...Bharati was a born poet and gifted with the qualities of genius. He learned the nuances of the Tamil language and poetry through his association with the scholars at the court of Ettayapuram. Bharati began writing poetry at the age of seven. When he was eleven he wrote poetry in such a way that even learned men praised him. It was at this time that the title of Bharati -a name of the Goddess of Knowledge was conferred on him. Bharati was mature in mind, proficient in the language and had great talent for poetry. He had the poet's love of solitude and nature, pleasure in composing poetry, sweet sense of rhythm and love of learning. In addition to these, he had qualities like straightforwardness and a strong belief in truth. He had great intelligence and simplicity.
Many years of Bharati's life were spent in the field of journalism. He began his career as a journalist, as sub-editor in 'Swadeshmitran' in November 1904. During this time, he was much involved in politics and wrote prolifically. He composed and sang a poem praising Bengal and published it in the Swadeshmitran in September 1905.
Bharati was a great admirer of Sister Nivedita. His meeting with her brought about many changes in his personality; he was greatly attracted by her rare vigour, love and strength. Above all he was deeply touched by her intense patriotism. Bharati soon had a vision of Mother India or Bharata Devi and visualised Mother India as Bharati Shakti. As a result of these experiences he decided to fight for the independence of India and the equality of women in India. He received an added impetus when a weekly magazine, 'India' was started by Thirumalachariar. It was here that he wrote fiery articles on the Indian nation and awakened in the people of south India the will to fight the British.
An important event in the history of the Indian Freedom Movement was the meeting of the Congress at Surat; this meeting represented the clash between the two camps known as the Moderates and the Nationalists. The Moderates were led by Dadabhai Naoroji and the nationalists were led by Tilak and Sri Aurobindo. The meeting ended in disarray.
After his participation in the Surat Congress, Bharati was fascinated by the personalities of Tilak and Sri Aurobindo. Every event in the political history of India during the freedom struggle came to Bharati's notice, and he wrote his own commentary about it in Swadesamitran. At that time Bharati wrote an appeal to Tamil scholars asking them to find poems from Tamil literature which praised India or to send their own poems to him. His intention was to publish poems with national fervour, written at different times by different scholars. At the same time he began writing his own songs and published them in the books, Swadesha Githangal and Gnana Ratham. In this way he aroused an intense patriotism among the Tamil people. It was not therefore surprising that soon a warrant was issued for the arrest of the editor of the magazine M. Srinivasan, who was arrested and imprisoned for five years. It was then that Bharati decided to go away to Pondicherry and there he continued publishing the India magazine.
Bharati, we know, was a great admirer of Sri Aurobindo's. In the middle of 1909 he sent one of India's correspondents to Calcutta to interview him. The interview was published in India in its issue of 18 September 1909. It was this type of reporting that made India a treasure in Tamil journalism. Sri Aurobindo had also met at Calcutta S. Parthasarathi, 'Secretary Swadeshi Steam Navigation Company' That is why when Sri Aurobindo received the adesh (Command) to go to Pondicherry from Chandernagore, he had sent Moni with a note addressed to S. Parthasarathi Iyenger, c/o 'India' Press. Parthasarathi was away from Pondicherry, so at Moni's request Parthasarathi's elder brother Srinivasachari had opened the envelope and learned that Sri Aurobindo "was coming to Pondicherry and wanted a quiet place of residence to be engaged for him where he could live incognito without being in any way disturbed." That is what Srinivasachari noted. That is how he and Bharati went to receive Sri Aurobindo on 4 April 1910....
Mother's Chronicles Book 6 > Pg. 213
The most profitable years of Bharati's life were the ten years spent in Pondicherry. The poet, the philosopher and the patriot in him flourished through the most difficult but wonderful years in Pondicherry. He had a large circle of friends whose influence on him is marked. He was fortunate to have Sri Aurobindo's friendship at this time. As it turned out, this proved the greatest influence on his spiritual growth. The two of them joined together in reading and doing extensive research on the Vedas. They read almost all the originals along with the available interpretations. Bharati translated some of the Veda mantras in Tamil, which is truly an extraordinary piece of work.
