Pen name Devan Died 5 May 1957, Chennai | Notable works Thuppariyum Sambu | |
Born 8 September 1913
Thiruvidaimarudur, Thanjavur District, India ( 1913-09-08 ) Occupation Managing editor, Ananda Vikatan Movies Agnidevan, Aranyakam, Arayannangalude Veedu, India Gate, Rudraksham Similar K Madhu, Arjun Sarja, Gireesh Puthenchery, Siddique, Hariharan | ||
Devan (R. Mahadevan) (8 September 1913 – 5 May 1957) was a 20th-century Tamil writer, known for his witty and humorous stories.
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Devan was a competent and accomplished writer, who used several interesting and varied techniques in fiction writing. From travelogues to recipes, from detective stories to social dramas, he has written them all.
Early life
Devan was born in 1913 at Thiruvidaimarudur in Thanjavur district, Tamil Nadu, India, where he did his schooling. He came to Kumbakonam Government College to complete his B.A. degree. He worked as a school teacher for a year, before joining the popular Tamil weekly magazine, Ananda Vikatan in 1933. Devan's first foray into the world of writing was through the humorous short story "Mister Rajamani", written when he was in his twenties.
Life as an editor
Devan started as a Sub-Editor at Ananda Vikatan in 1933. After Kalki Krishnamurthy left Vikatan, worked as Managing Editor from 1942 to 1957.
During this time, he wrote about 20 serials, more than 500 stories, articles and travelogues. A common feature in all his works was his gentle sense of humour. He was a very popular writer and stories abound of how, when a new issue of Ananda Vikatan came out, everyone in the family would fight to get hold of the copy first.
Devan worked under famous writers like Kalki Krishnamurthy and S. S. Vasan. It was his wish that his stories get published as books, but sadly this did not happen in his lifetime, due to the nature of his contract with Vikatan.
During this time, he also served as Chairman of the Tamil Writers' Guild twice, and helped to promote Tamil literature.
Devan was the editor of Ananda Vikatan until his death in 1957. In his short life, he experimented with different types of writing – travelogues, detective novels, articles, short stories, travelogues, current affairs. Devan's books are a joy to read even today, when social values and techniques in fiction writing are so different.
About ten of Devan's writings were also dramatised by several Tamil drama troupes, even during his lifetime. He himself wrote most of the dialogues for the plays. More recently, some of his works like Thuppariyum Sambu, Sriman Sudharsanam and Mister Vedhantham were made into television serials also. Only one of his novels, gOmathiyin kAdhalan, was made into a movie, starring T. R. Ramachandran and Savithri.
Notable works
All of Devan's stories and travelogues were serialised in Ananda Vikatan (with, perhaps, one exception, 'Mythili' which was serialised in 'Naradar'). His writiings are copyright of the Devan Endowments. Recently, many of Devan's works have been published by Alliance Publishers, Chennai, India. 'Kizakkup padhippagam' has also recently started publishing Devan's writings. One of his novels, Justice Jagannathan, has been translated into English.
His writings include :
Novels:
Other collections of stories, articles and travelogues include: