APPENDIX B

Pioneer Biographies
of the Indian Period from 1947

S. Manoharan (*1951)

Manoharan is one of only a handful of linguists with a deep interest in and knowledge of the Andamanese language family. As far as we can tell, he holds the world record on the number of publications on this subject. Unfortunately, a number of his works remain unpublished and others are difficult to get hold of.

Manoharan was born in the Tuticorin district of Tamil Nadu state, near the southernmost tip of India. He received his schooling up to higher secondary level at his native village. He graduated in linguistics in 1974 at Annamalai University, a leading center of Dravidian studies.

Dr. Manoharan joined the Anthropological Survey of India in 1975 and was posted first to Calcutta and then to Port Blair where he did intensive field work among the Great Andamanese and the Nicobarese. In 1981 he received his PhD for his Descriptive Study of the Andamanese Language in which he confirmed that the Andamanese languages together formed an isolated language family with no discernible connections to other languages. The thesis remains unpublished but his work of 1989 A Descriptive and Comparative Study of the Andamanese Language could draw on his earlier work and has the makings of a standard work - if it was not so difficult to get hold of.

Dr. Manoharan was last heard of working as Assistant Linguist at the Anthropological Survey of India's southern regional center at Mysore.

  

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