Thiruvananthapuram: Students of a government school in the district have written to the Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI) K.V. Mohankumar to celebrate the birthday of Sreekanteswaram Padmanabha Pillai who compiled the comprehensive Malayalam dictionary Shabda Tharavali on November 27. The Government Tribal High School, Menankal had been organising various programme commemorating Sreekanteswaram since 2013. Sreekanteswaram who lived between 1864 and 1946 has become a forgotten figure, even though he brought out the most comprehensive Malayalam dictionary till the date.
On the occasion of the 100th year of the publication of the Shabda Tharavali, which was published on Thulam 28, of the Malayalam era 1093, which incidentally fell on November 13, 2017, the students created a huge model of the book and reached Meenankal junction and explained to the public about the dictionary, said a teacher associated with the project. Students as part of the Kadhanam programme, discussed a part from P.K. Rajasekharan’s book Nostalgia, dealing with Shadba Tharavali. Students also celebrated the month of November as Malayalam day protection month.
On November 5, world teacher’s day, the library of the school was renamed by the students as Sabhda Tharavali library in a function attended by writer P.K. Sudhi, said a teacher associated with the project. Sreekanteswaram, began the work of the dictionary at the age of 32 years and self-published at the age of 58 after resigning from the well-paying job as an attorney.
