the official language of the State (1956); Tamil terms were prepared for administration and technical subjects.
• Identity: the movement strengthened the idea that Tamil is an independent and ancient language, which fed into the anti-Hindi agitations and the demand for classical status.
• Debate: some writers preferred a simple, widely understood Tamil rather than strict purity, and some theories linked to the movement (such as Lemuria) are not accepted by mainstream scholars. A balanced answer mentions both the achievements and these debates.

Common examples asked in General Tamil (borrowed word → Tamil word):

Timeline of the Pure Tamil Movement

Writing Mains Answers on the Pure Tamil Movement (Group 1 / Group 2)

Descriptive papers ask about the Tamil renaissance, language movements and Tamil scholars. Build your answer around these points and support each with a fact from the notes above.

Origin and growth of the Thanithamizh Iyakkam (about 150–250 words)

• Introduction: a language movement to use native Tamil words in place of borrowed (mainly Sanskrit) words; began in 1916 under Maraimalai Adigal.
• Background: Tamil renaissance – printing, Ellis (1816) and Caldwell (1856), editions of the classics by C. W. Damodaram Pillai and U. V. Swaminatha Iyer; Parithimar Kalaignar's classical-language claim (1902).
• Launch: Maraimalai Adigal's renamings (Maraimalai, Adigal, Arivukkadal, Podhu Nilaik Kazhagam); Neelambikai's dictionary of Sanskrit words with Tamil equivalents.
• Growth: Karanthai Tamil Sangam (1911), Kazhagam (1920), Devaneya Pavanar's etymological work, Perunchitranar's Thenmozhi and Thamizhchittu, poets like Bharathidasan.
• Conclusion: from a scholar's pledge it became a mass sentiment and then State policy.

Impact of the Pure Tamil Movement on Tamil society and administration (about 150–200 words)

• Language: pure Tamil words in writing, media and schoolbooks; Tamil personal names.
• Institutions: Tamil Nadu Official Language Act, 1956; Etymological Dictionary Project, 1974; Tamil University, 1981.
• National recognition: classical language status in 2004; CICT in Chennai (2008).
• Identity and politics: fed into the non-Brahmin and Dravidian movements and the anti-Hindi agitations.
• Evaluation: enriched Tamil vocabulary and confidence; debates remain on strict purity versus easy communication and on some theories such as Lemuria.

Tamil as a classical language (about 100–150 words)

• Demands: Parithimar Kalaignar (1902), Karanthai Tamil Sangam (1919/1920).
• Declared on 12 October 2004 – India's first classical language; criteria of over 1,000 years antiquity, ancient literature, original tradition.
• Results: CICT, awards, research chairs; 11 classical languages by 2024.

Practice: Match the Following

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• 1916 vs 1911: 1916 is the start of the Pure Tamil Movement; 1911 is the founding of the Karanthai Tamil Sangam.
• Fourth Tamil Sangam: the Madurai Tamil Sangam of 1901 (Pandithurai Thevar) – not the Karanthai Tamil Sangam.
• First demand for classical status: Parithimar Kalaignar (1902) – not Maraimalai Adigal.
• Pavanar vs Perunchitranar: Pavanar (1902–1981) was the linguist and teacher; Perunchitranar (1933–1995) was his student, the poet and editor of Thenmozhi and Thamizhchittu.
• Thenmozhi: Perunchitranar's journal, with Pavanar as special editor.
• Classical language year: 2004 for Tamil; 2005 is Sanskrit.
• Antiquity criterion: over 1,000 years in 2004; raised to 1,500–2,000 years in 2005.
• Official Language Act: 1956 (Tamil Nadu Official Language Act) – not 1967.

Quick Revision Table

TNPSC Key Points (PYQ-style facts)

• Pure Tamil Movement (Thanithamizh Iyakkam) began in 1916 under Maraimalai Adigal.
• TN textbook: Maraimalai Adigal – father of Tamil linguistic purism; Neelambikai played an important role in founding the movement.
• Renamings: Vedachalam → Maraimalai; Gnanasagaram → Arivukkadal; Samarasa Suddha Sanmarga Sangam → Podhu Nilaik Kazhagam.
• Parithimar Kalaignar (V. G. Suryanarayana Sastri) – first to argue Tamil is a classical language (1902).
• Madurai Tamil Sangam: 14 September 1901, Pandithurai Thevar.
• Karanthai Tamil Sangam: 14 May 1911, Thanjavur; journal Tamil Pozhil (1925).
• Kazhagam (South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society): 1920, Tirunelveli.
• Devaneya Pavanar: Mozhi Gnayiru; Senthamizh Selvar (1979); director of the Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project (1974); died 15 January 1981, Madurai.
• Perunchitranar: born 10 March 1933, Samuthiram (Salem); Thenmozhi, Thamizhchittu; Kanichaaru; died 11 June 1995.
• Tamil Nadu Official Language Act: 27 December 1956.
• Tamil University, Thanjavur: 15 September 1981.
• Tamil: first classical language, 12 October 2004; criterion then – over 1,000 years antiquity.
• CICT moved to Chennai in 2008; 11 classical languages after October 2024.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Thanithamizh Iyakkam (Pure Tamil Movement)?

It is a language movement that asks Tamil speakers and writers to use native Tamil words in place of borrowed words, mainly words taken from Sanskrit and later from English. It took a definite form in 1916 under Maraimalai Adigal and was carried forward by Neelambikai Ammaiyar, Devaneya Pavanar, Pavalareru Perunchitranar and many Tamil journals and societies.

Who started the Pure Tamil Movement and in which year?

Maraimalai Adigal (born Vedachalam, 1876–1950) started it in 1916. He began with himself: Vedachalam became Maraimalai, the title Swami became Adigal, his journal Gnanasagaram became Arivukkadal and his society at Pallavaram was renamed Podhu Nilaik Kazhagam. The Tamil Nadu school textbook calls him the father of Tamil linguistic purism; his daughter Neelambikai Ammaiyar helped found the movement.

What was Devaneya Pavanar's contribution to the movement?

Devaneya Pavanar (1902–1981) gave the movement a scholarly base through word-origin (etymological) studies. He argued that pure Tamil equivalents exist for borrowed words, wrote more than 35 books including Oppiyal Mozhinool, and in 1974 became the first director of the Tamil Nadu Government's Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project (Senthamizh Sorpirappiyal Agaramuthali). The State Government gave him the title Senthamizh Selvar in 1979.

When was Tamil declared a classical language and why is it important?

The Government of India declared Tamil a classical language on 12 October 2004; it was the first Indian language to receive the status. The demand was first raised by Parithimar Kalaignar in 1902. The status led to central support for research, awards and the Central Institute of Classical Tamil, which moved to Chennai in 2008. By October 2024 India had 11 classical languages.

How did the Pure Tamil Movement change the use of Tamil?

Many Sanskrit-derived words in writing and speech were replaced by Tamil words; people, journals and societies took Tamil names; Tamil journals such as Thenmozhi and Thamizhchittu spread pure Tamil to adults and children; and the State took up Tamil development through the Official Language Act, 1956, the Tamil Etymological Dictionary Project (1974) and the Tamil University, Thanjavur (1981). Many Tamil words now common in government use and the media spread through this campaign.

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