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{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2018}}
{{Infobox writer <!-- for more information see [[:Template:Infobox writer/doc]] -->
| name = Devaneya Pavanar
| image = Devaneya Pavanar 2006 stamp of India.jpg
| imagesize = 
| caption =Pavanar on a 2006 stamp of India
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1902|2|7}}
| birth_place = [[Gomathimuthupuram]], [[Tamil Nadu]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|1981|1|15|1902|2|7}}
| death_place = [[Madurai]], Tamil Nadu, India
| occupation = Author, [[Pure Tamil movement|Tamil Activist]], [[Etymologist]]
}}

'''Devaneya Pavanar''' (also known as '''G. Devaneyan''', '''Ñanamuttan Tevaneyan'''; 7 February 1902 – 15 January 1981) was a prominent Tamil scholar who wrote over 35 research volumes. 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 with Nostratic studies.

In his 1966 ''Primary Classical language of the World'', he argues that the [[Tamil language]] is the "most natural" (''{{transl|ta|ISO|iyal-moḻi}}'') and also a [[proto-world language]], being the oldest (''{{transl|ta|ISO|thon-moḻi}}'') 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 [[Stone Age India|10,000 to 5,500 BCE]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Historical Heritage of the Tamils |author=Ca. Vē Cuppiramaṇiyan̲ and Ka. Ta Tirunāvukkaracu |publisher=International Institute of Tamil Studies |year=1983|page= 178}}</ref> Mainstream linguists, geologists and historians do not subscribe to his theories.

Devaneya Pavanar composed many musical pieces (''Isaik kalambakam'') and many noteworthy poems, including the collection of ''Venpa.'' The title ''{{transl|ta|ISO|Senthamiḻ Selvar}}'' was conferred on him by the [[Tamil Nadu]] State Government in 1979, and he was also addressed as Dravida Mozhi nool Nayiru ("Sun of language").<ref name=pressrelease>[http://www.tn.gov.in/tamilarasu/dec2007/page24-31.pdf Tamil Nadu Government press release]{{dead link|date=November 2018}}</ref>

==Biography==
Gnanamuthu Devaneyan Pavanar was a Tamil professor at Municipal College, [[Salem, Tamil Nadu|Salem]], from 1944 to 1956. From 1956 to 1961, he was the head of Dravidian department at [[Annamalai University]].<ref>Prudrayya Chandrayya Hiremath, Jayavant S. Kulli, "Proceedings of the Third All India Conference of Dravidian Linguists", 1973</ref> He was a member of the Tamil Development and Research Council, set up by the [[Jawaharlal Nehru|Nehru]] government in 1959, entrusted with producing Tamil school and college textbooks. From 1974, he was director of the Tamil Etymological Project, and he acted as president of the International Tamil League, Tamil Nadu. (U. Tha. Ka.).{{cn|date=July 2020}}

The Chennai District Central Library is named after Devanaya Pavanar and is located at Anna Salai, Chennai.{{cn|date=July 2020}}

==Views on Tamil versus Sanskrit==
[[File:Kumari Kandam map.png|thumb|280px|"Lemuria" according to Pavanar, connecting [[Madagascar]], [[South India]] and Australia (covering most of the Indian Ocean). [[Mount Meru]] stretches southwards from [[Sri Lanka]].]]
Pavanar's ''Vadamoli Varalaru'' argues that hundreds of Sanskrit words can be traced to a Tamil origin, and at the same time he insisted that pure Tamil equivalents existed for Sanskrit loan words. He claimed that Tamil is a "superior and more [[divine language|divine]]" language than [[Sanskrit]]. In his view the Tamil language originated in "[[Lemuria (continent)|Lemuria]]" ({{lang|ta|இலெமூரியா}} ''{{transl|ta|ISO|Ilemūriyā}}''), the [[cradle of civilisation]] and place of [[origin of language]]. He believed that evidence of Tamil's antiquity was being suppressed by Sanskritists.

