Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi           Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan                        6

Musings on the Life & Times of Chinnaswamy Subramania Bharathi

Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

 

6

 

 

 

Note: There is historicity behind this photograph.

 

Photo taken and initially published before 1 January 1957. (before Subramania Bharathi’s death in 1921) . In India, photographs created before 1958 are in the public domain 50 years after creation,

This photograph is currently in the public domain in the India because it meets one of the following conditions:

* it was created before 1958 (as per the S.21 of Copyright Act,1911).

* it was published prior to 1 January 1961 (as per the S.25 of The Indian Copyright Act, 1957);

* its author died prior to 1 January 1961.

 

It is accepted that there are only 6 photos of Bharathi. Rest are sketches. When Chellammal spoke on All India Radio,Tiruchy Station in 1951 under the title  ‘My Husband’, she said, “ Today,  I am recognised as ‘the wife of a Mahakavi’ . But when he was alive, let it be known that I was called “the wife of a mad man’. ( Paagal/Pythiakaran). It was not said behind my or his back. But on our faces. He was a Gnani. He could laugh it off. ( Thuchemena Madhithar).But I was an ordinary being. It was meant to hurt. It hurt me badly. And the scars have not healed to this day”.  ‘And in 1955 when  she died, she died a hurt and scarred woman’, said her daughter Sakuntala.

 

Chellammal was all of seven when she was married to Bharathi,14 years. She hailed from a village. She was brought up in an orthodox Brahmin household. Shyness was her second self. “ I was not old enough to know that I was marrying a prodigy and a would be Mahakavi. But I had my own dreams. While he was a loving and caring husband the utter neglect and indifference he suffered despite his exalted status as Bharathi was unbearable for the family. It was not poverty that consumed him. More than 50% of his works remained unpublished when he died on Sept 11,1921. And that was cruel. If Tamils did not recognise them when he was alive, of what comfort is it to us that he is being deified today. And even today there is no effective closure over his hailing from ‘a community’ which he had renounced for all practical purposes as he always said he was ‘a man of the cosmos’.

And I had to start Bharathi Ashramam  to sell his works so that we may survive. That was the cruelest part that he died unsung and we had to sell his works to make our ends meet”.

 

On the day Chellammal married Bharathi, his sister Lakshmi, all of three years was married to her maternal aunt’s  son Kedar and Chellammal’s sister Parvathi was given in marriage  to Viswanathan, elder brother of Kedar. The marriages were celebrated for four days and there were ‘processions on all days’ as Chellammal recalled. She said she had a lot to dreams. “ Even on marriage day he revealed that he was different. On the fourth day of the marriage day there was ‘Ooanjal’. He sung an Aasu Kavi ( Rhapsodical as poetry grammar calls it) praising my father for his generous ways, the self less service of those who arranged and performed the marriage and singing prowess of musicians in stage. He sang and then gave a lecture demonstration too. The assembled elders were stunned and told my father that Chellammal could not be luckier than to get this Subbiah as husband. Imagine my plight after marriage when I realised that he was anything but an ideal husband.”Sudhanabda Bharathiyar  remarked much later, “Please understand that it was easy for Bharathi to be himself. It was tough, absolutely impossible  to have been Chellammal the wife. She was no intellectual or erudite to appreciate his ways as a seven year old and beyond. We are lucky that Chellammal turned out to be who she was – Bhoomadevi- for us to have a Mahakavi”.

 

Chellammal found that Bharathi was the apple of the eye in the family. But his father Chinnaswamy was focused on teaching profession and ignored the health of Subbiah which took its toll in later years. Chinnaswamy was a stern father and Subramania never looked him in the eye. Even before  his 5th standard as a drop out, Bharathi bunked school all the time and sat under every tree in Ettayapuram ‘day dreaming’. His love of nature and birds and animals began in those lonesome years.

 

Bharathi lost his mother at 5 and his father Chinnamalai remarried Valliammai within two years. Stepmother loved Bharathi and was very protective of him. Curiously, Subbiah was a forgetful boy and rarely returned with the slate and chalk piece he took to school. In fact, on most days- he roamed the streets and returned home as if after school. Valliammal was forced to buy the stationery again and again as Subramania lost them all the time but she protected him from his father Chinnaswamy.

 

It was found by Chellammal that on days when Chinnaswamy did not go to the chambers of Ettayapuram Raja, Subbiah went to recite his poems and the Raja was pleased to hear them. An anecdote  that stood out was when the Raja asked Chinnaswamy, “ Ayyarwal, I am sure you had done a million good in your previous birth to have Subbiah as a heir. Or you and your wife both were fortunate. I feel that Ettayapuram may follow the hallowed birthplace of Gnanasambandar who was fed my goddess Umayaval herself.”.

 

Chinnaswamy did not understand what the Raja was alluding to. Chinnaswamy thought that there sarcasm imbued in his statement. So he responded, “ I apologise  to respected Raja if my son has behaved impertinently by any chance. When I get home I will try to discipline him.  He goes not behave normal at all. He needs to be respectful.”.

 

Raja, “ Ayyarwal, what makes you think so. I am telling you the truth of  my interactions with your son Subbiah. He has come in here a few times and dictated his verses of high value. For his age the outputs are outpourings of Saraswathi and so acknowledged by Pandits in this court also. Your son deserves high praise and careful nurturing  to let him become what he may  be destined to, to bring laurels to himself, you, your family and our beloved Ettayapuram too.  Your son may be too shy and unwilling to recite his verses in front of you. One of these days please come to the Court and watch him perform,  from behind the curtains. You will appreciate my accolades.”.

 

Chellammal recalls this incident as told to her by Somanatha Bharathi too, Subbiah’s classmate at school, and feels that alas her husband was perceived as a mad man and one who had lost his marbles, during his life time,  and his works never fetched him the recognition they deserved.

 

Chellammal made it clear that her prayers were for recognition for her husband’s works and not lucre.

 

( Author is practising advocate in the Madras High Court)