President gives away Presidential awards for Classical Tamil

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee today gave away Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil for the years 2011-12 and 2012-13 here. While S V Shanmugam, a legend in the field of linguistics, received Tolkappiyar Award for the year 2011-12, eminent Tamil scholar R Krishnamurthi got the Tolkappiyar Award for the year 2012-13.

Reputed German Scholar Eva Maria Wilden, who is working on classical Tamil, received Kural Pitam Award (Foreigner) for the year 2011-12.

K Iyyappan, E Ezhilvasanthan and K Jawahar received Young Scholar Award for the year 2011-12 and A Sathish, R Venkatesan, B Jaiganesh, M R Devaki and U Alibava bagged the Young Scholar Award for the year 2012-13.

The Presidential Awards for Classical Tamil were instituted to give recognition and honour to distinguished scholars who have made outstanding contribution to Classical Tamil language and literature.

These awards include one "Tholkappiar Award" for life time achievement to an Indian scholar for outstanding contribution in the field of Tamil studies and two Kural Peedam Award for eminent scholars of Classical Tamil of non-Indian origin and "Young Scholar Awards" for scholars in the age group of 30-40 years for showing interest and excellence in Tamil studies.