AMU mourns noted linguist’s death

Expressingsorrow on the sad demise of noted linguist, Malayalam scholar and former faculty member of AMU, Padmashri Dr Vellayani Arjunan (90), Prof. T.N. Satheesan, a professor of Malayalam and former chairperson, department of modern Indian languages, AMU said that Dr Arjunan was the first Malayalam teacher in AMU.

Aligarh :: The faculty members and students in the department of modern Indian languages, Aligarh Muslim University expressed sorrow on the sad demise of noted linguist, Malayalam scholar and former faculty member of AMU, Padmashri Dr Vellayani Arjunan (90) who passed away on May 31 in Thiruvananthapuram.

Born in Kerala in 1933 Dr Arjunan completed his education in Kerala and later obtained three D.Litt degrees from Jabalpur University, Agra University and Aligarh Muslim University. (Sourced)

Prof. T.N. Satheesan, a professor of Malayalam and former chairperson, department of modern Indian languages, AMU said that Dr Arjunan was the first Malayalam teacher in AMU who joined as a lecturer in the department of Hindi and South Indian Languages in 1961.

“It is a great loss to the comparative Indian literature. Dr Arjunan had been working for the last 60 years in the field of comparative Indian literature, introducing Malayalam literature to Hindi speakers and vice versa,” he said.

Born in Kerala in 1933 Dr Arjunan completed his education in Kerala and later obtained three D.Litt degrees from Jabalpur University, Agra University and Aligarh Muslim University. He supervised 20 research scholars and published more than 100 research papers and articles. He served two terms at the State Institute of Encyclopaedic Publications as chief editor from 1975 to 1988 and as director from 2001 to 2004.