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:: Comming soon Malayalam
Novels in your Kerals.com ::
Progressive
Writers
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Vaikom Muhammad Basheer
Kesava Dev and his Contemporaries
Thunchathu Ezhuthachan
Poonthanam Nambudiri
Kottayam Tampuran
Ramapurathu Warrier (1703-1753)
Kerala Varma Valiya Koyitampuran
A.R.Rajaraja Varma (1863-1918)
K.C.Kesava Pillai (1868-1914)
Kunchan Nambiar (1705-1770)
C.V.Raman Pillai (1858-1922)
Chandu Menon
N. Kumaran Asan (1873-1924)
Ulloor Parameswara Iyer
(1877-1949)
Vallathol Narayana Menon
(1878-1958)
Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai
Thakazhi
Sivasankara Pillai
The most well-known
Malayalam writer, both nationally and internationally, is
Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai (b. 1914). His fame is partly on
account of the UNESCO translation of his masterpiece Chemmeen
(The Prawn) and its classic film adaptation made in 1966 by Ramu
Kariat. Though Thakazhi is often considered as a hardcore
socialist realist, his major works like Chemmeen and Enippadikal
are intense portrayals of love and tragedy, and they have little
to do with socialism or realism. Very few Indian novelists have
explored the nature of passion the way Thakazhi has in Chemmeen,
in which the social and economic exploitation is mostly a
subtext. Taken as a whole, his voluminous works present a
proletarian position. Like Basheer's work, Thakazhi Sivansankara
Pillai also captured the living language of the underclass and
traced the waxing and waning of their hopes in modern India.
Vaikom
Muhammad Basheer
Basheer
(1910-1994), is arguably the most significant novelist of the
latter half of the century. He spent his youth wandering all
over India and the Middle East when he was not incarcerated by
the British. Having begun his writing career during the final
phase of Gandhi's struggles, he became a popular novelist after
Independence in 1947. Though one would suspect great
revolutionary spirit in his works, what he offered were simple
pictures of the life in the poor, illiterate Muslim community of
Kerala trying to adjust to the modernity, religious pluralism,
and socialism. Though a tragic sense of life is prevalent in his
early work, his characters learn to accept the tragic; they live
in a spirit of profound love for their neighbors and fellow-
beings, including animals and birds and all the creatures of the
natural world.
Kesava
Dev and his Contemporaries
Another novelist who started out along with Thakazhi was
Kesava Dev whose novels Odayil Ninnu (From the Gutters) and
Ulakka (The Pestle) are typical examples of socialist realism.
Unlike Basheer and Thakazhi, Dev did not evolve and grow as a
novelist; he even became a strident voice of the socialist
orthodoxy. His tireless polemic against the postmodernist
generation indicated the limitations of the original position of
the Progressives, and the literature of commitment came to be
somewhat discredited in Malayalam.
Thunchathu Ezhuthachan
Malayalam
literature passed though a tremendous process of development in
the 15th and 16th centuries. Cherusseri's Krishnagatha
bore witness to the evolution of modern Malayalam language as a
proper medium for serious poetic communication. Alongside there
flourished numerous Sanskrit poets who were very active during
this period. The greatest of them was Melpathur Narayana
Bhattathiri, the author of Narayaneeyam. The Manipravala
poets were no less active, as is shown by a series of Chambus
and Kavyas and single quatrains produced in the period, the
greatest monument of which is perhaps the Naishadham Chambu.
But the most significant development of the time took place in
the field of Malayalam poetry.
Poonthanam Nambudiri
If there ever was another writer who could be
Ezhuthachan's equal in bhakti, if not poetic power, it was
Poonthanam Nambudiri, a contemporary of Melpathur Bhattatiri and
possibly of Ezhuthachan himself. His chief poems in Malayalam
are Bhasha Karnamritam, Kumaraharanam or Santanagopalam Pana and
Jnanappana. The first of these is a devotional work intended to
create Krishna bhakti in the readers. The second is a touching
narrative in very simple and straight-forward language and fast
moving verse. It tells the story of a Brahmin father who lost
all his children and sought the help of the Pandava prince
Arjuna. Arjuna proudly offered to help him preserve his next
child alive, but he was unable to keep his word. The Brahmin
abuses Arjuna to his great anguish and in his wounded pride he
decides to commit suicide by leaping into flames. Krishna out of
love for Arjuna, intervenes at the last moment and takes him to
Vaikuntha from where they recover all the lost children of the
Brahmin. Krishna's infinite love for his devotees is thus the
central theme, but the poem also makes its appeal because of its
down-to-earth realism and unmistakable touch of authenticity.
