Sreekanteswaram G. Padmanabha Pillai (1865–1946), popularly known as Sreekanteswaram, was an Indian lexicographer and scholar from Kerala, best known for his Malayalam dictionary Sabdatharavali.
Life
Padmanabha Pillai was born in 1865 in Sreekanteswaram, Thiruvananthapuram (Trivandrum), in present-day Kerala, India. He studied English, Tamil, and Sanskrit. At a young age, he wrote the works Duryodhanavadham and Dharmaguptavadham. He later worked as a lawyer by profession.
Lexicographical Work
He began work on Sabdatharavali at the age of 32. The first part of the dictionary was published in 1918. The complete dictionary, which runs to more than 1,600 pages, took twenty years to finish. He also prepared a pocket dictionary in 1906. His son, P. Damodara Pillai, later compiled a concise version of Sabdatharavali.
Other Works
Padmanabha Pillai wrote approximately sixty books over his lifetime. He also ran the magazine Bhashavilasam for a period. At the time of his death, he left two dictionaries incomplete: Sahityabharanam and an English-Malayalam dictionary.
