FOREWORD
Dr. K.R.SRINIVASA IYENGAR
Retd. Vice-Chancellor
Andhra University.
Former Vice President
Sathithya Akademi, Delhi.
It is with pleasure that I Write this Foreword to Pulavar R. Ilankumaran's detailed account of the life-work and times of Tiru Va Subbiah Pillau, whose name has become almost synonymous with the Personality, drive and achievements of the Tirunelveli South India Saiva Siddhanta Book- Publishing Kazhagam and its several affiliated instittuions. I have been a distant admirer of Tiru Va. Su for many years, and since my boyhood years in Tirunelveli. I have watched the Saiva Siddhanta Book-Publishing Society grow from its early auspicious beginings to its prsent impressive strength and healthy wide- ranging influence. I therefore welcome this opportunity to offer my own tribute to the Man and the Kaxhagam he has fostered with such care and clear sense of direction.
Dr. Johnson's words "slow rises worth by poverty depressed" had a close application to the first phase of Tiru Va Su's life and career, Tlhe fourth son of Vairamuthu Pillai and Sundarathammayar of Palayamkottai, Subbiah losthis father when barely three, and two of his brothers and his only sister before he was twenty-five. On his elder brother, Tiruvaranganar, senior by seven years, fell the responsibility of sustaining the family throught its difficult years. He found employment in a commercial establishment in Colombo in 1907, and during the next ten years, his monthly remittance were the mainstay of the family. In the meantime, Subbiah passed his S.S.L.C. in 1916 from St. Xavier's High School, Palayamkottai, and proceeded to Colombo to continue his studies. But not long after, illness made him return to Palayamkottai, however, he duly passed the London Matric in 1917 as a private candidate. Failing to secure admissin to the Madras Medical College in 1918, Va Su groped about for a while, till he presently found his great mission in life as salesman of the nectar of Tamil letters.