14.3 miles
Kottayam
Tampuran
The greatest fillip to the growth of Attakkatha as a literary
form and Kathakali as a performing art came from Koattayam
Tampuran, a prince in the royal family of Northern Kottayam who
is believed to have lived in the late 17th century. His main
Attakkathas are Bakavadham, Kalyana Saughadhikam, Kirmiravadham
and Kalakeyavadham. Their success led to the phenomenal
popularity of this form of literary composition. Kottayam was a
more gifted poet and scholar than Kottarakara, and in his hands
Attakkatha attained a position of respectability. His quatrains
are invariably in Sanskrit, but the padas are in Malayalam.
Several of this padas are extremely poular not only with the
Kathakali audience but even with the general public. They are
also good as poetry. The dialogue between Hanuman and Bhima in
Kalyana Saugandhikam or the one between Urvasi and Arjuna in
Kalakeyavadham will bear out this point:
Ramapurathu
Warrier (1703-1753)
In the court of Maharaja Martanda
Varma, the maker of the former State of Travancore and his
successor Kartika Tirunal Rama Varma, there flourished a number
of poets distinguished in several ways. Ramapurathu Warrier, the
author of Kuchela Vrittam Vanchippattu, was one of them. The
Vanchipattu or B  oatsong
is a poetic form of folk origin. Kuchela Vrittam is the most
famous boatsong in the language. Composed entirely in the
Dravidian metre natonnata, it is a popular classic that retells
the story of Kuchela, the indigent devotee and one-time
classmate of Sri Krishna, going to Dwaraka to pay homage to him.
The poverty of the old Brahmin and his family is described with
extreme authenticity. The realistic touch shown by the poet in
presenting this Puranic story with a personal edge to it has
gained for the work, immense popularity. In the poem, the poet
specifically referes to King Martanda Varma and describes the
circumstances under which he came to write the poem. Warrier
makes Kuchela's wife declare: "there is no greater affliction
than that of poverty". The meeting of Kuchela with Krishna is
described in memorable language:
Kerala Varma
Valiya Koyitampuran
Kerala Varma represnts the confluence of two major traditions in
literature, the Oriental as represented by the Sanskrit classics
and the Western represented by English/European classics. His
translation of Kalidasa's Abhinjana Sakuntalam (completed in
1882), and of Von Limburg Brower's Akbar (started in 1882)
clearly illustrates the historic role of a synthesizer which he
was destined to play on the Kerala cultural front. His
connections with the royal family, his education and upbringing,
his position as president of the Text Book Committee, his
progressive and independent outlook, his intellectual prowess
and other personality factors made him tower head and shoulders
above all his contemporaries. He wrote a number of works in both
Sanskrit and Malayalam, both in prose and verse but his personal
influence was greater than what was achieve through these works.
It may be said that the man was greater than all his writings.
Well versed in all aspects of classical Sanskrit poetics and
quite at home in the native tradition, master of a sonorous
Sanskrit diction and proficient in simple colloquial Malayalam,
Kerala Varma's reputation, still depends not on any single book
he wrote.
A.R.Rajaraja
Varma (1863-1918)
Kerala Varma's nephewA.R.Rajaraja Varma went a step further than
his uncle in the promotion of a synthesis between the different
trends current in the literature of his time. A professor in the
University College, Thiruvananthapruam, he had to modernize the
process of teaching Malayalam language and literature; this made
him write books on grammer and rhetoric (which earned him the
title of Kerala panini) and eventually prepare the ground for an
enlightened renaissance in Malayalam poetry and literary
criticism. His differences of opinion with Kerala Varma were not
confined to the continued use of the second syllable rhyme:
behind the controversy lay the basis of a new poetics: the
rejection of neoclassicism and the acceptance of a romantic
theory of literature. The influence of the study of British
Romantic poets of the 19th century, coupled with a renewed
interest in the real classics of Sanskrit literature can be seen
in Rajaraja Varma's poetic efforts. The critic and scholar in
him might have stifled the poet, but in works like Malayavilasam
he may be seen as looking forward to an expected romantic
revival. His translations of Kalidasa and Bhasa and the preface
he wrote for Kumaran Asan's Nalini point to this trend in
unmistakable terms. Like Kerala Varma, Rajaraja Varma also
contributed significantly to the growth of prose through his
essays.
K.C.Kesava Pillai (1868-1914)
A close associate of both Kerala Varma and Rajaraja Varma,
K.C.Kesa Pillai was a man of remarkable talent. His major works
are Kesaviyam (a mahakavya), Sadarama (a musical play on the
Tamil mode, extremely popular at the time), Asanna marana chinta
satakam (Reflections of a Dying Man, in a century of
quatrains)and a number of attakkathas. His Kesaviyam is a
mahakavya modeled on the Sanskrit pattern and strictly adhering
to the rules of structure and style laid down by the classical
rhetorician, Dandi.