At one time, one of our main subjects of study was the Veda. This went on for several months, for about an hour every evening, at the Guest House. Sri Aurobindo came and took his seat at the table and we sat around. Subramanya Bharati, the Tamil poet and myself were the two who showed the keenest interest. Sri Aurobindo would take up a hymn from the Rigveda, read it aloud once, explain the meaning of every line and phrase and finally give a full translation. I used to take notes. There are many words in the Rigveda whose derivation is doubtful and open to differences of opinion. In such cases, Sri Aurobindo used to say that the particular meaning he gave was only provisional and that the matter could be finally decided only after considering it in all the contexts in which the word occurred. His own method of interpreting the Rigveda was this: on reading the text he found its true meaning by direct intuitive vision through an inner concentration in the first instance, and then he would give it an external verification in the light of reason, making the necessary changes accordingly.
Reminiscences > Pg. 62
Each act of mine, each event of my life had become, as it were, offerings in the sacrifice done unknowingly by me. Prior to my surrender to Sri Aurobindo, Bharati helped me a great deal to attain wideness in the heart, to loosen the ties of old samskaras and the like, to impart purity and newness to my thoughts, by means of his words, his deeds and his way of living.
Because of Bharati’s association with Sri Aurobindo and his immense respect and devotion for him, I felt in me a great inexplicable attraction to Bharati.
Every evening, a little after dark, Bharati would go to Sri Aurobindo’s house. He chose that time not with the purpose of avoiding people who would want to make a note of his visit. It was because Sri Aurobindo used to come out of his room and receive his friends only after seven in the evening. An exception, however, was made for close friends like Bharati and Srinivasachari, who, at a very urgent need, could see him at any time of the day. Their visits to Sri Aurobindo’s house after seven had become a regular affair. Bharati would visit without fail; it was not so with Srinivasachari, however.
There was hardly any subject which they did not talk about in their meetings at night. They discussed literature, society, politics, the various arts; they exchanged stories, even cracked jokes, and had a lot of fun. In the absence of Srinivasachari their talks would no doubt disregard all limits of sect or cult. In Bharati’s absence, Sri Aurobindo’s talks with the inmates of the house at dinnertime would reach the height of the humorous. That apart, I heard people say that Bharati and others would return home by eight-thirty or nine at night and carry in their hearts lovingly whatever share of the divine riches they had the capacity to receive. In consequence of their inner and outer change they would find the exterior world also changed the next morning.
A Pilgrimage to Sri Aurobindo
Bharati lived in Pondicherry till 1916. He returned to British India and continued writing inspiring poetry and his love of India became more intense. He was a great devotee of Shakthi and he strove to possess in his soul, spirit, body and mind, great vigour and strength, and attaining this became the chief aim of his life. But along with Shakti, he also aspired for Bhakti and Knowledge. All this he poured out in celestial poetry which inspired the youth. He believed that India could lead the world in many respects and knew that in order to do that India must first herself become free. Till the end of his life he strove to awaken the people of India to her great mission. He died on 11 September 1921.
Bharati was inspired by the passion for freedom; indeed to him freedom was the very breath of his life. His whole aim of life was to kindle the same passion for freedom in fellow Indians and this he did through his great poetry. Today his is a household name among all the Tamil-speaking people of India and his very name inspires reverence and patriotism.
Source: Prof. Kittu Reddy > Subramania Bharati
More references to Subramania Bharti >>
Chinnaswami Subramanya Bharathi (Tamil: சின்னசுவாமி சுப்பிரமணிய பாரதி) (December 11, 1882 – September 11, 1921) was a Tamil writer, poet, journalist, Indian nationalist, patriot, polyglot and social reformer from Tamil Nadu, India. He is popularly known as Mahakavi Bharathiyar (Tamil: மகாகவி பாரதியார்).
Mahakavi Subramanya Bharathiyar was born to Chinnasami Subramanya Iyer and Elakumi Ammaal as "Subbayya" on December 11, 1882 in the Tamil village of Ettayapuram. He was educated at a local high school called "The M.D.T. Hindu College" in Tirunelveli. From a very young age he learnt music and at 11nd songs. It was here that he was conferred the title of "Bharathi" ("one blessed by Saraswati, the goddess of learning).
Bharathi lost his mother at the age of 5 and his father at the age of 16. He was brought up by his disciplinarian father who wanted him to learn English, excel in arithmetic, become an engineer and lead a comfortable life. However, Bharathi was given to day dreaming and could not concentrate on his studies. In 1897, perhaps to instill a sense of responsibility in him, his father had the 14 year old Bharathi, married to his seven year younger cousin, Chellamal.
