A. Madhaviah

In this Indian name, the name Anantanarayanan is a patronymic, and the person should be referred to by the given name, Madhaviah.

Anantanarayanan Madhaviah (16 August 1872 – 22 October 1925)^[1] is one of the pioneer Tamil writers, novelists and journalists. His writings were about social reformation and misogyny in society.^[2] He is the author of one the early Tamil Novels named Padmavathi sarithiram.^[3]

A. Madhaviah
Born	(1872-08-16)16 August 1872. Perungulam, Tinnevely District, Madras Presidency, British India (now in Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu, India)
Died	22 October 1925(1925-10-22) (aged 53) Madras, Madras Presidency, British India (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India)
Language	Tamil, English
Genre	social reform, classical literature, history
Notable works	Padmavathi sarithiram (1898)
Spouse	Meenakshi
Children	Meenambal, Lakshmi, Visalakshi, Muthulakshmi, Saraswati, M. Anantanarayanan, P.M.Y. Narayanan M. Krishnan
Website
www.madhaviah.org

His book Muthumeenakshi is a commentary on marital politics, sexuality, female illiteracy and patriarchy in his time in south India. His take on the reformation in society can be achieved through education.^[4]

Life

A. Madhaviah Family Group Photograph

Madhaviah was born on 16 August 1872 in Perungulam, a town in present-day Thoothukudi district, Tamil Nadu, India.

At the age of 15, he married a 11 year old girl named Meenakshi.^[5]

He studied Bachelors degree from Madras Christian College in 1892 and taught in the same college for five years.^[6]

Partial works

Novel

In Tamil

• Padmavathi sarithiram (1898)^[7]
• Muthumeenakshi (1903)
• Vijayamarthandam (1903)

In English

• Thillai Govindan (1903)
• Satyananda (1909)
• The story of Ramanyana (1914)
• Clarinda (1915)
• Lieutenant Panju (1915)
• Markandeya (1922)
• Nanda (1923)
• Manimekalai (1923)

Critics

His writings are criticized as being ambivalent toward British Protestant missions in the Madras Presidency.^[8] During his time the university students in South India had different family background and when they met the western philosophies it created new thoughts for them which were felt reformist in that era.^[9]

References

1. "The Life, Works and Vision of a Great Tamilian - A. Madhaviah". www.madhaviah.org. Retrieved 2021-05-22.
2. "A Madhaviah Archives". Katha Books. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
3. ச.தமிழ்ச்செல்வன் (December 2017). "சிறுகதை வரலாற்றின் முதல் மூவரில் ஒருவர் மாதவய்யா!- கதைசொல்லிகளின் கதை பாகம் 2". Ananda Vikatan (in Tamil). Retrieved 2021-05-22.
4. Raman, Sita Anantha (2005). A. Madhaviah: A Biography. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-567021-9. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
5. VISWANATHAN, S. (2005-08-26). "Portrait of a novelist as a social reformer". The Hindu. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
6. Kaminsky, Arnold P; Long, Roger D, eds. (2016-09-13). "The Modern Tamil Humanism of A. Madhaviah". Nationalism and Imperialism in South and Southeast Asia. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315276793. ISBN 9781351997430. Retrieved 2021-05-23.
7. "அக்டோபர் 22 பத்மாவதி சரித்திரம் தந்த மாதவையா நினைவுநாள்". www.dinakaran.com. Archived from the original on 2021-04-15. Retrieved 2021-04-15.
8. Waha, Kristen Bergman (2018-03-26). "Synthesizing Hindu and Christian Ethics in A. Madhaviah's Indian English Novelclarinda(1915)". Victorian Literature and Culture. 46: 237–255. doi:10.1017/S1060150317000419. S2CID 165304670.
9. Parameswaran, Uma (1986-03-01). "3. A. Madhaviah 1872 -1925: An Assessment". The Journal of Commonwealth Literature. 21 (1): 222–239. doi:10.1177/002198948602100124. ISSN 0021-9894. S2CID 161124736.