Tamil publisher Vanathi Thirunavukkarasu, who brought out books of popular figures in political and literary, world died here on Tuesday. He was 88 and is survived by wife, son and three daughters.
He was instrumental in publishing Rajaji’s Kambaramanayam and Mahabharatham , Kanchi Sankaracharya’s Deivathin Kural , Kalki’s historical novels, Chandilyan’s novels, Kannadasan’s Arthamulla Indu Madham , Sahitya Akademi winner Neela Padmanabhan’s novel and Swamintha Athreyan’s Thyagaraja Anubhavangal - short stories capturing the moments that led to composition of Thyagaraja’s keerthans.
An ardent fan of Kalki and his writings, Mr. Thirunavukkarasu, a native of Devakottai, chose the name Vanathi, one of the characters in Ponniyin Selvan for his publishing house. One of his daughters is also named Vanathi. He also published Kalki’s works in volumes.
Mr. Thirunavukkarasu worked in Burma with his father and the World War II forced them to return to India. “We walked all the way to India. It took us over a month-and-a-half,” he is quoted as saying.
As his mother was angry with him for not having cleared his SSLC examinations, he arrived at Chennai and worked in freedom fighter Chinna Annamalai’s farm. After a brief stint with Tyagi and Vai. Govindan’s Sakthi, he along with his friend Tamilvaanan ran a magazine Jill Jill . After experimenting with a few small publications he launched Vanathi Pathipagam (publications).
In its six decades of existence, Vanathi Pathipagam has brought out over 8,000 titles and many of them are best sellers running into multiple editions.
