Tho Paramasivan — eminent writer, anthropologist, archeologist and professor — breathed his last at a government hospital in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli on Thursday. His friends and students fondly remembered him as a ‘walking library’ and as a man with a multifaceted career. He was 69 years old.
On Thursday, Lena Kumar, a friend of Tho Paramasivan and owner of Yaathumagi publications said, “At 4 pm, Tho Paramasivam experienced suffocation and he was rushed to a private hospital by his son Masanamurthy near his home at Mela Veethi in Palayamkottai. The doctors detected that fluids had entered his lungs and told the family to shift him to another hospital since the hospital lacked a ventilator. He was then immediately taken to Rosemary Mission Hospital near bypass road.”
“However, the hospital did not admit him due to the COVID-19 scare. He was then taken to Tirunelveli Government Hospital but by then, the golden hours were lost and soon, Tho Pa breathed his last,” he added. The doctors said that Tho Pa had a serious lung infection. The writer was also diabetic. Lena Kumar said, “The Tamil Nadu government or the District Collector could have swiftly helped with his treatment so that the Tamil scholar would have been saved.”
Politicians, writers, students and Tamil scholars offered condolences to the family of Tho Paramasivan, who is survived by a wife and two children.
Tho Paramasivan, fondly called Tho Pa, was born in 1950 at Palayamkottai in Tirunelveli district. Tho Pa’s father passed away when he was young and he was raised by his mother in Tirunelveli. He completed his schooling and pursued BA in Economics at Madurai University. He then completed MA in Tamil from Alagappa University in Karaikudi and worked as a professor for a brief period, until he quit his job to complete his doctorate in 1976.
During his PhD, Tho Pa was instructed to research about select temples in the state. He decided to research on Azhagar Kovil in Madurai, which would later turn out to be one of his best works. His PhD thesis, which was released as a book titled Azhagar Kovil, is still widely read by Tamil scholars.
Lena Kumar, who also published the books of Tho Paramasivan, remembered him as a walking library. “Tho Pa was a walking library who knew Sanga Illakayam, anthropology and archeology and his demise is a great loss to the state.”
Tho Pa wrote several books in Tamil that continue to hold value in the Tamil literary space. Lena, who was Tho Pa’s friend for over 20 years, added, “I have published his books Naan Hinduvala Neengal, Valithadangal,Theivam Enbathoor among others. He is a walking dictionary also because he knows the root words of many Tamil words. For example, he would only use the word Deivam and not Kadavul, to refer to god.”
“Tho Pa viewed the temple as a treasury that he always believed should reach the masses instead of the hands of people placed at top of a hierarchy,” he said.
Tho Paramasivan was a Periyarist. Yet, the writer never stopped writing about the ancient history of temples. The reason, Lena Kumar points out, is because Tho Pa understood Periyar in great detail and he emphasised that the next generation should not just see Periyar as an atheist or as a man opposing religions.
“Tho Pa used to say that Periyar always criticised the business and caste politics behind the temples. Periyar threw away a Vinayakar statue but never damaged a siru deivam (small rural god) since there was a political movement emerging out of Vinayakar. Tho Pa used to explain the difference between both,” said Lena Kumar.
Remembering Tho Pa, Sahitya Akademi awardee and writer Cho Dharman said, “He was a scholar to whom we could ask any doubt. He had fine skills wherein he would tell the age of a temple or a structure just by looking at it. He also had nuance to find the nature of the temple and the deity that would have been present in the structure. He was an encyclopedia.”
“Many important personalities including actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan used to visit his home. Till today, his books on Azhagar Kovil are debated by the Tamil circles. I have no words to say but that I have lost a guide,” he said.
(With inputs from Mathew TP)