After this early marriage, Bharathi, curious to see the outside world, left for Benares in 1898. The next four years of his life served as a passage of discovery. During this time he discovered a country in tumult outside his small hamlet. Bharathi worked as a teacher in Madurai Sethupathy High School (now a higher secondary school) and as a journal editor at various times in his life. He was a freedom fighter.
During his stay in Benares (also known as Kashi and Varanasi), Bharathi was exposed to Hindu spirituality and nationalism. This broadened his outlook and he learned Sanskrit, Hindi and English. In addition, he changed his outward appearance. He also grew a beard and started walking with a straight back.
Soon, Bharathi saw beyond the social taboos and superstitions of orthodox South Indian society. In December 1905, he attended the All India Congress session held in Benaras. On his journey back home, he met Sister Nivedita, Swami Vivekananda’s spiritual daughter. From her arose another of Bharathi’s iconoclasm, his stand to recognise the privileges of women. The emancipation of women exercised Bharathi’s mind greatly. He visualised the 'new woman' as an emanation of Shakti, a willing helpmate of man to build a new earth through co-operative endeavour.
During this period, Bharathi understood the need to be well-informed of the world outside and took interest in the world of journalism and the print media of the West. Bharathi joined as Assistant Editor of the Swadeshamitran, a Tamil daily in 1904. By April 1907, he started editing the Tamil weekly India and the English newspaper Bala Bharatham with M.P.T. Acharya. These newspapers were also a means of expressing Bharathi's creativity, which began to peak during this period. Bharathi started to publish his poems regularly in these editions. From religious hymns to nationalistic writings, from contemplations on the relationship between God and Man to songs on the Russian and French revolutions, Bharathi's subjects were diverse.
He was simultaneously up against society for its mistreatment of the downtrodden people and the British for occupying India.Bharathi participated in the historic Surat Congress in 1907, which deepened the divisions within the Indian National Congress between the militant wing led by Tilak and Sri Aurobindo and the moderate wing. Bharathi supported Tilak and Sri Aurobindo together with V. O. Chidambaram Pillai and Kanchi Varathaachariyar. Tilak openly supported armed resistance against the British.
In 1908, he gave evidence in the case which had been instituted by the British 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 under French rule. From there he edited and published the weekly journal India, , a Tamil daily, Bala Bharatha, an English monthly, and Suryothayam, a local weekly of Pondicherry. The British tried to suppress Bharathi's output by stopping remittances and letters to the papers. Both India and Vijaya were banned in British India in 1909.
During his exile, Bharathi had the opportunity to mix with many other leaders of the revolutionary wing of the Independence movement such as Sri Aurobindo, Lajpat Rai and V.V.S. Aiyar, who had also sought asylum under the French. Bharathi assisted Sri Aurobindo in the Arya journal and later Karma Yogi in Pondicherry.
Bharathi entered British India near Cuddalore in November 1918 and was promptly arrested. He was imprisoned in the Central prison in Cuddalore in custody for three weeks from 20 November to 14 December. The following year Bharathi met with Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Mahakavi delivered his last speech at Karungalpalayam Library in Erode, which was about the topic Man is Immortal.
Bharathi's health was badly affected by the imprisonments and by 1920, when a General Amnesty Order finally removed restrictions on his movements, Bharathi was already struggling. He was struck by an elephant at Parthasarathy temple, Triplicane, Chennai, whom he used to feed regularly. Although he survived the incident, a few months later his health deteriorated and he died on September 11, 1921 early morning around 1 am. Though Bharathi was a people's poet and a great nationalist, outstanding freedom fighter and social visionary, it is a recorded sad fact that there were only 14 people to attend his funeral.
His poetry expressed a progressive, reformist ideal. His imagery and the vigour of his verse were a forerunner to modern Tamil poetry in many respects. He was the forerunner of a forceful kind of poetry that combined classical and contemporary elements. He had a prodigious output penning thousands of verses on diverse topics like Indian Nationalism, the National Flag, the Mahabharat, love songs, children's songs, songs of nature, glory of the Tamil language, and odes to prominent freedom fighters of India like Tilak, Gandhi and Lajpat Rai. He even penned an ode to New Russia and Belgium. His poetry includes works on Allah and Jesus. His insightful similes have been read by millions of Tamil readers.
