Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi                 Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan                                    56                           

 

 

Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi

Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

56

 

 

 

Have we did not  keep Chellamma waiting for us too long? Maybe we did. But she is such a patient soul and having lived with Bharathi since she was just seven years old,  in 1896, till Sept  11, 1921, all of a quarter of century ‘she had become Bhoomadevi herself. Poruthaar Bhoomi Azhwaar- those who are patient will rule the world’ wrote a commentator. Let us  not test it beyond. We need to get back to her as they are still in Pondicherry.

 

Chellamma told us Bharathi wanted to make a trip to Europe. But failed to make  it despite his attempts. The collateral benefit or fall out was that French and thereby Britishers became aware of Bharathi’s proficiency in English. During their interviews at the Governor’s House to consider a Visa, they admired his language and diction.And Bharathi mildly taunted the interviewers by responding in chaste French, a few times. And this startled them even more. The Englishmen claimed that they had tutored themselves in

England itself, in French, and this helped them to get better at administration as they had to interact with those who were not comfortable in English. But they found Bharathi quite extraordinary.

 

Bharathi was a trained  in writing in French and  speaker, as they concluded, and as a writer said, “ that may have doomed his licence to go to Europe as he may have influenced the thinkers born of liberty, equality and fraternity, the theme song of French Revolution, there . And the English and French never got on well since the Napoleonic days including the Waterloo experience”. Some convoluted connect that, to spike Bharathi’s travel to Europe!

 

The timing in Margazhi 2021 as we are musing,  is  perfectly right to get into Bharathi from Chellammaspeak on his versatility with Carnatic music. Bharathi was no mere poet. He was a song writer par excellence and he could sing them tunefully. He chose the ragas for his songs and set them to music. He was a creative genius with a  rich hand in such multiple pies. Chellamma said that Saint Tyagaraja possibly topped Bharathi’s favourite chart.

 

Bharathi’s favourites seem to be all time favourites of most Carnatic music rasikas. ‘Nagumomu’ in Abheri Raagam was up there. With Bharathi’s ‘proficiency in telegu as if a born telegu’ as Chellamma put it, the choice was perfect. It aligned with Bharathi’s own yearning for the nation’s freedom and search for the land’s  rescue from the British bondage. Check the meaning of Nagumomu- an abridged version- you will agree with Chellamma.

 

O Rama! Supreme among Raghus! Missing your charming smile-lit face I languish here. Knowing my mental plight, can’t you come and protect me?

 

O One who holds Govardhana hill! Members of your retinue who have the duty of reminding you of your daily engagements cannot fail in their duty.

 

Does not Garuda execute your commands expeditiously? Could he have excused himself saying that he was staying far from the earth in Vaikunta, your heavenly abode ? Exalted Lord! Ruler of the Universe! Whom else can I appeal to? Please shun disregard. I cant bear it. Take me into your fold.

 

And Nagumomu was followed by ‘Chakkaniraja’ in Karaharapriya, ‘Marupalka’ in Sri Ranjani and Muthuswamy Dikshithar’s ‘Jaya Jaya Gokulabala’ in Bhairavi raaga according to Chellamma. Bharathi was ‘not merely murmuring them under his breath but several times singing them loud in joyous abandon’. He did not merely sing them. He ‘became them’ as Va. Ra. wrote.

 

Bharathi chose to pen songs of his choice  in the same Dikshithsr ‘pantha or tradition’  she said, identifying Bharathi’s basic philosophy as “Puthiyathil Aasai- Love in the new, Neithanthil Veruppu- Despise for the good riddance, Pesumpothu Kilipola Konjavendum – when you speak  it must be sweet as a parrot, and Pechhe Oru Sangitham Pola Irukka Vendum- the spoken word should sound like music.

 

To illustrate, Chellamma went anecdotal, as if on cue, for these musings. One day Chellamma and a few ladies were engaged in conversation. The topic got controversial and there were raised voices. And parched throats with scratched words was nauseating and irritating. In walked Bharathi, to tell them how it sounded. He came in with his Harmonium. Pressed all the keys at once and produced an intolerable ‘noise’ not ‘music’. He told them, “ Amma Thaye, Neengal Uradikondiirunthathu eppadithaan Abaswaramaaga Irunthathu. Your vocal exchanges were so illtuned and  unmusical and hard on the ears. Now that I have demonstrated how it sounded, please avoid repeating it please”.

