– A renowned Tamil scholar, Ma. Po. Si has written commentaries on Silapathikaram, one of five epics in Tamil. He even conducted a Silapathikaram Vizha in 1950 to spread the merits of the epic and earned the title Silambu Selvar.

– Ma. Po. Si. was greatly inspired by freedom fighters like Veerpandia Kattabomman, V.O.Chidambaram Pillai and Subramanya Bharathiyar. He has authored many books on these freedom fighters. Especially the biography of V.O.C titled kappalottiya Thamizhan is one of the gems of his work. This was later made into a movie.

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– After a lot of struggle and infighting withing the Congress, Ma.Po.Si managed to get their approval to install a statue of V.O.C. in Chennai (The relationship between V.O.C and Congress turned sour after Congress failed to support V.O.C and his movement in the fight for freedom. After having spent all his younger years serving Congress, V.O.C felt abandoned and severed his ties with the Congress.

– Ma. Po. Si played a very important role in determining the boundaries of present day Tamil Nadu. Though he lost his battle for Thirupathi, he won Thiruthani and Madras. He also won his battle with Kerala by securing Kanyakumari and Sengottai for Tamil Nadu.

– He also took part in agitations to rename Madras presidency as Tamil Nadu.

Author – Ilavaluthy M