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The twentieth century poet

Mahakavi Subramania Bharati–yes, he was supreme among poets, for he was a poet of fervent patriotism. He was a poet who painted a strikingly realistic picture of the half-clad, pale-eyed, famished people of India, and made them speak in their pathetically feeble voice. He was a poet who was deeply perturbed about the meanness and perversity of man.

A Mahakavi is born once in centuries with the divine mission of bringing about a new order in the society. His blazing words of anger, his words of soothing coolness, his words of pity, his words of sagacity are his weapons with which he tames the wicked, melts the stony hearts of the merciless, consoled the hapless, judged by the comprehensive connotation of the epithet “Mahakavi� Subramania Bharati truly belongs to the galaxy of the universal, everlasting poets.

A Poet of the Masses

Bharati was not a poet who only sang of the mountain, the rivers and the birds. He was a self-appointed spokesman of his brethren. It is his identification with the downtrodden and the lowly that distinguishes him as a poet of the masses. And so we celebrate his centenary, we take the opportunity of focussing attention on the relevance of his message to our time. If there was a strain of sadness, a melancholy note in his utterance, it was because, the tragedy of life had left a profound impact on him. But he was not despondent, he was not pessimistic. He had the fiery spirit of a reformist who shook even the most lethargic and the indifferent by his inspiring counsels. Who, but the greatest of poets, could have the daring to crush the whole world, if food is denied to an individual? But his poetry could not naturally fight it out, and so he sobbed helplessly, lamenting over the plight of the underprivileged. Hunger is the most potent killer, the greatest disease, and so long as there are exploiters and exploited, there will be some who starve and some who overeat and throw the remnants of food-stuffs into the dustbin for beggars, dogs and crows to taste. Realising the value of this great truth Bharati advocates that an emotionally integrated India, an India knit by sense of kinship alone, will usher in an era of prosperity for us.

In his poem “Vande Mataram� Bharati says:

“Let us bow to Mother Bharat.
We are all her children

Even the lowliest are entitled to live joyously with the rest
of the countrymen…�.There are a thousand castes.
Let us not allow foreigners to intrude into our affairs.
Being children of the same mother, we may quarrel,
But we are all brothers.
United we stand, divided we fall.
We shall equally share
Whatever we have.�

Bharati thus strove his poems to pave the way for the emergence of a united India.

A Real Nationalist

Bharati had been a socialist long before the concept of socialism took roots in India. He was a real nationalist. He surveyed the whole of India, not any one part of it. His keen eyes captured the magic beauty of the far-off Himalayas and his head turned a full round to measure the vastness of the surrounding seas. He thunders:

“Let us roam on the silvery, snowy mountains,
let us sail our ship on all the seas.�

Denouncing the savage attitude of the staunch traditionalists who discriminate man from man on the basis of his birth, circum­stance and upbringing, Bharati roars angrily:

“It is nectar-sweet
When the daughter of Tamil (Avvaiyar) says
That there were no more but twocastes;
Those that help the distressed
Being steadfast to the principles of justice and truth
Are great,
And all others are ignoble.�

Bharati is firm in his mind that there are but only twocastes: those who become great by their noble thoughts and deeds and those who become small by their wicked thoughts and mischievous schemes.

Bharati considers freedom as a prerequisite for a well-ordered, peaceful life. A man may be extremely rich, learned, but bow can he be happy without freedom? The poet says:

“We fostered this tree of freedom with tears,
Not with water,
We fed this beautiful lamp
With the ghee of thoughts
And how can we allow it to extinguish?
How can we lose this jewel
which we have got
after waiting for a thousand years?

If rain fails
will there be life on earth?
If freedom is denied to us
what shall we do?�

The poet bursts out in excitement.

“A nation without freedom cannot have a soul.
How can knowledge and industry thrive in such a nation?
How can poetry or the arts or sculpture Hourish there?�

Bharati asks.

Bharati’s generosity and compassion to his fellow-men indicate his unusual large-heartedness characteristic of poets of cosmic vision. He would never hesitate helping others despite inconve­nience to himself. He was utterly unselfish. Once he overheard a mango-seller complaining of poor business. Taking pity on her he bought the entire stock of mangoes she had with her. On another occasion Bharati bought a whole basket of greens from a vegetable vendor who felt greatly relieved of her load in a single bargain. It is said that the rickshaw-pullers of Pondicherry were often benefited by gifts of dhoties or shirts from him. These little incidents reveal the great humanity of the poet. His affection for a half-insane lad whom he cured by his constant care and attention shows he instantly reacted to the calls of the forlorn. His faith in the oneness of humanity was not superficial. Without minding opposition and criticism he initiated a Harijan boy into Brahminhood in the presence of an invited group of friends.

Bharati’s poetic canvas was a wide one and his universal mind ponders over the multifarious problems of mankind. His advice to the youth, the uneducated, the educated and the women to shed their foibles, to understand the spirit of the time and to march ahead unitedly reveal his concern for the welfare of all sections of the people. Like Swami Vivekananda he pins his hopes on the youth who will ultimately be responsible for the re-emergence of India to its past glory.

