Periyar Dasan

Periyar Dasan was an eminent speaker and activist from Tamil Nadu He was a Tamil Scholar and thinker He propagated Atheism and Rationalist ideologies for most part of his life He has also appeared in Tamillanguage films He had acted in around 15 films starting with Karuthamma Born in a shaivite family he was attracted towards the rationalist ideals of Periyar E V Ramasamy founder of the Dravidian movement During his days in Pachaiyappas college he changed his original name Seshachalam to Periyar Dasan Ardent follower of Periyar He well versed in Tamil literature various religious studies and English and he has authored around 120 books He was served as a professor in his alma mater Pachaiyappas college for 34 years In 1991 Periyar Dasan embraced Buddhism and added Siddartha as a prefix to his name He translated the Dhammapada a compilation of Buddhist virtues authored by BR Ambedkar into Tamil This took him to learn Pali and Sanskrit Taking everyone by surprise he embraced Islam as his way of life on 11 March 2010 during a visit to Mecca and rechristened his name as Abdulla Periyardasan Thereafter he started giving a series of lectures on Islam Before embracing Islam he spent 10 years in knowing the key aspects of that religion and learning the Holy Quran and the Arabic language Since 2004 he stopped his propagation of atheism