Sreekanteswaram Padmanabha Pillai
Encyclopedia
Sreekanteswaram G. Padmanabha Pillai (1864 - 1946), popularly known as Sreekanteswaram, was a lexicographer and scholar best known for his Malayalam dictionary Sabdatharavali.
Padmanabha Pillai was born in Sreekanteswaram
in Thiruvananthapuram
(Trivandrum). He studied English
, Tamil
and Sanskrit
and wrote Duryodhanavadham and Dharmaguptavadham at a young age. He later worked as a lawyer.
He started his work on Sabdatharavali at the age of 32. The first part of the book came out in 1918. The dictionary, which runs into more than 1600 pages, took twenty years to complete. His son P. Damodara Pillai later compiled a concise version. Padmanabha Pillai also prepared a pocket dictionary in 1906.
Padmanabha Pillai wrote around sixty books in his lifetime. He ran the magazine Bhashavilasam for a time and left two dictionaries - Sahityabharanam and an English-Malayalam dictionary - incomplete at the time of his death.
Padmanabha Pillai was born in Sreekanteswaram
Sreekanteswaram
Sreekanteswaram is a place in the Thiruvananthapuram city , India. The place is known for the Siva temple, from which the name was derived...
in Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram
Thiruvananthapuram , formerly known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland...
(Trivandrum). He studied English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...
and Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...
and wrote Duryodhanavadham and Dharmaguptavadham at a young age. He later worked as a lawyer.
He started his work on Sabdatharavali at the age of 32. The first part of the book came out in 1918. The dictionary, which runs into more than 1600 pages, took twenty years to complete. His son P. Damodara Pillai later compiled a concise version. Padmanabha Pillai also prepared a pocket dictionary in 1906.
Padmanabha Pillai wrote around sixty books in his lifetime. He ran the magazine Bhashavilasam for a time and left two dictionaries - Sahityabharanam and an English-Malayalam dictionary - incomplete at the time of his death.