from a Biographical Introduction by
James T.
Rutnam, 1985
[see also S.J.Gunasegaram - Selected Writings
]
Samuel Jeyanayagam Gunasegaram was born on the 21st
March 1901 at Chundikuli in the Jaffna Peninsula. He
was the eldest son of Joseph Muttiah Gunasegaram, whose
family originally hailed from Maviddapuram, and Susan
Arulpragasam of Moolai. He had the advantage of
receiving a sound primary education under his father -
a school-master, Christian catechist and Tamil
scholar.
Gunasegaram was a devoted and loyal alumnus of St.
John's College, a leading educational institution in
Jaffna, where he served for a time (1922 to 1934) as
Senior Master in English and History. He was the Editor
of the Jubilee Number of the College Magazine in 1932
and the author of the College Anthem.
He was one of the earliest students of the University
College, Colombo, and he also attended the Colombo
Training College for Teachers, where he distinguished
himself by winning the prize for short-story writing
and the Gold Medal at the annual oratorical contest. At
the Training College he came under the influence of the
late Professor Leigh Smith who taught him Shakespeare
and English Poetry, subjects which never failed to
absorb Gunasegaram's interest. He took Tamil at the
London Matriculation examination, and later secured the
Tamil Teacher's Certificate of the Education
Department, qualifying in Tamil Language and
Literature. He graduated as an external student of the
University of London with Second Class Honours in
Philosophy, and finally obtained the Master's degree
specialising in History of Philosophy and Sociology.
Professor J.L.C. Rodrigo has stated that he was "one of
the first of our pupils to specialise in Sociology".
Gunasegaram was a most versatile student, and some of
the subjects, besides Tamil, where he obtained
proficiency at the various London University
examinations were Latin, History, English, Logic and
Ethics.
Gunasegaram was the Principal of St. Thomas College,
Matara, for two years until 1936, when he was invited
to join the Government Inspectorate of Schools. He was
soon made a Divisional Inspector of Schools, later
Education Officer. He served in the Western, Northern,
Eastern and Central Provinces of Ceylon. For a time he
was at the Head Office of the Education Department at
Colombo and in charge of all Government Schools in the
Island. He was also a District Commissioner in the
Ceylon Scout Movement. In 1956 he retired from the
Government Educational Service. His last appointment at
Colombo before he left for Jaffna in 1958 was at St.
Thomas College, Mount Lavinia, where he was a popular
teacher under Warden de Saram.
He just missed an appointment as Reader in Philosophy
at the University of Ceylon, but latterly he was
appointed by this University as a tutor in English to
new entrants who had been educated at school in the
Sinhala and Tamil media. He was a founder-member and a
modest benefactor of the Tamil University Movement and
a member of its Executive Committee. He lectured in
English and Philosophy to undergraduates at Navalar
Hall, the Colombo institution of the Movement. He was
associated with R.R. Crosette Tambiah in the production
of the monthly journal "Tamil" during 1955.
He was a popular public lecturer and had visited Malaya
where he lectured on such subjects as Tamil Language
and Literature, Tamil Culture, Tamils in South-East
Asia and Ceylon History. He was a member of the Ceylon
Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, the Tamil Cultural
Society and the Classical Association where he read
interesting papers on Tiruvalluvar's Kural and on
Socrates.
He was a sportsman of no mean ability, a member of the
Football teams at St. John's and the Colombo Training
Colleges, and a Tennis Champion of the Eastern Province
in Ceylon. He liked swimming, being a confident and
daring swimmer, and he would often be seen solitarily
enjoying himself afloat in the Indian Ocean by the
shores of Mount Lavinia or Batticaloa. In his prime he
was a perfect example of mens sana in corpore sano.
The last few years of Gunasegaram's life were the most
noteworthy. They formed a glorious sunset. He devoted
these years almost entirely to the study of Tamil
Culture. It was truly a crowded life he lived -
"crowded with culture" as Professor Rodrigo has
approvingly written. One could say that this last and
most notable and valuable phase of his life commenced
in 1955 with his association with the journal
"Tamil".
He then began his eventful career as an unceasing
writer to the Press and a vigilant defender of what he
held to be true, an exciting career, taken all in all,
that was terminated by the cruel blow of death.
He died in his sleep at his home in Kopay, Jaffna,
before the day dawned on the 4th January 1964. An
indefatigable worker, he died in harness. He was at his
desk among his books until late that night working on
his latest piece of research on Vallipuram, an ancient
seat of the Tamil Kingdom of Jaffna.
Well deserved tributes were paid to Gunasegaram in the
Ceylon newspapers. The Times of Ceylon published his
epitaph the day following his death, fittingly
recording, "whoever wanted to get away with half truths
found this scholar a thorn in the flesh". The Hindu
Organ mourned the death of a "zealous protector of
Tamil culture".
Professor Emeritus J. L. C. Rodrigo formerly Professor
of Classics of the University of Ceylon lost no time to
write in his inimitable style in the Ceylon Daily News
as follows, "like many of the strongest advocates of
the Tamil cause I knew, he counted many Sinhalese among
his friends. Despite their political differences, their
personal relations were as cordial as ever. No petty
prejudices marred his friendship". Professor Emeritus
F. H. V. Gulasekharam, formerly Professor of
Mathematics and Registrar of the University of Ceylon,
wrote in the Times of Ceylon "In addition to a sound
knowledge of Tamil, his acquaintance with Sanskrit,
Pali, Sinhala, Elu and Prakrit, was
remarkable…His copious quotations from German,
English and Indian scholars indicate in some measure
the extent and depth of his scholarship". F. B.
