Tamil poet Sakthikanal will ever be remembered for his verses and publication of Annanmarswami Kadhai, the popular Kongu folk epic.
A pall of gloom descended in the world of writers in Coimbatore on Friday (30.08.2024) morning when Sakthikanal, one of the senior Vanambadi poets, passed away at his native village Kalvettupalayam near Kodumudi at the ripe old age of 94. The nonagenarian will ever be remembered for his contribution to both modern and conventional Tamil poetry and his publication of the Kongu folk epic Annanmarswami Kadhai.
The mission of the Vanambadi Poetry Movement, which took the verse form Pudhu Kavithai(New poetry) to the masses of Coimbatore and propagated socialism in the early 1970s, has been artistically defined by several member-poets of the movement. But, Sakthikanal, the nonagenarian Vanambadi poet, symbolizes the movement in his poem as a’ road roller’ which levels the ground to lay a road to the egalitarian society. The popular poem, translated by poet Bala into English asA Road Roller’s Procession was published in the Delhi London Poetry Quarterly.
Sakthikanal worked as an internal auditor in a transport company of Coimbatore. Popular for his collection of modern Tamil poems Kanakambaramum December Pookkalum, Sakthikanal describes the mission of the Vanambadi Poetry Movement as a road roller’s journey and writes with sarcasmon how the vehicle woke up from its eons - long ‘Kumbakarna’s slumber’, moved slowly in its half-sleep status, reached the main road and crushed to ground, all that hampered its work of laying a road to an egalitarian society.
In the poem, Sakthikanal, calls the movie halls of those days as…
“The mortuary of the layman,
where the average man
exchanges his lifeblood
for the pornographic
Adults-only movies “
He ends the poem thus
The slippery rocksSandy chasms,
Where death danced outrageous in trance
All have gone underthe earth
The road of safety is leveled at last
Born as K. P. Palanisamy in Kalvettupalayam, he earned the pseudonym ‘Sakthi Kanal ‘(Fiery spark) from the multifaceted erudite scholar M. P. Periyasamy Thooran, a recipient of the prestigious Padma Bhushan award and the editor-in-chief of Tamil Kalai Kalanjiyam, the ten-volume Tamil universal encyclopedia.
“My father, an agriculturist, had a flair for Tamil that he used to recite plenty of Tamil verses from different pieces of classical Tamil literature. Besides, my Tamil teacher Kumarasamy Pulavar taught me the grandeur of Tamil literature and helped me memorize hundreds of Tamil poems” Sakthikanal would reminisce about his days in the past.
An author of over fifteen books, Sakthikanal penned verses in several magazines even in his student days. He roped in his literature peers of Coimbatore and founded the organization Thamizh Ezhuthalar Mandram in the 1960s. He also compiled a poetry anthology on the title Ezhuga Kavingna (Arise! the poets) and published it on behalf of the organization. The anthology included verses by famed poets Kaviarasu Kannadasan, Suradha and many others.
“Later, in the early 1970s, I joined the Vanambadi Poetry movement and worked with its member-poets in taking modern Tamil poetry with its new form and content to the masses of Coimbatore” he would recall.
Above all, the nonagenarian poet is ever remembered for his mission in documenting Annanmarswami Kadhai, the popular Kongu folk epic, from a palm leaf manuscript given by Rajalinga Pandithar.
“The publication of the book Annanmarswami Kadhai, patronized by the late philanthropist N. Mahalingam, has seen over ten editions since its first publication in 1971” Sakthikanal, once informed this writer.