Tamil Writer & Poet Venkata Mahalingam pseudonym N. Pichamoorthi. He is considered father of free verse (Puthu Kavidai) in Tamil. He was a journalist and lawyer by profession. He was inspired by Subramania Bharati who was contributing to free verse kind of poetry. He belonged to ‘Manikodi’ literary movement of Tamil literature along with his contemporaries Pudumaipithan, Kumbakonam P. Rajagopalan, Va. Ramasamy, C. S. Chellappa & A. N. Sivaraman – the elite clan of literals.
N. Pichamoorthi was born in Kumbakonam to Natesa Dikshitar and Lakshmi ammal as Vankata Mahalingam on 15 August 1900. He was the fourth child and the only child to survive as the first three children died during infancy. His parents being deeply religious named him “Pichai” Begger as they believed the death god would spare him as this name is very ugly. As the days went by, his name turned to Pichamoorthi. In 1925, Pichamoorthi married Saratha. Between 1924 and 1938 he practised as a lawyer in the Lower court of Kumbakonam. He also worked as Editor and Subeditor of several magazines during his lifetime.
Pichamoorthi’s works was inspired by literature and poetry works from the West where free verse poetry was already in existence. Pichamoorthi also wrote short stories with simple themes based on social happenings which had deep philosophical meaning.
Can we have the poem of N. Pichamurthy on the Peacock