Musings on the Life and Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi 2 Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
Musings on the Life and Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi
2
Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan
Before we conflate ‘Panchali Sabatham’with his ‘Fox with the Golden Tail’, let us quickly run through his life sketch. The purport of these Musings is not to render a Biographical piece on Bharathi. But to muse on his life and times on the anecdotal plane. Pick up the pieces from recorded facts, fiction,true and apocryphal tales, strewn all over and across and string together a shining necklace with those gems and jewels.
When alive, Chinnaswamy did not have the recognition. He did not crave for it. Yes. But he knew Goddess Durga he worshipped would let him become immortal in his visionary writings. It bordered on arrogance. Bharati had no doubts that his writing would last beyond time. Even Thiruvalluvar, scholars say, does not rule out an element of arrogance in such learned beings.
Born in a village of Ettayapuram, on Dec 11,1882, ( you ask the millenials and genZ and more in the Tamil Nadu of today, they would all immediately recognise that Dec 11th was the birthday of Thalaivar Rajanikanth- that is who we are and become) and born in an upper class of society, Bharathiyar was a staunch ideologist from a very young age. Many tragedies marked his childhood. He lost his mother at a very young age of five . He was under the influence of his father, Chinnaswamy Iyer, who wanted him to become an Engineer.
Bharathiyar’s father wanted to start a cotton spinning mill in Tuticorin under the permission of the Ettayapuram king. He got permission from the British through the Ettayapuram king and started a shareholding company just like V.O.Chidambaram Pillai who got into shipping business to be christened Kappalottiya Tamilian- A Tamilian who sailed Ships.
The dreams of Bharathi’s father got shattered when the British played with a piece of falsified news that the ship carrying the machinery for the factory got sunk on the way to India. The sinking of ships caused substantial psychological stress on his father, and he was bedridden for many days and passed away when Bharathi was but nine.
As child marriages were common in those days, Bharathiyar was married to Chellamma, when he was fourteen and she just seven. Bharathiyar was a child prodigy, and his talents got noticed by the Ettayapuram king, who endorsed it. And that is a brilliant vignette on its own, as we shall see.
After his father’s demise with help from his aunt Kuppammal, he went to Varanasi or Kasi to learn about the religious customs. There he was educated in all areas of Hindu spirituality and gained the reputation of being a rebel. He was there for six years, “ Literally lived in the ghats as an University and somehow contrived not to meet Vivekananda who was staying in an adjacent ghat”, wrote someone.
Once his education was over, Bharathiyar came back to Ettayapuram to continue his life with his wife. He abandoned many of the customs specific to his community. He cut his hair short, wore a turban or Mundasu, and refused to wear the Punool, a white thread across his chest. His actions in not abiding by community customs spurned a lot of protests from people from his community. Some close to him even regarded him as ‘losing his mind’. It emanated that those from the ostracised classes in Varanasi wore this attire and Bharathi felt obliged to follow suit with his radical ways. Though he criticized customs, he was a staunch devotee of Kali Devi.
He was offered an honorary job in Independence Ettayapuram court, which he refused and took up a teaching job in Madurai Sethupathi School, for a princely salary of Rs.17.50p per month. On a leave vacancy, as Tamil teacher, for one hundred and one days. And his first salary experience is an anecdote in itself capturing the maverick in him. Let us go there too. During this time, he developed a friendship with V.O.Chidambaram Pillai and Subramanian Siva, which kindled his inner feeling for freedom.
He left his career as a teacher and joined as editor of Swadesamithran magazine on the invitation of the patron G Subramania Iyer ( who also stated The Hindu) and started to attack the British rule in India.
He, along with V.O.C. and Subramanian Siva, attended the Varanasi congress session. Bharathi joined Swadesamithran in 1904. On Feb 13,1906 he published an advertisement of his own as Assistant Editor. “This is a clarion call to all willing and able poets. We invite songs with patriotic fervour arousing the spirit of freedom in the masses. I/We are ready to select from among them those that deserve to be compiled and published as a book of poems”.
‘Well, the response was electric. Or rather a damp squib. Not one poet , of whom there were many who called themselves that at that time responded to Bharathi’s call. Why? For they were all living in a cocoon of self centeredness. They were not fools like Bharathi to create poems to drive out the Britishers. They were not willing to lose out the comforts of living. The catch was in the invitation to send in songs with ‘patriotic fervour’. No one was ready. Though able. Just not willing. It was tragic. Yet it was magic for Bharathi. Thus was born Bharati the freedom fighter in his 53 iconic songs which ring aloud even today. India owes its gratitude to all those scared and faithful poets to give us our own Mahakavi”, says Tamilaruvi Manian, a scholar par excellence on all things Subramania Bharathi, dripping with scathing cynicism.