His poetry stands out for many facets of his love for his motherland. He berates his countrymen for many social evils. He chastises them for a fearful and pusillanimous attitude towards the rulers. He sound a clarion call for national unity, removal of casteism and the removal of oppression of women. He calls for the British to leave the motherland in forceful ways at one point saying "Even if Indians are divided, they are childen of One Mother, where is the need for foreigners to interfere?".
Read more on Bharti's Poetry >>
Even in the period 1910-1920, when freedom was far away and with Mahatma Gandhi as just an emerging force, with a tremendous sense of positive expectation, he talks of a new and free India where there are no castes. He eloquently imagines all-round social and economic development. He talks of building up India's defence, her ships sailing the high seas, success in manufacturing and universal education. He calls for sharing amongst states with wonderful imagery like the diversion of excess water of the Bengal delta to needy regions. He talks of a bridge to Sri Lanka earlier Ceylon. He even desired greater co-operation between India and her neighbours.
Bharathiyar advocated greater rights for women. His verses called for emancipation for women and put a premium on their education. He visualised a modern Indian woman at the vanguard of society. He was of the strong opinion that the world will prosper in knowledge and intellect if both men and women are deemed equal.Poetic extract - (The new age women will learn many intellectual texts. They will set the base for many scientific discoveries that facilitate human life. They will expunge all backward superstitions in the society. They will, all the same, be devoted to God and present all achievements of mankind as a tribute to God. They will earn good name from men.)
Bharathi also fought against the caste system in Hindu society. Although born into an orthodox Brahmin family, he gave up his own caste identity. One of his great sayings meant, 'There are only two castes in the world: one who is educated and one who is not.' He considered all living beings as equal and to illustrate this he even performed upanayanam to a young harijan man and made him a Brahmin. He also scorned the divisive tendencies being imparted into the younger generations by their elderly tutors during his time. He openly criticised the preachers for mixing their individual thoughts while teaching the Vedas and the Gita.
சாதிகள் இல்லையடி பாப்பா!-குலத் தாழ்ச்சி உயர்ச்சி சொல்லல் பாவம்; நீதி உயர்ந்த மதி,கல்வி-அன்பு நிறை உடையவர்கள் மேலோர்.
(There is no caste system. It is a sin to divide people on caste basis. The ones who are really of a superior class are the ones excelling in being just, intelligent, educated and loving.)
An Introduction of Bharti : read more >>
Pondicherry is a city of rich history which hosted many freedom fighters including Bharathiyar. He moved to Pondicherry in the year 1908 to escape his arrest. While in Pondicherry he was involved with the following journals/magazines: India, Vijaya, Chakravarthini etc. He took a house in Pondicherry which has been turned into The Bharathiar Museum now.
The museum houses many of his letters - 1. He starts off a letter with the words “Om Shakthi“ 2. He usually signed off the letter saying “May you gain immortality“ There was a postage stamp released on Barathiar which is framed in the museum. There are around 20 photographs collected of his family, friends and relatives. The house address is: No. 20, Easwaran Koil Street, Pondicherry – 3. The museum has a collection of his letters, family photographs and lot of books.
It was mentioned that he composed the poem “Crows and Birds are our clan” in this house.Bharathiar was an expert in many languages: Tamil, Sanskrit, English, Telugu and French. They had mentioned that he wrote very beautifully in English. There is also a Tamil version of the phrase “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity” – “Swathanthiram, Sammathuvam, Sahotharathuvam“
1) The last years of his life were spent in a house in Triplicane, Chennai This house was bought and renovated by the Government of Tamil Nadu in 1993 and named 'Bharathiyar Illam' (Home of Bharathiyar).
2) There is a statue of Bharathiar at Chennai beach and also in the Indian Parliament
3) A Tamil Movie titled Bharathi was made in the year 2000 on the life of the poet which won National Film Award. This classic film was directed by Gnana Rajasekeran. The main character of Subramanya Bharati is played by a Marathi actor, Sayaji Shinde.
4) The movie "Kappal Oatiya Thamizhan"(The Tamilian who sailed the high seas) chronicling the important struggles of V.O.Chidambaranar, Subramanya Shiva and Bharathiar was an impactful movie which brought alive the patriotic fervour, sacrifices, tribulations and the beauty of Bharatiar's poetry. The movie starred Sivaji Ganesan as VOC and S.V Subbiah as Subramanya Barathi.
