Parameswaran was given the Padma Vibhushan in 2018. (File)

Thinker, orator and one of the seniormost pracharaks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) P Parameswaran died at the age of 93 in Palakkad on Sunday.

Parameswaran, who had authored several works on Indian philosophy, had been given the Padma Shri in 2004 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2018.

His last rites will be held at his native village of Muhamma in Alappuzha on Monday.

Mourning Parameswaran’s death, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “an institution builder, Parameswaran Ji nurtured eminent institutions such as the Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram, Vivekananda Kendra and others. I am fortunate to have interacted with him many times. He was a towering intellectual. Anguished by his demise. Om Shanti.” Expressing his condolences, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said Parameswaran had been an ideologue who had dedicated his life for the philosophy which he had believed in. Union ministers Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh also expressed their condolences.

Parameswaran, who played a pivotal role in popularising the Bhagavad Gita in Kerala, had taken to RSS ideology during his college days. He became a pracharak in the early 50s at the behest of then sarsanghchalak M S Golwalkar.

In 1957, Parameswaran was made the first state organising secretary of the erstwhile Bharatiya Jan Sangh and later went on to become its all-India general secretary and vice-president. During this time, he worked closely with several prominent leaders including RSS ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and senior leader L K Advani. Since 1977, he served as the director of the Deendayal Research Institute in New Delhi for four years.

He was jailed during the Emergency. In 1982, he returned to Kerala where he founded the Bharatheeya Vichara Kendram, which emerged as a centre of research aimed at national reconstruction. He remained its director till his death.

An erudite orator, Parameswaran delivered speeches across the country on philosophy, Hinduism and nationalism, among other topics. His literary works include ‘Marx and Vivekananda: A comparative study’ and ‘From Marx to Maharshi and Bhagavad Gita – Vision of a New World Order’.

He was also associated with the Vivekananda Rock Memorial and the Vivekananda Kendra in Kanyakumari and was serving as its all-India president at the time of his death.