Source : The New Indian Express
He was suffering from cancer for quite some time and was being treated at a private hospital Villupuram district.
CHENNAI: Well known Tamil writer Prabhanchan (73) passed away today. He was suffering from cancer for quite some time and was being treated at a private hospital Villupuram district.
Prabhanchan was born in 1945 in Puducherry. His original name was S Vaidyalingam. He had worked as a Tamil teacher in Thanjavur and worked as a journalist leading Tamil weekly and fortnightly journals. He was known for inclination towards the self-respect movement. His father was a functionary of Indian National Congress.
Prabhanchan’s works started coming out in print from the year 1961. He has authored over 300 stories and published 18 collections of short stories, 14 novels, one novelette and one collection of play. He was honoured with Sahitya Akademi award in 1995 for his novel ‘Vaanam Vasappadum’. In 1982 and 1986, he received the best writer award from the Tamil Nadu government. In 1986, he also received Puducherry government’s best writer award. Many of his works have been translated into English and French.
His magnum opus was Vanam Vasappadum encapsulates the founding, consolidation and collapse of French colonial rule in India with Puducherry at its centre. Giving the history between 1740 and 1750, the novel was laced with historical events during the French regime. Prabhancan has written this novel based on the diary of Anandarangam Pillai, the dubash for the French government. This novel was later translated into English as “Beyond the Sky” by P Balasubramanian.
