He is a swayambu. He was born on June 26, 1906 to Ponnusamy and Sivagami Ammaiyar. Due to family poverty, his schooling stopped with the third standard. After working as a day labourer and weaver for eight years, he joined a newspaper office as a compositor. It was there that his education really began. Literary interest and worldly wisdom grew to find time to read the things that came to be published. Thus he carved himself and stood high with several accomplishments overcoming the odds at every step. He describes his life as one of struggles in his autobiography. Yes, that was Mylapore Ponnusamy Sivagnanam (popularly known as Ma Po Si), the primary person who helped in defining the current boundaries of Tamil Nadu when states were formed on linguistic basis.
One could view his personality as a grand confluence of three streams. Let us hasten to add to state that his efforts and outputs were not three separate conflicting flows. They were complementary and supplementary to each other. His contributions can be broadly classified under the three domains namely Tamil Literature – Divinity – Nationality.
Tamil Literary Work
Through his writings, he transported the joy of Tamil literature to the youth when most of them were under the mesmeric pull of English, naturally due to the British Rule and the associated commercial benefits. His works cover a wide range of literature starting from the Sangam Era to his contemporary times. We can conclude with certitude that Ilango – Kambar – Bharathi the three all time great poets had won his heart.
Ilango Adigal, a prince turned sanyasi, created Silapadikaaram, one of the 5 great epics of Tamil. He relished nay revelled in writing or talking about Silapadikaaram. He has written 13 different books covering various aspects and characters of that epic. All these made the scholars to call him Silambu Chelvar.
The second one is Kavichakravarti Kambar, (1180 CE–1250 CE) , a poet and the author of the Ramavataram, popularly known as Kambaramayanam, the Tamil version of the epic Ramayana. He wrote four books on Kambar namely Kambar Kaviyinbam (anandam of Kambar’s poetry), Kambarin Samayakolkai (Kambar’s philosophy). Kambarum Gandhi Adikalum (Kambar and Gandhi) and Kambaridam yaan karra arachiyal (The political thoughts learnt from Kambar).
The third one was 19th-20th century Mahakavi Bharati who enamoured Ma Po Si. He wrote seven books on Bharati. He has dwelled deep into the great ocean of Bharati. Bharati’s thoughts influence his life style, his approach to politics and writings.
Spiritual pursuit
Ma Po Si has bequeathed the faith in God and commitment to a virtuous life from his mother at an early age itself. Those learnings helped him in facing the trials and tribulations of life. He accepted Vallalar as his guide and studied his books and immersed himself in devotion. Among his 8 books on Vallalaar alias Ramalinga Adigal , ‘ Vallalaar kanda Orumaipadu ‘ (union of souls as perceived by Vallalaar) is an excellent handbook to understand Vallalaar’s theories. He writes extensively as how Vallalaar condemns Atheism. This one book is enough to repudiate the arguments put forth by politically motivated new lovers of Vallalaar.
Nationalist at heart
He followed the foot steps of Mahakavi Bharati to strike a balance between love for mother tongue Tamil and his mother land. His fondness towards Tamil did not lead to fanaticism as he believed in the concept of unity in diversity. In the same way, his nationalism was not of the jingoist type as he had a firm footing in spiritualism. He accepted Gandhi as his political guide and he participated in various forms of peaceful protests (satyaagrahaa). He spent over 700 days in various jails as satyaagrahi. ‘Spirituality and Politics’ is the title of a book written by him. Books like Veera Pandiya Kattabomman, Kappetya Chidambaranar among the readers and later came as films are still doing a good job of nurturing the roots of nationalism. His two-part book titled ‘ Indiya viduthalai poril Tamizhakam ‘ ( Tamilians who participated in Indian Independence Struggle) introduces us to many unsung heroes devoted to the cause of freedom.
Later he founded his own political party, Tamizharasu Kazhakam where by he accomplished the challenging task of exposing the Dravidian movements that survived by merely paying lip services to Tamil and Tamilians. His party’s official organ was ‘ Sengol ‘ which alone is sufficient to confirm his faith upon political system based on dharmic values.
Ma Po Si’s life, thoughts and books, we are sure that will be a great guide in the fight against fissiparious tendencies.
Thanks and regards
Jambunaathan M.R.