Sukumar Azhikode

Literature

Dr. Sukumar Azhikode (b. May 26, 1926 Azhikode, Kerala, India) is a teacher, critic and orator, acknowledged for his contributions to Malayalam literary criticism and insights on Indian philosophy.

Sukumar Azhikode completed BCom in 1946, later BT in Malayalam and MA & PhD in Sanskrit. Azhikode was a teacher at Rajas High School,Chirackal St. Aloysius College,Mangalore and Devagiri College,Kozhikode and later a principal at SNM Training College, Moottakunnam, and a professor and Pro-Vice Chancellor at Calicut University. He retired in 1986.

Azhikode is the founder/president of Navabharathavedi - a socio-cultural organization. He has also worked at several newspapers including Dinabandhu, Malayala Harijan, Desamitram, Navayugam and Dinaprabha and was the Chairman of National Book Trust of India between 1993 and 1996, and also edited Malayalam newspaper Varthamanam. He is unmarried and lives at Viyyoor near Thrissur town.

Works

Azhikodes' most famous work is Thathvamasi (1984, Malayalam), an authoritative book on Indian Philosophy, Vedas and Upanishads. Thathvamasi has won twelve awards including the Indian Sahithya Academy and Kerala State Sahithya Academy Prizes, Vayalar Award and the Rajaji Award.

Azhikode considers the great Vagbhadananda Guru as his teacher and Guru's book Aathmavidya as the stepping stone to his later pursuits on Vedas and Upanishads. In the introduction to Thathvamasi he remembers how his father forced him to study Sanskrit during his childhood which later became the foundation for his extensive research on Indian philosophy.