By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter
S Abdul Rahman, a Tamil poet, passed away on Friday at the age of 79. Abdul Rahman was popularly known as ‘Kavikko’, and his last rites will be performed on Saturday.
‘Kavikko’, means Emperor of the poets, was born in Madurai in 1937. He taught Tamil for about 29 years as professor in Islamiah College, Vaniyambadi of Vellore district. In later years of his life, he devoted himself towards full-time writing.
Abdul Rahman was closely involved in the Vanambadi literary movement. He is survived by a son and a daughter.
His poetry collection ‘Aalapanai’ won the Sahitya Akademi award for Tamil in 1999. During those times, ‘Kavikko’ Rahman stood before Akademi for rights of Tamil writers and poets. He made several remarks over payment dues of Tamil writers by Akademi.
In the year 2009, he was appointed as the Chairman of Tamilnadu Waqf Board. He was also a member of the Tamil Language Promotion Board of the Central Institute of Classical Tamil.
Abdul Rahman received many awards for his literary contributions, among which the chief ones are Sahitya Akademi (1999), Tamilnadu State Government’s ‘Kalaimamani’ award (1989), ‘Agni Akshar’ award (1992) and ‘Bharathidasan’ award (1989).
While talking to The Hindu, D. Ravikumar, Tamil poet-writer and Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi general secretary, said “Kavikko” had successfully experimented new forms in Tamil poetry.