Recent Tamil Literature

Tamil literature, through native impulse, the dissemination of English scholarship, the stimuli derived from the examples of advancing languages such as Bengali, Hindi and Telugu, and the reaction of political agitation, is now experiencing a phase of revival which in some respects has the character of a Renaissance. The peculiar feature in this revival is that its pioneers and supporters are mainly the English educated.

As late as three decades ago, Tamil literature was almost in a state of somnolence. The first remarkable stirring of life in this condition of hibernation was due to the initiative of the late C. Subramania Barathi, our first ‘Poet of Patriotism’ and ‘Prophet of Nationalism’ and the most honoured name in recent Tamil history. Poetry came to him naturally and he was in revolt against whatever was not sincere in the substance and form of verse. Though he sided with the poetical formulas of the past to some extent, he was of opinion that none can really be a poet if little prettinesses of language and little comelinesses of thought are his only goal.

Barathi loved the old domestic tunes and catches; into these gracious moulds he poured his gifts of thought and expression; and with a, touch of inspired alchemy transmuted them into pure gold. He felt first and thought only next. Hence it is that no poetry of recent years has reflected so much of the authentic genius of Tamil Nad as his. A born poet, his lips kissed by the Muses, Barathi had that great gift of singing straight from the heart. Such songs have always an incommunicable charm, a piercing sweetness of their own. No wonder they roused the Tamils from torpor and gave them a new message and a new hope. In short, it must be said, that though thrice statelier names may decay, his own can wither not away.

"And with those few he shall survive
Who deem not to compete or strive
Yet with the foremost still arrive,
Prevailing still;
The Elect with whom the Stars connive
To work their will."

With him there is in process of development something in the nature of a school of modern Tamil poetry. Candidly we have notyet charted the interiors and only the mountain peaks can be delineated.

Mr. Kanagasubburathnam, better known as ‘Barathi Dasan,’ is noted for his scrupulously chaste selection of words, aptly chosen comparisons and unfailing sense of humour. In all his songs there is not a shadow of redundance; every word is inevitable and enough.

Swami Suddananda Barathi is a poet of an entirely different kind, a scholar of perfect literary taste and consummate mastery of versification. Though here and there we hear echoes of Thayumanavar, Arunagiri and Barathi, in his poems, uniformly we "drink sober draughts from a pure fountain."

Richness of vocabulary, wonderful combination of words, and beautiful similes are the characteristic qualities of the poetry of Mr. S. D. Subramania Yogi, who writes under the pseudonym ‘Kali Dasan.’

By his numerous soul-stirring national songs Mr. V. Ramalingam Pillai of Namakkal has entered deep into our hearts. The dominant idea that covers all his works is his passionate love for freedom and his patriotism. He introduces into his songs a quality of speed and throbbing velocity.

Of the elder poets like Messrs. V. P. Subramania Mudaliar, R. Raghava Iyengar and T. Lakshmana Pillai, the most outstanding is Mr. Desigavinayagam Pillai. Says Joubert, "Fine verses are those that exhale like sounds or perfumes." The standing examples of this great definition of poetry are the exquisite verses of Mr. Pillai. None among our moderns has ever written more musically or tenderly or in a more personal manner. Some of his delicate and charming pieces such as ‘The Ocean of Grace,’ one of the most beautiful long poems of our day,–a poem purely and flawlessly poetical and highly original, because so new and so peculiar, though a translation,–‘The Moon’ and ‘The Mother who lost her son’ will assuredly plead successfully with Age and he will take his place with that goodly company who sang to sweeten our hearts rather than rouse them to action.

Coming to prose literature, we have to observe that the few prose writers that Tamil has had in the course of its history have vied with each other in the production of a heavy and cumbrous style, often beyond the comprehension of ordinary people without the help of lexicons. They have been quite sonorous in their effects but they could hardly compensate for the want of clearness and simplicity of prose. Subramania Barathi was the first to realise and insist on this primary need of Tamil, the creation of a good model of prose style, capable of communicating ideas in a lucid manner. Thus Barathi, the poet who shaped a new nation, is also an original force in the other harmony of prose. It is not too much to say that the effect of his style is like that of the best music that can only be felt and never adequately described. The second name that arrests us in the growth of our prose style is that of Dr. Swaminathier. All his writings are invariably set forth in a language wherein are abundantly manifest precision and balance, force and flexibility, ease and simplicity of expression. We are not in a position at present to recommend a better standard for the youth of this country.

