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Subramanya Bharati
Surrender unto Shakti
| Composition: |
thEDiyunaic caraNaDaintEn… |
| Composer: |
Subramanya Bharati |
| mudrA: |
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| (signature): |
none |
| rAgam: |
sindu bhairavi (janyam of mELam 10, nAtakapriyA) |
| ArOhaNam: |
SR2G2M1G2PD1N2S |
| AvarOhaNam: |
N2D1PM1G2R1SN2S |
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tALam:
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Adi |
| Pallavi: |
thEDiyunaic caraNaDai^ntEn, dEsa muttumAri!
kEDadanai nIkkiDuvAi, kETTa vara^n taruvAi
(thEDi)
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| Anupallavi: |
pADiyunaic caraNaDai^ntEn, pAsamellAng kaLaivAi
kODinalanj ceidiDuvAi, kuRaigaLellA^n tIrppAi
(thEDi)
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| CaraNam 1: |
eppozhudum
kavalaiyilE iNangi niRpAn pAvi
oppiyunadEval seivEn
unadaruLAl vAzhvEn
shaktiyenRu nEramellA^n
tamizhk kavitai pADi
bhaktiyuDan pORRi ninRAl bhayamanaittu^n tIrum (thEDi)
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| CaraNam 2: |
AdAram
shaktiyenRE arumaRaigaL kURum
yAdAnu^n tozhil purivOm,
yAdumavaL tozhilAm
tunbhamE iyaRkaiyenum sollaimaRa^n tiDuvOm
inbhamE vENDi niRpOm,
yAvumavaL taruvAL
nambinAr keDuvatillai,
nAngumaRait tIrppu
Ambikaiyaic caraNpukuntAl
adikavaram peralAm. (thEDi)
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Source for kavithai: BhArathiyAr KavithaigaL, PUmpuhAr pathippakam, Chennai-600108. Fourth edition, April 1991.
Meaning:
Pallavi: I searched for you and took refuge in you, Oh, muttumAri! Please remove all my ills and grant me my wishes.
Anupallavi: I surrendered unto you singing your glory. Please destroy the trivial bondage. Do me a lot of favours and get rid of my deficiencies.
CaraNam 1: An ignorant person is always immersed in worries. I will willingly carry out your bidding and live by your grace.
By singing thamizh songs with you, Shakti, in mind and praying to you with devotion, all fears shall perish.
CaraNam 2: The sacred vEdAs say that you are the foundation for all activities. Whatever work we do is your (Shakti’s) work.
Let us forget the saying that “misery is natural”. Let us seek happiness and Shakti will grant it.
The four vEdAs have declared that those who believe in you shall not go astray. When we take refuge in you (ambikai), we will get our wishes fulfilled.
General comments:
 When Thamizh-speaking folks say “Bharati”, they mean only one person and that is Subramanya Bharati. He went through so many hardships in his short life and yet he kept up his spirits so high. In the face of all troubles he was a perpetual optimist.
This particular song describes his penchant for keeping faith in parAshakti, (popularly known as mAriamman among the rural folks), his favourite deity. He was a free spirit despite the abject penury he faced at home. In this song he exhorts everybody not to get bogged down in worries but do the assigned duty, whatever it be, willingly, and he assures that parAshakti will take care of everything. People normally get fatalistic and resign themselves to expect misery in life. Bharati quells this notion and encourages people to have a positive outlook. Faith elevates people, he says, as declared by the vEdAs. The language used in this song is very simple and at the same time elegant. One does not need scholarship in Thamizh to understand the meaning.
This song exemplifies the paradox in Bharati’s life. He was simultaneously up against personal and social poverty, society for its mistreatment of the downtrodden people, and the British for occupying India. At one time, when there was not a grain of rice at home to cook the next meal, he was writing a poem about the distress of bonded labour (of Indians) in the island of Fiji. Not enough can be written about such a person. Albert Einstein said about Gandhi thus:
“Generations to come… will scarce believe that such a one as this ever walked upon this Earth”. That statement would apply equally well to Bharati. What a noble soul! What a great poet!
Composer’s bio:
Subramanya Bharati (1882-1921) was born in Ettayapuram in Tamil Nadu and lost his parents early in his life. He married when he was 16. He moved to vAraNAsi and got most of his education there. He came back to Ettayapuram at the invitation of the king, got restless doing nothing, and taught for a while in Madurai Sethupathi College.
He then got interested in the freedom movement, met several freedom fighters, and was very active in promoting the independence movement. He was mainly fighting the British with his pen. Subramanya Bharati was well-versed in several Indian languages in addition to Thamizh and English. He edited a satirical weekly and a monthly English newsmagazine The British were afraid of his writings and tried to imprison him. He fled to Pondicherry (at that time a French territory) and published his revolutionary newspapers and magazines from there. He also learnt the vEdAs and music
While Bharati got the support of several leaders, he was leading the life of a pauper at home. He translated the Bhagavat GIta into Thamizh and rewrote mahAbhAratam in Thamizh as ”pAnchAli sabhatam”. All along he wrote a lot of poetry of all cadres - devotional, nationalistic, amorous, and wisdom-oriented - covering a variety of subjects. He occupied an editor’s post in the leading Thamizh newspaper of the day, ‘Swadesamitran’, and was held in high esteem by the publisher. It is an irony of fate that a temple elephant, whom he used to feed regularly, attacked him one day from which he got very sick and eventually died. Even while dying, he was defying death. It is said, “Those whom the gods love die young”. Bharati was a typical representative of that genre. His small mortal frame left the earth but his giant immortal self still strides around in all glory. He was rightly accorded the title of ‘National Poet’ for his national integration songs and ‘MahAkavi’ (great poet) for his poetic excellence.
Some of the songs of Bharati that are very popular in the Carnatic music concert circuit are:
tIrAta viLaiyATTup piLLai (ragamalika),
cinnanj ciru kiLiyE (ragamalika), cuttum vizhic cudar thAn (ragamalika),
dikku teriyAda kATTil (ragamalika), and pArukkuLLE nalla nAdu (jOnpuri). Usually, Bharati’s songs are rendered towards the end of the concert more for their aesthetic appeal rather than musical grammar alone.
References:
1. http://www.geocities.com/promiserani2/co1072.html
2. http://www.sangeetham.com/bharathi.htm
Sethuraman Subramanian
subramaniansethu@hotmail.com
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