Mahakavi (Great Poet) Bharathiyaar

who is this Maha kavi Barathiyaar you may ask ? this is my attempt to bring the greatest poet ever lived in the recent history in Tamil Nadu,  South India  into the Western Media circles .

It is with sadness I wish to state that a great talented man like Bharathiyaar has never been known famously in the Western media circles.

 

Barathiyaar was born to Chinnasami Subramanya Iyer and Lakhsmiammaal in a small town called Ettyapuram to the south of Madras near Tirunelveli. He lost his mother when he was 5 years old. his father was a strict disciplinarian who wanted him to excel in English and Maths thus becoming an engineer which would enable him to live comfortably.

But from the small ages Barathiyar was a dreamer was interested in Tamil and poetry. At the age of 14 his father got him married to a girl seven years younger to him. As you would have heard at that time these sort of early marriages was a common occurrence in the Indian Society.

On the death of his father he moved to Varnasi known as Kasi and continued his education there. He studied English and Sanskrit.In here is where he was exposed to Hindu Spirituality.

He was born into a higher caste known as Brahmins and soon realised the harsh facts of caste divisions with his society.

On his return to his native place he met Sister Nivedita who was a adopted daughter of the saint Swami Ramakrshnar.

During his exchange of views he was made aware of the injustices that the women in the Indian society suffer. He started to believe the emancipation of the women is the only key to a society that advances in civilisation.

Barathiyar awere also heavily engaged in the non violent struggle of mahatma Gandhi towards the Independence of India.

He was despised by the elders in his own Brahmin society for standing up for the rights of the so called low caste people and hailed the equality of the women.

Even though Barathiyaar advocated the emancipation of the women his fight for the advancement on the education of the women rather than becoming self independent in order to live a immoral life.

He spent his entire time in writing poetry and articles reflecting his pronciples towards the independence of India and abolishon of the caste system along with education of women. Hence his family constantly suffered in poverty.

Because of his involvement in the Indian Independence struggle Barathiyar was wanted by the then British Administration and he lived in exile in Pondicherry which was under French rule.

Often he is misunderstood to be a person who loved only Tamil. In contrary he loved English poetry specially Shakespeare and Shelly . He has translated few of their poetry in Tamil. He often advocated that good literary works in other Languages specially English should be translated and introduced to Tamil people which would help them to widen their horizon.

Apart from Tamil he was fluent in English, French and Sanskrit. He has written Poems in Tamil celebrating the Russian revolution and also about Belgium.

In one of his acclaimed poem he has stated ,

" Amongst the languages I know

 I have not found any as sweet as Tamil "  In this poem he has clearey stated that he knows other languages as well .

It is often misunderstood in the Western world that the so called "Independence activists" are somewhat people with narrow view. The reason for my article about Barathiyar is to highlight the fact that he was a person with a global vision who embraced every country and their people. 

What he was against was that the Indians are being occupied by England and wanted India to be ruled by Indians.

He worked as journalist in several Tamil publications and also in a English daily. He was arrested in November 1018 on his return into British India near Cudalore and was imprisoned for three weeks. On his release from the Prison the following year he met with Mahatma Gandhi.

he was attacked by the temple Elephant in Triplicane, Madras and was bed ridden. He finally died on the 11th of September 1921 in Madras.

This great man has never been recognised for his genius while he was alive now among the Tamil scholars and the Tamil literature world he is held in high esteem.

It is my intention to introduce him and try and translate few of his poems in English so that every one can enjoy the immense talent our great Barathiyar had.

Sakthi Sakthithasan

24.02.2013