Su. Samuthiram was a 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...

 writer from Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...

, India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

.

Biography

Samuthiram was born in Tippanampatti village in Tirunelveli District

Tirunelveli District

Tirunelveli District is a district of Tamil Nadu state in southern India. The city of Tirunelveli is the district headquarters. A unique feature of this district is that it encompasses all five geographical traditions of Tamil Literature; kurinji , mullai , marudham , neithal and palai...

. He worked in All India Radio

All India Radio

All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...

 and Doordarshan

DoorDarshan

Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...

. He was a prolific writer who wrote fourteen novels, four novellas, two essay anthologies, one play and more than 300 short stories (published as twenty two collections). Many of his works have been translated into other Indian languages like Telugu

Telugu language

Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...

, Hindi

Hindi

Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

 and Malayalam. His political orientation was socialist and he was involved in many literary feuds with his fellow writers like Asokamitran

Ashoka Mitran

Ashokamitran is one of the most influential figures in post-independent Tamil literature. He began his literary career with the prize winning play "Anbin Parisu", followed by many short stories, novellas and novels. A distinguished essayist and critic, he is the editor of the literary journal...

 and Vannanilavan. His works reflect his socialist beliefs and most of them are about the oppression of the downtrodden. In 1990, he was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award

Sahitya Akademi Award

Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languagesAssamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri,...

 for Tamil for his novel Veril Pazhutha Pala (lit. The Jack Fruit that ripened at the root). He died in 2003 in a road accident in Chennai

Chennai

Chennai , formerly known as Madras or Madarasapatinam , is the capital city of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu, located on the Coromandel Coast off the Bay of Bengal. Chennai is the fourth most populous metropolitan area and the sixth most populous city in India...

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Awards

• Sahitya Akademi Award for Tamil (1990)
• Tamil Annai award from Tamil University
  Tamil University
  The Tamil University , India, was established to provide higher research in the Tamil language and advanced study in allied branches such as linguistics, translation, lexicography, music, drama and manuscriptology...
  
  , Thanjavur
• Ilakkiyachinthanai Short Story prize.
• Kalaignar Award
  M. Karunanidhi
  Muthuvel Karunanidhi is an Indian politician and a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. He is the head of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam , a Dravidian political party in the state of Tamil Nadu. He has been the leader of the DMK since the death of its founder, C. N...
  
  from Murasoli Trust (posthumous)

Novels

• Veril pazhutha pala
• Vaada malli
• Palai pura
• Oorukkul oru puratchi
• Oru Kottukku VeLiyae
• Kagidha Uravugal
• Mann Sumai
• Thalai Paagai
• Velichathai nokki
• Valarppu magal
• Sathiyathukku kattupattal
• Tharaasu
• Sathiya avesam
• Illam thorum idayangal

External links

• Su. Samuthiram's works at Chennai Library