Founders and Prize Day

S Kathirgamar THAMBI -Jaffna Special Correspondent

The Founders and Prize Day of Karampon Shanmuganathan Maha Vidyalaya was celebrated on Monday. The school that had a humble beginning was founded in a thatched roofed cottage.

The founder Sri Mahadeva Swamigal founded this school to impart Saiva education to the children of Karampon. A handpicked voluntary Saiva teachers served on the staff without getting any remuneration. Swami Mahadeva introduced a devise to remunerate the teachers.

He made small ola baskets and distributed them to Saiva residents of Karampon West and asked them to put a handful of rice daily in the basket when rice is cooked on the hearth.

Thus the rice collected known as 'Pidi Arisi' (handful of rice) - as the saying goes 'Little drops of water make a mighty ocean' - Pidi Arisi accumulated into many measures of rice when collected at the end of the month. The rice was sold in the market and the proceeds were paid as salary to the teachers.

To begin with this school started as a Hindu Tamil school and as years went by it was made a Bilingual school.