2ND LEAD

Professor Sivathamby passes away

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 06 July 2011, 19:43 GMT]
Professor Karthigesu Sivathamy, an Eezham Tamil legend of Tamil Studies passed away on Wednesday 8:20 p.m. local time at his home in Dehiwala, Colombo. He succumbed to heart attack at the age of 79. The funeral rituals are scheduled to be held on Sunday at his residence in Colombo and the cremation will take place at Kanatta crematorium by 4:00 p.m. TamilNet joins the millions all over the world in paying tribute to the scholar who has been providing academic leadership to Tamils. He is survived by his wife Rupavathy Sivathamby and three daughters, Mangai, Kothai and Varthani.

Born in Karaveddi in Jaffna in 1932, Prof Sivathamby studied under Prof Kanapathipillai at the University of Ceylon. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham.

After serving the parliament of Ceylon as translator and teaching at the Zahira College, and Vidyodaya University in Colombo, he was long steering the Tamil and Aesthetic Studies departments of the University of Jaffna since late 1970s. He was emeritus professor of the University of Jaffna until his demise.

Prof Sivathamby has also served the University of Madras, Tamil Univeristy of Thanjavur, Jawaharlal Nehru University of New Delhi, Cambridge University of UK, and universities in Finland and Norway as Visiting Professor.

He has authored more than 70 books and over 200 research papers in Tamil and English.

He also served the Tamil Refugee Rehabilitation Organisation (TRRO) as its president for some time in the late 1980s.

The late Mr. D. Sivaram, a senior editor of TamilNet, until his assassination, was closely associated with Prof. K. Sivathamby.