24 The Tamil Bard
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"That very first day when I was resting after lunch, a gentleman, chewing paan [betel leaf] came to Shri Achari's house" wrote Moni in his Smritikatha. "Of an average height, around the age of thirty.... Neither fair-skinned nor black—typical 'brown race.' Beard shaven, but with an impressive moustache. Trimmed hair.... He wore his dhoti in Tamilian style. But he did not give the impression of a Tamil, he rather looked like a North Indian. But in reality he was a Tamil and a Brahmin. Indeed he was the famous poet and litterateur of Tamil Nadu: Srijukta Subramania Bharati."
Subramania Bharati. The very name makes a Tamil heart swell with pride. Here was a poet of the first water. A diamond of a Tamil poet. Under his pen this ancient language took on a new vigour, a new suppleness; he enriched the language, made it adaptable to modern thought. New thoughts could be expressed with flowing ease. And power. In a word, Subramania Bharati's writings infused a new life into the old language.
Bharati's parents were Chinnaswamy Iyer and Lakshmi.1
' The material facts in the life of Bharati are based on Yvonne Gaebele's Bharathi (in French) and Prema Nandakumar's Bharati and Subramania Bharati.
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They were cousins. She was sweet-natured and kind-hearted. He had a keen intellect and a dream in his mind. He was proficient in Tamil and English, in mathematics and logic. From a nearby village Iyer had come to Ettayapuram in Tirunelveli district of the then Madras State. Ettayapuram was a small estate ruled by a zamindar (landholder), who liked to be addressed as Raja. As the Raja was quick to recognize the sterling quality of the man, Chinnaswamy rose rapidly in Ettayapuram court. He then began to translate his dream into reality. Impassioned by western technology, Iyer set up a textile mill at Ettayapuram in 1880. It was one of the first such ventures in South India.
Out of the happy union was born a child. The graceful Lakshmi gave birth to a son on 11 December 1882. The child was named Subramanyam, which is another name for the handsome god Kartik; the month was also Kartik. The constellation under which he was born was Mula and the year was Chitrabhanu.
The handsome child—pet name Subbiah—was encompassed in love and affection. His grandfather Ramaswamy Iyer doted on him. His maternal grandparents, uncles and aunts and cousins made up a large family in Ettayapuram. He was growing into a lively boy.
But life seems incapable of keeping intact its cup of happiness. The cup breaks soon enough. When he was barely five
1 According to North Indian astrology:
a)Kartik is the seventh month of the year, starting from Baisakh.
b)Mula is one of the 27 Nakshatras or lunar constellations. It is ruled by Ketu, and its deity is Nirriti (catastrophe). It forms the first part of Sagittarius. One lunar Nakshatra covers an arc of 13°20'.
c)Chitrabhanu is the name of a year in a cycle of sixty years.
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years old, Subbiah's mother died. Father Chinnaswamy was grief-stricken at the sudden loss of his beloved cousin-wife. His grief faded in a few years and he married again. It was Subbiah who never overcame the loss of his mother. He carried the grief in his heart till the end of his own life. Pain inflicted on the heart very early in life seems to be the lot of almost all extraordinary beings. For our Subbiah was no ordinary child. He seems to have come with a special blessing from Saraswati, the goddess of Art and Learning.
Even before his thread ceremony—he came from a high-caste Brahmin stock—he composed verses in Tamil.
At school he was the headache of his teachers. If any word uttered by his teacher caught the attention of the boy, he would stand up and begin reciting a poem he had made up then and there. His classmates were hugely delighted—the interruptions were welcome in the monotony of their classes. They may have enjoyed the poems too, who knows! But luckily for the teachers Subbiah was apt to play truant. Whenever he could, which was quite often, he would go roaming around the village, or hide himself in a corner of some temple or the other, and get completely lost to the world, so engrossed would he become in Tamil literature. Subbiah's grandfather it was who had introduced the boy to Tamil classical poetry. He even arranged for the boy to study Kamban's Ramayana under a Tamil pandit.
