Dominic Jeeva

His career began as a beautician in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. At that time, he was fascinated by Mahatma Gandhi, and the policies of Indian Congress Party. During this period he became acquainted with Tampo Rajagopal, who inspired him to read books, taught him to write and introduced him to other writers such as S. Ponnumdurai (author of the novel Sadangu). Later, Jeeva leaned towards leftist political movements and spoke in trade union meetings. He wrote his first story while working at the beauty parlour. He stated that the "beauty parlour is his university" and often praised Rajagopal as his mentor.

Though without an academic background, Jeeva became one of the most prominent writers in the Tamil world. He was the editor of Mallikai, a monthly journal on literature for more than four decades. Mallikai has been described as an important forum for the publication of progressive writing.[1] The term 'progressive writing' was a euphemism for those with Communist leaning in the 1960s and 1970s. In their writings, these progressive writers attacked vehemently the linguistic jingoism of writers belonging to the Dravidian school. Mallikai promoted Moscow-based Communist writers during the Soviet era. In the 1960s Jeeva received a Sri Lanka Sahithya Academy Award.

Jeeva was the author and publisher of many books and short stories. Jeeva established a publishing center called Mallikai Panthal.[2]

He died on 28 January 2021, aged 93.[3]

• List of Tamils of Sri Lanka
• Tamil language
• Tamil literature

• Artscope, Daily News, 14 July 2004
• Sivakumaran, K.S. (15 September 2004). "Artscope: Tradition and modernity in E. Rathinam's works". Daily News. Sri Lanka. Archived from the original on 30 September 2007. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
• Sivakumaran, K S (7 March 2018). "Many forms of love and death". Daily News. Sri Lanka. Retrieved 16 August 2020.
• Anubava Muththiraigal by Dominic Jeeva

• https://web.archive.org/web/20060424085953/http://www.sasnet.lu.se/EASASpapers/4AswiniMishra.pdf