Bharathi visited Kolkatta to meet Sister Nivedita new Margaret, a British lady who became a follower of Swami Vivekananda. And what a fascinating first meeting it turned to be. Her exposition on women empowerment dazzled Bharathi so much that he was a transformed man and a poet, as we shall encounter , with his own shy villager and dear Chellamma in the centre of it all. ‘Bharathi was bold and beyond his time in attitude, vision, acts and construct. Difficult to comprehend and understand, leave alone admire”, wrote Va.Ra.
Words were his tools. Not to chisel. But as weapons of mass destruction of superstitious and pitiable practices of kowtowing to the colonial mindset. He was fiercely furious as his language morphed into the angry mode. His words were way ahead of his time, and he was a strong supporter of violence, if needed. He never held back his true feelings. ‘He got into trouble all the time. He did not care.He welcomed them”, said Rajaji once.
He attended meetings organized by V.O.C.People used to gather in his sessions to hear his passionate speech and his attacks on the British. He participated at the Surat congress conference, where he met Bala Gangadhar Tilak. Tilak’s influence was immediate and huge on Bharathi. He openly embraced a militant challenge to colonial rule. He wanted Congress to accept Tilak as the leader and adopt his advices. His poems took a new vigour which never subsided until ‘he went to meet the maker rather too early, for the good lord was missing him too much’ as a poet mused.
Back at home, things were getting worse and worse. It was always a struggle. His financial situation was getting abysmally poor. With no regular income, his wife found it difficult to run even everyday household chores. Chellama being a strong lady, was able to run the family, but was not yet ready to accept Bharatiyar’s devil may care ideology to self interest and personal welfare. She was brought up in an orthodox family in a village environment. Shy and demure. She behaved a ‘Brahmin’, at times.Sometimes she responded negatively to serve people of other castes . It infuriated Bharathi no end. This clash in thinking led to a considerable gap between Bhrathiyar and Chellamal, who now had two daughters and it was not easy going. ‘But Chellamna loved her Subbiah and ‘adjusted’ like any Bharathiya Nari’ said Sudananda Bharathiyar.
Remember that Saint Ramunaja also faced such discomfiture when his wife Thanjambal’s orthodoxy tangled with his world view of embracing humanity as one, with no caste or community divisions. Her disdain to Thirukkachi Nami ( Ramanuja’s teacher) literally triggered his decision to become a Sanyasi and abandon Thanjammal. Despite such large heartedness, the accidental birth of these Yogis in ‘a community’ was held against them. It continues to haunt the Tamil Nadu if today too.
With the arrest of V.O.C. and Subramania Siva, many of Bharathiyar’s well-wishers asked him to escape to Pondicherry. The French ruled Pondicherry, and it was a haven for many British India freedom fighters. French and the British had a treaty not to interfere in each other’s issues, so a British India convict can evade an arrest if he enters Pondicherry. Bharathiyar, with his family, left for Pondicherry.
Pondicherry was not all welcoming.. It was not beyond being hostile to Indian freedom fighters, during the time as the French and British became friends leading to World War I, where they were allies. ‘Bharathiyar agreed to flee because his friends convinced him that he and his works were not his and his words were essential for India’s freedom. Incarceration must be avoided as a free Bharathi was too important to be sacrificed to join those jailed. It was not his selfish interest that impelled him. It was his duty by the nation that constrained him”, wrote a commentator, to agree to go to Pondicherry.
Bharathiyar started to work in a newspaper published from Pondicherry and wrote for India, Sooryodayam, and distributed it across Tamilnadu, which carried the seeds of freedom and sometimes violence. His health was also deteriorating during this period and his earnings too. During his stay in Pondicherry, he met many of the extremists who had taken up weapons to bring down British rule in India. One of the crucial people was Veer Savarkar, who was one of the accused in the collector Ashe murder case. Even Bharathiyar was looked at as a suspect as sone conspirators were possessed of his poems.
Bharathiyar wanted to learn sword fight, but his health was not in good shape to accommodate it. He was ready for the plunge but unable. It was then he coined the famous phrase.“ROWTHIRAM PAZHAGU”- Learn to Get Angry. To flip on his favourite Avvaiyyar’s Aathi Choodi ( Aaruvathu Sinam- Avoid Anger) as as his New version.
His sickness further worsened, and he decided to move out of Pondicherry to British occupied India. He got arrested immediately in Cuddalore. But after much protest, was released within 14 days, it would appear, but was asked not to move out of Kadaynalur, his wife’s hometown. During his stay in Kadayam, he further devoted more time to the uplifting of people from oppressed communities. He invited some for having lunch at his home and even converted many to the higher community. People from his community heavily criticized these acts.The Brahmins did not accept him as their own. ‘Others’ too were not eager to own him up. And this continued even well into the 20th century. Kanaka Subburathinam’s courageous verses notwithstanding, as we shall see.
After a few years, ‘he moved to Chennai and continued to work in magazines as India, Vijaya and any piece of blank paper he could lay his hands on’, as my father once told wrote to rail against the British. His health saw no signs of recovery and slipped into further distress.