But Subbiah's father, who had other ideas for his son, was not at all pleased with the situation. He made it quite clear to his son. Very often Subbiah's stepmother had to shield the wayward boy from his father's sternness. Finally Chinnaswamy got his son admitted to the Hindu College at Tirunelveli. The
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three-year high school grind was odious to the Tamil lover, for he had to study English and the sciences, which he did not like. But later on the studies were to stand him in good stead. In the event, Subbiah failed to get selected for the Matriculation examinations. Relieved, he returned to Ettayapuram. Seeing that he could not cure his son of his folly, Chinnaswamy put Subbiah in the service of the Raja. The Raja was charmed to have such a clever boy as a companion, who knew Tamil and English classics, and who made brilliant observations in an amusing way.
When Subbiah was just fourteen and a half, in June 1897, he was married to a child bride of seven, Chellammal. She later described the event. "My husband," said Chellammal, "would go on singing love songs unabashedly to the delight of all present. But I felt very embarrassed at not having been blessed with a normal husband for my life mate." Which in no way stopped her giving him her lifelong love and support. Soft spoken Chellammal may never have become an erudite, but coming as she did from a distinguished family—her father was Chellappa Ayer of Tirunelveli—she drew attention by her exquisite education, her extraordinary dedication and the dignified way she bore herself.
Being a favorite at any court awakens jealousy in other breasts. Subbiah's case was no exception. He was taunted often enough. One day his patience—not that he was a patient man! —ran out, and he flared up when a man affronted him publicly. Subbiah challenged the man to an open debate, which duly took place in the Raja's presence. Knowing himself to be no match for Subbiah's tongue, the courtier engaged a learned
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Pandit to represent him. After the Pandit finished his sophisticated arguments, Subbiah took the floor. He countered with telling arguments. His speech was brilliant, eloquent, and filled with rainbow-hued humour. The audience listened with rapt attention. When Subbiah finished, an elderly Pandit, very respected, very learned, rose and extolled Subbiah for his sagacity, his eloquence and his felicitous delivery. He conferred on Subbiah the title 'Bharati,' which is another name of Saraswati. From then on we got our Bharati.
But dark clouds were gathering over Bharati's life. The textile mill at Ettayapuram had to be closed down owing to heavy losses. Misfortune, as is well known, never visits singly, a host of other disasters are misfortune's companions. Chinnaswamy Iyer was heartbroken and penniless. He died in 1898. His second wife took her young children and went to live with her parents. Bharati was left alone to fend for himself and his family. It was then that his aunt and uncle, Kuppammal and Krishna Sivan, who were in Benares, invited him. They lived and looked after a Saiva Math, where Sivan had installed Nataraj. The couple also cared for the visiting pilgrims.
At Benares Bharati joined the Central Hindu College, affiliated to the Allahabad University. Here the young man learned both Sanskrit and Hindi, apart from fine-tuning his English. And this time there was no restraining him. Triumphantly he passed the Entrance Examination in first division.
It was during his student days, there in Benares, that Bharati began to dress in the way now familiar to us. He cut his hair to the dismay of his uncle, grew a moustache, dressed in the North Indian fashion, and adopted his classic turban. His
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Subramania Bharati and his wife at Pondicherry around 1918.
uncle and aunt were worried at all this change of style, but were relieved when they found that the young man's heart was in the right place, and he did not mean any disrespect to his Hindu Dharma. Their own hearts melted when they heard his emotional rendering of some famous hymns. He was a good singer with a melodious voice.
Once again, it was there in Benares that Bharati learned to call everything into question. He questioned the British rule in India. He questioned India's social structure. He wanted to change the social bias against women and bring about an equality of the sexes, and became deeply interested in women's education. Once he even assembled a goodly audience on a Saraswati Puja day, and delivered a lecture in Tamil on women's education.
After completing his studies, Bharati managed to get a teaching job ... at Rs. 20 a month! Remember that he was not living alone, his wife Chellammal was there too. But as chance would have it, just at that time the Raja of Ettayapuram came to Benares for a few days. He was on his way back from the Delhi Coronation Durbar held by Lord Curzon on 1st January 1903, to celebrate the ascension to the throne of Edward VII after the death of his mother, Queen Victoria. The Raja invited his Subbiah back to Ettayapuram.
