உதயதாரகை (Morning Star) was the first Tamil newspaper in the world.
The newspaper, first published in 1841, was founded by two young Tamil missionaries, Henry Martin and Seth Payson, who were working for the American Mission based in Manipay, a northern district of Jaffna in Sri Lanka.
While it started as a bilingual fortnightly publication with Tamil and English articles, it became a weekly Tamil-only newspaper in 1856. The newspaper, donated by Mr John Koh, covered a wide range of topics, such as education, science, literature, agriculture, government and religion. It also provided a condensed version of important news. The National Library holds 24 issues of Morning Star, from Volume 8, Number 1, published on January 14, 1847 to Volume 8, Number 24, published on December 23, 1847