Iyothee Thass Pandithar

The Tamil Nadu government has installed a statue of Dalit rights and anti-caste activist Iyothee Thass Pandithar in Chennai.

It will unveiled at Gandhi Mandapam on December 1, 2023. He was a prominent Tamil anti-caste activist and practitioner of Siddha medicine.

Birth – On May 20, 1845 in the former Madras Presidency.
Languages known – Tamil, English, Pali and Sanskrit.
Tribal activist – He organised the tribal people in the Nilgiris in 1870’s and then started Advaidananda Sabha in 1876.
Against Untouchability – He founded Panchamar Mahajana Sabha in 1891 along with Rettaimalai Srinivasan.He stressed that untouchables are not Hindus and shall be considered as Adi-Tamilars.
Renaissance of Buddhism – He established the ‘Sakya Buddhist Society’ in Madras in 1898 with branches all over South India, which is also known as Indian Buddhist Association.
Literature – He launched ‘Dravida Pandian’ magazine in 1885 along with John Rathinam and in 1907, he launched ‘Oru Paisa Tamizhan’, a Tamil newspaper.
Empowered depressed class – He succeeded in getting 1000’s of acres of lands and distributed among the landless poor under the scheme of ‘Panchami Lands’.

Panchama are people who do not belong to the Varna system. They are called Avarna communities.

Recognition – The Siddha Institute of Studies (National Siddha Institute) at Tambaram, Chennai was established in 2005 and named after the anti-caste Buddhist leader.
A commemorative stamp was issued in his honour in 2005.
His work was nationalized and in 2008 he was given alimony to his legal heirs.

Iyothee Thass Pandithar is also known as the ‘Father of Social Reforms in South India’ and also described as ‘Dravida Peroli’.

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