Devaneya Pavanar

Who was Devaneya Pavanar?

Devaneya Pavanar, was a prominent Indian Tamil author who wrote over 35 books. Additionally, he was a staunch proponent of the "Pure Tamil movement" and initiated the Etymological Dictionary Project primarily to bring out the roots of Tamil words and their connections and ramifications.

In his 1966 Primary Classical language of the World, he argues that the Tamil language is the "most natural" and also a proto-world language, being the oldest language of the world, from which all other major languages of the world are derived. He believed that its literature, later called Sangam literature and usually considered to have been written from 200 BCE and 300 CE, spanned a huge period from 10,000 to 5,500 BCE. These datings gain popularity by journalists such as in Graham Hancock's book Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization. His above ideas are fringe ones and mainstream linguists, geologists and historians do not acknowledge them to be true.

Devaneya Pavanar composed many musical pieces and many noteworthy poems, including the collection of Venpa. The title Senthamiḻ Selvar was conferred on him by the Tamil Nadu State Government in 1979, and he was also addressed as Moḻi Ñayiru "Sun of language".