Subramania Bharati | |
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 Subramania Bharati | |
| Born | (1882-12-11)11 December 1882 Ettayapuram,Tirunelveli district,Madras Presidency,British India (present-dayThoothukudi district,Tamil Nadu, India) |
| Died | 11 September 1921(1921-09-11) (aged 38) |
| Other names | Bharatiyar, Subbaiah, Sakthi Dasan, Mahakavi, Mundasu Kavignar, Veera Kavi |
| Citizenship | Indian |
| Occupations | |
| Movement | Indian independence movement |
| Spouse | Chellamma (m. 1896–1921) |
| Children | 2 |
| Family | Rajkumar Bharathi (great-grandson) |
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Subramania Bharati[a] (BornChinnaswami Subramaniyan; 11 December 1882 – 11 September 1921) was an Indian writer, poet, composer, journalist, teacher, Indian independence activist, social reformer and polyglot. He was bestowed the titleBharati for his poetry and was a pioneer of modernTamil poetry. He is popularly known by his titleBharati orBharathiyar and also by the other title "Mahakavi Bharati" ("the great poet Bharati"). His works included patriotic songs composed during theIndian Independence movement. He fought for theemancipation of women, againstchild marriage, opposed thecaste system, and advocated reforms of the society and religion.
Born inEttayapuram ofTirunelveli district (present-dayThoothukudi) in 1882, Bharati had his early education inTirunelveli. He later lived inVaranasi for sometime where he was exposed to Hindu theology and new languages. He worked as a journalist with many newspapers, includingSwadesamitran,The Hindu,Bala Bharata,Vijaya,Chakravarthini andIndia. He consideredSister Nivedita, a disciple ofSwami Vivekananda, as his guru.
In 1908, theBritish Government issued an arrest warrant for Bharathi which pushed him to live in exile in theFrench-controlledPondicherry for about ten years until 1918. He was attacked by anIndian elephant atThiruvallikeni Parthasarathy Temple whom he fed daily and died a few months later on 11 September 1921.
Bharthi was well-versed in several languages and had a passion for Tamil. His works covered political, social and spiritual themes. Songs and poems composed by Bharthi are used in Tamil literature, music and daily life. His works includePanjali Sabatham,Kannan Paatu,Kuyil Paatu,Paapa Paatu,Chinnanchriu Kiliye,Vinayagar Nanmanimalai andTamil translations ofPatanjali'sYoga Sutra andBhagavat Gita. Bharathi was the first poet whose literature was nationalized in 1949.
Subramaniyan was born on 11 December 1882 in aTamil Brahmin Iyer family in the town ofEttayapuram inTirunelveli district,Madras Presidency (present dayThoothukudi district,Tamil Nadu) to Chinnaswami Iyer and Lakshmi Ammal. He was called as Subbaiah by his parents.[1][2] His mother died in 1887 when he was five years old and he was brought up by his father and his grandmother.[1][3]
Subramaniyan's father wanted him to learnEnglish andMaths and become anengineer.[4] From a young age, Subramaniyan was inclined towards music and poetry. At the age of 11, he was given the title of "Bharathi" (meaning blessed by the goddess of learningSaraswati) for his excellence in poetry. In 1897, at the age of 15, he married Chellamma, who was then seven years old. His father died when he was sixteen.[3] After the death of his father, he wrote a letter to the Raja of Ettayapuram, requesting for financial assistance. He was granted a job in the court of Ettayapuram, which he left after a while and went toVaranasi. During his stay in Varanasi, he was exposed toHindu spirituality and nationalism and learned new languages such asSanskrit,Hindi andEnglish. He also changed his outward appearance, growing a beard and started wearing a turban.[1]
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Bharathi returned to Ettayapuram during 1901 and served as the chief court poet of the Raja of Ettayapuram. He served as a Tamil teacher from August to November 1904 in Sethupathy High School inMadurai.[4] During this period, Bharathi understood the need to be well-informed of the world outside and took interest in the world ofjournalism and the print media. In the same year, Bharathi joined as an assistant editor atSwadesamitran, a Tamil daily.[1] In December 1905, he attended a session ofIndian National Congress in Varanasi. On his journey back home, he metSister Nivedita, who was SwamiVivekananda's spiritual heir. She inspired Bharathi to recognize the rights and privilege of women.[1] Bharathi considered her as an embodiment ofHindu goddessShakti and considered Nivedita as hisGuru. He later attended the Indian National Congress session inCalcutta held underDadabhai Naoroji, which demandedSwaraj and boycott of British goods.[4]
By April 1907, he started editing the Tamil weeklyIndia and the English newspaperBala Bharatham along withM.P.T. Acharya.[1] These newspapers served as a means of expressing Bharathi's creativity and he continued to write poems in these editions. His writings included diverse topics ranging from nationalism to contemplations on the relationship between God and Man. He also wrote on theRussian andFrench Revolutions.[5]
Bharathi participated in the Indian National Congress meeting held inSurat in 1907 along withV.O. Chidambaram Pillai and Mandayam Srinivachariar.[1] The meeting deepened the divisions within the Congress with a section preferring armed resistance. This section was primarily led byBal Gangadhar Tilak, which was supported by Bharathi, Chidambaram Pillai and Varathachariyar.[4] In 1908, the British instituted a case against Chidambaram Pillai. In the same year, the proprietor of the journalIndia in which Bharathi was writing, was arrested inMadras.[1] Faced with the prospect of an imminent arrest, Bharathi escaped toPondicherry, which was under theFrench rule.[6][7]
