(Maalan Narayanan)
Sri Lankan Tamil writing has a long and checkered history. During the 19th century, most of the Sri Lankan Tamil writing was of religious nature, in with three distinct traditions, Hindu (Saiva) Tamil texts, Christianity books and pamphlets, and Islamic literature. Arumuga Navalar, (1822-1879) a Hindu revivalist, adopted to modern prose and western editing techniques. Vattukkotai Arunachalam Pillai (1820-1895) who later assumed the name J.R.Arnold after conversion to Christianity published the first collection of short stories in 1899. Mohamed Kasim Sidee Lebbe (1838-1898) authored the first Tamil novel of Sri Lanka in the year 1885.