Lieutenant Governor C. P. Radhakrishnan on Monday visited the memorials of poets Mahakavi Subramania Bharathi, who took refuge here during the years of the freedom struggle, and son of the soil Bharathidasan.
The Lt. Governor told media that he visited the memorials on foot as it was a rare privilege to be able to say that one had walked the earth where great men lived.
Mr. Radhakrishnan said Bharathiyar and Puducherry’s son Bharathidasan, who was inspired by the former, were great poets born after Kamban.
The memorials should be on the tour plan of everyone visiting Puducherry through the Puducherry Tourism Department or the Tamil Nadu Tourism Department. Efforts need to be made to project the importance of these houses, he said.
Explaining that Bharathiyar edited the India Magazine and on his insistence, Bharathidasan too started the “Kavitha Mandalam ”, Mr. Radhakrishnan felt that the government should facilitate the publication of a new monthly magazine bringing together works of the two poets.
A. Nedunchezhiyan, Secretary, Arts and Culture and V. Kaliaperumal, Director, Department of Art and Culture, and other officials were present.
A press note from Raj Nivas said Mr. Radhakrishnan paid floral tributes to the portraits of Subramania Bharathi and his wife Chellamma housed in the Mahakavi Bharatiyar Memorial Museum and Research Centre. He was briefed by the museum officials about the biographical events of Bharatiyar and his life notes.
The Lt. Governor instructed the officials to list and compile separately the works written by Bharathiyar during his stay in Puducherry. He also advised them to collect the photographs taken during the time when Bharathiyar and Bharathidasan lived together in Puducherry, and to widely publicise them for the benefit of the public.
He later paid tribute at the Bharathidasan Memorial Museum. Bharathidasan’s works and life events were explained to him.
The Lt. Governor concluded his programme with a visit to the Subbiah and Saraswathy Memorial Museum established in honour of the freedom-fighter couple.
