Subramanya Bharathi

Subramanya Bharathi Biography

Subramanya Bharathi was the Tamil poet from Tamil Nadu in India. He was also a freedom fighter and social reformer. He is known as Mahakavi Bharathiyar and is celebrated as one of the greatest poets of India. Mahatma Gandhi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Sri Aurobindo are his contemporaries.

He was born on 11^th December 1882 in Ettayapuram village in Tamil Nadu. His parents are Chinnasami Subramanya Iyer and Elakkumi Ammaal. He studied at The M. D. T. Hindu College in Tirunelveli. He learnt music at a young age and was invited to take part in the conference of Ettayapuram court poets and it was here that he got the title of Bharathi. He lost his mother when he was five and his father when he was 16. When he was 14 he married 7 years old cousin Chellammal.

He left for Benaras in 1898 and worked as a teacher in Madurai Sethupathy high School. His days in Benaras broadened his outlook and he learnt Sanskrit, Hindi and English. He met sister Nivedita on his journey back home. He visualized the women as the emanation of Shakti. He joined as the Assistant Editor of the Tamil daily Swadeshamitran in 1904. He started editing the Tamil weekly India in April 1907 and the English newspaper Bala Bharatha.

In the year 1908 he celebrated Swaraj Day and organized a public meeting on its account. His poems on national independence are Vanthe Matharam, Enthayum Thayum, and Jaya Bharath. He is called as the National Poet of India. He escaped to Pondicherry expecting an arrest in 1908. From there he was working with the journal India, a Tamil daily, Vijaya, and English monthly, Bala Bharatha and a local weekly Suryothayam. British government banned both India and Vijaya.

He fought against the caste system in the Hindu society. He performed Upanayanam to a young Harijan man and made him a Brahmin. He claimed that all men are equal. Kuyil Pattu, Kannan Paattu, and Panchali Sapatham are some of his notable works. He was struck by an elephant at Parthasarathy temple at Triplicane in Chennai. He died on 12^th September 1921 at his age of 39. 

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Updated: August 28, 2011