M?DHAVIAH, A.

M?DHAVIAH, A. (1872–1925), Tamil writer and proponent of women's rights. A. M?dhaviah was a modern Tamil humanist who championed women's rights through literature; he defined as well the contours of modern Tamil fiction. M?dhaviah used his literary talents to help change attitudes toward misogynistic customs, enhancing the humanism of Tamil society in colonial Madras (Chennai). In his short life of fifty-three years, he wrote over sixty Tamil and English novels, plays, biographies, essays, nonsectarian hymns, and translations. His brilliant critiques of the hypocrises of Hindus and Christians, Indians and Westerners won him a wide circle of admiring middle-class readers. M?dhaviah's writing helped to crystallize the intersecting identities of Tamil ethnicity and pan-Indian nationalism. He contributed patriotic English essays to the Hindu journal, and Tamil articles for the Swad?samitran (Friend of independence). He edited two journals, Tamil N?san (Friend of the Tamils) and Panch?mritam (Nectar).

Born on 16 August 1872 to upper caste parents in the br?hmana village of Perunkulam near Tirunelv?li, he hated parochial caste exclusions, which he described in his later writings. He attended a local Tamil school, then studied English at a government high school in P?layamk?ttai, a Protestant missionary center. He contributed English poems to the Madras Christian College journal under the guidance of Reverend William Miller. M?dhaviah, a sharp critic of certain Hindu social and religious inequities, also attacked Christian proselytizing. Some chapters of his "Savitri Charitram" (Savitri's story) on upper caste women were first published in the journal Viveka Chintamani, and later rewritten as the novella Muthumeenakshi in 1903. It promoted widow remarriage, and criticized child marriage and marital rape. In 1898, his Tamil novel Padm?vati Charitram (Padmavati's story) was published, and it has been acclaimed as his greatest work. Its revelations of female illiteracy, male lust, and mercenary marriage customs startled its many readers. For thirty years, M?dhaviah worked as a Salt and Excise Department official, touring remote areas by day, returning to write late into the night by candlelight.

His Tamil writings include a semihistorical novel, Vijaya M?rt?ndan (1903); the plays Tirumalai S?tupati (1910) and Udayalan (1918); Siddh?rthan (1918) on the Buddha; Rajam?rthandam (1919), a dramatization of his English novel Lieutenant Panju (1915–1916); the nonsectarian hymnal, Podu Dharma Sangeeta Mañjari (Collection of new hymnals for all) in 1914; and marriage songs, Pudu M?thiri Kaly?na P?ttu (1925). His English works include Thillai G?vindan: A Posthumous Autobiography (1903); Saty?nanda (1909) about an illegitimate Christian hero; Clarinda (1915) about a Brahman widow Christian convert; and Thillai Govindan: A Miscellany (1907). He retold Indian myths like M?rkand?ya (1922), The Story of the R?m?yana (1914), and Nand?: The Pariah Who Overcame Caste (1923), which became school texts. His humorous Kusikar Kutti Kathai (Kusikar's short stories) was published in 1924.

Inspired by V?dan?yakam Pillai's use of Tamil fiction to promote change, M?dhaviah's literary realism made him the more effective reformer who skillfully cited Indian humanistic texts to promote Western social liberalism. He believed that one remained a slave by remaining silent in the teeth of injustice. As he never feared to speak out, he was often ostracized. He died of a heart attack while addressing the Madras University Senate, urging them to make Tamil a compulsory subject for the bachelor of arts degree. That resolution was finally passed sixty years later.

Sita Anantha Raman

See alsoMadras ; Women's Education

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Nambi Arooran, K. Tamil Renaissance and Dravidian Nationalism, 1905–1944. Madurai: Koodal, 1980.

"Old Norms in New Bottles: Constructions of Gender and Ethnicity in the Early Tamil Novel." Journal of Women's History 12, no. 3 (Autumn 2000): 93–119.

Rajagautaman. A. Madhaviah, 1872–1925 (in Tamil). Bangalore: Kavya, 1995.

Raman, Sita Anantha. Getting Girls to School. Calcutta: Stree, 1996.

Raman, Sita Anantha, and Vasantha Surya, trans. A. Madhaviah: A Life and a Story. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Varadarajan, M. A History of Tamil Literature. Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1988.

Venkatachalapathy, A. R. "Domesticating the Novel: Society and Culture in Inter-War Tamil Nadu." Indian Economic and Social History Review 34, no. 1 (1977): 53–77.

Venkataraman, C. A. Madhaviah (in Tamil) Delhi: Sahitya Akademi, 1999.