Noted Linguist and Scholar Dr Scaria Zacharia passes away

Kochi: Noted Malayalam linguist, researcher, and professor Dr. Scaria Zacharia passed away at the age of 75 due to an age-related illness. He died at his residence in Changanasserhy, Kerala, on Wednesday.

He served as Head of the Department of Malayalam at S.B. College, Changanassery, and Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, for a long. Dr. Zacharia carried out research along with linguists and cultural researchers in the country and abroad and pioneered the branch of cultural studies as a discipline in Kerala.

Dr. Zacharia, along with scholar Albrecht Frenz, had recovered the Thalassery Manuscripts — Hermann Gundert’s works in his own long hand during his two­decade stay in Illikkunnu Bungalow in Thalassery — from the library at the University of Tubingen, Germany, in 1986. He was also the first Hermann Gundert Chair Professor at the University.

He was presented with an honorary D. Litt by the Thunchath Ezuthachan Malayalam University and Mahatma Gandhi University and has won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi’s Lifetime Achievement award.