Gandhiji dreamed of an India morally and economically strong wedded to the noblest ideals, and Bharati too dreamed of an India without the social evils inhibiting the growth of the country. The circumstances of poverty and misery shocks our poets and they wail till they drain themselves out of all their feeling of pity. A poet born in such a circumstance naturally dreams of a condition of absolute righteousness and prosperity or sometimes even escapes from his depressing atmosphere and flies to a world of his own fancies. The lines addressed to the youth have perhaps been uttered in his mood of escapism.

However much Bharati tries to cut himself off from the present situation only to forget its heart-rending maladies he cannot but think of the sad circumstances of the nation again and again. A fine poem analyses threadbare the characteristics of the typical Indian who is subject to age-old superstitions.

“My mind splits
when I think of these unstable people,
they die of fears,
there’s not a thing these people are not afraid of,
they say there are cunning ghosts,
here, in this tree, there in that tree,
and in that tank,
they say ghosts swing in that corner,
they feel very melancholic
brooding and brooding over the fact that they are scared.�

“They have no soup to drink,
they don’t know the reason why it is not available,
‘famine, famine�, they always cry pathetically
and die scared and squirming;
alas! there’s no way to rid them of their misery.�

In Praise of Womanhood

Bharati spurned the women who snugly bid themselves in a cosy corner in their houses. Subdued by the haughty look of her husband and his shouts and abusive words she is just carrying out the orders of his master who is her husband. Bharati wanted to infuse a new spirit and vigour in the women of India. He wanted them to be equal with men and not lag behind in shouldering the nation’s responsibilities. A whole poem is devoted to eulogising the onerous feminine qualities and the inspiration woman gives to those around her. She is hailed as the sustainer, as one who wards off our laziness, as one who makes us energetic. Says Bharati:

“Let us dance making ourselves merry
in praising womanhood!
in woman is the sacred combination
of the mother’s and spouse’s name;
let us dance in calmness
praising the divine love of women,
praying that love should live long;
let us clap and praise the sensuous love,
It is because of woman that sorrow is wiped out.
Let us, her brave sons, hail her as mother;
It is mother’s milk that energises us,
it is wife’s wise words that safeguard our honour,
it is woman who obliterates all evils,
let us rejoice in praise of womanhood!�

If man’s valour
could safeguard woman’s values of life
then there can be no disgrace for us!
let us ever keep unharmed
the happiness born of love
as the eyelids guard the eyes;
we have drunk the intoxicant energy of woman;
let us clap and let the sound of the claps
reach all directions.�

Each line of Bharati is food for thought. Very few poets have given such a vivid picture of the modern woman who will be able to rise to the innumerable challenges of a future world of revolutionary conceptions.

His Patriotism

Bharati’s patriotism naturally drew him to the national leaders and he was as ardently devoted to them as he was to Motherland. He considered Gandhiji as an incarnation of God for he was the ideal man he conceived. Bharati speaks of him most panegyrically:

“May you great one,
let you prosper!
you who have come to give a new louse of life
to the land which is poverty-stricken,
to the land which has strayed away from the right path
having been denied freedom
and fallen from its glorious height,
you want to see it freed
from the shackles of slavery,
and you have devised a scheme
to raise it in the esteem of the world
by giving it wealth, knowledge, wisdom and high status
you have attained fang!
you are the first citizen of the world!�

A Lover of Symphony

Bharati was a lover of the symphony and rhythm of languages. He was an admirer of the hoary traditions of Bharatavarsha. Bharati devises plans to propagate the greatness of Tamil.

“Let us plan a scheme
to spread the honeyed sweetness
of the sounds of Tamil....
Let you hear one word of mine,
if we want to be prosperous
let the sound of Tamil thrive
all over the streets;
let the works of the learned men of other countries
be translated into Tamil,
let immortal works
be written in Tamil,
there is nothing useful in exchanging
ancient stories among ourselves,
let foreigners respectfully acknowledge
our learning supreme.�

This is not parochialism. The feeling that one’s mother-tongue is unrivalled for its beauty and vigour is the bedrock of the spirit of nationalism.

