DR. KAVINGNAR KANTHAVANAM’S CONTRIBUTION TO TAMIL POEMS: A PHILOSOPHICAL VIEW
As a student of philosophy, I think it is better to explain my understanding of poems in a few words, before writing something about Kavingnar V. Kanthavanam from my memory in the middle school experience.
A momentless intensity pure and bare,
I stretch to an external everywhere.
I have become what before time I was;
A secret touch has quieted thought and sense.
All things by the agent mind created pass
Into a void and mute magnificence. ~ Sri Aurobindo
Human life is caught in the ceaseless movement of time, of perpetual coming – to – be and passing – away. The changing forms of human life and of the native have captured man’s reflective attention in the East and West throughout the ages by shaping the main thrust of his philosophical quest and by posing the basic questions of his religious life. Consider for a moment the perpetual change of role, seen and actor in nature’s theater: Summer’s growth becomes fall’s harvest; night following the day, clouds of white alter into ominous thunder heads. Children grow into aged men. Is it surprising that the earliest thinkers were amazed at the transience of all forms and contents of the world, including themselves? Yet such coming to be and ceasing to be essentially defined time. In this maelstrom of change has sought to understand the meaning, of the life given to him and its relationship to the nature of all beings. What I am emphasizing here is that the poet’s and the philosopher’s questions are the same. Ultimately what is the purpose of human life? Subramanya Bharathi also asked the same question in the following poem:
“தேடிச்சோறு நிதந் தின்று – பல
சின்னஞ் சிறு கதைகள் பேசி மனம்
வாடித்துன்ப மிகவுழன்று – பிறர்
வாடப் பல செயல்கள் செய்து – நரை
கூடிக் கிழப் பருவமெய்தி – கொடுங்
கூற்றுக்கிரையெனப் பின்மாயும் – பல
வேடிக்கை மனிதரைப் போலே – நான்
வீழ்வேனென்று நினைத்தாயோ?
Devotional Songs – 4
Bhaarathiyaar Poems
Good poets whatever their time, nationality and Language are exceptional beings and carriers of divine truth. The only significant difference from poet to poet is perhaps the difference in the chronology of their lives. In the external forms of poetry, such as technique and style, certain differences may exist among them; but all true poets belong to the one unit and whole of poetic genius. Each poet in his own manner brings to this world a new message, a new form of reality. This message is the truth of Creation. A poet tries to express this ultimate reality to inspire human beings. This reality is expressed in a language that is suited for a period and for a social way of thinking. It is because reality is affected by units of time, tradition and society that a poet attempts to express this reality in terms of those units.
As poetry is capable of distilling the sensuous enjoyment of all the senses and as it is born in the very deep experience of those senses ultimately perceiving the aspect of ultimate reality, it carries with the intoxication of liquor, the sweetness of a limitless firmament. Poetry is born over a very deep experience of the senses, the intellect, the mind as well as the spirit. Without separating the joy of life and running away from its sorrows cannot be a true poet; on the contrary poetry is the expression of the frenzy arising from the intoxication of life. Poetry is born of the experience of the harmonies of the world and great passion emanates from experiencing the tiniest joys of the universe. Not only joy, but sorrow too is a note in the harmony of the world. The above aspects we can clearly see in the following works of Kavingnar V. Kanthavanam:
ஏன் இந்தப் பெருமூச்சு, கீரிமலையினிலே,
கவியரங்கில் கந்தவனம், விநாயகப்பா.
The life vision of completeness of life is the primary experience of Indian poetry. Kavingnar V. Kanthavanam belongs to this group of Indian poets who perceive life as whole and complete.
Turning to my experience with Kavingnar V. Kanthavanam, I had the opportunity of studying under him when I was a middle school student at Vasaavilaan M.M.V. Sri Lanka in 1965. During my middle school time we were very scared of Kanthavanam, because he was a very strict disciplinarian, but a nice and good-hearted man. He was always concerned about the students’ future. He never intended to take revenge against any student. His character reminds us of Avvaiyaar’s Muuthurai poem:
கற்பிளவோ டொப்பர் கயவர் கடுஞ்சினத்துப்
பொற்பிளவோடொப்பாரும் போலவாரே – விற்பிடித்து
நீர்கிழிய எய்த வடுப்போல மாறுமே
சீரொழுகு சான்றோர் சினம்.
ஔவையார் மூதுரை (23)
By hasty wrath disjoined the meaner Kind
Like broken stone are never more combined
Remingle soon the better soul their hearts.
Like fractured gold by fusion blend again
No longer sundered do the best remain
Than water that pointed arrow parts
Avvaiyaar Muuthurai (23)
What I am trying to say is that Kavingnar Kandavanm’s anger always was helpful to the student to remove ignorance and illusions, not destroy or hurt their feelings or their future.
I am very proud and have a great pleasure to bear witness living extra ordinary qualifications that my esteemed teacher, poet, and dear friend we missed/lost last year. His understanding as a poet of Tamil was well recognized in Sri Lanka, Europe, and Canada. His publications have over one hundred books and numerous articles in various subjects and many students (including me) he has produced will amply testify to that. And I also want to add that Dr. Kavingnar Vinayagar Kanthavanam is a distinguished philosopher in his own right and a thinker possessed of a powerful mind. He has a great understanding of the Philosophy of Tamil Saivism, Saiva Siddhanta philosophical issues from a classical Tamil perspective which I have rarely seen matched. He is one of the rare kind of people who are proficient in Tamil and English in our community in Canada. Dr. Kavingnar Vinayagar Kanthavanam has a fine presence and unusual capacity for establishing social relationships with people pf different ethnic and cultural backgrounds. And, most of all he is a wise and intelligent man with a benevolent disposition which endears him to all who come across him.
In conclusion, as Bagavad-Gita says, Dr. Vinayagar Kanthavanam’s soul will never die, because of his devoted teaching and selfless actions to Sri Lankan Tamil people in Canada. He was the embodiment of the spirit of Bhagavat -Gita, where Lord Krishna exhorts all mankind with the words, “Do your duty, renounce the fruits of duty. Be Intent on actions, not on the fruits of action, avoid attraction to the fruits and attachment to inaction.”
As a man discard worn-out clothes to put on new and different ones, so the embodied self/soul discards it’s worn-out bodies to take on new ones. Therefore, Dr. Kavingnar Vinayagar Kanthavanam has completed his mission, and we should celebrate his completed life and in return we should continue his mission then only his soul will be happy.
K. Ananthanathan, MA, MSW, RSW, Registered Social Worker & Psychotherapist with
College of Social Workers & Social Services Workers (OCSWSSW) Helping Disabilities
