Prof. V.I. Subramoniam (1926-2009) passed away

[Jean-Luc Chevillard]

Dear Indology list members,

the following sad news was just announced
by Professor Krishnaswamy Nachimuthu (Jawaharlal Nehru University).

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Date : Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:31:31 +0530

Prof.VIS passed away  around 8am today after hospitalisation for about
two weeks and his last rites will be held in the evening at 4pm in
Thiruvananthapuram.Please inform friends.

K. Nachimuthu

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-- Jean-Luc Chevillard (Paris)

P.S. I include as an appendix to this message
the self-description provided to me by Professor V.I. Subramoniam
in 2004, at the time when I was editing the Festschrift for François
Gros (/South-Indian Horizons/)
to which he contributed

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V.I. Subramoniam (Vadasery Iyemperumal Subramoniam) (b. 1926) is
emeritus professor of Tamil Language and Literature and later of
Linguistics, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, and is currently
Honorary Director and founding member of the International School of
Dravidian Linguistics, Thiruvananthapuram. He is also Honorary Editor of
the International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics. He received his M.A.
in Tamil Language and Literature from the Annamalai University and his
Ph.D. from the Indiana University, U.S.A. The Jaffna University, Sri
Lanka and the Tamil University, Tanjavur conferred on him Honorary
D.Litt. degrees. He was the first Vice-Chancellor of the Tamil
University, Tanjavur. His efforts to establish a Dravidian University in
Kuppam, Andhra Pradesh resulted in the creation of a university there,
and he was its first Pro-Chancellor. He has guided a number of important
dissertations on the language of the Tamil Caṅkam and medieval texts and
on Malayalam, apart from history and folklore. His own publications
cover a wide range of subjects such as literary theories, periodization
of literature, descriptive, historical and comparative linguistics and
of recently brain and language. His Index of Puṟanāṉūṟu [புறநானூறு]
(1962), Dialect Survey of Malayalam (1974) and A Descriptive Analysis of
a dialect of Tamil (2003) belong to a long list of publications (16
books and a hundred and two articles in professional journals). He was
one of the editors of some of the Proceedings of the International
Conference-Seminar of Tamil Studies organised by the International
Association of Tamil Research. He has edited the three volume Dravidian
Encyclopaedia.