Who are you looking for?

Install Famoose

Keep Famoose on your home screen or desktop for easy access.

Open this site in Chrome or Edge and look for Install app in the browser menu or address bar. If no install option appears, you can bookmark Famoose instead.

Famoose.co
Appearance
Text size
Page width
Colour
Discover›Literature
Contents
Bharathidasan
Poet

Bharathidasan

Famoose for

Using Tamil poetry to argue for social equality and rationalism.

Amaithi-Oomai · Pisiraandhaiyaar

Born
29 April 1891
Birthplace
Pondicherry
Died
21 April 1964

More people

Jane AustenWriting Pride and Prejudice and Emma.Charles DickensWriting Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol.Toni MorrisonWriting Beloved and winning the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Bharathidasan

Bharathidasan was a Tamil poet and dramatist closely associated with the Self-Respect Movement. His writing opposed caste discrimination and supported women’s emancipation.

Early life

Puducherry beginnings

Was born Kanaka Subburathinam and adopted a literary name honouring his mentor Subramania Bharathi.

Career

  1. Early career

    Anti-colonial activity

    Opposed French colonial rule in Puducherry.

  2. Later career

    Rationalist writing

    Became a prominent literary voice associated with Periyar’s movement.

Selected work

Amaithi-Oomai

His play received the Golden Parrot Prize.

Pisiraandhaiyaar

Received a posthumous Sahitya Akademi Award.

Tamil invocation

His song was adopted as Puducherry’s Tamil invocation.

Beyond work

Public legacy

Bharathidasan University, established in 1982, bears his name.

Sources & photo creditBiography and career ↗Biographical references ↗

Original photograph. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.

Photo: Unknown authorUnknown author. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.