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இளங்குமரனார் தமிழ்வளம் - 27
diffusionof religious (especially Saiva), ethical, and worthy secular literature, classical as well as modern, and worthy secular literature, classicalas well as modern, and also at promoting a two-way Suez Canal-like traffic in letters:: Tamil into other languages, and Singnificant literature in other languages (notably English) into Tamil. There was to the a stress also on Scholarship, exegesis research, literary criticism and interpretaton. The first book to be issued under the Kazhagam imprint was, appropriately enough, Tiruvadi Pugazhamalai, and while the first year saw the publication of ve books, the 2nd saw seven, the 3rdthriteen, the 4th twenty, nd so on. Forty years after, In 1961, the 1008th book came out, and today the total in 1750 or more, averaging 25 per year, or one bookfor every 13 days during the entire 60-year period of the Kazhagam's existence.
Tiruvaranganar at Tirunelveli and Va Su at Madrasconstituted between them a resourceful and energetic publishing duumvirate for about 25 years, from 1920 to 1944. Good book- publishing is a taxing and trcky vocation that calls for a rare union of secular and spiritual qualities. A book has a soul as well as a body, aham and not alone puram it calls for the mobilisation of several instruments of production. Buildings, printing facilities, finance, editorial expertise,talent for marketing. pleasing and effective public relations, and above all a flair for the location of writing talent and its mobilisation :: all are needed. And Tiruvaranganar and Va. Su. were able to assemble a dedicated group of writers andeditors, and publish a body of literature (mainly in Tamil), both impressive in bulk and marked by a varegated richness. Tiruvaranganar's marriage to Maraimalai Adigal's daughter, Nilambikai, in 1927, and Va Su's to Mangayarkarasi (daughterof Tiru Aundiappa Pillai of Palayamkottai), in 1935 brought a humanising influence to the brothers' lives; and Tiruvaranganar in Tirunelvaly and Va Su in Madras worked in perfect co-ordination devoted to the claims of the hearth and equally to the exaction demands of book- publishing as well as advancing the other aims of the Kazhagam.
