Changanassery: Noted Malayalam linguist, researcher, and professor Dr. Scaria Zacharia passed away here due to an age-related illness.
He was 75, and is survived by his wife Marykutty Scaria (Kalekkattil, Kummannur, Pala), children Dr. Suma Scaria (Karnataka Central University, Gulbarga), Dr. Arul George Scaria (National Law University, Bangalore), son-in-law Dr. V.J. Varghese (Hyderabad Central University) and daughter-in-law Dr. Neeta Mohan (Pakkatte, Peerumedu).
He worked as a Lecturer at the S.B. College, Changanassery, before serving as the Malayalam Department Head at the Kalady Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit.
Dr. Zacharia was part of several major research projects that gained international attention when he associated with reputed linguistic scholars and cultural researchers from foreign countries like Germany, Israel, and the US. He introduced the knowledge branch of ‘Cultural Studies’ in Kerala.
Dr. Zacharia contributed immensely to the development and evolution of the Malayalam language through his pioneering research works. He played a key role in recovering the archival knowledge and Malayalam manuscript, including that of Hermann Gundert, from the University of Tubingen in Germany, and publishing the digital versions of the same.
The most important of his many research papers were published in two volumes under the name ‘Malayalavazhikal’. He also authored a good deal of research-oriented literary works like ‘Udayamperhurh Sunahadosinde Kanonakal’ and ‘Malayalam & Hermann Gundert’.
Dr. Zacharia founded TAPASAM, the Association for Comparative Studies, and started the journal Tapasam, a UGC-approved quarterly bilingual publication and among the best in the section.
His contributions in the areas of Malayalam Language Studies, Cultural Studies, Literary Historiography, Jewish Malayalam studies, Comparative literature, Translation Studies, Textual Analysis, and folklore among others vastly helped the various research works and fields related to Malayalam and Kerala attain international standards.
He delivered public lectures at many leading universities across the world, like Harvard, Oxford, and Cambridge, following invitations. Recently, MG University conferred the honorary DLitt (Doctor of Letters) degree on him. Besides, Dr. Zacharia was also bestowed with the Distinguished Fellow of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi.