Pavanar's timeline for the evolution of mankind and Tamil is as follows:
* ca. [[Lower Paleolithic|500,000 BC]]: origin of the human race,
* ca. [[Middle Paleolithic|200,000 to 50,000 BC]]: evolution of "the Tamilian or ''Homo Dravida''<ref>a term of [[Edgar Thurston]]'s: see Ajay Skaria, ''Shades of Wildness Tribe, Caste, and Gender in Western India'', The Journal of Asian Studies (1997), p. 730.</ref> ",
* c. 200,000 to 100,000 BC, beginnings of Tamil
* c. 100,000 to 50,000 BC, growth and development of Tamil,
* 50,000 BC: [[Kumari Kandam]] civilisation
* [[Upper Paleolithic|20,000 BC]]: A lost Tamil culture on [[Easter Island]] which had an advanced civilisation
* 16,000 BC: Lemuria submerged
* [[7th millennium BC|6087 BC]]: Second Tamil Sangam established by a [[Pandya]] king
* 3031 BC: A Chera prince wandering in the Solomon Islands saw wild sugarcane and started cultivation in Tamil Nadu.
* 1780 BC: The Third Tamil Sangam established by a Pandya king
* 7th century BC: ''[[Tolkāppiyam]]'', the earliest extant Tamil grammar

In the preface to his 1966 book ''[[The Primary Classical Language of the World]]'' he wrote:

{{cquote|
There is no other language in the whole world as Tamil, that has suffered so much damage by natural and human agencies, and has been done so much injustice by malignant foreigners and native dupes.

The general belief that all arts and sciences are progressively advancing with the passage of time, is falsified in the case of philology, owing to the fundamental blunder of locating the original home of the Tamilians in the Mediterranean region, and taking Sanskrit, a post-Vedic semi-artificial composite literary dialect, the Indian Esperanto, so to speak, for the prototype of the Indo-European Form of Speech.

Westerners do not know as yet, that Tamil is a highly developed classical language of [[Kumari Kandam|Lemurian]] origin, and has been, and is being still, suppressed by a systematic and co-ordinated effort by the Sanskritists both in the public and private sectors, ever since the Vedic mendicants migrated to the South, and taking utmost advantage of their superior complexion and the primitive credulity of the ancient Tamil kings, posed themselves as earthly gods ([[Bhusura|Bhu-suras]]) and deluded the Tamilians into the belief, that their ancestral language or literary dialect was divine or celestial in origin.
}}

In a chapter entitled ''Tamil more divine than Sanskrit'', Pavanar gives the reasons why he judges Tamil to be "more [[divine language|divine]]" than Sanskrit, arguing for "Primary Classicality of Tamil", he enumerates:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! [[Tamil language|Tamil]] Language
! [[Sanskrit language|Sanskrit]] Language
|-
| Primitive and original.
| Derivative.
|-
| Spoken and living language.
| Semi-artificial literary dialect.
|-
| Scriptural studies [[exoteric]].
| Scriptural studies esoteric.
|-
| [[Inculcation]] of cosmopolitanism.
| Division of society into numerous castes on the basis of birth and parentage.
|-
| Admission of all to asceticism.
| 
|-
| Holding higher education common to all.
| 
|-
| Encouragement of gifts to all the poor and needy.
| Enjoinment on the donors to give only to the Sanskritists.
|-
| Love of truth.
| Love of imposture and plagiarism.
|-
| Laying of emphasis on love, as means of attaining eternal bliss.
| Laying of emphasis on knowledge, as means of attaining union with the universal soul.
|-
| Having monotheistic [[Saivism]] and [[Vaisnavism]] as religions.
| Having a system of sacrifices to minor deities as religion.
|-
| Literary description natural.
| Literary description imaginary.
|}

==Publishing history==
The ''Central Plan Scheme for Classical Tamil'' of the Centre of Excellence for Classical Tamil<ref>a body of the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Department of Higher Education, Language Bureau, Ministry of Human Resource Development (under [[Arjun Singh (politician, born 1930)|Arjun Singh]], [[Government of India]]; [http://www.ciil-classicaltamil.org/pdfs/nc-1stmeet.pdf First National Consultative Meeting (November 18 & 19, 2005)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070928071820/http://www.ciil-classicaltamil.org/pdfs/nc-1stmeet.pdf |date=28 September 2007 }}</ref> recommends
:"To publish the translated but not yet published Sattambi Swamigal's ''Adhibhasa'' which seeks to establish that Tamil is the most ancient language. When published, it will provide an impetus to Pavanar's findings"

