C. Subramania Bharathi born Chinnaswami Subramaniyan (11 December 1882 – 11 September 1921) was a Tamil writer, poet, journalist, Indian independence activist, social reformer and polyglot. He was born at Ettayapuram village, of Tirunelveli district (currently Thoothukudi) to Chinnaswami Subramania Iyer and Lakshmi Amma.
Childhood
He lost his mother at the age of five and was brought up by his father who wanted him to learn English, excel in arithmetic, and become an engineer. However, from a very young age, Subramaniyan was musically and poetically inclined. At around a very young age of 11, Subramaniyan won a Debate contest which was held at the court of Maharaja of Ettayapuram. Impressed with Subramaniyan’s excellence in poetry, Maharaja of Ettayapuram conferred the title of “Bharathi”, to Subramaniyan, meaning blessed by the goddess of learning Saraswati. Thus, Subramaniyan became Subramania Bharathi.
At the age of 15 Bharathi was married to seven year old Chellamma of Kadayam town, near Tenkasi. He lost his father at the age of sixteen. He went to the M.D.T. Hindu College in Tirunelveli. Bharathi was a proficient linguist, he was well-versed in Tamil, Sanskrit, Hindi, Telugu, English, French and had a smattering knowledge of Arabic.
Participation in freedom movement
He went to Benares in 1898 spent two years at Benares with his aunt Kuppammal and her husband Krishna Sivan. He duly passed with credit the Entrance Examination of the Allahabad University. The Benares stay brought about a tremendous change in Bharathi’s personality. He started sporting a moustache and a Sikh turban. He returned to Ettayapuram during 1901 and started as the court poet of Raja of Ettayapuram for a couple of years. He was a Tamil teacher from August to November 1904 in Sethupathy High School in Madurai. Bharathi joined as Assistant Editor of the Swadesamitran, a Tamil daily in 1904. In December 1905, he attended the All-India Congress session held in Benares. In December 1906 he attended the Indian National Congress session in Calcutta under Dadabhai Naoiroji, which demanded Swaraj and boycott of British goods. Bharathi met Sister Nivedita, Swami Vivekananda‘s spiritual heir in Calcutta. She inspired Bharathi to take up the cause of the women. He visualised the new woman as an emanation of Shakti, a willing helpmate of man to build a new world through co-operative endeavour. Bharati dedicated his writings Swadesha Geetangal and Janma Bhoomi to Sister Nivedita and described her as the living example of service in the cause of suffering and emancipation of women and the downtrodden communities.
Bharathi started to publish his poems on diverse topics, from hymns to nationalistic writings, from contemplations on the relationship between God and Man to songs on the Russian and French revolutions. In his English-language essay entitled ‘The Place of Woman’, he writes: “Civilisation is the taming down of man by woman. Men, indeed, have till now been trying, with scant success, to civilise one another by means of the sword and the bullet, the prison cell, the gibbet, and the rack. But it has been the lot of woman to have no other weapon than fables, parables, and symbols in her work of civilising man. … Where woman comes, comes Art. And what is Art, if not the effort of humanity towards divinity?”
Bharathi participated in the historic Surat Congress in 1907 along with V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and Mandayam Srinivachariar, which deepened the divisions within the Indian National Congress with a section preferring armed resistance, led by Tilak over moderate approach preferred by certain other sections. Bharathi supported Tilak with V. O. Chidambaram Pillai and Kanchi Varathachariyar.
Exile at Pondicherry
In 1908, the British instituted a case against V.O. Chidambaram Pillai. In the same year, the proprietor of the journal India was arrested in Madras. Faced with the prospect of arrest, Bharathi escaped to Pondicherry, which was then under French rule. He edited and published India (weekly journal), Vijaya (a Tamil daily), Bala Bharatham (an English monthly), and Suryodayam (a local weekly) from Pondicherry. The British tried to suppress Bharathi’s publications by stopping remittances and letters to the papers. Both India and Vijaya were banned in India in 1909. In November 1910, Bharathi released an ‘Anthology of Poems’ which included ‘Kanavu‘ (Dream).
During his exile at Pondicherry, Bharathi had the opportunity to meet many other leaders of the revolutionary wing of the Independence movement like Aurobindo, Lajpat Rai and V.V.S. Aiyar, who had also sought asylum under the French. Bharathi assisted Aurobindo in the Arya journal and later Karma Yogi in Pondicherry. During this period he started learning Vedic literature. Three of his greatest works namely, Kuyil Pattu, Panchali Sapatham and Kannan Pattu were composed during 1912. He also translated Vedic hymns, Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra and Bhagavat Gita to Tamil.
It is the opinion of some litterateurs that Bharathi’s Panchali Sapatham, based on the story of Panchali (Draupadi), is also an ode to Bharat Mata. That the Pandavass are the Indians, the Kauravas the British and the Kurukshetra war of Mahabharat that of the Indian freedom struggle. It certainly is ascribed to the rise of womanhood in society. The first part of Panchali Sapatham was published in 1912 and the second part in 1924. In this magnificent composition, Bharati excels in showing the power of written language as he unfolds the intensity of the tragic drama played out by Pachali, Dushasan, and Pandavas in Kuru Court.
In the period 1910–1920, he wrote about a new and free India where there are no castes. In his writings he talks of building up India’s defense, free trade, focus on manufacturing and universal education. He calls for sharing of the river waters amongst states like the diversion of excess water of the Bengal delta to needy regions and constructing a bridge to Sri Lanka. These writings bring out the integrationist and visionary in Bharathi.
