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Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Kannadasan (24 June 1927 -- 17 October 1981)

Kannadasan (24 June 1927 -- 17 October 1981) was a Tamil poet and lyricist, heralded as one of the greatest and most important writers in the Tamil language.
Frequently called Kaviarasu (English: King of Poets),
Kannadasan was most familiar for his song lyrics in Tamil films and contributed around 5000 lyrics besides 6000 poems and 232 books,including novels, epics, plays, essays, his most popular being the 10-part religious essay on Hinduism, captioned Arthamulla Indhumatham (English: Meaningful Hindu Religion).
He won the Sahitya Akademi Award for his novel Cheraman Kadali in the year 1980 and was the first ever to receive the National Film Award for Best Lyrics, given in 1969 for the film Kuzhanthaikkaga.
Kannadasan worked in "Thiraioli" a Cine magazine run by Rama.Thiyagarajan in Rayavaram. Pudukkottai Distt and in Chennai. He also worked for "Thirumagal" magazine in Ramachandrapuram, Pudukkottai Distt.

Atheism to Hinduism
Muthiah was a staunch atheist and a follower of the Dravidian atheistic movement. He had great love for the Tamil language and culture, and excelled in Tamil literature, prose and poetry. He once read the Thiruppavai of Andal, and was amazed at its mystic poetry, that was to have a deep and everlasting impact on him. After a lot of introspection, he decided to reconvert back into Hinduism, renamed himself as Kannadasan, dug deep into understanding Hinduism, and wrote his series of books on Hinduism titled "Arthamulla Indhu Matham"
Kannadasan is the real master of Tamil film lyrics which exceeds all other works he contributed. Simple words with a philosophical flavor is his evergreen style. Though many song writers back from Papanasam Shivam, Kambadasan, Vindhan, Maruthakasi, Ku.Ma.Balasubramanian etc. ruled Tamil music industry, but after Kannadasan the scene changed.He was the unbeatable no.1. till he died. In this same period there were many excellent poets like Vaali, Pulamaipittan, Alangudi Somu, Avinasimani,Panchu Arunachalam, Jayakanthan etc., the songs written by these poets too are considered by many fans as Kannadasan songs, because everyone thinks if a song has been good it could be by Kannadasan alone. This was the credit he attained.Even after his death though film lyrics had come a long way from Vairamuthu to Tamarai or even Kolaiveri Danush, still Kannadasan is the best and his songs overtake all the new songs up to date. New songs fade away by months or even days, but still Kannadasan's songs haunt us. After Bharati we could name Kannadasan as the next great poet, but poetry and film lyrics are totally different in Tamil art world. He was the producer of historic Tamil film "sivagangai seemai"portraiting first freedom fighters "Marudhu Pandaiars"belonging to "AGAMUDAIRS"a sub sect of "Mukulatthor"(KALLAR,MARAVAR and AGAMUDAIAR).The song "Santhupottu"in that film was popular and ever remembered..



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