The image of saint-poet Thiruvalluvar’s statue in Kanyakumari, lashed by waves caused by the tsunami and encircled by seven icons from the Indus Valley Civilisation, forms part of the logo of the World Classical Tamil Conference to be held in Coimbatore next June.
The logo emphasises the ideal of the mankind that it should always be free of narrow walls of race, creed and casteism. The message is found in a palm leaf manuscript at the bottom of the statue. This concept (“pirapokkum ella uyirkkum”) has been declared the motto of the meet.
The figures of the Indus Valley Civilisation icons, found in the logo, symbolise the Dravidian civilisation, which is regarded as one of the four ancient civilisations, according to an official release.
The number of icons stresses the importance of ‘seven’ in the lives of Tamils.
The list of world Tamil Conferences held so far are listed below:
| No | Conference Name | Host City | Host State/Country | Year | Arranged by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | First World Tamil Conference | Kuala Lumpur | Malaysia | 1966 | |
| 2 | Second World Tamil Conference | Chennai | Tamilnadu, India | 1968 | C.N.Annadurai, Chief Minister of TamilNadu |
| 3 | Third World Tamil Conference | Paris | France | 1970 | |
| 4 | Fourth World Tamil Conference | Jaffna | SriLanka | 1974 | |
| 5 | Fifth World Tamil Conference | Madurai | Tamilnadu, India | 1981 | M.G. Ramachandran, Chief Minister of TamilNadu |
| 6 | Sixth World Tamil Conference | Kuala Lumpur | Malaysia | 1989 | |
| 7 | Seventh World Tamil Conference | Mauritius | |||
| 8 | Eighth World Tamil Conference | Thanjavur | Tamilnadu, India | 1995 | J. Jayalalitha, Chief Minister of TamilNadu |
| 9 | World Classical Tamil Conference 2010[3] | Coimbatore | Tamilnadu, India | 2010 | M. Karunanidhi, Chief Minister of TamilNadu |