Devotion to God

Bharati was devoted to gods and goddesses. His devotion transcended the symbolic rituals which are but an external showy manifestation. He literally drank of the bliss arising out of an inward communion with God. He burst out in soulful rapture. His sheer helplessness in finding a solution for the ills of mankind and the poignancy of his own sufferings excited him to cry out to God whom he imagined was near enough to listen to his pleas. His songs on Sakti have a special charm and are loaded with the truest devotion. He had a fascination for Mahakali whom he described all the prime moving force of all the universes. “All this world is pervaded by Siva and Sakti. Siva and Sakti are indivisible. There can be no activity on earth without them. Our grief will vanish if we ponder over this truth. In the realisa­tion of this truth is the greatest wisdom.� He has also written poems on goddesses like �Gomati� which is another name for Siva’s consort Parvathi, ‘Muthumari� who is believed by the devout as the curer of pox, Saraswathi, the Goddess of Learning, and so on but it is to Krishna he resorts again and again. His devotional songs on Krishna, or Kannan as he is called in pure Tamil, are incomparable for their lyricism and melting feelings. “Kannan Pattu� is a long poem addressing Krishna as father, mother, child, lover, teacher, king and as God. There are beautiful, highly evocative imageries in this work. Krishna, his mother, gives him playthings, not little toys, to amuse him, but the toys of sun, moon, stars and clouds which explain the mystery of the cosmos. The toys of the supreme God sting him into wider and wider thinking leading him to a contemplation on the mystery of the mysteries.

“Juggling and juggling
Krishna brings before me
various scenes.
A toy named Moon
a radiance pervades in it and drips;
herds of clouds,
the multi-hued toys,
rain;
above all the sun,
no words to describe the radiance of its face.
In the sky are the stars,
they occupy the whole space
shining like little beads.

His Long Poems

Bharati’s ‘Kuyil Pattu�, one of his most prized works, is another long poem of nine parts having three characters. The Kuyil or the nightingale celebrated for its sweet voice attracts the poet one day when he moves about in his garden. Its repeated melodic tones are suggestive of some great truths of life.

The poet asks the Kuyil the reason for its sad, sweet tone, and it replies that it will love or die and tells him to meet her on another day. When he sees her in the garden again, she courts with a monkey whom he tries to kill but both disappear. The next day the Kuyil makes love with a bull and the poet wants to revenge on it but in vain. Yet another day the Kuyil narrates her former life to the poet. To his astonishment the poet finds that he was her lover when she was the daughter of a chieftain of a mountain. Now the poet’s spell of imagination ends. The “Kuyil Pattu� is one the most philosophical poems which abound in time-tested truths.

Bharati has created an epic �Panchali Sapatham� which centres round the legendary battle between Pandavas and Kurus. It is praised as a grand work with all the essential qualities of an epic.

His humble beginnings and early death

Bharati was born of humble parents with no material resources or resourcefulness. His father Chinnaswami Iyer who was a lover of Tamil enjoyed the affection and esteem of the Maharaja of Ettayapuram, a small principality in Tirunelveli District of Tamil nadu. He himself had something of the vague dreams and fantasies of his son, and it is no exaggeration to say that Bharati inherited his traits and intellectual vigour. Chinnaswami Iyer’s ambition was to make Tirunelveli a textile centre and he even successfully established a textile mill.

Bharati was born to Chinnaswami Iyer in 1882. The precocity of Bharati was evident even in his boybood days. While he was about eleven years old he composed a poem in Tamil and recited it before an assembly of scholars at the Ettayapuram palace. The Maharaja was immensely pleased with his poetic gift and conferred on him the tide of “Bharati� and that title made him known to the world.

Bharati was married at a very young age as was the custom those days. After the death of his father he had to continue his studies with the help and sympathy of his relatives. He went to Benares, studied at the Benares Hindu University and passed the Matriculation Examination. He learnt Sanskrit as well as Hindi. Meanwhile, invited by the Maharaja of Ettayapuram to be the court poet, he went to Ettayapuram. But his spirit of independence was so strong that he could not submit himself to the constraints and restrictions of palace life. So he resigned his post and served temporarily as a lecturer in a college in Madurai. He then served as Assistant Editor for Swadesamitran, a renowned Tamil daily of Madras. His patriotism drew him to politics. He came into contact with leaders like V. O. Chidambaram Pillai, Subramanya Siva and V. V. Iyer who together tried in their own to awaken the nation from its stupor. He attended the Congress session held at Calcutta and the Congress session at Surat. It was during those days of his intense political activity that his patriotic poems which have become immortal torrentially flowed out.

He also edited “India� and �Bala Bharatam� which were established to propagate the sacred ideals of nationalism. He came to Pondicherry through the efforts of Sri Aurobindo whose association interested him in research into our ancient lore. He then translated Bhagavadgita into Tamil. Some of his famous poems like “Kuyil Pattu� and “Panchali Sapatham� were published during these days. He came to Madras but he did not live long after that. One day when he went to Parthasarathi temple at Triplicane, Madras, the temple elephant attacked him. He became bed-ridden severely injured but he seemed to recover. But fate has its own unpredictable ways. He fell a prey to a chronic stomach ailment and died in 1921. Thus a great man’s life who throughout his life dreamed of his countrymen’s welfare ended. Let us on the occasion of this centenary bow down to him, praying to him to guide us in our gigantic task of alleviating the miser, of the downtrodden. Let his deathless words of wisdom, let his fiery patriotism, let his counsels inspire us, and let us with never-waning youthful enthusiasm battle against the evils that are the bane of our society.