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The Prime Minister paid homage to Swaminatha Iyer on his birth anniversary (on the 19th of February) commemorating his significant contributions to promote the cultural richness of the Sangam period.

About Swaminatha Iyer (also known as ‘Tamil Thatha’):

• Swaminatha played a revolutionary role in the revival of forgotten works of Tamil literature. 
• The Tamil poet and nationalist, Subramania Bharati equated Swaminatha with the sage Agastya who was among the first exponents of Tamil. 
• He was born in a small village called Suryamoolai near Kumbakonam in Tamil Nadu.
• He was a Tamil scholar and had joined the Government Arts College at Kumbakonam.
• The palm leaf manuscripts, a Buddhist work, were transcribed by him into paper and edited with special attention. 
• The Silappathikaram, Purananooru and Manimekalai were some of the palm leaf manuscripts transcribed by Swaminatha and received enormous appreciation. 
• He was awarded with the title ‘Mahamahopadhyaya’ which decodes as ‘Great Teacher’, by the Government of Madras in 1906. 
• The title of ‘Dakshina Kalanidhi’ was awarded to him by Sri Sankara Swamigal. 
• In order to recognise his service towards reviving Tamil culture and language, the Madras University accorded Swaminatha with the title of ‘Doctor’.
• He published his autobiography named as ‘En Saritham’ which appeared in the Tamil weekly called ‘Ananda Vikatan’. It was later published as a book.