In a spirited defence of journalism, Anatole F:rance wrote: "I have no knowledge of any fine talent being spoilt therein and on the contrary I have seen some minds gain a suppleness and vivacity which was lacking in their earlier work. One learns to avoid the obscure strain into which the most artistic writers so often relapse, when they write far removed from the public." ‘Kalki’ is a notable instance of this and only in him we come across a style necessary for what Lord Morley has called ‘the journeyman work of literature.’

"Nations can no more be independent in the art of literature than in the other arts. To be independent, to be un-affected by others’ genius, inaccessible to others’ ideas, would be to render our literature stagnant and grotesque. It is a condition of progress in literature as in Science, that new inspiration must be continually sought, new conceptions assimilated. One vein is soon worked out, another must be opened. True art is of all the world and a nation does best in art when it corrects its own particular ideas, without meanwhile surrendering itself to a servile imitation of that for which its genius is naturally unfit." (T. G. Tucker: ‘Foreign Debt of English Literature.’) This is true of any literature and Tamil cannot be an exception. So it is in the fitness of things that ‘we must leave the old faiths’ wherever necessary and ‘work in the new roads’ all the time leaving no stone unturned ‘to guard the fire within’ our language.

In literary achievement the short story is a new venture. Seeing Tagore giving to his mother-tongue brilliant gems in that line, the late V. V. S. Iyer was the first Tamilian to try his hand in the writing of short stories. And though he has not reaped uniform success, still in one or two of his stories he attains perfect artistic execution. For instance his ‘Kulathankarai Arasamaram’ cannot be read without feeling oneself subjugated by the witchery and fascination of its descriptions and the intensity of its pathos. In the delineation of characters, he has not taken pains to differentiate one from the other. They all seem to be allied to each other. It is also a curious fact that his heroes and heroines always belong to the upper tenth of the land so that we miss in his pages, except when given incidentally as in the case of the old servant of Vijaya Thevan, ‘the sweet and simple annals of the poor.’

The stories of Sri C. Rajagopalachari impress us as absolutely clear in outline, well-proportioned, full enough for their purpose, yet without the slightest suggestion of crowding and, within their own framework, complete. All his stories serve to focus public attention on some of the greater social evils of the day. He takes his subjects from actual life, a few simple parsons typifying the primal qualities in human nature, and weaves them into a beautiful tapestry of art.

In theme; treatment and method, ‘Kalki’s stories are remarkable and exhibit an arresting individuality. In the studies of character he displays a strong visualising faculty and rare analytical power. In the appreciation of modern literature, no two words, I suppose, have been more abused than the words ‘beautiful’ and ‘masterpiece.’ But as far as ‘Kalki’s’ stories are concerned we have in his ‘The letter and the tears’ a beautiful story and in ‘Kanthimathi’s Lover’ a masterpiece. In their keen display of subtle humour, and in their diction often ‘alive with imagery’ his writings, wherein shine transparent almost all the varied aspects of the new awakening, have a charm all their own. His wit, irony and satire give an additional fascination to the easy grace of his style. ‘Kalki’ is the most precious gem among our living men of letters, a rare prose-writer with immense potentialities.

The subtle art of story-writing is going on merrily and a very large group of young men and women, the works of some of whom contain the promise of the future, have taken it up seriously.

It is curious that none of our prose-writers seem to have hit upon the happy luxury popularised in Europe by Montaigne of "lounging in an easy chair and tattling familiarly round a theme of general interest." They have always been for productions of epic dimensions and their conventional notions of literary propriety have never permitted the practice of any of the chief elements of essay writing,–egoism, familiarity or discursiveness. It is only for the last few months that we are having the delightful essays of ‘S. V. V.’ through ‘Ananda Vigadan.’ Naturalness is the only thing needful in such writings and ‘S. V. V.’ who brings out clearly the life of the Tamils in these articles, has it in plenty.

