THANJAVUR: The ‘Kalaimamani’ awards, which have been defunct for the past seven years, will be revived and given from this year, declared the State minister for Culture and Tamil official languge, Mafoi K Pandiarajan, on Tuesday.
Speaking at an awards distribution function here for artistes, the minister said that a formal announcement on this will be made by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K.Palaniswami in the coming budget session. Apart from this, many more schemes for Tamil development will be announced by the Chief Minister in the session, he said.
Pandiarajan said that the first award won by former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa was ‘Kalaimamani’. “However, it was not given for the past seven years. On revival, it will be (initially) given to 300 persons” he said.
Other schemes for Tamil development include restoring the uniqueness of Tamil University, developing Music and Fine arts University, developing ancient Tamil culture centre at Madurai in which statue of ‘Tamil Annai’ (Mother Tamil) will be installed, the minister listed among others.
“There are 25 departments in the Tamil University now. More departments will be created. Former Chief Minister J.Jayalalithaa conceived the idea of rejuvenating the “sthala viruchams” (holy trees specific for each temple) of nearly 30,000 temples under the control of HR and CE department and creating ‘Nandavanams’. That will be followed up.
The minister said, ‘Tamil Valar Maiyyam’ on the lines of the ‘Hindi Prachara Sabha’ will be created for people to learn Tamil with a view to make the language spoken by maximum number of people as second and third languages.”
The department of Art and Culture was created by ‘Amma’ in 1991, he recalled. Since 1998, district art centres are functioning under the head of the respective district collectors. In Thanjavur district, identity cards have been issued to 1,750 artistes so far.
The minister distributed ‘Kalai Ilamani, Kalai Valarmani, Kalai Sudarmani, Kalai Nanmani and Kalai Mudumani’ awards to five artists/artistes each for the years 2015-16, 2016-17 and 2017-18 at the simple function.
The awards were given for painting, thappattam, nadaswaram, nayyandi melam, drama, folk dance, kavadiyattam, silambattam, vocal, tabla and handicrafts.
Mr. R. Duraikannu, State Agriculture minister, K. Parasuraman MP, A. Annadurai, district collector, R.Gunaseakaran, joint director, Art and culture, Ms. Savithiri Gopal, former Thanjavur mayor, participated in the function.
