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Panditha.M.Gopala Krishna Iyer (1878–1927) (பண்டித ம.கோபாலகிருஷ்ண ஐயர்), popularly known as Ma.Ko, served the cause of development of the Tamil language during the first quarter of the twentieth century. Ma.Ko. was a poet, translator, essayist, dramatist, editor of literary journals and above all a patriot. A student of the renowned Tamil scholar, Cholavandan Arasan Shanmuganar, he served in the Tamil department of Madura College for over a decade and later became Head, Dept. of Tamil, National College, Trichy. He founded the Madurai Manavar Sendhamizh Sangam on May 5, 1901 to promote interest in Tamil language among students. A friend of Pandithurai Thevar, he also served as Member and Examiner in Madurai Tamil Sangam. A close friend of Bharathiyar, he was the one who helped Bharati when he came from Ettayapuram to Madurai, first to join Sethupathi School and later to join Sudesamitran as sub-editor. A devotee of Swami Vivekananda, Ma. Ko. had accompanied King Bhaskara Sethupathy to Pamban in 1897 to receive Swamiji. When Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore visited Madurai, it was Ma.Ko. who presented a poem of felicitation to Rabindranath Tagore at a meeting of Tamil scholars in Madurai. A versatile writer and eloquent speaker, a translator par excellence, he has received accolades from celebrities like Rev. G.U.Pope, Dr.U.V. Saminatha Iyer, Mahakavi Bharathi, V.O. Chidambaram Pillai, Pandithamani Kadiresa Chettiyar and Va.Su. Chengalvaraya Pillai. Ma.Ko. was also secretary, Vivekananda Union, Madurai and Tamil professor at Native college, Madurai. The oriental and the occidental seem to have found a happy fusion in Ma.Ko. For instance, his work Filial Duty (புதல்வர் கடமை) which was prescribed by the textbook committee in 1920s contains the stories of 40 personalities who have been exemplary in observing filial duty. They include characters from Valmiki Ramayana like Sri Rama and Bharatha, from Vyasa’s Mahabharatha like Bhishma, Yudhishtira, Arjun and Nala, historical characters like Shankara, Pattinathaar, Pisiraandaiyar, ideal sons from Western culture like Alexander, Quintus Cicero, Casabianca, Samuel Johnson, Italian brothers Anabyas and Ambinomus, Spanish artist Murillo and his student Sebastian. He has drawn from a wide variety of sources and this can be attributed to his own scholarship and his erudite family. His passion and commitment to learn from all cultures is also evident in his work. == Early life == Ma.Ko. was born in the village of Lalgudi, Trichinopalli district in 1878 in a highly pious, disciplined and close-knit family. His father, Mahadeva Iyer, worked as shirastedar at Madurai sub-court. His mother Pravartha Srimathi was a highly pious lady and an embodiment of patience, from whom young Gopalakrishnan and his siblings learnt all the stories from Indian epics and puranas. He had two elder brothers, Jagadeesan and Paramasivam, a younger brother, Duraiswamy and two younger sisters Chellameenakshi and Parvatham. Ma.Ko. passed the FA examination and then learnt Tamil under the celebrated Tamil scholar, Cholavandan Arasan Shanmukanar. Ma.Ko’s articles were published in various journals from 1896 when he was only eighteen years old. In 1897, when he was 19, he had accompanied King of Ramnad, Baskara Sethupathy, to Pamban to receive Swami Vivekananda when Swami was returning to India after his heroic historic trip to the U.S. Ma.Ko was highly inspired by the magnetic personality of Swami. In July 1985 while in New York, Swami Vivekananda had composed 13 songs under the title Song of the Sannyasin. Ma.Ko. rendered a splendid translation of these 13 songs. He also served as secretary of Vivekananda Union, Madurai. On 5, May 1901, he founded the Madurai Manavar Senthamizh Sangam to promote learning of Tamil among the students. He was only 23 then and he has said that Madurai, the great centre for Tamil, did not have a Tamil Sangam then and that he founded it to fill this void. This was founded even before the founding of Madurai Tamil Sangam by Pandithurai Thevar. Ma.Ko., a close friend of Pandithurai Thevar, also served as examiner and governing member in Madurai Tamil Sangam. While carrying on these literary and academic activities, Ma.Ko. was also serving as lecturer in Tamil in the Madura College, then known as Native College of Madurai. He also founded a library and named it Nachinarkinian Memorial Library (after the celebrated Tamil scholar). Subramania Bharati used to visit this library and there developed a friendship between Ma.Ko. and Bharathi. Ma.Ko. was one of the few pundits who recognized the greatness of Bharathi. In 1904, after Bharathi quit his job in Ettayapuram, he met Ma.Ko. who helped him to get a job in Sethupathy High School. G.Subramania Iyer, the editor of Sudesamitran was another close friend of Ma.Ko. During one of his visits to Madurai, G.Subramania Iyer requested Ma.Ko. to suggest a young man to serve as sub editor. Ma.Ko. introduced and recommended Bharathi for that job. Subramania Iyer was delighted with Bharathi and asked him to come to Chennai to join Sudesamitran. In 1907, Ma.Ko attended the Surat Congress session and wrote a detailed article in the Madurai-based journal Vivekabhanu on the pandemonium that followed the split in Congress. This article, entitled, Congress Mahasabai is considered the first published report in Tamil on the Surat session. Like Bharathi and VOC, Ma.Ko. supported Lokmanya Tilak and Aurobindo Ghosh. After scanning 400 years of English poetry from Shakespeare to Tennyson, he chose over 40 pieces with aesthetic and moral values and rendered them in Tamil for the benefit of Tamil students. Among the experts who hailed him as a great translator were Rev.G.U.Pope and Bharathi. In 1909, Ma.Ko. and Kandasami Kavirayar, a great Tamil poet, published a new journal Vidyabhanu. In 1915, he compiled all his published works including his Tamil poems, translations and essays and published them under the title, Arumporuttirattu. It was sponsored by the philanthropist Pethachi Chettiyar and published by Madurai Tamil Sangam. In 1916, under the auspices of his Madurai Manavar Senthamizh Sangam he started another journal by name Vivekodhayam. Many great Tamil scholars contributed articles to this journal. This journal was hailed by patriots like Subramania Siva and V.O. Chidambaram Pillai. He used his vocation as teacher and journalist to instil value education in the young. Two of his great concerns were to inspire feelings of patriotism and develop love of Tamil language among the student population. Ma.Ko. married Dharmambal, (daughter of Annasami Iyer) and the couple had four daughters (Perunthiru, Annapurani, Savitri and Gomathi) and two sons (Sidhamoorthy and Krishnamoorthy). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「M.Gopala Krishna Iyer」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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