One day while feeding the temple elephant of Triplicane temple, the elephant pushed him away. The mahout felt the elephant was getting crazy and Bharathi was foolish to get near it. He fell on the ground and sustained head injury. People around were scared to get near to rescue the fallen Bharathi, lying between the legs of the elephant. It was only his best friend Kuvalai Kannan who heard the news and ran to the temple and daringly picked up his dear Subbiah. His weak health status and head injury combined made him bedridden. Bharathi never recovered. Contrary to popular belief that it was the elephant’s blow that led to Bharathi’s demise, it was only a minor trigger. Not a major catalyst.
And Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi passed away peacefully on Sept 11,1921-at all of 39 years. ‘And 14 persons attended his funeral. A shame that Madras now Tamil Nadu can never live down. And in 1982 when his centenary was celebrated in our godforsaken Ettayapuram and his ManiMandapam was inaugurated, the political class and elite swarmed to be seen. Not out of love and devotion to the Mahakavi but to partake in the celebrations to be seen and heard in public. Parashathi alone can deal with these characters’ bemoaned an elderly villager contemporaneously.
It’s a blessing to be from Bharathiyar’s lineage says Niranjan Bharathi, his great-greatgrandson, while sharing his thoughts.
“Mahakavi Bharathiyar has been a great influence for all modern-day writers and poets, including me. As I have his genes, writing poetry was perhaps always in my blood. He has many facets and I have grown up in awe of them. If many people associate him with his patriotic work, there’s another side to Bharathiyar — the way he sees nature through a scientific angle, in his works titled Vasana Kavithai. One of my favourite works is Chandrikaiyin Kadhai, a short story. I also love reading his prose work.
Growing up in a household filled with Bharathiyar tales, I have heard many interesting moments about his life. Of them, I have two personal favourites. One involves him visiting a zoo and coming face to face with a lion. It is said that he proudly told the lion —“Kaatuku raja nee, paatuku raja naan” (You are the king of the jungle, I’m the king of poetry). Contextually, Chellamma Bharathi (his wife) writes in her biography of her husband- Bharathiyar Charithiram- , “ Oh my god. I prayed to almighty to give good sense to the lion. For I was sure that my husband Bharathi could not act otherwise, he had to be himself, as he put his hands inside the cage and was bent on poking at the king”.
There’s another story in which it is said that a poor Bharathiyar, who didn’t have money to pay rent to his landlord, prayed to Parashakthi to extricate him from the predicament. The Goddess, it is said, appeared in the landlord’s dream and instructed him not to take rent from the poet. In fact, reports say that it was the landlord who came to Bharathi with trepidation to remind him of rental dues. Bharathi said, “ Vaarum- Please come- my dear man. I thought Parasakthi had already settled the dues. Adi Parasakthi, Ennadi Thamatham- why this delay- Please settle it with the poor landlord as I have more important business to sing in your praise and to remove the shackles from Bharat Matha”. “Was he nuts? A crazy man? Mad cap? Or a Gnani? Or all of the above, in shades”, asked a modern prose poem.
Legend says there were more houseflies than humans( just 14 of them) to attend his funeral. A man who got no recognition during his period is presently praised as one of the greatest poets ever to live. And there are festivities in his name. And his songs on the lips of those on the silver screen mouthing them as platitudes. Not as prayers they were meant to be.
Bharathi would have been in the least bit concerned or worried that very few people attended his funeral. Or that his departure was noted in the obituary columns with a couple of sentences. For he KNEW the IMMORTALITY of his words. He had no doubts. Whatsoever. He was supremely sure. He was arrogantly convinced. He was ‘humbly arrogant or arrogantly humble’ as my favourite Antonin Scalia was praised or criticised, if you will.
As a fellow student of his, Somanatha Bharathi said,” I had often wondered how is it that Shelley and Keats were gifted from birth with ability to indulge in beautiful verse. But then when I saw my own little devil Chinnaswamy Subramanian, all of seven years, compose classic verses, sitting under the shades of trees and the world took notice, I knew that there were some,, with unique talents sent down with such rare gifts. And my own Subramanian was the brightest among them”.
Bharathi had taunted the god of death Yama in his verse- Dare to come thee near me, I will crush you under my feet. Alas, death caught up with him before he could carry out his threat. As for his immortality of living beyond his time, he said:
Siluvayile Araiyundu Yesu Sethhan Theeyathoru Kanaiyale Kannan Maandaan
Palar Pugahum Ramanume Atrille Veezhnthaan
Paar Meethu Naan Saagathiruppen Kandeer
Jesus Christ the saviour was himself crucified
The higher being Kannan died by an arrow after the close of Mahabaratha War
Even Lord Ram died when he fell into the Sarayu river displeased with fate’s footsteps
But a creator like me shall live on forever, in my creations, my outpourings as words, in this world
How true!
Typical of a lawyer, one has digressed too long from what one set out to, in the conflation of ‘Panchali Sabatham’ and ‘Fox with a Golden Tail’. Before one is reminded of it, let us go there now , for sure.
( Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)
