Parithimaar Kalaignyar was a Vedic scholar and priest born in a Brahmin Iyer family as Suryanarayana Sastri who lived in the 19th century. He studied the Tamil language

Tamil language

Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

 intensively and, along with Maraimalai Adigal

Maraimalai Adigal

Maraimalai Adigal was an eminent Tamil orator and writer. He was a devout Hindu as a staunch follower of Saivism. He has authored more than 100 books, including works on original poems and dramas, but most famous are his books on his research into Tamil literature. Most of his literary works were...

, started advocating 'purification' of the language by removing Sanskrit

Sanskrit

Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

 loan words. He also changed his original name SuriyaNaaraayana Shaasthrigal translated into Centamil (classic Tamil) as "ParithiMaal Kalaignyar" meaning 'the scholar by the name of the Black God (Thirumaal, referring to Vishnu

Vishnu

Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....

), the master of the Sun God'.