The literary works and books of Pavanar have been "nationalised" by the Government of Tamil Nadu in the course of the "Golden Jubilee year of National Independence" (2006). This means that the copyright for Pavanar's work is now owned by the state of Tamil Nadu, his legal heirs having been compensated financially.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20080413140316/http://www.tn.gov.in/pressrelease/archives/pr2006/pr080706/pr080706fg.htm CM presented consideration amounts for the Nationalised books at Secretariat, Tamil Nadu, India]. Tn.gov.in (8 July 2006). Retrieved on 13 November 2018.</ref><ref name=tn200203>[https://web.archive.org/web/20030826172615/http://www.tn.gov.in/policynotes/archives/policy2002-03/tdc2002-03-b.htm BUDGET ESTIMATE FOR 2002 – 2003]. Directorate of Tamil Development, Government of Tamil Nadu</ref> 

==Awards and honours==
* A Silver plate presented to him by the Tamil Peravai, Salem in 1955 in appreciation of his service to Tamil.<ref name=pallar>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150322105338/http://www.pallar.org/pallar/artist.htm Dr.Mozhignayiru Devaneyap Pavanar]. pallar.org</ref>
* A Copper Plate presented to his by the [[Governor of Tamil Nadu]] 1960 in appreciation of his contribution to the collection of administrative terms in Tamil.<ref name=pallar/>
* A Silver Plate presented to his by the South Indian Saiva Sinddhanta Works Publishing Society, Thirunelveli Ltd., in 1970 in appreciations of his research work in Tamil philology and etymology.<ref name=pallar/>
* Official centenary celebrations of Pavanar were held at Sankarankoil (5 February 2002) and Gomathimuthupuram (6 February) of [[Tirunelveli]] district and at [[Chennai]] (8. February), attended by the Minister for Education and the Chief Minister [[O. Panneerselvam]].<ref name=tn200203/>
* In February 2006, a commemorative stamp of Devaneya Pavanar was released by the Postal Department in Chennai.<ref>[[The Hindu]], [https://web.archive.org/web/20060904045416/http://www.hindu.com/2006/02/19/stories/2006021906410500.htm 19 February 2006], [http://www.indiapost.gov.in/Netscape/Stamps2006.html Indiapost]</ref>
*In October 2007, a memorial was installed at [[Madurai]] by the [[Government of Tamil Nadu]] in honour of Devaneya Pavanar.<ref name=pressrelease/>

;Tamil
* {{transl|ta|ISO|Kaṭṭurai varaiviyal., Tirucci : Śrī Nilaiyam Accukkūṭam}}, 1940.
* {{transl|ta|ISO|Cuṭṭu viḷakkam, allatu, Aṭippaṭai vērccol aintu., Tirucci : Impīriyal Piras}}, 1943.
* {{transl|ta|ISO|Tirāviṭattāy}} = The mother of the Dravidian languages, {{transl|ta|ISO|Cen̲n̲ai : Purōkireciv Accumaṇi Patippakam}}, [1969]
* {{transl|ta|ISO|Vērccor̲ kaṭṭuraikaḷ}} ("etymological essays"), {{transl|ta|ISO|Cen̲n̲ai :Saiva Siddantha Kazhagam Publisher}}, 1973.
* {{transl|ta|ISO|Maṇṇil viṇ : allatu, Vaḷḷuvar kūṭṭūtamai, Kāṭṭuppāṭi Virivu, Va. Ā. Māvaṭṭam : Nēcamaṇi Patippakam}}, 1978.
posthumously:
* {{transl|ta|ISO|Nāṅkaḷ kāṇum Pāvāṇar : Mol̲iñāyir̲u Pāvāṇar avarkaḷin̲ mutalām nin̲aivu nāḷ veḷiyīṭu., Neyvēli, Tamil̲nāṭu : Pāvāṇar Tamil̲k Kuṭumpam}}, 1982.
* {{transl|ta|ISO|Pāvāṇar kaṭitaṅkaḷ, Cen̲n̲ai : Tirunelvēli Ten̲n̲intiya Caivacittānta Nūr̲patippuk Kal̲akam}}, 1985.
* {{transl|ta|ISO|Centamil̲c cor̲pir̲appiyal pērakaramutali, Cen̲n̲ai : Centamil̲c Cor̲pir̲appiyal Akara Mutalit Tiṭṭa Iyakkaka Veḷīyīṭu}}, 1985–2005
* {{transl|ta|ISO|Pal̲antamil̲āṭci, Cen̲n̲ai : Tirunelvēli Saiva Siddantha Kazhagam Publisher}}, 1991.
* {{transl|ta|ISO|Pal̲antamil̲ar araciyal koṭpāṭukaḷ, Cen̲n̲ai : Maṇivācakar Patippakam}}, 1999.
* {{transl|ta|ISO|Pāvāṇar mukavuraikaḷ, Tañcāvūr : Tamil̲mati Patippakam}}, 2001.
* {{transl|ta|ISO|Tamil̲maṇ Patippakam}} centenary edition:
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Uyartarak kaṭṭurai ilakkaṇam}}, 2000.
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Tamil̲ar matam}}, 2000.
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Tamil̲nāṭṭu viḷaiyāṭṭukaḷ}}, 2000.
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Centamil̲k kāñci}}, 2000.
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Mutar̲r̲āy mol̲i}}, 2000.
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Tamil̲ar tirumaṇam}}, 2000.
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Iyar̲r̲amil̲ ilakkaṇam}}, 2000.
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Tamil̲ilakkiya varalār̲u}}, 2000.
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Oppiyan̲ mol̲inūl, Cen̲n̲ai}} ("comparative linguistics"), 2000–<2001 >
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Mol̲iyārāyccik kaṭṭuraikaḷ}}, 2001.
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Kaṭṭuraik kacaṭar̲ai, en̲n̲um, Viyāca viḷakkam}}, 2001.
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Mar̲uppurai māṇpu}}, 2001.
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Ilakkaṇak kaṭṭuraikaḷ}}, 200101.
** {{transl|ta|ISO|Mar̲uppurai māṇpu}}, 2001.

