Iyothee Thass

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Iyothee Thass
Born
Kathavarayan

(1845-05-20)20 May 1845
Madras, Madras Presidency, British India
Died5 May 1914
NationalityIndian
Occupations
Known forSouth Indian Sakya Buddhist movement
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C. Iyothee Thass (20 May 1845 – 1914) was an Indian anti-caste activist and a practitioner of

Paraiyars to do the same, arguing that this was their original religion.[1] He also founded the Panchamar Mahajana Sabha in 1891 along with Rettamalai Srinivasan
. Panchamas are the ones who are outcastes.

"Iyothee Thass" is the most common Anglicized spelling of his name; other spellings include Pandit C. Ayodhya Dasa, C. Iyothee Doss, C. Iyodhi Doss, C. Iyothee Thoss, K. Ayōttitācar (avarkaḷ), K. Ayōttitāsa (paṇṭitaravarkaḷ),[1] or Ayothidas Pandithar.[2]

Early life

Iyothee Thass possessed deep knowledge in Tamil, Siddha medicine and philosophy, and literary knowledge in languages such as English, Sanskrit and Pali.[3]

Iyothee Thass was born Kathavarayan on 20 May 1845

Ootacamund (now Ooty) and little Kathavarayan profited immensely from this association.[5]

Early Activism (1870 - 1900)

In 1870, Iyothee Thass founded Adhvaidhananda Sabha, considered one of his early institution-building activities. Later, in 1891, he established the Dravida Mahajana Sabha and organized its First Conference in Ooty. The conference addressed issues such as enacting criminal laws against the humiliation of untouchables and providing education and employment opportunities for them. Iyothee Thass actively engaged with the colonial census and sought recognition for the Depressed Classes as Adi-Tamilar, distinct from Hinduism.[6]

In the 1870s, Iyothee Thass organized the

Nilgiri Hills into a formidable force. In 1876, Thass established the Advaidananda Sabha and launched a magazine called Dravida Pandian in collaboration with Rev. John Rathinam.[4]

In 1886, Thass issued a revolutionary declaration that Scheduled caste people (

Dalits) were not Hindus.[4] Following this declaration, he established the "Dravida Mahajana Sabha" in 1891. During the 1891 census, he urged the members of Scheduled castes to register themselves as "Casteless Dravidians" instead of identifying themselves as Hindus.[4] His activities served as an inspiration to Sri Lanka's Buddhist revivalist Anagarika Dharmapala.[7]

Conversion to Buddhism

Iyothee Thass met

Madras with branches all over South India. The Sakya Buddhist Society was also known as the Indian Buddhist Association[8] and was established in the year 1898.[9]

Identifying the caste system's origin with the decline of Buddhism, Iyothee Thass urged Dalits to return to Buddhism for the annihilation of caste. In 1898, he embraced Buddhism during a visit to Sri Lanka and founded 'The Sakya Buddhist Society.' The society established branches in various locations, including South Africa and Sri Lanka. Iyothee Thass's efforts aimed at constructing a casteless identity for Dalits. He emphasized the need to record Buddhism as their religion in the census, challenging the established caste hierarchy.

Later life and work (1900 - 1914)

On 19 June 1907, Iyothee Thass launched a weekly Tamil newspaper called

Oru Paisa Tamizhan or One Paise Tamilian and Dravidia Pandian,[7] later known simply as The Tamilan, which he ran until his death in 1914. This newspaper became the main instrument of his criticism against caste power.[10] In addition to hosting Iyothee Thass' editorials, the newspaper gave a voice to the public, including members of the Dalit community, who had the opportunity to publish articles on areas such as "religion, law, Tamil literature, economy, agriculture and a Ladies Column"[10].: 22  The newspaper enjoyed a wide reach among marginalized communities and took an explicit anti-caste stance, also reflected in its refusal to use caste names[10]
.: 22 

Iyothee Thass fought (unsuccessfully) with the

Parayars to enter Vishnu and Shiva temples, traditionally denied to Dalit communities, and advocated with the British for free education up to the fourth grade and allocation of unused lands to oppressed Parayars.[10]
: 24 

Iyothee Thass died in 1914 at the age of 69.[5]

Brahmanisation of Thiruvalluvar

Iyothee Thass claimed that his grandfather Kandappan worked as a butler of George Harrington, a European Civil Servant possibly in Madurai district. During the same time,

