The Pandit who became a Swami

Batticaloa-born S. Mailvaganam, born of one of those rare Northern and Eastern Province alliances in Ceylon, studied both Arts and Science, excelling in both, before going on to be the first from Ceylon to pass the Pandit Examination of the Madurai Tamil Sangam c.1915. It was while he was Principal of the Manipay Hindu College, Jaffna, that this staunch Saivite got interested in the teachings of Swami Ramakrishna. To pursue his interests further, he arrived at the Ramakrishna Mission in Madras in 1922. Two years later, he was initiated into the Order and took the name Swami Vipulananda. While with the Mission in Madras, he edited its Tamil and English monthly journals, Ramakrishna Vijayam and Vedanta Kesari, respectively. He also, during those years, began to delve deeper into Tamil language, literature and history, publishing prolifically on them in English and Tamil.

When a University Commission met in Madurai in 1926, Swami Vipulananda addressed it and urged the establishment of a Tamil University in the Tanjore-Trichinopoly area — an idea that was to become reality over 75 years later. Annamalai Chettiar (later to be titled Rajah Sir) was one of those who heard his plea, and after discussions with him, decided to establish Annamalai University in Chidambaram. In 1931, Swami Vipulananda was to become its first Professor of Tamil. When the University of Ceylon was established in 1937, he was appointed its first Professor of Tamil, but kept urging the establishment of a Tamil University in Nallur, Jaffna, the capital of the Arya Chakravarty dynasty.

The Tamil Swami-Pandit during all these years kept contributing significantly with his pen to the Ramakrishna Mission. Then the Mission beckoned — and after a spell in Calcutta in charge of education, he was sent to his birthplace, Batticaloa, to establish the Mission at a new frontier.

In 1945, giving evidence before the National Languages Commission in Ceylon, he advocated Swabhasha and a three-language formula — education from kindergarten to university in the mother tongue (Tamil or Sinhalese), with the other language and English, which he stressed, compulsory subjects. It's a dream that still awaits fulfillment.