ABSTRACT
A. Madhaviah (1872-1925) was one of the great social reformers of the time. Like others he drew upon indigenous texts to validate modern Western innovations on human rights. What was more unusual about him was that he brought to bear his literary talent in Tamil and English as well as his knowledge of Tamil and Sanskrit thought. He was born in Tirunelveli District and graduated from Madras Christian College in 1892 and taught there for five years. When Madhaviah published Padmavati Charitram (1898), the ‘third’ modern novel to be composed in Tamil, he became instantly famous. His greatness lies in his humanistic prescriptions for modern society. Living amidst orthodox brahmins in Madras, he bravely challenged gender and caste discrimination and the focus of his writing throughout his life was child marriage, sati (the immolation of widows), and the ill-treatment of widows. He faced social ostracism for practicing what he preached. Not only did he educate his five daughters, but he refused to allow them to remain in abusive marriages. Not only did he reiterate the need for women’s education, but he shocked society by attacking the custom of child marriage, and by promoting widow remarriage. He denounced caste exclusion, and retold the legend of the leather worker Nandanar (first mentioned in the twelfth century), the untouchable bhakti saint venerated by Tamils. In his final incomplete novella,
‘Padmavati Charitram: Munram Bhagam’, he proposed a common civil code for all sects and castes.
