FOREWORD
K. RAMALINGANAR, M.A.
The life history of Thiru. V. Tiruvarangam Pillai, entitled 'Arangar' is a valuable addition to the very few biographical works in Tamil. Tiruvarangam, shortened as 'Arangar', in this book, impressed me as a man of action, when I used to meet him now and then at Madras, before 1938. The love and reverance I had for the venerable Maraimalai Adigal and the fact that Tiruvarangam Pillai became the beloved Son-in-law of that great savant endeared Arangar to me.
In 1938, I was posted to Palayamcottai as Municipal Commissioner and Tiruvarangam Pillai became a close acquaitance of mine. The acquaitance grew into friendship and gradually into fraternity. We used to meet each other frequently. During my visits to his house, his spouse Neelambigai Tiruvarangam and his aged mother Sundaram were hospitable to me.
Tiruvarangam Pillai made his appearance outside dressed in a 'dhoti' with coat on and an upper garment over the latter. The coat had huge pockets bulging with all sorts of useful scripts and documents collected from knowledgeable persons and scholars of merit, whom he met while on his literary pursuits. I had never seen the pockets empty. When once he visited me in my house, I showed him the notebook in which I had copied my poems. He read them with avidity and expressed a desire to take the notebook with him so that the poems could be printed and published.
From my personal contacts with him and the impressions I gained therefrom, I can vouchsafe that a true and graphical account of his personality has been portrayed in this biography. Tiruvarangam Pillai's passion for work cannot be better expressed effectively than