In Pondicherry, Bharathi edited and published the weekly journalIndia, a Tamil dailyVijaya, an English monthlyBala Bharatham and a local weeklySuryodayam. The British tried to ban Bharathi's publications and the newspapersIndia andVijaya were banned in British India in 1909.[4] During his exile, Bharathi had the opportunity to meet other revolutionary leaders of theIndian Independence movement likeAurobindo,Lajpat Rai andV. V. Subrahmanya Iyer, who had also sought asylum under the French. Bharathi assisted Aurobindo in publishing the journalsArya andKarma Yogi.[5] He also started learningVedic literature. Three of his greatest works namely,Kuyil Pattu,Panjali Sabatham andKannan Pattu were composed during 1912. He also translated Vedic hymns,Patanjali'sYoga Sutra andBhagavat Gita toTamil language.[4]
When Bharathi entered the British India nearCuddalore in November 1918, he was arrested.[1] He was imprisoned in the Central prison in Cuddalore for three weeks from 20 November to 14 December. He was released after the intervention ofAnnie Besant andC.P. Ramaswamy Aiyar. He was stricken by poverty and ill health during this period. In the following year, Bharathi metGandhi for the first time. He resumed editingSwadesamitran in 1920 fromMadras.[8]
Bharathi was badly affected by the imprisonments and struggled from ill health. In 1920, a general amnesty was issued which finally removed restrictions on his movements. He delivered his last speech at Karungalpalayam Library inErode on the topicMan is Immortal.[9] He was struck by anIndian elephant named Lavanya at theThiruvallikeni Parthasarathy Temple whom he used to feed often. When he fed a coconut to the elephant, the elephant attacked him and although he survived the incident, his health deteriorated. A few months later, he died in the early morning on 11 September 1921. Though Bharathi was considered a great poet and nationalist, it was recorded that only 14 people attended his funeral.[1]
Bharathi was one of the pioneers of modern Tamil literature.[10] He is known by the nickname "Mahakavi" ("The Great Poet").[11] Bharathi used simple words and rhythms, unlike the previous century works in Tamil, which had complex vocabulary. He also proposed novel ideas and techniques in his poems. He used ametre calledNondi Chindu in most of his works, which was earlier used by Gopalakrisnha Bharathiar.[12]
Bharathi's poetry expressed progressive and reformist ideals. His poetry was a forerunner to modern Tamil poetry in different aspects and combined classical and contemporary elements. He penned thousands of verses on diverse topics like Indian Nationalism, love, children, nature, glory of the Tamil language, and odes to prominent freedom fighters. He fought for theemancipation of women, againstchild marriage, vehemently opposed thecaste system, and stood for reforming society and religion.[13][14] His poems were the first to be nationalized in India in 1949.[15]
His works includePanjali Sabatham,Kannan Paatu,Kuyil Paatu,Paapa Paatu,Chinnanchriu Kiliye andVinayagar Nanmanimalai. He also translatedPatanjali'sYoga Sutra andBhagavat Gita to Tamil.[4] Apart from this he also wrote various patriotic songs, religious verses, short stories and translations of speeches of reformist leaders.[8]
The last years of his life were spent in a house inThiruvallikeni in Chennai. The house was bought and renovated by theGovernment of Tamil Nadu in 1993 and named "Bharathi Illam" (Home of Bharathi).[16] The house in which he was born in Ettayapuram and the house where he lived in Puducherry are maintained as memorial houses.[17] A statue of Bharathi, a memorial complex and a photo exhibition related to his life history are on display at Etayapuram, his birthplace.[18]
In 1960,India Post issued a commemorative stamp on Bharati.[19] TheSubramanyam Bharti Award was constituted in 1987 to award contributions to literature. The award is conferred annually by theMinistry of Human Resource Development ofGovernment of India.[20] In 2021, Government of Tamil Nadu instituted a yearly "Bharati young poet Award".[21] Statutes of Bharathi include theIndian Parliament andMarina Beach facade in Chennai.[22] Roads are named after him include Bharathiar road in Coimbatore and Subramaniam Bharti Marg inNew Delhi.[23][24] Several educational institutions are named after him includingBharathiar University, astate university, which was established in 1982 atCoimbatore.[25][26] On 11 September 2021, on the 100th death anniversary of Bharati, then Indianprime ministerNarendra Modi announced the establishment of a Subramania Bharathi chair of Tamil Studies at theBanaras Hindu University.[27][28][29]
ATamil film titledBharathi was made in the year 2000 on the life of the poet byGnana Rajasekaran, which wonNational Film Award for Best Feature Film in Tamil.[30] The movieKappalottiya Thamizhan based on the life of V. O. Chidambaram Pillai also chronicles the life of Bharathi. Themusical duoHiphop Tamizha use a caricature of Bharati as a part of theirlogo.[31][32] Many of the poems written by Bharati are used in various films in the form of songs.[33] Phrases or lines from his poems are also used as film titles.[34][35]
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