Subramanya Bharati on Bharata Mata

From Shakuntala Bharati's book Bharati - My Father:

Pudhuvai (the Tamil name for Pondicherry) was famous for clay dolls made in a village called Kuyavar Palayam (the potter's quarters). Bharati and his friends VOC Iyer and Srinivasachariar visited the place with their families, to have a look at the process of making clay dolls. Enchanted by a pair of white bulls that reminded him of their upright manner, fearless eyes and strength of body, Bharati praised the potter and said, "this man, with a hard built body and eyes shinging with goodness, is a king who has sculptured in clay what I have been toiling to bring out in words."

Bharati and his friends enquired if the potter could make a doll and a big clay sculpture of Bharata Mata. The potter said, "Swami, if you give me a picture, I shall do a nice job and also capture the shine of your blessed face in the sculpture." They discussed about a Bengal portrait of Bharata Mata that VOC Iyer had with him. In that picture, Bharata Mata was portrayed as a poor woman of India with no jewels, wearing only a sari and a blouse, but the sculptor was hesitant to make such a statue.

Iyer said, "Why think about? Today our Bharata Mata is a slave to videshis, losing all her wealth and suffering from poverty. Therefore this picture is a good model for a sculpture."

Hearing this, Bharati got very angry: "mhoom! Let it be sarva bhUshanam. Bharata Mata has absolutely no scarcity of anything. What did the videshis carry away? After all a few of the scattered things. Did they take the Ganga and the Kaveri rolling them up under their arms? Or did they carry away the Himalayas on their heads? Did they carry away anything of this land's fertility, minerals, poetry or art? Nothing is lost. Bharata Mata is always our Queen. So make a statue of her adorned with all jewels, without missing anything of wealth in her person." Awe-struck by these words, his friends consented to Bharati's wish, and had the statue and doll were made accordingly.

Bharati's Bharata Mata is inseparable from Parashakti or Kali or Durga or any other Goddess, who authored and ruled everything that glorified this ancient land.

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