Iyothee Thass

Iyothee Thass or Pandit C. Ayodhya Dasa (Tamil:அயோதயதாஸ்) (May 201845–1914) was a practitioner of Siddha medicine who is regarded as a pioneer of the Dravidian Movement.

Early Life

Iyothee Thass was born Kathavarayan on May 20, 1845cite news | last= Ravikumar| first= | title= Iyothee Thass and the Politics of Naming | date=September 28, 2005 | url =http://www.countercurrents.org/dalit-ravikumar280905.htm | work = The Sunday Pioneer | accessdate = 2008-09-09] in a Dalit family from Coimbatore district.Bergunder, Pg 9] His grandfather worked for Lord Arlington and little Kathavarayan profitted immensely from this association. Soon, he became an expert on Tamil literature, philosophy and indigenous medicine and could speak Tamil, English, Sanskrit and Pali.

Assumption of leadership of Dalits

In the 1870s, Iyothee Thass organized the Todas and other tribes of the Nilgiri Hills into a formidable force. In 1876, Thass established the Advaidananda Sabha and launched a magazine called "Dravida Pandian" in collaboration with Rev. John Rathinam.

In 1886, Thass issued a revolutionary declaration that untouchables were not Hindus. Following this declaration, he established the "Dravida Mahajana Sabha" in 1891. During the 1891 census, he urged Dalits to register themselves as "casteless Dravidians" instead of identifying themselves as Hindus.

Conversion to Buddhism

Iyothee Thass met Colonel H. S. Olcott with his followers and expressed a sincere desire to convert to Buddhism. According to Thass, the Parayars of Tamilakam were originally Buddhists and owned the land which had later been robbed from them by aryan invaders.Bergunder, Pg 10] With Olcott's help, Thass was able to visit Ceylon and obtain "diksha" from the Sinhalese Buddhist monk Bikkhu Sumangala Nayake. On returning, Thass established the Sakya Buddhist Society in Madras with branches all over South India. The Sakya Buddhist Society was also known as the "Indian Buddhist Association".cite news | last=Manikandan | first=K. | title= National Institute of Siddha a milestone in health care | date=September 1, 2005 | url =http://www.thehindu.com/2005/09/01/stories/2005090114280700.htm | work =The Hindu: Friday Review | accessdate = 2008-09-12] and was established in the year 1898. cite book | title=Reconstructing the World: B. R. Ambedkar and Buddhism in India| last=M. Lynch| first=Owen| date=2004| pages=316| publisher=Oxford University Press]

Political activism and later life

On June 19, 1907, Iyothee Thass launched a Tamil newspaper called "Oru Paisa Tamizhan" or "One Paise Tamilian". In his later days, he was a vehement criticizer of Brahmins.

Iyothee Thass died in 1914 at the age of 69.

Legacy

Iyothee Thass remains the first recognized anti-Brahmin leader of the Madras Presidency. In many ways, Periyar, Dravidar Kazhagam, Dr. Ambedkar, Udit Raj and Thirumavalavan are inheritors of his legacy. He was also the first notable Dalit leader to embrace Buddhism.

However, Iyothee Thass was largely forgotten until recent times when the Dalit Sahitya Academy, a publishing house owned by Dalit Ezhilmalai published his writings. Ezhilmalai, then the Union Health Minister, also made a desired to name the planned National Center for Siddha Research after the leader. However, the proposal did not come into effect until 2005, when vehement protests by Se. Ku. Tamilarasan of the Republican Party of India (RPI) forced the Government to take serious note of the matter.

The institute for Siddha Research was subsequently inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on September 3, 2005 and named the Dalit leader. At its inauguration, the hospital had 120 beds. The patients were treated as per the traditional system of Siddha medicine.

Criticism

Iyothee Thass was an Anglophile and staunchly against the Indian freedom movement.cite book | title=SECULARISM, MODERNITY, NATION:An Epistemology Of The Dalit Critique| url=http://www.sephis.org/pdf/nigam2.pdf| last=Nigam| first=Aditya| pages=16] In the early part of the 20th century, he indulged in vehement condemnation of the Swadeshi movement and the nationalist press remarking that he could "locate the power of the modern secular brahmin in the control he wielded over public opinion."

See also

* Dalit Buddhist Movement
* Dalit Ezhilmalai

Notes

References

* cite book | title=Anti-Brahmanical and Hindu nationalist reconstructions of Indian prehistory| last=Bergunder| first=Michael|url=http://www.theologie.uni-hd.de/rm/online-artikel/bergunder-2004-contested-past.pdf

Bibliography

*
*