M P Sivagnanam

The full name of M.P.Sivagnanam is Mylapore Ponnusamy Sivagnanam . He was popularly known as Ma.Po.Si. He was born on 26th June in 1906 at Salvankuppam in Chennai to the parents, Ponnuswamy and Sivagami . By occupation, he was a poet and journalist. He was a great national leader, Tamil scholar. He couldn’t complete his education due to the financial problems of his family. During his teenage, he worked on daily wages and later he worked as a weaver for eight years. His life began as a compositor in the Tamil Journal Press. After working for few days, he became the chairman of Tamil Nadu Legislative Council . He continuously fought for making the Madras (Chennai) as a Tamil Nadu state capital. During the ‘Madras Manade’ movement, Ma.Po.Si agitated against Telugu people claim to organize meetings, rallies, dharnas etc. with slogans in the Tamil language.

It happened through Tamil Arasu Kazhagam. He also spent his life in prisons, while struggling for independence. During a part of his life, when he was in Amaravathi prison, he started his literary journey. He was interested in Sangam literature. He took Subramanya Bharathi as his tutor and wrote around ten research books on Bharathi. Some of the books are Vallalarum Bharathiyam (1965), Malaga Mahakavi Bharathi (1966), Bharathiyar Pathaiyile (1974), and much more. He earned the title ‘Silambu Chelvar’ by R.P.Sethu Pillai, because of his extensive research on Silapathikaram. He even wrote few books on Silapathikaram. Some of them are Veerakanagi (1958), Kovalan Kutravaliya (1971), Silambil Edupatathu Eppadi (1994) and much more.

A Tamil movie was taken on Ma.Po.Si’s biography, which was directed by B.R.Panthulu . Ma.Po.Si wrote many other books on Veerapandiya Kattabomman, V.O.Chidambaram Pillai, Thiruvalluvar. Few of his books also got translated into English. In 1972, he was awarded Padma Sri for Literature and Education and Sahitya Akademi Award for Tamil. He was in Educational Service for a long time as a Chairman of several committees and also as a Senate member. He also visited many foreign countries as a representative. A few books were written on him by his daughter and also by Thirumalai. During his lifetime, he authored more than 100 books. He also participated in the Tamil Nadu demarcation. It was due to all his efforts that the state could continue to have Madras (Chennai) and also got Tiruttani from the state, Andhra Pradesh. Later, a commemorative stamp was released in his honor in 2006. He died on 3rd October in 1995 at Chennai in Tamil Nadu.