MAHA KAVI SUBRAMANI BHARATHI

International Centre for Performing Arts present special tribute to one of India’s greats.

The International Centre for Performing Arts will host a special tribute to one of India's greats, Maha Kavi Subramani Bharathi, at UKZN’s Howard College Theatre on June 5 in acknowledgement of the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the Indian community’s forefathers in South Africa.

Subramani Bharathi (December 11, 1882 to September 11 1921) was both an independence fighter and a reformer. Known as Maha Kavi Bharathi (Maha Kavi meaning “Great Poet”), he is celebrated as one of India's greatest poets. His compositions helped rally the masses to support the Indian independence movement in South India.

Bharathi was fluent in many languages including Telugu, Bengali, Hindi, Sanskrit, Kutchi, French and English. He is considered a nationalistic poet due to the number of poems through which he extolled the people to join the independence struggle for a free India. He composed Carnatic music kritis on love, devotion, etc. His patriotic songs, inter alia, emphasized nationalism, unity of India and the equality of man and he sang these himself at various political meetings.

With the vast majority of his songs being in Tamil, Bharathi also composed two songs entirely in Sanskrit. Regrettably, not all of his songs have been recovered. Some of them that are very popular in the Carnatic music concert circuit include: Theeratha Vilaiyattu Pillai, Chinnanchiru Kiliye, Suttum Vizhi, Thikku Theriyaatha, Senthamizh Nadenum and Paarukkule Nalla Naadu.

Bharath fought for the emancipation of women and was simultaneously up against society for its mistreatment of its downtrodden. He also fought against the caste system and the British for occupying India. Although born into an orthodox Brahmin family, he gave up his own caste identity as he was of the view that 'there are only two castes in the world: one who is educated and one who is not.' He considered all living beings as equal. His nationalistic poems Vanthe Matharam, Enthayum Thayum and Jaya Bharath are widely known and sung.

The performance will take place at 15h30 on June 5 in Howard College Theatre on the UKZN Durban campus. Entrance is free. For more information contact 083 777 1244 or phone Vasa Morgan on 031 404 9257.