From: cen466p@vaxc.cc.monash.edu.au (S. Parthasarhathy)
Subject: Re: Gandhi statue in Villupuram blown up
Organization: Dept. of Chem. Engg., Monash University, Australia
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 14:10:52 GMT

In article <kat.728165020@reg>, kat@doe.carleton.ca (Kathiravan Krishnamurthi) writes:

>      About paarathi, I personally feel he is a mini kayavan. 1000 people
> may try to convince me otherwise but I do not agree.

999 to go :-)

> here is an example of his kayamai:
>                 
>             thamizhth thaai: paarathi: 
> 
>     "aathi sivan peRRu vittaan
>      agathiyan enROr aariya mainthan
>      niRaimEvum ilakaNaj seithu koduththaan"
> 
>      What does he mean. His ancestors might be aarians 2000 years ago. But
>        he should not give wrong information like this. 

i am not sure whether bharathiyaar used aaryan in the sense which  DMK/DK
people are using now a days [from the tone of posting, i wont exclude you
either]. but i am not authority on bharathis' work either. from memory, the
story of agaththiyar (u can dispute  the story too), Lord Shiva [Himaalayaas]
asked agaththiyar to go south and he  crossed the Vindhyaa range. don't flame
me for using Lord Shiva, if it offends u. i told you it is a story. since
aaryans entered india from north, bharathi might have used aaryan [just to
refer the person from north, by the name of agaththiyan] in that sense. and u
want me to believe that a person who wrote  "jathigaL illaiyadi paappaa" would
have had this idiotic dravidian-aaryan sectarian thoughts [which were flared up
by the "orE kuttaiyil ooriya mattaigaL" for political gains]. come on, man.
please ..., please ... ! 
       
>      I admire his poetry. uNarchchi is there. But there are thousands
>      of poets not spoken of.

i agree with u. even in science, people [not me] say even albert einstein [in
indian context, sir c.v.raman] is not as great as he is portrayed. recognition
is something different, capacity to do things is something different. it is
pure luck, man ! but that should never be used to demean ones' achievement.  in
classical music, some critics say MSS is not great either. but .... ?

they say, it is not sufficient that u should have the right expertise to become
great, but u should be at the right place, at the right time and with the right
person. may be bharathi had all the things correct [gosh isn't he lucky].

>      If I have time I can show that Bharathi's
>      tradition of poetry claimed by a lot of Bhaarathi fans to be unique
>      is wrong. He has copied the tradition of simple thamizh set by
>      a lot of siththars. He himself admitted that. His kummiyadi peNNE is directly from vaLLaalaar's
>      poetry.

i would say, if people appreciate ones' work and if that person ack that he
adopted [rather than copied ;-)] somebody else's style. you can not complain,
can you ? if he has not acked then you have a point to make. but by ur own
admission, bharathi acked that he adopted the existing style. what more do you
want ? put siththars name as the author of all bharathis' songs :-). feel free
to do it [ofcourse in ur copy of the book and believe me bharathi would not 
mind ;-)]. unlike these days, he did not go after stupid titles given by
"jaalras" and [honorary] doctorates, but he was called by others as
"mahaakavi". but that does not mean other poets are idiots.   

>       He wrote freedom songs. I admire him for that.
 
may be it because of this he became well known. once u become well known,
whatever u do will be recognised. as they say, the first break is difficult. 

>      But they do not do like some Indians who go to the extent of
>      naming thamizh sangams as "paarathi sangam" as if paarathi is thamizh.
>      These are the same people who ostracized paarathi for his liberal
>      views on caste.

hey. despite being an aaryan [in ur view ;-) ofcourse], bharathiyar has done
good to tamizh -- a dravidian language :-). think of that. don't u think it
should be appriciated ? whether it is right or wrong, he has become an icon
thats all. but nobody is preventing you if you start a thamizh sangam in
iLaNGkO's name, who again, i think is not a tamizh [i am not very sure about
it. so dont flame. can somebody clarify]. veeramaamunivar is appreciated in
tamil literacy circles because of what he has done to tamizh despite being
non-indian [forget about non-tamizh]. please do not have this rather narrow
minded, sectarian prejudices in judging ones' work. u might fail to recognize
some good work.

moral : do not see who does to judge whether it is good or bad, 
        but see what he does to judge it. 

>       I shall write later about how people work in distorting thamizh
>       literary tradition. One Premaa Nandakumar has written in her
>                             *********************** 
>       book that "paanjaali sapatham " is the first drama-poem in
>       thamizh.

sure please do, but give us what is the right one and with reference. so that
we can make sure that u don't fall into the same trap of distorting thamizh
literary tradition. i hope u understand. i dunno about prema nandhakumar. but
my tamizh prof [he is not an aaryan ;-)] used to say that there was nothing
like paanchaali sabatham appeared before in tamizh literature.  

>         All these kayavars have to stop writing and spreading
>         misinfo to make paarathi look bigger.

just because they say something good about bharathi make everyone kayavar ?
even bharathidhaasan, thiru vi ka etc etc. please feel free to put me into that
group. atleast i have got an elite company :-).

>         paarathi will have his own place in thamizh literature[a small
>        little sure corner for singing about women liberation and
>        freedom]

thank god atleast u gave him a corner. ghee, wont he appreciate it ? 

>       What a kayamai?

which one, putting him in a corner ;-)

>      silappadikaaram is the first drama-poetry written in the subcontinent
>      to my knowledge. I shall correct myself if somebody can quote 
>      any other work as good as silappadikaaram that talks about
>      dance, drama and poetry so early in Indian history.

may be. but you should see the common man. he like the songs which he can
understand easily and which he hear during his younger age. may be bharathiyar
wrote songs in common mans' languge and it was appreciated. u can just take one
of his book and u can understand it [ at least most of it]. atleast the songs
which i have heard were like that. u take kamaba raamayam, u cant be so sure.
that should explain why kaNNadhaSan is recognized more than kamban [among
common man]. nevertheless, kamba raamaayanam has its class but one needs
expertise in the language to appreciate its beauty. may be you have but i
don't.

> 
>    Kathiravan 
-- 

Parthasarathy
Chemical Engg
Monash Uni

                opinions based purely on perception.
                   bound to change with reality
                with no prior warning  what so ever.

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