City youth honour Bharathiyar on 138th birth anniv

Considered one of the greatest Tamil poets of all time, the 138th birth anniversary of Subramania Bharathi or Bharathiyar was celebrated by TN’s Twitterati in style. While his works date to the early 1900s, younger generations still seek inspiration to date, with several users tweeting some of their favourite lines. He was known for his poetry on the unparalleled beauty of the Tamil language.

Several Twitter users posted lines that still resonate with them on a personal level. A Twitter user Karthik said, “Each one of his poems and songs are timeless. He wrote at a time of revolution within the nation. Younger people can realise that art needs self-confidence and courage by looking at how his writing impacted the nation.”

Many youngsters took to honouring the poet by posting clips with quotes from the poet used in cinema, and even creating memes on Bharathiyar’s role during the Independence Movement. Quoting an excerpt that called for equality of men and women, one young Twitter user, Sandhiya remarked on the poet’s progressive ideals. “Bharathiyar felt that women deserve an equal standing with men. He also called for women to be educated similarly and have government-level jobs,” she said. His poetry was mostly about the British rule in India, especially his work Panchali Sabatham, which used characters from the Mahabharatha to allegorically represent the freedom struggle in India. Other popular works included Kuyil Pattu and Kannan Pattu, and translated vedic hymns and the Bhagavad Gita to Tamil.