Njattyela Sreedharan, self-taught linguist and creator of four-language Dravidian dictionary, passes away at 87

Njattyela Sreedharan, a self-taught linguist whose monumental work linked four Dravidian languages in a single dictionary, passed away early Thursday (August 13, 2025) while undergoing treatment for age-related ailments in Kannur, Kerala. He was 87.

Mr. Sreedharan was celebrated for compiling the Chathur Dravida Bhasha Padhaparichayam, a work hailed as a milestone in the study of South Indian languages. Known to many as Kannur’s own Hermann Gundert, his legacy lies not just in his books, but in his belief that language binds communities.

His work, nurtured through decades of persistence, remains a testament to the power of self-learning and cultural curiosity.

At the of 82, when most would consider slowing down, Mr. Sreedharan was painstakingly compiling over 1 lakh words across Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu.

The 860-page volume, first published with the help of the Senior Citizens Forum’s Vayalalam unit during his tenure as president, became a rare reference treasure. For each Malayalam entry, he provided equivalent words in the other three languages, along with variations in meaning and usage.

In May 2023, the Kerala Language Institute brought out the second edition of his work. Plans for Malayalam-Kannada and Malayalam-Telugu dictionaries soon followed. When publishers hesitated to take on the task, the Senior Citizens Forum once again stepped in, raising ₹4 lakh to produce 500 copies.

Unconventional path to scholarship

Mr. Sreedharan’s path to scholarship was unconventional. Forced to drop out of school, he began working in a beedi factory in Palakkad. Between shifts, he cleared his ESCL (eighth standard public) examination and picked up Tamil from the local community at Kalpathy. Drawn to the world of words, he immersed himself in literacy programmes, teaching others while deepening his own understanding of scripts, grammar and colloquial speech.

The turning point came during his tenure as a blueprinter in the Public Works department when he met T.P. Sukumaran, a professor at Nirmalagiri College, Kannur. Encouraged to create a dictionary of Malayalam dialects, Mr. Sreedharan expanded the idea, deciding instead to link the four major Dravidian languages.

Learning Kannada from colleague Govinda Naik and writer C. Raghavan, he spent weeks in Karnataka for an immersive study. For Telugu, he found teachers in Taliparamba’s District Agricultural Farm officer Eashwaraprasad Rao and his wife Seethamma and further refined his skills through repeated stays in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh.

After retiring from the Irrigation department in 1994, Mr. Sreedharan dedicated himself entirely to the dictionary. His earlier Malayalam-Tamil dictionary, published by the Kerala State Institute of Languages in 2012, hinted at the scale of his vision. But the multilingual work faced hurdles – shortage of proofreaders, lack of evaluators and institutional hesitation – until the Senior Citizens Forum finally backed the project.

The final edition, which he often referred to as his great accomplishment, cemented his reputation as a cultural bridge builder.

Over the years, Mr. Sreedharan was honoured with the Dr. T.P Sukumaran Master award, the Gundert award and the India Reading Olympiad Special Jury award. He also served as Kannur taluk president of Purogamana Kala Sahitya Sangham and was a member of the State Council of the NGO Union.