 

Bharathi was equally adept at Thayumanavar verses and set Pasurams in Thiruvaimozhi to music. And they were all in mellifluous tunes and have outlasted him, to this day. Well, the Margazhi music season is imbued with dance too. Chellamma asks, what do you think Bharathi was adept at? Not merely  sing. He had an expressive face. And his eyes sparkled and rotated at will, when he demonstrated Abhinayam viz. audition countable, the nearest possible and less than perfect translation. Bharathi would ‘catch Abhinayam’ and ‘ act out the characters from puranas and scriptures to his daughters in an education rare to come by in curriculum’. Note that Bharathi never sent his children to school. He taught them at home. A perfect vaccine he had even for our Pathogen times!

 

Chellamma got emotional as she recalled Bharathi singing – Bhakthiyinale- and when Bharathi came to Intha Paarinil Yedhidum Menmaigal- The good we aimed for in this world- Bharathi was a transformed performer. He pitched ‘ Kaama Pisasu’ – the ghost of greed- high, and he strongly kicked the floor with his feet- and when he came to ‘Thaamatha Pei’ – he got really excited and literally slapped as if the ‘ghost of delay and procastination’ was before him. His children loved their father turn a dramatist a performer and he lost himself in the characters, no matter it was all at home. As a practising lawyer one wishes that the sentiments of Bharathi on ‘Thamatha Pei’ of the Pendency Pandemic could somehow be smashed and/or inoculated against. Sigh!

 

A perfect segway for this muser to go hunting for a physical, moral, psychic, literary, religious equivalent in Kulasekara Azhwar. It would tell us how Chellamma & Co felt when Bharathi enacted his characters. Kulasekara Azhwar was a royal saint, a crown jewel in the lineage of the kings of Travancore who ruled the kingdom as Padmanabhadasa. This was true of Kulasekara, born in Masi Punarvasu in Thiruvanjikkalam. He describes himself as “Kolli Kavalan, Koodal Nayagan and Kozhiyarkone,” meaning his empire comprised of Chera, Pandya and Chola kingdoms. A popular king, he had a huge army and his administration was characterised by virtue, justice and happiness. Then one fine day, his spiritual eye opened.

 

Already well read in the Vedas and Upanishads thanks to his learned father Dhridavvrita, Kulasekara arranged Ramayana discourses in his palace on a daily basis. Love for the Lord and contempt for the material world grew in his mind in inverse proportion. He longed for a visit to Srirangam to worship Lord Ranganatha.

 

As he was hearing the discourse, the story of Lord Rama fighting single handedly 14,000 Asuras at Janasthanam was being narrated. Kulasekara could not imagine Lord Rama battling singly. Instantly, he gave marching orders to his army to help Ramachandra. Taken aback, the Ministers and advisors set up a group of armed men to come in the opposite direction and meet the king. When the two forces met, the news was broken to Kulasekara:

 

“When Sita looked upon her Lord

His foemen slain, the saints restored,

In pride and rapture uncontrolled

She clasped him in her loving hold” (Valmiki Ramayana).

 

On hearing Rama’s victory Kulasekara’s joy knew no bounds and he returned home. The daily chanting of Ramayana was leading to a repeat of this drama. The king was always surrounded by Srivaishnavites. In order to wean him, the Ministers made a false accusation that the Srivaishnavites were guilty of stealing the jewels of Sri Rama being worshipped by the King.

 

The King ordered a vessel with a live cobra in it. “If the Srivaishnavites were honest in thought, word and deed,” said the King, “I will not be bitten by the Cobra. But if they are crooked, let the cobra kill me.” So saying, the king put his hand inside the vessel and withdrew it unscathed. The disgusted ruler entrusted the kingdom to his son Dhridavvrita and started on his pilgrimage to Srirangam.

 

Luckily, Bharathi did not go so far. Bharathi revealed his versatility in linguistics and skill to improve and innovate, said Chellamma. When he sang ‘ Thakdeer Hamaara Inthino Kaise Badal Diya’- How times/fate Bhave changed for me these days- the scene was a Prince ruing his fallen state and singing in pathos. Bharathi being Bharathi he tweaked it to sing- “Appane, see how Bharathi has morphed and mutated from misery and sadness to become a Jeevan Mukthan viz. a realised soul’-and said “ Change and newness is the name of the game . And am I not entitled to change it without demolishing it’s beauty?

 

Chellamma reveals her exposure to epics by suggesting that ‘ like lord Krishna straightening the bent back of the repulsive character Kooni in Ramayana in his subsequent Krishnavatar, Bharathi was born to straighten the bent backs of Tamils with his fiercely patriotic verses. Even today, long after his demise, if and  when I hear the words ‘Vande Mataram’ I can recall his rolling eyes and passionate facial contortions in love for his Bharat Mata.

 

Just as Pattinathaar lived a family life to teach to the world the failings and pitfalls in Samsaara, possibly Bharathi too lived with our family life”. Stunning allegory, as we continue.

 

( Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)