Malappuram-based Malayalam University is all set to hold a national seminar and international conference on Thunchath Ezhuthachan who is considered as the ‘Father of Malayalam language’.

The varsity is organizing the event in order to encourage studies and research on the 16th century devotional poet.

The newly-established university will organise a national seminar on Ezhuthachan at the India International Centre in New Delhi on April 5.

The international conference, scheduled to be held in February 2017, will be attended by scholars and experts from England and Germany.

Malayalam University Vice Chancellor K Jayakumar said, “the programmes are planned to mark the contributions of the devotional poet-scholar in the social, cultural and Renaissance history of the country.”

“Thunchath Ezhuthachan is yet to get due recognition in the pan-Indian mainstream intellectual space. We should initiate steps to place Ezhuthachan in the Bhakti movement of the country along with those like Kabirdas and Surdas,” he told a press meet here.

The Ezhuthachan Study Centre, set up by the university, is working on an Ezhuthachan Lexicon project under the editorship of Prof Deshamangalam Ramakrishnan.

The Centre is also planning to draw up a comprehensive website on Ezhuthachan and provide fellowship for studies and for preparing books on the 'Father of Malayalam', he said.

A comprehensive Ezhuthachan portal is also being planned with the objective of promoting studies and interactions on Ezhuthachan, Jayakumar said.

The varsity would also organise a national seminar on Jnanpith award winning poet ONV Kurup, who passed away at Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday, in collaboration with Kendra and Kerala Sahitya Akademies and Bharatiya Jnanpith Trust, he added.

Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University, popularly known as Malayalam University, was established in 2012 in Tirur district of Malappuram.