Tamil Thai (Tamil: தமிழ்த்தாய், Tamiḻ Tāy, Tamizh Thai), denotes the deified personification of the Tamil language as a mother. This deification of Tamil language in the persona of a mother got established during the Tamil renaissance movement of the later half of the nineteenth century. The phrase became popular in the Tamil speaking world after the publication of a song invoking and praising Tamil mother in a play titled "Manonmaniyam" written by Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai (1855 – 1897) and published in 1891. The song with music composed by M.S. Viswanathan has since been adopted as the state song of Government of Tamil Nadu.