MADURAI

Historian and author A.R. Venkatachalapathy and writer Ba. Venkatesan were honoured with Pudhumaipithan Memorial Award for the year 2017 by Vilakku Ilakkiya Amaippu based in the US.

At a function organised here on Saturday to confer the award, scholars and writers spoke on the works and contributions of the awardees. J. Balasubramaniam, writer and Assistant Professor of Journalism in Madurai Kamaraj University, said Mr. Venkatachalapathy’s contribution in showing a new direction for writing history, mainly in the Tamil context, could not be ignored.

“When relying on sources in English, mainly those written by colonial officers, was the norm, he used sources available in Tamil even during his doctoral thesis, which was appreciated then for its freshness,” he said. He lauded Mr. Venkatachalapathy for writing history in a language accessible to the masses.

Writer Su. Venkatesan expressed his disappointment that a historian of Mr. Venkatachalapathy’s calibre had not received the recognition he deserved from the Tamil society. “It is nearly impossible to surpass the work he has done on Bharathi, particularly in bringing out his hitherto unavailable and unpublished works,” he said.

Stating that Mr. Venkatachalapathy was a perfectionist, he recalled the pointed critical comments he received from the historian for his Kavalkottam and Chandrahasam novels.

Writer Karu. Arumugatamilan highlighted the rigour in Mr. Venkatachalapathy’s research which, he said, was evident from the voluminous references and footnotes he presented to substantiate his writing. In his acceptance speech, Mr. Venkatachalapathy spoke on how writer Pudhumaipithan had remained a lasting influence on him.

Scholar Rajan Kurai Krishnan, writers Balasubramanian Ponraj and T. Parameswari spoke on how writer Ba. Venkatesan had created a distinct style of writing for himself. Stating that the talent available in Tamil literary world was superior to those of almost all other Indian languages, Mr. Venkatesan stressed the need for Tamil writers to stay focussed and work harder to reach greater heights.