Tamil Poet
Birth
Namakkal Kavignar (Venkatarama Ramalingam Pillai) was born on 19 October 1888 to Venkataraman and Ammaniammal in Mohanur under Namakkal district of TamilNadu.
School life
He made his schoolings at Primary school in Namakkal and Mission school in Coimbatore. Later he got his BA degree from Bishop Heber College in Trichy during 1909.
Personal Life
In the year 1909, he married a girl who is her aunt’s daughter.
Profession
He started his job career as a clerk in Namakkal Tahsildar’s office as per his father’s advice. Later he joined as a primary school teacher. He disliked both the jobs and started portrait painting and photography .
Namakkal Kavignar Political Career
From 1906, he started his struggle for freedom. Ramalingam stepped into the politics after he got the inspiration from Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Aurobindo. Initially, he had been an extremist and later Ramalingam followed Gandhiji.
In the year 1911, Ramalingam delivered his depictions of King George V and Queen. Then he was ennobled with a gold medal. Later in 1914, Ramalingam during his stay in his sister’s home in Karur, he took part in the Congress movement. Then he worked as Secretary of Trichy District Congress.
During 1920, he became the Congress leader of Namakkal during the freedom struggle period. Later he wrote poetries other than the paintings. When Namakkal Kavignar wrote the patriotic songs for a contest, he was medaled gold by the Congressman S.Srinivasa Iyengar.
In the Salt Satyagraha of 1930, the Satyagrahis who made a march under Rajaji from Tiruchi to Vedaranyam sang the song written by Ramalingam. As he took part in the Salt Satyagraha, he was imprisoned for one year in 1932.
Honors of Namakkal Kavignar
After independence in 1949, he was nominated as “Asthana Kavignar” or Poet Laureate by the Madras Government for his literary works. His name was nominated for Sahitya Academy in the year 1953. Ramalingam’s novel “Malaikallan” was filmed in five languages and won the President’s medal in the year 1954.
He was nominated as the MLC by the Madras Government during the 1956 and 1962. In 1971, he was awarded one of the highest award ”Padmabhusan” by the Government of India. When he grew older, Ramalingam suffered from rheumatism.
Literary works of Namakkal Kavignar
Ramalingam was renowned as the Namakkal Kavignar for his writings and literary portraits. As a first royal poet from TamilNadu, he had written above 500 poems. His writings gave moral ideas such as Satyagraha, gender equality, Ahimsa and Social equality. He focused on patriotism in many of his poems that motivated the national struggle. The poem “Kathiyindri Rathamindri yuthamondru ” was popular among the freedom fighters from Tamilnadu. He made commentary on the sacred verses “Thirukkural” was considered to be one of the great works.
Death
He passed away on 24th August, 1972 due to the heart attack.