Musings on the Life and Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi : 3 Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan 
The Harry Potter series of fantasy novels by J.

Musings on the Life and Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi : 3

Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

 

 

 

 

 

 


The Harry Potter series of fantasy novels by J. K. Rowling is one of the most translated series of all time, with the first book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, having been translated into over 76 languages. No grouse, complaint or grievance. We live in such times that fantasy tales and fables, particularly when aimed at children, they have a certain immediate traction.

 

Subramania Bharathi was adept in 9 languages- Tamil, English, Malayalam, Telegu, Kannada, French, Latin, Hindi and Sanskrit. But that it took 130 years for his Panchali Sabatham to be translated into English is sad commentary on our skewed priorities.

 

On the 130th birth anniversary of Subramanya Bharati, Panchali’s Pledge on 16th Dec,2012, — an English language translation of the poet’s classic Panchali Sabatham — by Usha Rajagopalan was launched by the Chennai Chapter of the Association of British Scholars (ABS).

 

The book attempts to translate the many poems that culminate in Panchali’s pledge when she was disrobed at the Kaurava court. “I grew up listening to Bharati’s songs in films and kutcheries, and always went into a trance. I couldn’t understand the songs, and I decided I would learn enough Tamil to translate this book into English,” says the author. “I had earlier translated a few of Bharati’s poems. I began with four or five that I really liked, and as I dug deeper, I discovered more gems. Then, for a few years, I was obsessed with Bharati. The translations of 52 of his select poems were published as a book a while ago.”

 

The author’s biggest challenge was to not stray from the original composition. “When we launched it during the Bharathi festival, people who had read the book told me there were parts that fit the original exactly. There cannot be a bigger compliment,” says Usha. “Bharati is a classic and he will live as long as his characters remain poignant in society.”

 

Translation becomes necessary as society evolves, she says. “Even though Bharati wrote his poems for the common man, his writing has now become difficult because language and people have evolved over time. With my other book, I had a neighbour who was a Tamil writer and who helped me analyse the poems. But for this book I had to read a lot, analyse the poems, meet his granddaughter and bring about my translation. It took time to understand some of his more abstract poems.”

 

Bharathi was a great communicator. After a thousand years of Kamban, except forThayumanavar and Ramalinga Vallalar, it was not until Bharathi, any poet reached out to the masses. He was elevating it, by coming down to the commoner. He wrote in such simple vernacular Tamil that when read or recited, the lowest common denominator residing tamilian could absorb and assimilate. He was uniquely HIM. He made a sustained effort to reach out to ordinary brethren. It is not as if he was incapable of being a strict grammarian and stick to the poet’s licence on metres and use and employ esoteric language. He was a linguist with no parallel. ‘Yet,the traction his works gained was tragically a pifle. His ‘Panchali Sabatham’ sold so low, during his life time. Bharathi himself was unhappy and disappointed’ says Tamilaruvi Manian.

 

It is a pity that while Rabindranath Tagore deservedly got the Nobel laureate status, Subramania Bharathi did not make it. Why? One reason scholars and academicians have concluded is the absence of classy translations  of Bharathi’s works in English. When he was  not selling well in his mother tongue and his magnum opus Panchali Sabatham, in two volumes,had to be published by Chellammal and her daughter Sakuntala, after death of Bharathi, tells its own despicable tale. Did Bharathi have anything  to say on Tagore’s Nobel. Well, he actually did. And what a story! It deserves focused attention for it is not so well known even . That is sadder still, if you will.

 

That is where ‘Fox with a Golden Tail’ comes in. Bharathi wrote it to taunt the elite and their ways. It was not a work he owned up with ease and comfort, unlike those in Tamil. He did not write it to demonstrate his prowess in the foreign language viz. of the Britishers. He wrote it  ‘for fun and pass time’ he was quoted as saying.

 

He was  actually pained and anguished at the coverage given to the episode of Jiddu Krishnamurthi’s adoption by Annie Besant and the goings on in the court battle. Bharathi did not agree with the ‘publicity’ given and mass attention it generated or attracted. He used his fun time to set his allegorical fable in scathing tone. ‘It was his way to catharsis’  a commentator said.

 

Bharathi was always an emotional person. He never let go of an opportunity to respond in public, to issues of social concern. Bharathi lived in times when the World was not Flat. Information flow was stuttered, curtailed, curbed and not free. How did he have access to news? At Swadesamithran the kind of issues he wrote on , were vast and varied. He not only commented on issues but educated his readers with background information. Where did he get all this information? Where was his access when most Indians including Tamilians were not privy to it?

 

A few illustrations would reveal the lengths to which Bharathi went to acquire knowledge. Once when the Ettayapuram Zamindar gave Rs.500/- in 1900s a huge sum to him and his neighbour, during festival time, to visit Madras and buy goodies, Bharathi’s response was reflective of his priorities. He spent Rs.450/- and bought two cart loads of books. Rs.40/- for his wife Chellamma’s saree, and gave her the balance of Rs.10/- for household expenses. Instead, Chellamma told Bharathi that the neighbour had spent Rs.350/- on the entire family for its upkeep for a few months and saved Rs.150/- for a certain rainy day.

 

And another,the Britishers were always angling to book Bharathi, on one or the other charge. They got a chance in 1905 when Bharathi was accused to subscribing to a periodical ‘The Gaelic American’ – devoted to the cause of Irish Independence from British hegemony. Bharathi was just one of 13 subscribers of that periodical in India . “It was a miracle where he hit upon its existence and contents and subscribed too, when his day to day existence was hand to mouth and going to bed on an empty stomach not rare’ as Chellamma anguished.

 

And then another one. When a history professor from Madras Presidency wrote a Letters to the Editor column in a Calcutta Daily ( Tribune) “ I am comfortable in teaching my students in English. For its vocabulary is huge and it is easily communicable” ; Bharathi responded with a cheeky counter in his Swadesamithran column. “ I am surprised why this good professor ought to display in public, his ignorance in Tamil. If he was incapable, the fault is not in the language. If a language lacks the vocabulary, it reveals the lack of sweep of knowledge of the seeker and lack of a word may be relatable to a cultural construct. If the word Veshti has no equivalent, it denotes the lack of its use of it in the community. Let the good professor learn well and better, before he teaches his students next time”. Pungent and sharp shooting style of an unrelenting Bharathi.

 

Bharathi therefore concluded that he had to respond to the Annie Beasant v. Narayaniah tussle, in English,  to reach  a wider audience,and one it was meant for. And his ‘Fox with a Golden Tail’ sold like hot cakes. So much so there was a huge demand for reprints and further copies.

 

Bharathi’s response was typical. “ I am shocked not surprised that my ‘Panchali Sabatham’ sold so poor. I wrote it with my blood and severed a part of my self in delivering it. And in the vernacular which a commoner, can relate to.And it had to be printed and published by me, first volume. For there were no takers. Yet, ‘ Fox with a Golden Tail’, a spoof and a comic parody, I wrote with cynicism as the seed, sells well and readers seek a reprint. Only Parasakthi can save us from this denuded vision and delusion in thought and focus. I refuse to oblige to consent for a reprint. I am not in writing for commerce”.

 

(Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)

 

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