==See also==
* [[Kumari Kandam]]
* [[Maraimalai Adigal]]
* [[Tanittamil Iyakkam]]
* [[Anti-Hindi agitations]]
* [[Indigenous Aryans]]
* [[Paleolithic Continuity Theory]]
* [[Divine language]]
* [[Nationalism and ancient history]]
* [[The Primary Classical Language of the World]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* [[Iravatham Mahadevan]], ''Aryan or Dravidian or Neither? A Study of Recent Attempts to Decipher the Indus Script (1995–2000)'' EJVS (ISSN 1084-7561) vol. 8 (2002) issue 1 (8 March).[https://web.archive.org/web/20070723121117/http://www.ejvs.laurasianacademy.com/ejvs0801/ejvs0801.txt]
* Vasant Kaiwar, Sucheta Mazumdar, Robin Nelson, ''Antinomies of Modernity: Essays on Race, Orient, Nation'' (2003), p.&nbsp;141.
* P. Ramanathan (trans.), ''[[Nostratics]] – The Light From Tamil According to Devaneyan (1977–80 studies of G. Devaneyan on the spread in different Language families of the world of derivatives from 22 basic Tamil words)'', Chennai: The Tirunelveli South India Saiva Siddhanta Works Publishing Society Ltd., 2004.
* Sumathi Ramaswamy, ''Passions of the Tongue: Language Devotion in Tamil India, 1891–1970'', Studies on the History of Society and Culture, No 29, University of California Press (1997), {{ISBN|978-0-520-20805-6}}.
* Sumathi Ramaswamy, ''The Lost Land of Lemuria: Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories'' University of California Press (2004), {{ISBN|978-0-520-24440-5}}.
* Mu Tamilkkutimakan, ''Pavanarum tanittamilum, Moli ñayiru Tevaneyap Pavanar Arakkattalaic Corpolivu'' (On linguistics and historical philosophy of Ñā. Tēvanēyaṉ), International Institute of Tamil Studies, Ulakat Tamilaraycci Niruvanam (1985).
* Sahitya Akademi, ''Tevaneyap Pavanar'', Cakittiya Akkatemi, 2002, {{ISBN|978-81-260-1499-6}}.

==External links==
* [http://www.devaneyapavanar.com Devaneya Pavanar (Official Website)]
* [http://www.worldcatlibraries.org/search?q=au%3AN%CC%83a%CC%84+Te%CC%84vane%CC%84yan%CC%B2&qt=hot_author publications] (worldcatlibraries.org)

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pavanar, Devaneya}}
[[Category:Tamil-language writers]]
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[[Category:Pseudohistorians]]
[[Category:Language and mysticism]]
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[[Category:20th-century Indian historians]]
[[Category:Tirukkural commentators]]
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[[Category:Poets from Tamil Nadu]]
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