THE GREATEST BARD OF TAMIL BHARATHIAR
N.Nandhivarman
The 83 rd anniversary
of Mahakavi Subramania Bharathiar falls on September 11 of 2004 The Bharathiar Memorial Museum was set up by
the Government of Pondicherry in 1972. In 1984 it was converted into a research
center to which from all over the world people have come. The Government of
Pondicherry headed by then Chief Minister D.Ramachandiran had brought out a
beautiful book in French in 1982, which contains translations of Bharathiar’s
poems, prose and English articles. Such laudable exercises must be continued by
successive governments to foster French and Tamil cultural exchanges by
translating literatures belonging to both languages. But during his lifetime
Bharathiar had struggled to bring out his works in print.
The
ordeals of Poets in the colonial era to see their masterpieces in print could
be easily understood by a letter through which Mahakavi Bharathiar sought
financial support from his well wishers. In an open appeal written in 1921, the
Great Bard of Tamil Renaissance states, “All of my manuscripts, accumulated
labour of my 12 year exile have arrived here from Pondicherry. They are to be
divided into 40 separate books. Most of my works which I have selected for
publication are prose, stories, sensational at the same time classical, very
easy, lucid, clear, luminous and all but too popular in style and diction and
at the same time chaste, pure, correct, epic and time defying.” By this appeal
the Poet not only exudes confidence in his creative literature and its contents
but also is convinced that he is standing at the cross roads of critical times
and is destined to play a crucial role. His words further down in the same
appeal will be enough to portray the missionary zeal that burnt in him. “The
historic necessity of my works for the uplift of the Tamil Land which again is
a sheer necessity of the inevitable, imminent and heaven-ordained revival of
the East”, says Mahakavi. These words
firmly reflects the inner feelings of the most enlightened Tamil mind of
our times, which was destined to leave an everlasting impact on the Tamil
society.
Stands
Apart :The
Poet’s vision was clear and he pursued his life’s mission with all his inherent
strength, doing what was destined to be done. He wrote a satirical story “ The
Fox with a Golden Tail”, which was published in 1914. It should also be
mentioned that Aurobindo Ghosh lauded the flowery language of Bharathiar in
that story. Dr.Nanjunda Rao of Chennai who was immensely pleased ordered for
500 copies and many letters of appreciation poured in from all quarters.
Kuvalai Kannan read those letters to Bharathiar hoping he would be pleased. But
Bharathiar stated as follows: “ Using my brain to its fullest capacity while I
write in my mother tongue Panchali Sabadam, you alone read it, whereas if it is
in English our men who are slaves to English colonial culture order for copies
after copies”, the poet retorted with contempt records R.A.Padmanabhan in
Chitra Bharathi, a compilations of pictures and historical notes on Bharathiar.
Tamil
Medium
At that point of time when all men of
letters under colonial rule were crazy over the proficiency in the tongue of
the ruling classes, Bharathiar stands apart as a champion of the Tamil cause.
In his book Essays and Other Prose Fragments published in 1937 writing under
the title “ Vernaculars” Bharathiar extends support to the Tamil medium of
instruction in the schools of Education.
Let
me reproduce his views in verbatim: “ I
do not blame the Madras Council of Indian education for their anxiety to have
Professor Geddes’ views on the subject of employing Indian languages as media
of instruction in Indian schools. For I am aware those men’s thoughts are
ordinarily moulded by their environments. Nor do I blame the good and learned
Professor Geddes for his innocent comparison of the revival of Indian languages
with the Gaelic revival in Wales and in Ireland. I do not know if Gaelic has
any extensive and living literature. But I feel it is high time to remind all
parties concerned, in the discussions like this, that most of the Indian
languages have great, historic and living literatures. Of course their luster
has been slightly dimmed by economic conditions during these later days. The
English educated minority in this country can be pardoned for being frightfully
ignorant of the higher phases of our national literatures, but they will well
do to drop that annoying attitude of patronage and condescension when writing
and talking about our languages. The Tamil language for instance has a living
philosophical and poetical literature that is far grander, to my mind, than
that of the vernacular of England. For the matter of that, I do not think that
any modern vernacular of Europe can boast of works like Kural of Valluvar…” so
goes on the Great Bard. This quality and courage of conviction is rare among
the educated of his times and even today the ignorance of the educated towards
the grandeur of the Tamil language and their wild goose chase of the foreign
language continues unabated even after the wise counsel by Bharathiar.
The
themes : His book Essays and Prose Fragments
contains the following topics 1) To the being of the Universe 2) The Service of
God 3) The Siddha and the Superman 4) Immortality 5) Fatalism 6) The Dawn 7) Rasa-
The Keyword of Indian Culture 8) Blunting the Imagination 9) The Crime of Caste
10) The Place of Women 11) Women’s Freedom 12) Love and Marriage 13) Patriotism
and Religious Differences 14) The National Congress 15) New Birth 16) Matri
Puja 17) India and the World 18) In Memoriam 19) The Coming Age 20) Reflections
21) Some Political Maxims 22) Free Speech 23) India and war 24) Nammalvar 25)
Andal 26) Rights and Duties 27) Vernaculars 28) The occult element in Tamil
speech. The list of the essays will reveal the subjects that were near and dear
to his heart.
Feminism : Of particular mention is his voice for
the cause of feminism. Speaking about the greatness of womanhood the Poet
stands apart with no sign of male chauvinism, a characteristic flaw that causes
even today gender bias and female infanticide. Let me quote him “ But if woman
has always been the civiliser and, therefore, the spiritual superior of man,
why did she get enslaved at all? For it is not only among Indians but also
among the European and the Chinese and the Japanese and the Hottentots as,
indeed all brutes and birds and insects, that the female has been content, till
now, to occupy an enslaved, or if you please, a subordinate place to the male.”
There cannot be a champion of the cause of feminism than Mahakavi Bharathiar in
that point of time in the history of Tamils. A forerunner for the cause of
feminism he had left his imprint by way of many articles and poems.
Crusader
against Caste : Bharathi describes caste as a crime
against humanity and let us know his feelings well expressed in his own style “
You sometimes quote ethnology, eugenics, hydrostatics and what not, to support
these four thousand castes! But, alas, the ignorant masses of our country have
been made to believe that this caste chaos is a special divine gift to our
country and whoever transgresses it has to go to Hell. It is this belief more
than anything else that makes people insensible to the injurious results of
caste. If you really have your justification in ethnology or hydrostatics, then
you have been cheating people during all these centuries by telling them a
different story. No science can justify cheating”. The scientific temper, which
the poet possesses, is what anyone who cares for fellow beings will want to inculcate
in a caste- ridden society. The Poets are conscience keepers of their culture
and the society in which they hail, and in unmistaken terms Bharathiar
registers his voice of protest against the caste-infected society.
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