Chennai: “There are no Aryans in India, nor are there any Dravidians. You couldn’t racially separate any element of the Indian populace.” That was Iravatham Mahadevan in an interview to the harappa.com in 1998 on authority of his being a long time researcher in epigraphy and early inscriptions. An honest IAS officer, a scholarly editor of Tamil daily DINAMANI, and in the evening of his life, a perceiving philanthropist, Mahadevan passed away on November 26 at Chennai. Padma Shri award-winner was 88. He was born in 1930 at Manachanallur near Tiruchy. He began his career as a civil servant in 1954. Curiously enough, no paper or channel mentioned his life long association with the RSS. He served as a Pracharak in Thiuvannamalai. He is known to have donated the golden mangala sutra of his late wife for national defence fund. During the 26 years as a civil servant, he rose to be the advisor in the Commerce Ministry. Once when an international supplier tried to give ‘commission’, a honest Mahadevan is said to have advised him to divert it to the treasury and thus to the nation. On his demise, the highlight is that the entire political class in Tamil Nadu was unanimous in its praise for the valuable contribution of this swayamsevak to Tamil.
