`Boys` companies` has an important place in the history of Tamil theatre. Most famous Tamil actors owe their entry and training to these companies of young boys, which mushroomed throughout Tamil Nadu in the first half of the twentieth century and from which they graduated. Samarasa Sanmarga Sabha, started by Sankaradas Swamigal in 1910, pioneered the trend. It is said that the behaviour of adult actors led him to take this move. He gave the boys rigorous training, among them the famous T. K. S. Brothers, S. G. Kittappa, and Mariappa Swamy. Swamigal wrote familiar stories in simple language for them. He then formed the Tattuva Minalochani Vidya Balasabha in 1918 in Madurai. Although he had direct contact only with two or three such sabbas or groups, many other troupes trained themselves through his scripts. Girls were not allowed till his former pupils, the T. K. S. Brothers, took the bold step of accepting a single girl as actress. The companies seem to have run as modern, secular versions of the ancient gurukula tradition where a guru looks after his disciples.

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