CleanupBot II at 18:53, 13 August 2023

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{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2020}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2020}}
{{Infobox person
| name = K. M. Balasubramaniam
| birth_name =
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| birth_place =
| death_date = 1974
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| nationality = Indian
| known_for = Translating [[Thiruvasagam]] and [[Tirukkural]] into English
| occupation = Political activist, writer
| father =
| mother =
| spouse =
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}}

'''K. M. Balasubramaniam''' (died 1974) was a [[Tamil language|Tamil]] writer and supporter of the [[Dravidian Movement]], and a translator of the [[Tirukkural]] into [[English language|English]]. He came to be known as ''Thiruvachakamani'' for his translation of [[Manikkavacakar]]’s [[Thiruvasagam]] into English before translating the Kural text.<ref name="Hindu_AClassicKuralTransReborn">{{cite news|title=A classic Tirukkural translation is reborn|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/chennai/A-classic-Tirukkural-translation-is-reborn/article15427080.ece|access-date=25 February 2017|work=The Hindu|date=5 October 2016}}</ref>

== Biography ==
Balasubramaniam was an advocate and an ardent supporter and one of the prominent lieutenants of the [[Dravidar Kazhagam]] founder [[E. V. Ramasami Periyar]] and subsequently became a collaborator of the [[Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam|DMK]] founder [[C. N. Annadurai]].<ref name="Hindu_AClassicKuralTransReborn"/> He was arrested and was sent to prison for six months in 1938 for his involvement as one of the five-member executive committee formed to spearhead the anti-Hindi agitation.<ref name="Hindu_ThiruvachagamTransToBeRe-Released">{{cite news|last1=Kolappan|first1=B.|title=Periyar disciple's English translation of Thiruvachagam to be released again|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-tamilnadu/periyar-disciples-english-translation-of-thiruvachagam-to-be-released-again/article6467520.ece|access-date=25 February 2017|work=The Hindu|date=2 October 2014}}</ref> Later, along with former chief minister of Tamil Nadu [[C. N. Annadurai]], he accompanied Periyar to [[Bombay]] to discuss the idea of ‘Dravida Nadu’ (Dravidian land) with [[Mohammed Ali Jinnah]]. Later, he became a spiritualist, delving deep into philosophy and [[Saivite]] literature.<ref name="Hindu_AClassicKuralTransReborn"/> Balasubramaniam was proficient in both Tamil and English. According to V. S. Srinivas Shastri, Balasubramaniam was a master of idiomatic, humorous and highly cultivated expressions.<ref name="Hindu_ThiruvachagamTransToBeRe-Released"/>

Dravidian historian K. Thirunavukarasu said that for an atheist, who moved the resolution in support of atheism at the self-respect conference in Tirunelveli, the transformation was something beyond comprehension. He has commented, "I have read that when a team of Dravidian leaders including Balasubramaniam went to meet Jinnah, they also took B. R. Ambedkar with them. Later I have listened to his Thiruvachagam lecture."<ref name="Hindu_ThiruvachagamTransToBeRe-Released"/>

== Translating Thiruvachagam and Tirukkural ==
Balasubramaniam translated [[Manikkavacakar]]’s [[Thiruvasagam]] into English and published it in 1958, which made him know widely as ''Thiruvachakamani''.<ref name="Hindu_AClassicKuralTransReborn"/> Of the 500 copies that he published, half were sold in [[South Africa]].<ref name="Hindu_ThiruvachagamTransToBeRe-Released"/> The preface to the book was written by the then Home Minister Bhaktavatsalam.<ref name="Hindu_ThiruvachagamTransToBeRe-Released"/>

When [[Sarvapalli S. Radhakrishnan]], then vice-president of India, attended Balasubramaniam’s public lecture on [[Periyapuranam]] at the [[Kapaleeswarar temple]] in [[Chennai]] on 13 May 1961, he requested Balasubramaniam to translate the Tirukkural into English, just as the latter rendered Thiruvachagam into English. Balasubramaniam said he was on the job and in turn expressed his wish that Radhakrishnan become president. Incidentally, the wish came true exactly a year later, on 13 May 1962. The same year Balasubramaniam released his completed work on the Kural text, for which Dr. Radhakrishnan wrote the preface.<ref name="Hindu_AClassicKuralTransReborn"/> Although Balasubramaniam appreciated his predecessor [[G. U. Pope]]’s translation of the Kural text, he considered that Tamils had the ante-natal advantage of a common nativity and closer affinity with Mancikavachagar.<ref name="Hindu_ThiruvachagamTransToBeRe-Released"/>

Balasubramaniam’s translation is considered by many as more comprehensive and poetic than the earlier translations of the Kural text. The publisher of the translation work ‘Sivalayam’ J. Mohan, who also published Balasubramaniam’s ''Thiruvachagam'', said of Balasubramaniam thus: "In Tamil literature, commentators with felicity of expression matching the original authors were placed on a par with them. K.M. Balasubramaniam was one such commentator." According to [[Suddhananda Bharathi]], another English translator of the Kural text, Balamasubramaniam "takes the ideas of Valluvar, and embellishes them, so the reader needs no other commentary." In his preface to the book, Czech scholar [[Kamil Zvelebil]] said, "at last the English-speaking world will be in possession of a poetic translation of ''Tirukkural'', in possession of an able rendering of this unique Tamil classic into English verse, which is without exaggeration and almost adequate to the original." In his translation, Balasubramaniam also translated the commentaries of [[Parimelazhagar]], [[Manakkudavar]], and [[Kaalingar|Kalingarayar]] into English, drawing from parallels in the works of the [[Bible]], the [[Koran]], [[Shakespeare]], [[John Milton|Milton]], [[Alexander Pope]], [[Dryden]], [[George Herbert]], [[Francis Bacon]] and Dr. Johnson. This can be corroborated from the fact that more than half of the 530 pages in the book are dedicated to detailed notes.<ref name="Hindu_AClassicKuralTransReborn"/>

Following his Kural translation, Balasubramaniam then started translating Sekkizhar’s [[Periyapuranam]], the history of 63 Saivite saints, into English, but his death in 1974 made it incomplete.<ref name="Hindu_AClassicKuralTransReborn"/>

==See also==

* [[Tirukkural translations]]
* [[Tirukkural translations into English]]
* [[List of translators into English]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Tirukkural}}
{{Tamil language}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balasubramaniam, K. M.}}
[[Category:1974 deaths]]
[[Category:Tamil–English translators]]
[[Category:Translators of the Tirukkural into English]]
[[Category:Tirukkural translators]]

K. M. Balasubramaniam - Revision history

CleanupBot II at 18:53, 13 August 2023