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Kannadasan (24 June 1927 – 17 October 1981) was a famous Tamil poet and lyricist, who lived in Tamil Nadu, India. He is frequently called kavi arasu Kannadasan (kavi arasu means 'king of poets' in Tamil language). He wrote thousands of popular songs for Tamil cinema. He won the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize for his novel Cheraman Kadali in the year 1980.

His given name at birth was Muthiah. But when he made his exit from this world, at the age of 54, on October 16, 1981, millions of Tamils remembered him only by the name Kannadasan. For Tamils all over the world, he epitomised Tamil poetry. Even the illiterate, who couldn't read and memorise the poetry of Kamban or the maxims of Valluvan, could hum the compositions of poet Kannadasan.

A number count of his publications shows a tally of 109 volumes, which include 21 novels and 10 slim volumes of essays on Hinduism, captioned Arthamulla Indu Matham (Meaningful Hinduism). In addition, he produced about 4000 poems and approximately 5000 movie lyrics, between 1944 and 1981, all with an eighth grade education at the formal level. He was also an excellent example of this century's Tamil goliard.

There is no doubt that he had a penetrating eye and keen observational powers. He also did not live a cocoon-type of life. He dipped into everything that Tamil Nadu could offer - wine, women, drugs, gambling, politics, polemics, atheism and religious sanctuary. After enjoying everything, what he did was remarkable - he composed verses about all his experiences, with self depreciating humour and biting sarcasm. These verses touched the sympathetic chords of Tamils from all walks of life - school boys, undergrads, housewives, farmers, manual labourers, plantation workers, middle class representatives and even upper class elites.

[edit] 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, christened himself Kannadasan, dug deep into understanding Hinduism, and wrote his series of books on Meaningful Hinduism (Artham Ulla Hindu Matham).

[edit] Poets Laureate

Kannadasan was a poet Laureate when he died.

A house in Sirukootalpatti is now a memorial for the Tamil film music's evergreen favourites. The Kannadasan memorial museum was inaugurated on June 25.

[edit] External links

• http://www.tamilnation.org/hundredtamils/kannadasan.htm
• http://www.tfmpage.com/my/lyricist/kannadasan_raj.html - Interesting Snippets