Tamil scholar and Pattimandram icon Solomon Pappaiah breathed his last on Friday due to age-related illness. He was 90. Condolences poured in for him from members of the film industry, politicians of all stripes, and literary circles.

After his demise, his longtime helper met the press to brief them about his last days. He said, "We just finished the shoot for his special pattimandram for Vinayakar Chaturthi. He only faced complications for the past two days."

He also revealed in the briefing that Solomon Pappaiah's last wish was to publish his work on Bharathiar, whose death anniversary, incidentally, is today. "He has completed writing the book. He used to tell me often that, 'there are many authors who have written about Bharathiar's life, but I have added some more information and if I publish it widely I will rest with satisfaction'. But unfortunately, that did not happen. We will explore options on how to publish the book posthumously," he added.

Solomon Pappaiah has served as a lecturer at his alma mater, The American College, and retired there as the Head of Department in Tamil in 1994. He has contributed greatly to the language through authoring books on poet Kambar, Aganaanooru, and Puranaanooru.

Apart from that, he took the language to the masses through pattimandrams, a regular feature on television in every Tamil household during every festival.

He was awarded the Kalaimaamani in 2000 by the Tamil Nadu government and Padma Shri in 2021 by the Indian government for his literary contributions over the decades.