Chennai: Chief Minister M K Stalin declared open a memorial, constructed at a cost of Rs 2.49 crore, for Dravidian intellectual Ayodhya Dasa Pandithar in the Gandhi Mandapam premises on Friday keeping with the announcement made in the floor of the State Assembly under Rule 110 on September 3, 2021.
The memorial with a statue of Ayodhya Dasa has been constructed as an ‘Arivozhi Illam’ (House of Knowledge) to honour the multifaceted leader, scholar and activist who turned the words Dravidian and Tamil into terms of identity for the people.
Tamil was not a language but a cultural way of life for the people, he had declared, Stalin said in his speech after inaugurating the memorial, paying encomiums to the leader in whose memory the government had launched a Rs 1000 crore scheme for the next five years for Adi Dravidar colonies titled Adyodhya dasa Pandithar Housing Development Scheme.
Caste and religion were the impediments for India’s development, Ayodhya dasa had said, Stalin recalled, saying that the memorial was erected to mark his 175th birth anniversary.
Recalling the work of the writer, researcher, historian, humanist thinker, publisher, journalist, doctor, orator, linguist and activist the Chief Minister said that he laid down the foundation for the Tamil intellectual movement.
He was an inspiration for Periyar E V Ramasamy, who had stated that Aydohya dasa was the pioneer for his rationalist propaganda and reformative ideas, Stalin said, hoping that his views would enlighten Tamil society.
