Most of us have come across many of the popular works of Subramanya Bharathi in books, Music albums or Movies. But that gives very little idea of the great man he was , for he was not just a poet but a philosopher, a freedom fighter and a social reformer and most importantly, a thinker far ahead of his times. As a polyglot with a very broad world view , he has also read up a lot on other languages including English and French and has done a lot of translation work. His personality was too multifaceted to be understood through studying a few of his works.
When you read a book of compilation of his poetry, nicely ordered, indexed and printed , it gives a feel of having been composed in an orderly way. That probably is the case when a novelist starts writing a book. He may take a year or many years to complete the novel, but there is some kind of order . That is not the case with poets, particularly Bharathiyaar .
Subramnaya Bharathi lived in tumultuous times. His compositions were constantly shaped by the political and social events of the times, national and international. There were many poems that never got printed and the manuscripts never survived. Some compositions were abandoned or lost half way through. The manuscript of his witty and insightful autobiographical work was completely lost and he could recreate only six chapters . The fact that he spent long years in exile as a fugitive hounded by the British Indian Govt, did not make anything simpler.
Poverty was another issue the poet was constantly battling; though it’s a different matter that he was more inclined to give away his meagre possessions rather than seek help from the well off or to build up financial security for himself and his family.
So any study of the great man would mean an attempt to track his life and works chronologically to understand what prompted him to write the way he did. Unfortunately , there are very few copies available of the magazines he wrote in or edited. There are just five photographs of him available. He held regular correspondence with many including national leaders like Balgangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chandra pal, but very few letters are available today.
Fortunately , he left behind many admirers. Very few dared to support him openly when he was alive and only post-independence, his readers and fans came out in numbers.
So, we have many accounts of what it was to be in the company of Bharathi, what he believed in and what kind of vision he had for future of Bharatvarsh .
Despite spending most of his life as a journalist, the great poet’s life is not chronicled at all, though there is a lot of random information available on the net. In this digital age, information available expands to fill the time available. The more I read about Bharathi , the more the net throws at me to read. If someone wants to cross-check and verify every bit of information, it would be very difficult proposition indeed. Where do you start verification when you come across a statement like :-
“Bala – Bharata was a monthly magazine and Editor was Subramanya Bharathi. He wrote a lot for this magazine without mentioning his name. His Gurumani Sister Nivedita wrote for every issue without fail without mentioning her name “
How many people are aware that Bharathiyar also used pen names like Kalidasan and Sakthidasan while working for Swadesamitran. His English works were published in Annie Besant’s Commonweal, New India and The Hindu.
It was mostly anonymous or pseudonymous. From his writings, one could guess that he was greatly influenced by Swami Vivekananda and Sister Nivedita. He has also written about Rabindranath Tagore and has been a close friend of Sri Aurobindo . On political issues he was clearly on the extremist faction of the Congress and considered Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Bipin Chand Pal as his leaders. He did respect Mahatma Gandhi as a great mass leader but both on political and social issues he had differences and didn’t hesitate to express them vocally.
He led an absolutely extraordinary life and I wish we had some kind of day to day recording of events then, as we have today , in the era of social media. Whatever be, it’s a wonderful exercise figuring out the time, place and context regarding all his writings.
In a way , when you have time, it is a blessing to be spending your days reading up everything, authenticated or not, about the great poet.
PS
here is a news item, published exactly five years before, that says ,noted Bharathi scholar Shri Seeni Viswanathan would be bringing out a complete collection in chronological order. I could not find any follow up news after that.
Here is the story of Seeni Viswanathan’s research on Bharathi.