He clearly understood the changing pulse of the socio-political, cultural-religious fabric of the country. In the 1980s, he was able to spot the churn and realized the need for both the mutt and its head to have a different profile other than being a sentinel of religious rites and rituals. It is this belief that made him to openly take on the Hindu-baiter and former chief minister M Karunandihi on the language issue, by asserting that 'Sanskrit was his father tongue and Tamil his mother tongue'. It is considered a bravura explanation.