Linguist Vellayani Arjunan, who popularised encyclopaedias in Kerala, passes away
The Hindu
Prominent linguist and writer Vellayani Arjunan, who made lasting contributions to the field of Malayalam literature and research, passed away here on Wednesday. He was 90. He was under treatment at a private hospital due to age-related illnesses.
Prominent linguist and writer Vellayani Arjunan, who made lasting contributions to the field of Malayalam literature and research, passed away here on Wednesday. He was 90. He was under treatment at a private hospital due to age-related illnesses.
Dr. Arjunan, whom the nation honoured with the Padma Shri award in 2008, played a key role in popularising encyclopedias in Kerala during his tenure as the Director of the Encyclopedia Institute. In addition to writing several books related to linguistics, he also had a major role to play in the preparation of the general encyclopedia (Sarvavijnanakosam) as well as the encyclopedia of world literature, considered by many as his magnum opus.
He graduated in Malayalam, English and Hindi languages and also secured postgraduate diplomas in Telugu, Tamil and Kannada.
After securing doctorate from the Aligarh University in 1964, he got his first DLitt for a comparative study of the influence of Hindi words on the Dravidian language from the Jabalpur University in 1969 and second DLitt from the Agra University in 1998.
In 2016, he got his third DLitt for his research paper on Sree Narayana Guru’s effect on Malayalam poetry. Poems, stories, children’s literature, literary criticism and biographies were part of his oeuvre.
He had begun his career as a lexicon assistant in Kerala Lexicon department. Later, he worked as a lecturer in the Malayalam department at the SN College, Kollam. In 1961, he took charge of the Department of South Indian Languages at Aligarh University.
He has held several prestigious posts, including the Director of Institute of Communication and Information Science, MG University, Director of State Sarvavijnanakosam, Director of Kerala Bhasha Institute and Director of Literacy Mission.
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