- Iyothee Thass
Iyothee Thass or Pandit C. Ayodhya Dasa (Tamil:அயோதயதாஸ்) (
May 20 1845 –1914) was a practitioner ofSiddha medicine who is regarded as a pioneer of the Dravidian Movement.Early Life
Iyothee Thass was born Kathavarayan on
May 20 ,1845 cite news | last= Ravikumar| first= | title= Iyothee Thass and the Politics of Naming | date=September 28 ,2005 | url =http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-ravikumar280905.htm | work = The Sunday Pioneer | accessdate = 2008-09-09] in a Dalit family fromCoimbatore district .Bergunder, Pg 9] His grandfather worked for Lord Arlington and little Kathavarayan profitted immensely from this association. Soon, he became an expert on Tamil literature, philosophy and indigenous medicine and could speak Tamil, English, Sanskrit and Pali.Assumption of leadership of Dalits
In the 1870s, Iyothee Thass organized the
Todas and other tribes of theNilgiri 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.In 1886, Thass issued a revolutionary declaration that untouchables were not Hindus. Following this declaration, he established the "Dravida Mahajana Sabha" in 1891. During the 1891 census, he urged Dalits to register themselves as "casteless Dravidians" instead of identifying themselves as Hindus.
Conversion to Buddhism
Iyothee Thass met Colonel H. S. Olcott with his followers and expressed a sincere desire to convert to Buddhism. According to Thass, the
Parayars ofTamilakam were originally Buddhists and owned the land which had later been robbed from them byaryan invaders.Bergunder, Pg 10] With Olcott's help, Thass was able to visitCeylon and obtain "diksha " from the Sinhalese Buddhist monk Bikkhu Sumangala Nayake. On returning, Thass established the Sakya Buddhist Society inMadras with branches all overSouth India . The Sakya Buddhist Society was also known as the "Indian Buddhist Association".cite news | last=Manikandan | first=K. | title= National Institute of Siddha a milestone in health care | date=September 1 ,2005 | url =http://www.thehindu.com/2005/09/01/stories/2005090114280700.htm | work =The Hindu: Friday Review | accessdate = 2008-09-12] and was established in the year 1898. cite book | title=Reconstructing the World: B. R. Ambedkar and Buddhism in India| last=M. Lynch| first=Owen| date=2004| pages=316| publisher=Oxford University Press]Political activism and later life
On
June 19 ,1907 , Iyothee Thass launched a Tamil newspaper called "Oru Paisa Tamizhan" or "One Paise Tamilian". In his later days, he was a vehement criticizer of Brahmins.Iyothee Thass died in 1914 at the age of 69.
Legacy
Iyothee Thass remains the first recognized anti-Brahmin leader of the Madras Presidency. In many ways,
Periyar ,Dravidar Kazhagam ,Dr. Ambedkar ,Udit Raj andThirumavalavan are inheritors of his legacy. He was also the first notable Dalit leader to embrace Buddhism.However, Iyothee Thass was largely forgotten until recent times when the Dalit Sahitya Academy, a publishing house owned by
Dalit Ezhilmalai published his writings. Ezhilmalai, then the Union Health Minister, also made a desired to name the planned National Center for Siddha Research after the leader. However, the proposal did not come into effect until 2005, when vehement protests by Se. Ku. Tamilarasan of the Republican Party of India (RPI) forced the Government to take serious note of the matter.The institute for Siddha Research was subsequently inaugurated by
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh onSeptember 3 ,2005 and named the Dalit leader. At its inauguration, the hospital had 120 beds. The patients were treated as per the traditional system ofSiddha medicine .Criticism
Iyothee Thass was an
Anglophile and staunchly against theIndian freedom movement .cite book | title=SECULARISM, MODERNITY, NATION:An Epistemology Of The Dalit Critique| url=http://www.sephis.org/pdf/nigam2.pdf| last=Nigam| first=Aditya| pages=16] In the early part of the 20th century, he indulged in vehement condemnation of theSwadeshi 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."See also
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Dalit Buddhist Movement
*Dalit Ezhilmalai Notes
References
* cite book | title=Anti-Brahmanical and Hindu nationalist reconstructions of Indian prehistory| last=Bergunder| first=Michael|url=http://www.theologie.uni-hd.de/rm/online-artikel/bergunder-2004-contested-past.pdf
Bibliography
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