A. S. Gnanasambandan was a Tamil

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 writer, scholar and literary critic from Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. He is also known by his Tamil initials as Aa. Sa. Gna.

Biography

Gnanasambandan was born in Arasankudi near Kallanai in Tiruchirapalli district. His parents were Aa. Mu. Saravana Mudaliar and Sivakami. His father was a noted Tamil scholar, who had co-authored a commentary on Thiruvilayadal Puranam, a Saivite devotional epic. Gnanasambandan finished his schooling at Board High School, Lalgudi

Lalgudi

Lalgudi is a town in Tiruchirapalli district in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.-Geography:Lalgudi is a town located around 20KM from Tiruchirapalli on NH227 Tiruchirapalli-Chidambaram. Lalgudi lies close to Coleroon River...

 and signed up for intermediate classes in Physcis at Annamalai University

Annamalai University

Annamalai University is a Public University located in Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. The university offers courses of higher education in arts, sciences and engineering.The university also provides around 380 courses under distance mode...

.

His Tamil knowledge was noticed by the Tamil scholar Somasundara Bharathi, who was a professor of Tamil at the university. He convinced Gnanasambandan to switch his major to Tamil. During his time at Annamalai University, he befriended noted scholars like V. S. Srinivasa Sastri, Thiru. Vi. Ka

V. Kalyanasundaram

Thiruvarur Viruttacala Kalyanasundaram, , better known by his Tamil initials Thiru Vi Ka , was a Tamil scholar, essayist and activist. He is esteemed for the strong humanism of his essays, the analytical depth of his commentaries on classical Tamil literature and philosophy, and the clear, fluid...

 and The. Po. Meenakshi Sundaram. He graduated with a masters in Tamil and joined Pachaiyappa's College

Pachaiyappa's College

Pachaiyappa's College is one of the oldest educational institutions in Chennai, in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The college was established as Pachaiyappa's Central Institution at Popham's Broadway on January 1, 1842, from money given in Pachaiyappa Mudaliar's will. It was the first Hindu...

 as a lecturer of Tamil in 1942, where he worked till 1956.

Writing career

A. S. Gnanasambandan's first noted book Ravanan, Maatchiyum Veezhchiyum was published in 1945. This book along with Kamban Kalai (1950) and Thambiyar Iruvar (1961) cemented his reputation as a scholar of Kambaramayanam. After leaving Pachaiyappa's he served as the production-in-charge of dramas in the Madras office of All India Radio

All India Radio

All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...

 during 1956-61. In 1959, he became the secretary of the Bureau of Tamil Publications. He was the head of the Tamil Nadu Text Book Society during 1969-72. In 1970, he returned to teaching and became the head of the Tamil department at Madurai Kamaraj University

Madurai Kamaraj University

Madurai Kamaraj University also abbreviated MKU is a public university in India.-Overview:Madurai Kamaraj University, located in Madurai city established in 1966, has 18 schools comprising 72 departments. The Directorate of Distance Education of the University has a student strength of about 1.3...

. He retired from the University in 1973 but later returned to become the Tagore

Tagore

Tagore is the name of a prominent Bengali family of intellectuals, writers and artists, generally known as the Tagore family.People - Jorasanko branch of the Tagore family...

 Emeritus professor of Tamil. He spent his later years at Chennai and was involved in literary research. Gnanasamban is most noted as a saivite scholar, preparer of Tamil text books and lecturer on Tamil literature. His published works include 35 research books, 3 translations, a large number of text books and essays. 1985, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award

Sahitya Akademi Award

Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...

 for Tamil for his literary criticism - Kamban: Putiya Parvai (lit. Kamban - A fresh view).

Awards and recognitions

• Sahitya Akademi Award in 1985
• Sangappalagai Kural Peedam award by Government of Tamil Nadu in 2001

Partial bibliography

• Ravanan, Maatchiyum Veezhchiyum (1945)
• Kamban Kalai (1950)
• Thambiyar Iruvar (1961)
• Ilakkiyak kalai (1964)
• Kilakkum mērkum (1971)
• Manivasakar(1974)
• Thatthuvamum Bhakthiyum (1974)
• Kamban: Putiya Parvai
• Thevara Thiruppathikangal (1998)