Tamil scholar from France gets award
Professor Gros receiving the Kural Peedam award in Puducherry on Friday| G Pattabiraman
The award carrying a citation and `5 lakh, was handed over to Gros by Gnanamoorthy, director-in-charge of the Central Institute of Classical Tamil, Chennai, in presence of the Consul General of France in Puducherry, Pierre Fournier.
Prof Gros, a researcher at the French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP) was earlier presented the award in absentia by the President Pranab Mukherjee on December 21, 2012, at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, New Delhi, which he could not attend owing to health reasons.
Later, addressing the gathering Professor Gros said that classical Tamil needed to be kept alive in modern age to understand tradition, culture and value.
The function was attended by French Institute director, Dr Pierre Grard and staff.
Gros was closely associated with the activities of the French Institute (l’Institut Français) of Pondicherry over a long period of time in Tamil classical literature.
He was involved in the translation of ‘Paripatal’, a text of ancient corpus called Sangam, (Prix Saintour 1969 of l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres) and Livre de l’Amour de Tiruvalluvar (1992), and Tamil Saiva devotion in its various aspects.
He also studied and translated poetry and iconography of Karaikkalammaiyar, Tevaram (1984, edition under the patronage of UNESCO), Periya Puranam (2001), fundamental text of medieval literature, and the works of Arunagirinatar (1980), lyrical expression of a bilingual regional culture, Tamil and Sanskrit.
He was deeply interested in integrating archaeology and study of monuments with history, through epigraphy and environment. In the year 1970, he produced a monograph on Uttaramerur.
In the year 1980, he launched a multidisciplinary project on Tiruvannamalai mobilising the resources of Pondicherry and his associates for fifteen years, and later in 1985 he launched a project on the Kaveri valley.
Sri Lanka objects to clearance given for GTF meet
March 4, 2013
The Sri Lankan government has objected to the clearance given to hold an anti-government meeting at the British parliament premises last week.
An External Affairs Ministry spokesman said that the government had also raised objections with the British Foreign office after officials of the British government also attended the meeting.
Deputy British Prime Minister and Leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg, Senior Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and former Conservative Party Chairman Baroness Warsi were among those attended the meeting organized by the Global Tamil Forum (GTF).
Leader of the British Opposition and Labour Leader Ed Miliband, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Ed Davey and Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander were also in attendance.
“Our High Commission in London had conveyed our concerns on the participation of some British government officials at the conference,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Rodney Perera told Colombo Gazette today.
British Prime Minister David Cameron had issued a statement ahead of the conference where he called on all parties in Sri Lanka to work together to heal the country.
Meanwhile Ed Davey, the British Secretary of State for Energy, in a separate statement, said that following the terrible events of last months of the war in Sri Lanka, Britain hoped that a credible accountability and reconciliation processes would be put in place to enable long-lasting peace to take root on the island.
He said the United Nations institutions – including bodies mandated by the Secretary-General, international human rights groups and Channel 4 News have all revealed, and continue to expose, evidence that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by both sides during the war.
The first ever preview of the ‘No Fire Zone’, the third film in the ‘Sri Lanka Killing Fields’ series, directed by Callum Macrae was also presented and screened by Callum at the conference. (Colombo Gazette)
