Subramania Bharati: The Pinnacle Of Tamil Literature

18^th September, 2021 was the 100^th death centenary of Mahakavi Subramania Bharati. Chinnaswami Subramaniya Bharathiyar was a poet, freedom fighter and social reformer from Tamil Nadu. He was known as Mahakavi Bharathiyar and the laudatory epithet ‘Mahakavi’ meaning a great poet. He is considered as one of India’s greatest poets.

At the age of eleven he composed poems on lines given by various Tamil scholars in an assembly of learned men, he was then awarded the title of ‘Bharati’ by the admiring scholars.

• His songs on nationalism and freedom of India helped to rally the masses to support the Indian Independence Movement in Tamil Nadu. He is a writer of the nationalist period who is regarded as the father of the modern Tamil literary style even though he received little formal education.

Contributions

As a Poet and Writer

• Most part of his compositions is classifiable as short lyrical outpourings on patriotic, devotional and mystic themes like Indian Nationalism, love songs, children's songs, songs of nature, glory of the Tamil language, and odes to prominent freedom fighters of India like Tilak, Gandhi and Lajpat Rai and songs on the Russian and French revolutions
• Bharathiyar's literary works include nationalistic poems, prayer songs, philosophical poems, didactic songs and minor poems related to social issues. His didactic poems are Murasu , Puthiya Atthichudi and Pappa Pattu .
• “Sudesa Geethangal”, “Kannan Pattu”, “Nilavum Vanminum Katrum”, “Panchali Sabatam”, “Kuyil Pattu” are some of his greatest works.
• He also translated Vedic hymns, Patanjali's Yoga Sutra and Bhagavat Gita to Tamil.
• Bharati is considered the initiator of modern Tamil literature. Bharati used simple words and rhythms, unlike his previous century works in Tamil, which had complex vocabulary.
• He also employed novel ideas and techniques in his devotional poems. He used a metre called Nondi Chindu in most of his works, which was earlier used by Gopalakrisha Bharathiya.
• Bharati's poetry expressed a progressive, reformist ideal and combined classical and contemporary elements.
• Under the guidance of Bharathiyar and others, Thamizh literature has served as a tool to mobilize our energy to achieve political freedom.

As a Nationalist

• His vision of nationalism was one that was secular, against casteism and sexism, and pan-Indian.
• His participation and activities in Benaras Session (1905) and Surat Session (1907) of the Indian National Congress showcased his patriotic fervor.
• He also participated in the historic Surat Congress in 1907 along with V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and Mandayam Srinivachariar. He supported Tilak and Aurobindo together with V. O. Chidambaram Pillai and Kanchi Varathaachariyar.
• In 1908, an arrest warrant was issued against Bharati by the government of British India for his revolutionary activities forcing him to flee to Pondicherry where he lived until 1918.
• In November 1918, he was imprisoned in the Central prison in Cuddalore in custody for three weeks from 20 November to 14 December and was released after the intervention of Annie Besant and C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar.

As a Journalist

• Bharathi began his career as a journalist and as a sub-editor in “Swadesamitran”in 1904.
• He edited and published the weekly journal India, Vijaya, a Tamil daily, Bala Bharatha, English monthly, and Suryothayam, a local weekly in Pondicherry.
• Bharati assisted Aurobindo Ghosh in the Arya journal and later Karma Yogi in Pondicherry.

As a Social Reformer

• He was against caste system. Although born into an orthodox Brahmin family, he gave up his own caste identity. He considered all living beings as equal and to illustrate this he even performed upanayanam to a young Harijan man and made him a Brahmin
• Advocated temple entry of Dalits.
• He believed in women’s rights, gender equality and women emancipation.
• He opposed child marriage, dowry and supported widow remarriage.
• Bharathi was a Hindu but his spirituality was not confined within boundaries as he sang to the Hindu deities, and at the same time he wrote songs of devotion to Jesus Christand Allah.
• He openly criticised the preachers for mixing their individual thoughts while teaching the Vedas and the Gita.