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Njattyela Sreedharan, a self-taught linguist whose monumental enactment linked 4 Dravidian languages successful a azygous dictionary, passed distant aboriginal Thursday (August 13, 2025) portion undergoing attraction for age-related ailments successful Kannur, Kerala. He was 87.
Mr. Sreedharan was celebrated for compiling the Chathur Dravida Bhasha Padhaparichayam, a enactment hailed arsenic a milestone successful the survey of South Indian languages. Known to galore arsenic Kannur’s ain Hermann Gundert, his bequest lies not conscionable successful his books, but successful his content that connection binds communities.
His work, nurtured done decades of persistence, remains a testament to the powerfulness of self-learning and taste curiosity.
At the of 82, erstwhile astir would see slowing down, Mr. Sreedharan was painstakingly compiling implicit 1 lakh words crossed Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.
The 860-page volume, archetypal published with the assistance of the Senior Citizens Forum’s Vayalalam portion during his tenure arsenic president, became a uncommon notation treasure. For each Malayalam entry, helium provided equivalent words successful the different 3 languages, on with variations successful meaning and usage.
In May 2023, the Kerala Language Institute brought retired the 2nd variation of his work. Plans for Malayalam-Kannada and Malayalam-Telugu dictionaries soon followed. When publishers hesitated to instrumentality connected the task, the Senior Citizens Forum erstwhile again stepped in, raising ₹4 lakh to nutrient 500 copies.
Unconventional way to scholarship
Mr. Sreedharan’s way to assistance was unconventional. Forced to driblet retired of school, helium began moving successful a beedi mill successful Palakkad. Between shifts, helium cleared his ESCL (eighth modular public) introspection and picked up Tamil from the section assemblage astatine Kalpathy. Drawn to the satellite of words, helium immersed himself successful literacy programmes, teaching others portion deepening his ain knowing of scripts, grammar and colloquial speech.
The turning constituent came during his tenure arsenic a blueprinter successful the Public Works section erstwhile helium met T.P. Sukumaran, a prof astatine Nirmalagiri College, Kannur. Encouraged to make a dictionary of Malayalam dialects, Mr. Sreedharan expanded the idea, deciding alternatively to nexus the 4 large Dravidian languages.
Learning Kannada from workfellow Govinda Naik and writer C. Raghavan, helium spent weeks successful Karnataka for an immersive study. For Telugu, helium recovered teachers successful Taliparamba’s District Agricultural Farm serviceman Eashwaraprasad Rao and his woman Seethamma and further refined his skills done repeated stays successful Nellore, Andhra Pradesh.
After retiring from the Irrigation section successful 1994, Mr. Sreedharan dedicated himself wholly to the dictionary. His earlier Malayalam-Tamil dictionary, published by the Kerala State Institute of Languages successful 2012, hinted astatine the standard of his vision. But the multilingual enactment faced hurdles – shortage of proofreaders, deficiency of evaluators and organization hesitation – until the Senior Citizens Forum yet backed the project.
The last edition, which helium often referred to arsenic his large accomplishment, cemented his estimation arsenic a taste span builder.
Over the years, Mr. Sreedharan was honoured with the Dr. T.P Sukumaran Master award, the Gundert grant and the India Reading Olympiad Special Jury award. He besides served arsenic Kannur taluk president of Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham and was a subordinate of the State Council of the NGO Union.