Tiruvalluva Maalai (a hagiographic anthology of Valluvar and his work) and the Naaladi Naannurru (also known as Naalatiyaar, a poetry collection from the Sangam period).[11] According to popular sources, Kandappan preserved the works from destruction after finding the manuscripts written on palm leaves in a pile of leaves used for cooking. Kandappan had them delivered to Ellis.[11]

The books were finally published in print for the first time in 1831 thanks to the collaboration between Ellis, his manager Muthusamy Pillai, and Tamil scholar

Valluvar's possible parentage as the son of a brahmin father and a pariah mother contributed to historical distortion and "co-opting Thiruvalluvar and his work into the brahminical Hindu value system".[11][12]

Thass found the discrepancy between the 1831/1834 texts and the 1835/1837 texts notable, suggesting a deliberate intervention. Thass proposed that the publication of Thirukkural by Ellis likely alerted the brahmanas to the existence of an ethical text authored by a valluvan, a sub-sect of the pariahs. This awareness may have led them to reconcile their views on the social status of valluvans and pariahs with the newfound intellectual strength and achievements demonstrated in Thirukkural. To address this, Thass suggested that a new genealogy for Thiruvalluvar emerged, attempting to align him with noble birth. Different versions of these stories circulated, with the 1847 edition by Muthuveerapillai and Vedagiri Mudaliar linking Thiruvalluvar's birth to puranic myths. Thass argued that these stories, often inconsistent and absurd, aimed to distance Thiruvalluvar from his Buddhist origins and integrate him into the brahminical Hindu value system.[11][12]

Legacy

Iyothee Thass remains the first recognized anti-caste leader of the Madras Presidency. In many ways,

Periyar, Dravidar Kazhagam, and B. R. Ambedkar are inheritors of his legacy. He was also the first notable Scheduled Caste
leader to embrace Buddhism.

However, Iyothee Thass was largely forgotten until recent times when the

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Anbumani Ramadoss the then Union Health Minister on 3 September 2005 and named it after the anti-caste Buddhist leader.[8] At its inauguration, the hospital had 120 beds.[8] The patients were treated as per the traditional system of Siddha medicine.[8]

A commemorative postage stamp on him was issued on 21 October 2005.[13] His works are nationalized and solatium was given to their legal heirs in 2008.[14]

Criticism

In the early part of the 20th century, he indulged in vehement condemnation of the Swadeshi movement and the nationalist press remarking that he could "locate the power of the modern secular brahmin in the control he wielded over public opinion."[15]

See also

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1075/hl.31.1.05ber
    .
  2. ^ Geetha, V., and S. V. Rajadurai. “Dalits and Non-Brahmin Consciousness in Colonial Tamil Nadu.“, p.2091. Economic and Political Weekly, vol. 28, no. 39, Economic and Political Weekly, 1993, pp. 2091–98, [1]
  3. ^ Vignessh (20 May 2020). "Iyothee Thass: The man who gave Tamils a new identity". The Federal. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Ravikumar (28 September 2005). "Iyothee Thass and the Politics of Naming". The Sunday Pioneer. Retrieved 9 September 2008.
  5. ^ a b "Death centenary of a Dravidian leader". The Hindu. Coimbatore, India. 13 November 2014.
  6. ^ today, Team Ambedkarite (20 May 2019). "Iyothee Thass (1845-1914) – Biography and life history | Our Heros". The Ambedkarite Today. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Taking the Dhamma to the Dalits". The Sunday Times. Sri Lanka. 14 September 2014.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g Manikandan, K. (1 September 2005). "National Institute of Siddha a milestone in health care". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 7 November 2007. Retrieved 12 September 2008.
  9. ^ M. Lynch, Owen (2004). Reconstructing the World: B. R. Ambedkar and Buddhism in India. Oxford University Press. p. 316.
  10. ^ a b c d Ayyathurai, Gajendran (2011). Foundations of Anti-caste Consciousness: Pandit Iyothee Thass, Tamil Buddhism, and the Marginalized in South India (Ph.D.). Columbia University, Department of Anthropology.
  11. ^
    JSTOR 4400205.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  12. ^ a b "Iyodhee Thass Pandithar: A Pioneer in Dalit History and Literature". The Wire. Retrieved 31 January 2024.
  13. ^ "Stamps-2005". Department of Posts, Government of India. Archived from the original on 30 July 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  14. ^ "Tamil development - Budget speech" (PDF). Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly. 20 March 2008. Retrieved 2 August 2013.
  15. ^ Nigam, Aditya. SECULARISM, MODERNITY, NATION:An Epistemology Of The Dalit Critique (PDF). p. 16. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 May 2018. Retrieved 10 September 2008.

Further reading

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