Wijayanayake, a cultured Sinhalese gentleman, wrote to
the Times of Ceylon, "Though I have not known him
personally except through the medium of the press, his
demise has indeed created a void, and I am sure the
reading public will miss his scholarly contributions to
the Press".
R. R. Crosette Tambiah, former Solicitor-General of
Ceylon and Commissioner of Assize and the Editor of the
journal "Tamil" wrote to the Morning Star offering the
following bouquet, "As he entered our home, there would
be the loud call of greeting, and then that cascade of
conversation, our home team drinking in every word. If
the theme was part of Tamil History or Tamil Culture,
the flow of words was copious and spontaneous, the
result of a lifetime of reading and
meditation…… This sincere man, this true
man, this courageous man, this shining one has been
taken away in the most crucial year of our struggle for
existence. I sit and stare at the falling rain and I
ask why? I sit and stare at the falling
rain….".
D. J. Thambapillai, a friend from his boyhood days,
wrote to the Morning Star, "During the last few years
of his life, his one thought which became almost an
obsession with him, was the future of the Tamils in
Ceylon… He worked hard in his own way to
safeguard the dignity, and self-respect of the Tamil
race in Ceylon. He wielded his pen, which he could do
with such ease and ability, in safeguarding and
fighting for the rights of the Tamils. The Tamils have
lost in him a sincere and ardent worker." M.
Chelvatamby, one of his many admirers, wrote to the
Hindu Organ, "Mr. Gunasegaram's (forthcoming) book on
Kathirkamam and the Kathirkamam God, I thought, was
going to be a revealing and epoch-making one".
The above tributes and panegyrics expressed with such
obvious sincerity, understanding and sense of loss were
well-deserved and it is meet that we should record them
here.
The Times of Ceylon had acknowledged that he was "one
of the most prolific contributors to the Letters to the
Editor column of the Times of Ceylon" and added,
"Inaccuracies and misinterpretations of historical
facts, especially where they concerned his community
always found a correction from Mr. Gunasegaram".
Gunasegaram, who in the past used to declaim in the
periods of Burke, address himself to be the Ocean in
the manner of the majestic numbers of Byron in "Childe
Harold" and soliloquise impeccably like Hamlet, later
turned to the classics of Tamil Literature for his main
mental sustenance. No Tamil who has heard him recite
the mellifluous lines of Kamban's Ramayanam would ever
fail to remember the spell-binding effect of that
unique poetry when uttered so effectively by
Gunasegaram.
No one who knew him can ever forget Gunasegaram chant
the psalms of Tayumanavar and other Saivite Saints, or
forget that glow of pardonable pride on his face when
he softly rolled the agglutinated syllables of Tamil
from his lips. Have you heard him sing with the supreme
joy of the satisfied man? Have you heard his uproarious
laughter?
Wijayanayake in the Times of Ceylon had written, "It
would be a tribute to the departing scholar if all his
writings were collected and published as a memoir. Even
posthumously the fruits of his research should be
edited and printed without additions or subtractions
giving the naked truth as seen by him." We are happy
that such a publication of some of his writings is now
forthcoming.
One of Gunasegaram's articles to the first issue of the
journal "Tamil" in January 1955, was on the Prophet
Mohamed. In the same issue reviewing Rajagopalachari's
English translation of the Mahabharata, he reveals
himself in autobiographical foot-note worthy of record.
"The Writer" he says, speaking of himself, "recalls the
thrilling experience he had in his quiet little home in
the Northern Ceylon, many years ago, when he with his
two brother (one alas! the keenest of them, no longer
alive), listened in the evening to his father, as he
sang in Tamil verse and interpreted it into graphic
Tamil prose the stirring incidents of this grace Epic.
It laid the foundations of that literary taste which
later led him and his brother to search for the pearl
of great prize in the classics of other lands, with the
aid of that wonderful 'open sesame' the English
Language - and thus experience priceless delights".
The pages of the Tamil, which continued its publication
for one year, contain a number of other interesting
articles by Gunasegaram. He had written on the
Mahavamsa, Indo-Aryans and several reviews of books,
notably one on Nilakanta Sastri's History of South
India. He had also translated into English verse the
references to Tiruketiswaram and Tirukonamalai found in
the hymns of Sambanthar and Sundarar. A specially
interesting contribution is his Sonnet to Jaffna which
appeared in the February issue of the Tamil. Its two
stanzas reveal a depth of feeling and love for Jaffna
so characteristic of the man.
"But thou, dear Jaffna, loving nurse of
mine…..
to me art lovelier far than all…."
The Rev. Father Xavier Thani Nayagam, editor of the
prestigious journal Tamil Culture had published five
articles by Gunasegaram during the years 1957 to 1963,
all of which, excepting the one on the poet Bharathi,
are being included in the present volume. Apart from
these, Gunasegaram had published a large number of
notes and comments as "Letters to the Editor" to the
daily newspapers, some of which are perhaps lost
forever, hidden as they are in the files of the
media.
Gunasegaram had on some occasions
challenged popular or hitherto more accepted versions
of history, and had been proved correct according to
critics. But he has also been opposed. There is of
course no finality to history. Gunasegaram's writings
are deserving of close study and the highest
consideration.
