The Tamil University (TU), located in the city of Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu, has been commissioned with a novel task by the state government. The varsity will take on the responsibility to translate the Sangath Thamizh, a literary work penned down by Tamil Nadu's former Chief Minister M Karunanidhi from Tamil into French and German. This was announced by TU's Vice-Chancellor V Thiruvalluvan, while garlanding Karunanidhi's portrait on the occasion of his birthday on Friday, June 3.
The announcement comes after an order had been issued by the state government's Tamil Development Department on November 29, 2021, for a project to translate and publish Tamil literary works into various world languages. The government has sanctioned Rs 12 lakh for this purpose, as reported by ENS.
TU has constituted a committee headed by the Vice-Chancellor of the university to implement this project. And this committee has decided to commission the translation of Sangath Thamizh. Professors (retired) SN Kandasamy, K Arangan, KV Balasubramanian have been nominated as members of this committee. N Arul, Director of the Tamil Development Department, has been nominated as the project coordinator and S Veeralakshmi, Head of the Translation Department of the Tamil University, has been nominated as the joint coordinator of the project. The translation work has been entrusted to Sadasivam Satchidanandam (French) of France and Nataraja Suseendran (German) of Germany, as reported by ENS.
The translation work will be commencing from today, June 3, on the 99th birth anniversary of Karunanidhi, popularly referred to as Kalaignar, as informed by the VC. He has also declared that these works were expected to be completed by December and would be published by the University Publications Department. The university celebrated the former Chief Minister's birthday with great pomp and show. Ninety nine saplings were planted on campus to commemorate Karunanidhi's 99 years. TU's Registrar, K Sankar, and the project implementation committee members K Arangan and S Veeralakshmi were also present during the ceremony.
The VC said further that the university has planned year-long programmes for the birth centenary of M Karunanidhi next year, with various seminars and workshops, along with a concluding two-day international seminar, to which the current Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin would be invited.