From: selvakum@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca (C.R.Selvakumar - Electrical Engineering)
Subject: Re: Paaradhi inRu irundhhal...
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Thu, 28 Jan 1993 15:56:34 GMT

In article <C1JBnK.80E@ireq.hydro.qc.ca> srini@ireq-num.hydro.qc.ca (Srinivasan K.) writes:
>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.
>>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. 
>
>There are a few other places, where he talks of 'aariyam', etc.
>But one should read all this, after mentally transporting oneself to 1920s.
>
>His poems are based on his knowledge of that time. Do not evaluate his
>poems in today's context.       
>   
>>      Last year in OTTAWA we had a patti manRam titled, "paarathi
>>     inRu irunthaal kaLipuRuvaanaa! kavalaip paduvaanaa!" The majority
>.....
>>     These are the same people who ostracized paarathi for his liberal
>>     views on caste.
>>   Kathiravan 
>
>In addition, to his liberal views on caste, his opposition to
>'male chauvenism' based on many stories in Hindu mythology
>is well documented. Yet he did not want to throw away the rest.
>
>Anyway, I suppose he deserves some credit for whatever good he
>did to Tamil society of HIS TIME, in spite of whatever racial
>origin he was by birth.
>
>K. Srinivasan


       Bharathi was a great poet without a doubt! Please let me
       know which poet has sung about freedom and independence
       like he did. He sang freedom _wherever_ it was won, Russia, Belgium..; 
       he sang about Gandhi, Tilak, vaa.vu.Chidambaram..; 
       he sang on so many topics.. he was certainly among the greatest 
       and it is paNbanmai ( not paNbu) to undermine his tremendous
       contributions. I am truly saddened that someone should 
       say the words like he will have a corner etc. Bharathi 
       IS sitting in the Great Hall of Tamil Fame. This does not
       mean that all that bharathi said is true or correct. He might
       have had inadequate or incorrect information. Bharathi can be
       criticized like any other poet but what Kathiravan said
       is seriously disparaging. However Tamil ManRams are
       named after Bharathi is a different issue ( why not ?)
       Bharathi's words and style can be surely discussed and debated;
       any wrong ideas advanced by earlier contributors such as
       'bharathi was the first in this and this..' surely these
       could be discussed. Bharathi was so catholic in his outlook,
       and it is in my honest opinion sheer paNanmai to put him
       down as Kathiravan did. vaaymaiyE vadivu ( = Truth _is_ beauty)
       [ I am using the Sri Lankan Tamil meaning of vadivu = azhagu]

       I agree with K.Srinivasan entirely but I feel that he had been
       too conservative in comments re kathiravan's article.

       anbudan
       - Selva