A pall of gloom descended on the world of writers, when Nithilan, one of the Vanambadi poets of Coimbatore, passed away last Sunday. Like a pearl from the oyster in the deep blue sea, a poetry magazine used to appear in Coimbatore. Nithilan edited and brought out the magazine titled kadal (sea) and called each of its issues Nithilam (Pearl) – a term pronounced similar to his name ‘Nithilan’.
The Vanambadi Poetry Movement takes its credit by taking modern Tamil poetry to the masses in the Coimbatore of the 1970s. And Nithilan was one of those ‘skylarks’ (Vanambadis)
'When the organization’s first meeting was held at Uppilipalayam on a day in 1969, I was one of the poets who took part in it. It was there the movement was given the name ‘Vanambadi’ (skylark), as suggested by the senior poet Elamurugu' Nithilan once recalled.
A retired school teacher, Nithilan was an ardent lover of modern Tamil poetry and a history enthusiast, who travelled to the places of historical interest across the Kongu region. Even a few years ago, he trekked on a mountain in the Western Ghats to observe the puratasi festival held at a Perumal temple inside the beautiful woods of the hill Vennnel Giri or Koothadi Malai as it is called by the residents of the village Pooluvapatti on the city outskirts.
'The first meeting of the Vanambadi Poetry Movement was known to me just prior an hour. Mullai Aadhavan, who was one of the Vanambadi poets, sent me a word to take part in the meeting' he remembered while this writer was in a chat with him.
After joining the Vanambadi movement, Nithilan penned his first book of modern Tamil poems Pournami (Full moon) in 1977. Mullai Aadhavan, who later published many books being the Head, Department of Tamil, Bharathiyar University, had played a vital role in the making of Nithilan’s Pournami, which had been priced at Rs 4 those days.
A great admirer of modern Tamil poetry, Nithilan later instituted an award for the best Tamil poet of the year in memory of his departed wife Devamakal alias Palaniammal, who too was a poet. She authored her book of modern Tamil poems Muran (Contradiction) in1981. Nithilan conferred upon the first Devamakal Trust award to Kaviyanban Babu of Coimbatore and poetess R. Meenakshi from Puducherry in the early 1990s.
“Nowadays, every budding poet is at the liberty in penning modern Tamil verse, abandoning consistent meter patterns, rhyme, and other conventional elements of poetry. Nevertheless, when the Vanambadis introduced the new form of poetry in Coimbatore, it received an icy welcome in the circles of well-read Tamil scholars including the city’s legendary Professor Ma. Ra. Po. Gurusamy” Nithilan took a trip down memory lane.
'Though I hardly involved myself in the administration of the Vanambadi Poetry Movement, I attended many of its meetings and wrote in the magazine of the same name. I still remember I donated Rs 5 when the movement decided to bring out its magazine Vanambadi'
Nithilan’s concept of modernism in poetry can be estimated from his verse Urmilai Kaathirukiraal (Urimila is waiting) in his book Pournami. While many poets wrote of Rama, Sita, and Lakshmana, Nithilan preferred to write about Lakshmana’s wife Urmila, who was separated from her husband for fourteen years, as he went into exile with his brother and sister-in-law.