Ideas of Religious Harmony in Bharathiyar Poetry

Abstract

Bharathiyar's poems can be credited with leading the trend of Tamil literature to a new dimension in the twentieth century. It was Bharathiyar's works that made the Tamil language, which was immersed in the luxuriant flavours of the small literary genres in the palaces of the small land kings, rise up with a new force towards a new direction. Bharathiyar's poems, which arose for the liberation of the land, shed light on various fields, like women's liberation, spiritual liberation, caste liberation, and social liberation. Mahakavi Bharathiyar's poems became a rallying cry against slavery. Bharathiyar's family background, life in the city of Kasi, and friendship with Sri Aurobindo were factors in Bharathiyar's Hinduism. The reason why Bharathiyar took the nickname Shaktidaasan was because of his great love for Shakthi worship. Thus, even though Shakthi was sung as the supreme deity, Bharathiyar became a great devotee of the Vaishnava deity Kannan by composing the great poem Kannan Paattu. Bharathiyar's concept is also a celebration of the higher ideals of Buddhist philosophy. Although many poems have been sung with involvement in the various religious practises of India, it is also possible to know that religious harmony thoughts such as "one is supreme and we are its people" are prevalent in Bharathiyar's poems. Thus, speaking and writing about the ideas of religious harmony found in Bharathiyar's poems is an unavoidable requisite in today's environment. In this way, the ideas of religious harmony found in Bharathiyar poems are the foundation for the formation of a cultured society with high religious tolerance.