Maraimalai Adigal

Maraimalai Adigal (15 July 1876 – 15 September 1950) was a Tamil Saivite writer, orator and father of the Tanittamil Iyakkam movement. He authored more than 100 books, including works on original poems and dramas and notable research works on Tamil literature and Saivism. He founded a Saivite institution called Podhunilaik Kazhagam. He was an exponent of the Tanittamil Iyakkam movement and is considered to be the father of Tamil linguistic purism. He advocated the use of Tamil devoid of Sanskrit words and changed his birth name Vedhachalam to Maraimalai.

Politically, he was inclined towards non-Brahminism and considered the Self-Respect Movement to be an offshoot of his political activism. Though he was a scholar of Tamil, he had good scholastic command over Sanskrit and English. The ideologies of Periyar E. V. Ramasamy were shunned by Maraimalai Adigal and caused years of differences between the two. Maraimalai Adigal spent most of his income buying books and after his death, his collection was made into a library according to his will.