Radical personality
Bharathi also wanted to eradicate poverty and hunger. He sang, “Thani oru manithanakku unavu illayenil intha jagaththinai azhithiduvom” translated as ” If one single man suffers from starvation, we will destroy the entire world”.
He openly criticised the preachers for imposing their individual thoughts while teaching the Vedas, Upanishads and the Gita. He strongly advocated bringing the Dalits to the Hindu mainstream.
“He who writes poetry is not a poet. He whose poetry has become his life, and who has made his life his poetry – it is he who is a poet.” – Bharathy.
Trend setter in modern Tamil literature
Bharathi is considered one of the pioneers of modern Tamil literature. Bharathi used simple words and rhythms, unlike his previous century works in Tamil, which had complex vocabulary. He used a metre called Nondi Chindu in most of his works, which was earlier used by Gopalakrisnha Bharathiar (1810-1896) a Tamil poet and composer of Carnatic music. In olden days, narrators of folk dramas and events used to adopt Nondi Chindu to attract the audience. Using simple words with Nondi Chindu rhythm made Bharathi’s poetry highly popular with both the elite and the masses alike.
He had a prodigious output penning thousands of verses on diverse topics like Nationalism, romance, children’s songs, songs of nature, glory of the Tamil culture, and odes to prominent freedom fighters of India like Tilak, Gandhi and Lajpat Rai. He even penned an ode to New Russia and Belgium, cheering the revolution in those countries.
Bharati was inspired by Shelley’s poetry on individual liberty, which has its influence on Bharathi’s poetry that uniquely combines patriotism with a need for individual freedom. Bharati also was greatly influenced by Vande Mataram, a powerful poetry composed by Bankim Chandra and the Kali worship he witnessed at Banaras. Bharathi was the first Indian poet to depict Kali as the political revolutionary Shakti. He had written a book in English titled “The fox and its golden tail”.
His last years
From French ruled Pondicherry Bharathi entered Cuddalore (which is part of British India) in November 1918 (after the end of World war I) and was promptly arrested. He was imprisoned in the Central prison in Cuddalore for three weeks from 20 November to 14 December, 1918 and was released after the intervention of Annie Besant and C.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar. He was stricken by poverty during this period, resulting in his ill health. It is reported that in 1919, Bharathi met Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He resumed editing Swadesimeitran from 1920 in Madras (modern-day Chennai) after relocating to Madras at Thulasingaperumal Koil Street in Triplicane. The street faced the famous Parthasarthy Swami temple, and Bharati offered his prayers almost on a daily basis at this temple. In 1920 when a General Amnesty Order finally removed restrictions on his movements, Bharathi was already struggling. He habitually offered some fruit to the temple elephant named Lavanya at Parthasarathi temple, Triplicane and on a fateful day in 1921, the elephant- that wasn’t in the best of health- pushed Bharati to the ground, injuring him grievously. Bharati was rushed to the hospital, and he did recover. However, a stomach ailment further deteriorated his condition. Mahakavi Bharati passed away on 11 September 1921 aged just 39.
Honours
In 1949, he became the first poet whose works were nationalised by the state government. The house he lived in Pondicherry has been turned into a Museum now. There was a postage stamp released on Bharathi on 11th September, 1960 by the Government of India. Bharathiar University, a state university named after the poet, was established in 1982 at Coimbatore. The Government of India in 1987 instituted a highest National Subramanyam Bharati Award conferred along with Ministry of Human Resource Development, annually confers on writers of outstanding works in Hindi literature. The house where Bharathi spent his last few years in Triplicane, Madras was bought and renovated by the Government of Tamil Nadu in 1993 and named Bharathi Illam (Home of Bharathi). There is a statue of Bharathi at Marina Beach, Chennai and also in the Indian Parliament.
Legacy continues
A Tamil Movie titled Bharathi was made in the year 2000 on the life of the poet by Gnana Rajasekeran, which won National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil. The movie Kappalottiya Thamizhan (1961) chronicles the important struggles of V.O. Chidambaram Pillai along with Subramanya Siva and Bharathi. The legendary Tamil actor Shivaji Ganesan and S.V. Subbaiah played the roles of V.O. Chidambaram Pillai and Subramania Bharathi respectively. This film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil.
Many of the poems written by Bharati were used in various Tamil films in the form of songs. AVM productions was the first company to use his songs in films, “Aaduvome Palli” from Naam Iruvar (1947) was the first song inspired from Bharathi’s poem. Many of the film titles were taken from his poems like Vallamai Tharayo (2008), Aanmai Thavarel (2011), Nayyapudai (2016), Nerkonda Paarvai (2019), Soorarai Potru (2020)
Bharathi composed Carnatic music kritis in Tamil on love, devotion, etc. He set his songs to music and could sing them in a variety of ragas. Some of the songs of Bharathi that are currently very popular in the Carnatic music concert circuit include: Theeratha Vilaiyattu Pillai, Chinnanchiru Kiliye (tuned by him in Raga Bhairavi, but popularised in Ragamalika), Suttum Vizhi, Thikku Theriyaatha, Senthamizh Nadenum and Paarukkule Nalla Naadu.
As hailed by the people, indeed Bharathi was a Maha Kavi, who continues to inspire generations of people down the line through his works.
–Dr. B.N.V. Parthasarathi
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