Kannadasan (24 June, 1927–17 October, 1981) was a
TamilTamil people , are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, a state in India, and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. They speak Tamil , with a recorded history going back two millennia. Emigrant communities are found across the world...
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and
lyricistA lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-songwriter, who also composes the song's melody in addition to the lyrics.- Collaboration...
, heralded as one of the greatest and most important writer in the
Tamil languageTamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia, Mauritius and Réunion as well as emigrant communities around the world...
. Frequently called
Kaviarasu , Kannadasan was most familiar for his song lyrics in Tamil films and contributed around 5000 lyrics besides 6000 poems and 232 books, including novels,
epicsThe Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System is a software environment used to develop and implement distributed control systems to operate devices such as particle accelerators, telescopes and other large experiments. EPICS also provides SCADA capabilities...
, plays, essays, his most popular being the 10-part religious essay on
HinduismHinduism is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as ', a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law", by its adherents. Generic "types" of Hinduism that attempt to accommodate a variety of complex views span folk and Vedic Hinduism to bhakti tradition, as...
, captioned
Arthamulla Indhumatham .
Kannadasan (24 June, 1927–17 October, 1981) was a
TamilTamil people , are an ethnic group native to Tamil Nadu, a state in India, and the north-eastern region of Sri Lanka. They speak Tamil , with a recorded history going back two millennia. Emigrant communities are found across the world...
poetA poet is a person who writes poetry. A poet's work can be literal, meaning that his work is derived from a specific event, or metaphorical, meaning that his work can take on many meanings and forms. Poets have existed since antiquity, in nearly all languages, and have produced works that vary...
and
lyricistA lyricist is a writer who specializes in song lyrics, usually paid for by a band to write a custom song. A singer who writes the lyrics to songs is a singer-lyricist. This differentiates from a singer-songwriter, who also composes the song's melody in addition to the lyrics.- Collaboration...
, heralded as one of the greatest and most important writer in the
Tamil languageTamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in India, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Tamil is also spoken by significant minorities in Malaysia, Mauritius and Réunion as well as emigrant communities around the world...
. Frequently called
Kaviarasu , Kannadasan was most familiar for his song lyrics in Tamil films and contributed around 5000 lyrics besides 6000 poems and 232 books, including novels,
epicsThe Experimental Physics and Industrial Control System is a software environment used to develop and implement distributed control systems to operate devices such as particle accelerators, telescopes and other large experiments. EPICS also provides SCADA capabilities...
, plays, essays, his most popular being the 10-part religious essay on
HinduismHinduism is the predominant religion of the Indian subcontinent. Hinduism is often referred to as ', a Sanskrit phrase meaning "the eternal law", by its adherents. Generic "types" of Hinduism that attempt to accommodate a variety of complex views span folk and Vedic Hinduism to bhakti tradition, as...
, captioned
Arthamulla Indhumatham . He won the
Sahitya Akademi AwardSahitya Akademi Award is a literary honor in India which Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters , annually confers on writers of outstanding works in one of the following twenty-four major Indian languages:Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, English, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada,...
for his novel
Cheraman Kadali in the year 1980 and was the first ever to receive the
National Film Award for Best LyricsThe National Film Award for Best Lyrics winners:...
, given in 1969 for the film
Kuzhanthaikkaga.
Kannadasan was born in Sirukudalpatti, near
KaraikudiKaraikudi is a city and a municipality in Sivaganga District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the largest city in Sivaganga district, and is known as the capital of Chettinad region , which comprises Karaikudi and 74 other villages...
,
Tamil NaduTamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai . Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by Puducherry , Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh...
,
IndiaIndia, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal...
as Muthiah.
But when he died at the age of 54, on October 16, 1981, millions of Tamils remembered him only by the name Kannadasan. For Tamils all over the world, he epitomised their poetry style. Even those who couldn't read the poetry of Kamban or the maxims of Valluvan, could hum the compositions of poet Kannadasan.
There is no doubt that he had a penetrating eye and keen observational powers. He also did not live a cocoon-type of life. He dipped into everything that Tamil Nadu could offer - wine, women, drugs, politics, polemics, atheism and religious sanctuary. After enjoying everything, what he did was remarkable - he composed verses about all his experiences, with reflective self-deprecating humour, irony, and biting sarcasm. These verses touched the sympathetic chords of Tamils from all walks of life - school boys, undergrads, housewives, farmers, manual labourers, plantation workers, middle class representatives and even upper class elites.
Atheism to Hinduism
Muthiah was a staunch atheist and a follower of the Dravidian atheistic movement. He had great love for the Tamil language and culture, and excelled in Tamil literature, prose and poetry. He once read the
Thiruppavai of
AndalAandaal is an 8th century Tamil saint and one of the twelve Alvars and the only woman Alvar of Vaishnavism. She is credited with the great Tamil works of Thirupavai and Nachiar Tirumozhi that are still recited by devotees during the Winter festival season of Margazhi. Aandaal is known for her...
, and was amazed at its mystic poetry, that was to have a deep and everlasting impact on him. After a lot of introspection, he decided to reconvert back into Hinduism, christened himself Kannadasan, dug deep into understanding Hinduism, and wrote his series of books on Hinduism.
"Yesu Kaviyam," the epic on the life of Jesus Christ was the last book written by the late Tamil poet laureate, Kannadasan
Poets laureate
Kannadasan was a
poet LaureateA Poet Laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for State occasions and other government events....
when he died.He wrote a book vanavasam which was published by vanathi publisher
A house in Sirukootalpatti is now a memorial for the Tamil film music's evergreen favourites. The Kannadasan memorial museum was inaugurated on June 25.
External links
- http://www.kannadhasanpathippagam.com/
- http://www.tamilnation.org/hundredtamils/kannadasan.htm