A similar phenomenon is observed in the department of fiction. It is somewhat unfortunate that certain spicy and sensational works of Western fiction, not forming part of real literature, should have secured early attention in this country and resulted in the creation of an unhealthy class of books. It is high time that such books were sternly repressed and that we derived inspiration from the examples of a large number of English novelists which have not been availed of–the kindly humanity and breadth of vision of Dickens, the poignant satire of Thackeray, the grim analysis of Hardy and the robust common sense of Meredith. There has also to be the portrayal of the great mass of the people from whom our modern novelist is apt to turn away with notions of aristocratic superiority. The use of dialectic vividness and peculiarities of slang has yet to be accomplished. Estimating fiction as it is now in our midst, conscientiously one cannot say that after Rajam Iyer’s ‘Kamalambal Charithram’ we have any good novel, except A. Madhaviah’s ‘Padmavathi’ which among his works remains hard to equal, and ‘Desabakthan Kandan’ from the facile pen of that elegant writer Mr. K. S. Venkataramani.

Biography and literary criticism are two other departments which draw our immediate attention. The art of biography was not quite indigenous to our land, so much so that most of the lives of our men of letters contain more improbabilities and exaggerations than actual truth. But in the course of the past two decades we have had a few good biographies. Mr. N. M. Venkatasami Nattar’s ‘Nakkirar,’ Mr. Venkatarajulu Reddi’s ‘Kapilar’ and ‘Paranar,’ Swami Siddhbavananda’s ‘Sri Ramakrishna’ and ‘Sri Vivekananda,’ ‘Minakshisundaram Pillai’ by Dr. Swaminathier, ‘Manickavasagar and his times’ by Swami Vedachalam and ‘Dr. Caldwell’ by Mr. R. P. Sethu Pillai are the most important of them. Of all the histories of Tamil literature it is the one by Mr. K. Subramania Pillai that comes nearest to being commendable.

Again it is distressing to note that the few books that deal with literary criticism are mostly in the direction of unalloyed admiration expressed with a heavy apparatus of learning and marked by an anxiety to discover merits even where they do not exist, by reading between the lines. There can be very little scope for the development of criticism under such circumstances and hence the need for catching the inspiration of Western critics, so that in the years to come at least we can present a lucid analysis of our masters of literature.

There are numerous fields in which a beginning has yet to be made and History and Science are the chief of them. Except a few stray articles in some magazines, and text-books, we do not have any appreciable work in these sections. The need for them is becoming more pressing and an attempt must be made in right earnest to fill the void.

Translations from foreign languages exercise considerable influence towards the broadening of culture by introducing to the student of literature priceless masterpieces which he will never have the chance of reading in the original form. Save a few short stories and some books, there has not been made any regular attempt to translate into Tamil the best books of the world. To mention some of these there are: ‘Anandamatam’ by Mahesh Kumara Sarma (Bankim Chandra), ‘Lake of Palms’ by Thiruchitrambalam Pillai (R. C. Dutt), Bhagavad Gita by C. S. Barathi, ‘Sakuntala’ by Swami Vedachalam, ‘Raj Mohan’s Wife’ by T. N. Kumaraswami (Bankim Chandra), ‘Kumudini’ by Srimathi Ranganayagi (Tagore), ‘The Little Clay Cart’ by Pandithamani M. Kathiresan Chettiar (Sudraka), ‘Meditations’ by C. Rajagopalachariar (Marcus Aurelius) and ‘My Experiments with Truth’ by R. Krishnamurthi (Gandhiji).

In the field of drama, in spite of the fact that there have been published scores of books, only a very small number that can be counted on one’s fingers, like V. G. Suryanarayana Sastri’s. ‘The Triumph of Honour,’ Muthuswami Iyer’s ‘Visvanatham’ and Prof. K. Swaminathan’s ‘Kattai Vandy’ come up to the required level. Not to speak of Sheridan or Bernard Shaw, Pinero and Lady Gregory, we have not even plays like ‘The Merry Wives of Windsor’ or the Comedies of Ben Jonson. The examples of Western Social Dramatists like Ibsen and Strindberg will help to add a page of no ordinary value to our literature.

Summing up, we have to say that, we do perceive a marked interest around us in our mother-tongue and a morning which in the words of Wordsworth "gives us promise of a glorious day."