Iyothee Thass
| Iyothee Thass | |
|---|---|
| Born |
20 May 1845 Nilgiris district |
| Nationality | British Indian |
| Other names | Kathavarayan |
| Occupation | Siddha physician |
| Known for | Dalit Buddhist movement |
| Part of a series on |
| Buddhism |
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Iyothee Thass or Pandit C. Ayodhya Dasa (20 May 1845 – 1914) was a practitioner of Siddha medicine who is regarded as a pioneer of the Dravidian Movement. He also founded the Punchmar Mahajana Sabha in 1891 along with Rettaimalai Srinivasan. Punchamars are the 5th group in the varna system.
Early life
Iyothee Thass was born Kathavarayan on 20 May 1845[1] in a Tamil family from Coimbatore district.[2] His grandfather worked for Lord Arlington[1] and little Kathavarayan profitted immensely from this association. Soon, he became an expert on Tamil literature, philosophy and indigenous medicine and could speak Tamil, English, Sanskrit and Pali.[1]
Assumption of leadership of Dalits
In the 1870s, Iyothee Thass organized the Todas and other tribes of the Nilgiri Hills into a formidable force.[1] In 1876, Thass established the Advaidananda Sabha and launched a magazine called Dravida Pandian in collaboration with Rev. John Rathinam.[1]
In 1886, Thass issued a revolutionary declaration that untouchables were not Hindus.[1] Following this declaration, he established the Dravida Mahajana Sabha in 1891.[1] During the 1891 census, he urged Dalits to register themselves as "casteless Dravidians" instead of identifying themselves as Hindus.[1]
Conversion to Buddhism
Iyothee Thass met Colonel H. S. Olcott with his followers and expressed a sincere desire to convert to Buddhism.[1] According to Thass, the Paraiyars of Tamilakam were originally Buddhists[2] and owned the land which had later been robbed from them by aryan invaders.[3] With Olcott's help, Thass was able to visit Ceylon and obtain diksha from the Sinhalese Buddhist monk Bikkhu Sumangala Nayake.[1] On returning, Thass established the Sakya Buddhist Society in Madras with branches all over South India. The Sakya Buddhist Society was also known as the Indian Buddhist Association.[4] and was established in the year 1898.[5] and
Political activism and later life
On 19 June 1907, Iyothee Thass launched a Tamil newspaper called Oru Paisa Tamizhan or One Paise Tamilian.[4] In his later days, he was a vehement criticizer of Brahmins.
Iyothee Thass died in 1914 at the age of 69.
Legacy
Iyothee Thass remains the first recognized anti-Casteist leader of the Madras Presidency. In many ways, Periyar, Dravidar Kazhagam, Dr. Ambedkar, Udit Raj and Thirumavalavan are inheritors of his legacy. He was also the first notable Dalit leader to embrace Buddhism.
However, Iyothee Thass was largely forgotten until recent times when the Dalit Sahitya Academy, a publishing house owned by Dalit Ezhilmalai published his writings.[4] Ezhilmalai, then the Union Health Minister, also made a desired to name the planned National Center for Siddha Research after the leader.[4] However, the proposal did not come into effect until 2005, when vehement protests by Se. Ku. Tamilarasan of the Republican Party of India (RPI) forced the Government to take serious note of the matter.[4] The institute for Siddha Research (National Institute of Siddha) was subsequently inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on 3 September 2005 and named the Dalit leader.[4] At its inauguration, the hospital had 120 beds.[4] The patients were treated as per the traditional system of Siddha medicine.[4]
A commemorative postage stamp on him was issued on 21-October-2005.[6] His works are nationalized and solatium was given to their legal heirs in 2008.[7]
Criticism
Some later critics labeled Iyothee Thass as an Anglophile, who was staunchly against the Indian freedom movement.[8] In the early part of the 20th century, he indulged in vehement condemnation of the Swadeshi movement and the nationalist press remarking that he could "locate the power of the modern secular brahmin in the control he wielded over public opinion."[8]
See also
- Dalit Buddhist Movement
- Dalit Ezhilmalai
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 Ravikumar (28 September 2005). "Iyothee Thass and the Politics of Naming". The Sunday Pioneer. Retrieved 9 September 2008.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Bergunder, Pg 9
- ↑ Bergunder, Pg 10
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 Manikandan, K. (1 September 2005). "National Institute of Siddha a milestone in health care". The Hindu: Friday Review. Retrieved 12 September 2008.
- ↑ M. Lynch, Owen (2004). Reconstructing the World: B. R. Ambedkar and Buddhism in India. Oxford University Press. p. 316.
- ↑ "Stamps-2005". Department of Posts, Government of India. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
- ↑ "Tamil development - Budget speech" (PDF). Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. 20 March 2008. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Nigam, Aditya. SECULARISM, MODERNITY, NATION:An Epistemology Of The Dalit Critique (PDF). p. 16.
References
- Bergunder, Michael. Anti-Brahmanical and Hindu nationalist reconstructions of Indian prehistory (PDF).
Bibliography
- Geetha, V. (2001). Towards a Non-Brahmin Millennium: From Iyothee Thass to Periyar. Bhatkal & Sen. ISBN 978-81-85604-37-4.
- Geetha, V. Re-making the Past: Iyothee Thass Pandithar and Modern Tamil Historiography.
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