Early life Subramania Bharati

photo of subramanya bharathi wife chellamma.



bharathiyar house in puducherry



artistic depiction of subramanya bharathi.

bharati born chinnaswami subramania iyer , lakhsmi ammal subbaiah on 11 december 1882 in village of ettayapuram. educated @ local high school called m.d.t. hindu college in tirunelveli. young age learnt music , @ eleven, learnt poetry. during time conferred title of bharati , 1 blessed saraswati, goddess of learning. bharati lost mother @ age of 5 , father @ age of sixteen. married chellamma 7 years old when fifteen years old. brought father wanted him learn english, excel in arithmetic, , become engineer. through great efforts, learnt 32 languages (29 indian languages , 3 foreign languages).

bharathiyar handwriting in tamil

during stay in varanasi, bharati exposed hindu spirituality , nationalism. broadened outlook , learned sanskrit, hindi , english. in addition, changed outward appearance. grew beard , wore turban due admiration of sikhs, influenced sikh friend. though passed entrance exam job, returned ettayapuram during 1901 , started court poet of raja of ettayapuram couple of years. tamil teacher august november 1904 in sethupathy high school in madurai. during period, bharati understood need well-informed of world outside , took interest in world of journalism , print media of west. bharati joined assistant editor of swadeshamitran, tamil daily in 1904. in december 1905, attended india congress session held in benaras. on journey home, met sister nivedita, swami vivekananda s spiritual heir. inspired bharati recognise privileges of women , emancipation of women exercised bharati s mind. visualised new woman emanation of shakti, willing helpmate of man build new earth through co-operative endeavour. considered nivedita guru , penned couple of lyrics praising her. attended indian national congress session in calcutta under dadabhai naoiroji, demanded swaraj , boycott of british goods.

by april 1907, started editing tamil weekly india , english newspaper bala bharatham m.p.t. acharya. these newspapers means of expressing bharati s creativity, began peak during period. bharati started publish poems regularly in these editions. hymns nationalistic writings, contemplations on relationship between god , man songs on russian , french revolutions, bharati s subjects diverse.

bharati participated in historic surat congress in 1907 along v.o. chidambaram pillai , mandayam srinivachariar, deepened divisions within indian national congress section preferring armed resistance, led tilak , aurobindo on moderate approach preferred other sections. bharati supported tilak , aurobindo v. o. chidambaram pillai , kanchi varathachariyar. tilak openly supported armed resistance against british.

cover page of 1909 magazine vijaya, published first madras , pondicherry.

in 1908, gave evidence in case had been instituted british against v.o. chidambaram pillai. in same year, proprietor of journal india arrested in madras. faced prospect of arrest, bharati escaped pondicherry, under french rule. there edited , published weekly journal india, vijaya, tamil daily, bala bharatham, english monthly, , suryodayam, local weekly in pondicherry. british tried suppress bharati s output stopping remittances , letters papers. both india , vijaya banned in india in 1909.

during exile, bharati had opportunity meet many other leaders of revolutionary wing of independence movement aurobindo, lajpat rai , v.v.s. aiyar, had sought asylum under french. bharati assisted aurobindo in arya journal , later karma yogi in pondicherry. period when started learning vedic literature. 3 of greatest works namely, kuyil pattu, panchali sapatham , kannan pattu composed during 1912. translated vedic hymns, patanjali s yoga sutra , bhagavat gita tamil. bharati entered india near cuddalore in november 1918 , promptly arrested. imprisoned in central prison in cuddalore in custody 3 weeks 20 november 14 december , released after intervention of annie besant , c.p. ramaswamy aiyar. stricken poverty during period, resulting in ill health. following year, 1919, bharati met mohandas karamchand gandhi. resumed editing swadesimeitran 1920 in madras (modern day chennai).