For the next eighteen months Bharati again became the companion of the Raja and lived comfortably. In his spare time, he soaked himself at the founts of English and Tamil poetry, Shelley, Kamban, and others. But the almost useless life at the court was too stifling for a poet like him. Came a day when he could no longer bear it. He left. His first stop was Madurai. He took a job as a teacher of Tamil in the Setupati High School, a
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job he held for about three months. Then his destiny intervened. It was in the person of G. Subramania Iyer, the then editor of Swadesamitran, a leading Tamil newspaper. It was November 1904. Bharati, as subeditor, began earning Rs. 30 a month. His main work was to translate into Tamil the news published in English dailies. That is how Bharati came to translate speeches of Swami Vivekananda, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, and other Nationalists. Gripped by the messages of these men, Bharati became a sympathizer of the Nationalists. This work gave him good training in the art of writing. His language gained in a power of expression till then unknown in Tamil.
As the subeditor of Swadesamitran Bharati went to attend the twenty-first All-India Congress Session at Benares. There he met Sister Nivedita. His two volumes of poetry, Swadesa Gitangal (1908) and Janma Bhoomi (1909), were to be dedicated to Sister Nivedita, "who without words, in a split second, taught me the nature of true service to the Mother and the greatness of sacrifice."
Swadesamitran was a moderate paper. Bharati was chafing under its harness as his views became more and more radical. Tirumalchariar and Srinivasachariar, the Mandayam brothers, were hardy patriots, and did not see why they should not spend their inherited fortune for the Motherland. Thus was born a new Tamil weekly, India, based in Madras. It was begun in 1906, at around the same time as the Bande Mataram at Calcutta. Bharati became its editor. He was also the editor of an English magazine Bala Bharati, another Tamil magazine Chakravartini, and a Tamil daily, Vijaya. In India Bharati poured out his flaming heart in poems of fire. His prose targeted the Moderates,
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Front page of Vijaya, the Tamil daily edited by Bharati
and poured scorn on the Indians who did not join the freedom struggle. In a cartoon published in India in 1908 the Moderates are portrayed as dogs eager for the bones Lord Morley is throwing to them while the British wished to loot the mansion of India; and sadly looking on is the caged Lion, Balgangadhar Tilak. Naturally enough, the British administration got his pen-lashings in full measure. The intrepid Bharati spared no one. The Government was ready to crack its whip.
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Source: Mother's Chronicles Book 6 > The Tamil Bard
Also read:
South Indian Nationalists
.... Often he had like-minded friends with him, and a great admirer of his, Nagaswami Aiyer, his brother-in-law. Sitting under the shade of mango trees, his head thrown back, he would look up at the sky trying to draw inspiration. He might have seen now and then the flight of a wedge of cranes from the distant Manasarovar honking some message from Saraswati. A good singer, Bharati could lose himself in Nature's concert: the buzzing of bees, the chirping of birds, the sough of wind in the trees. The melody would make him doze. It was in such a half doze that he got the inspiration for his famous poem Kuyil Pattu (the Song of the Koel. This is one of his narrative poems in blank verse of 750 lines. It tells the story of a koel, a bull, a monkey, and the poet himself—and what had happened in their previous births. In fact, the period between 1910 to 1913 was Bharati's most creative period. He wrote Panchali Sapatham, Kannan Pattu, composed numerous devotional and patriotic songs during these years. He also made many translations from the Sanskrit into Tamil....
Well, Subramania Bharati, 'the most dangerous member' of the India group had escaped to French India. When Mandayam Srinivasa Iyengar the then editor of India, was arrested, convicted and sentenced to five years' transportation, his brother Mandayam Tirumalachari, India's proprietor—against whom also a prosecution was launched—removed himself to Pondicherry along with his office equipment, and printing press, lock, stock, and barrel. That was in October 1908. On 10 October the first issue of India came out from here. Early in 1909 Tirumalchariar went to the West, ostensibly to study photo-
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engraving. By the end of the year all trace of him was lost.
Among the several journals Bharati edited, the weekly India enjoyed a great popularity. On the one hand its style and content made India a treasure in Tamil journalism. On the other, the government and the bureaucrats who were made the objects of its butts were enraged. Neither did the Moderates escape its pen-lashings. The public lapped it all up.
Source: Mother's Chronicles Book 6 > Nandanam
'Spasa' Means Spy
French Government's Headache
The French League
He Knows Latin, He Knows Greek
The Anglo-Indian Press
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