Versifiers abound in Tamil Nadu. Genuine poets are hard to find. Yet, I stand convinced that Kalaimakall fulfils herself through means she decides to choose.During my first visit to London in 1997, I met with Sri.Rajagopalan and was at once struck by his poetic outpourings. He is indeed an Aasu Kavi – a poet from whose lips mellifluous verses flow spontaneously with unpremeditated ease.

Sri.Rajagopalan is truly a Prince of poets. He is destined to travel on life’s common way in cheerful godliness. He has received in abundance the blessings of the Mahaswami of Kanji and also the current pontiff of Sri Madam.

Sri.Rajagopalan’s ‘Arumukhar Anthaathi’ is a modern marvel. Anthaati is called Ekaavali in Sanskrit. This genre was first introduced to the Tamil Literature by Saint Peyaar, more popularly known as Kaaraikkal Ammaiyaar. Sri.Rajagopalan’s Anthaati is “intended to exhibit the progress of the soul through the successive stages of religious experience.” His verses remind the reader of those of Saint Maanikavaachakkar’s TIRUCCHATAKAM and NEETHAL VINNNAPPAM.

Sri.Rajagopalan’s opus is recordation of the angst and agony, of the struggle and suffering and of the eventual fulfillment and exhilaration of the spiritual practitioner who in this instance is the poet himself. The message of the Anthaati is this “Unflinching faith in Lord Muruga is redemptive and bliss-conferring.”

Doubts confound as well as clarify. Genuine doubts are truly a blessing, if the doubter knows that they visit them through the grace of God. The doubter, in such instances, is for sure, earmarked for deliverance.

A verse that catalogues the doubts of the poet is as follows:

Dear reader, Lord Muruga did clarify the doubter Sri.Rajagopalan who is pleased to share it with us – the lesser mortals, through his Anthaati.

Dear Raja! May your tribe increase.

10th March 2005

Thanjavur

India 613 007