The first fifteen years of the 20th century saw a mushrooming of
mahakavyas: Kesava Pillais contemporaries like Azhakathu
Padmanabha Kurup (1869-1932: author of Ramachandravilasam),
Pandalam Kerala Varma (1879-1919: author of Rukmangatha charitam),
Kattakkayam Cherian Mappila (1859-1937: author of Sri Yesu
Vijayam), Ulloor Parameswara Iyer (1877-1949: author of
Umakeralam) and Vallathol Narayana Menon (1878-1958: author of
Chitrayogam). All these paid their obeisance to this
neoclassicist trend.P.Sankaran Nambiar refers to the appearance
of a mockmahakavya Kothakelam by one Vidushaka, which did to the
flood of these exercises what Ramakurup's Chakki Chankaram did
to the imitation plays, Datyuha Sandesam (1897) by Seevolli
Narayanan Nambudiri (1869-1906) did to spurious message poems
and Parangodi Parinayam (1892) by Kizhakkeppatt Kunhiraman
Nayanar, tried to do to the spurt of uninspired novels in
imitation of Indulekha.
Kunchan Nambiar (1705-1770)
Be  fore
he came to the court at Thiruvananthapuram, Kunchan Nambiar had
spent his early childhood at Killikurissimangalam, his boyhood
at Kudamaloor and his youth at Ambalapuzha. In 1748 he moved to
Thiruvananthapuram, first to the court of Martanda Varma and
later to the court of Kartika Tirunal Rama Varma. He had already
written several of his works before leaving Ambalapuzha. The
chief contribution of Nambiar is the invention and
popularization of a new performing art known as Thullal. The
world literally means "dance", but under this name Nambiar
devised a new style of verse narration with a little background
music and dance-like swinging movement to wean the people away
from the Chakkiyar Koothu, which was the form popular till then.
He was to use pure Malayalam as opposed to the stylized and
Sanskritized language of Koothu. He also adopted many elements
from Padayani or Kolam Thullal and certain other folk arts. It
is reasonable to assume that he was himself a performer. The
first hand knowledge of the various thalas and ragas and even
the practices of drummers is a pre-requisite for the writing of
a Thullal. Kunchan Nambiar possessed this in abundance. Each
Thullal composition consists of a Puranic tale retoled in simple
rhythmic verse, fit for loud recitation before an audience.
There are three kinds of Thullal distinguished on the basis of
the performer's costume and the style of rendering, viz., Ottan,
Seethankan and Parayan. Dravidian metres are used throughout
although there is nothing to prevent the insertion of a quatrain
in a Sanskrit metre. Nambiar also developed new metres (e.g.
Vaythari metres) based on the vocal notation for various talas.
The language also is predominantly Malayalam with a large
admixture of colloquial and dialectal forms. Humour is
invariable the dominant mood: other bhavas are brought in for
variety and to suit the situation.
C.V.Raman
Pillai (1858-1922)
The great renaissance that started in Malayalam literature
towards the end of the 19th century found its most effective
spokesmen in two great novelists and three poets. The two
novelists were O.Chandu Menon of Malabar and C.V.Raman Pillai of
Travancore. C.V.Raman Pillai was eleven years junior to Chandu
Menon. Both benefited from English education, but consistent
with their respective gifts and temperaments, they achieved near
perfection in what they tried to do. Their high position as
supreme masters of the novel remains unchallenged till date.
Chandu Menon is the greatest novelist in Malayalam, and
C.V.Raman Pillai's Ramaraja Bahadur is the greatest novel.
Chandu Menon's attention was focused on contemporary social
reality and through it he discovered the eternal springs of
human character. C.V.Raman Pillai used history as a means of
unfolding the intricacies of human life, both on the
socio-political plane and on the psychological plane. It is
difficult to say whether he ever tried to explore history as a
means of redemption. But it would be wrong to say that he does
not concern himself with social reality: he does speculate on
the role of leadership in society, on the fortunes of families
through generations and on the conflict between character and
destiny.
Chandu
Menon
Chandu
Menon has written that he initially meant to translate Benjamin
Disraeli's Henrietta Temple (1836) into Malayalam, but having
struggled with the subtleties of an alien culture, he abandoned
the project in favor of writing one on his own, depicting a
familiar story. The fact that Chandu Menon's novel deals with
the decline of the feudal, Brahminical culture in Kerala also
explains the rise of the novel form in Malayalam, as one of the
necessary preconditions required for the flourishing of the
novel genre is the emergence of an educated middle class.
Menon's Indulekha dramatizes the resistance of a progressive
woman named Indulekha who is being pressured into marrying the
lecherous Brahmin, Suri Namboothiri, who represents the
decadence of feudalism, its caste oppression and polygamy. While
feudalism controlled art and kept it limited to self-serving
ritual forms, caste prohibited literary production because
education itself was prohibited to the lower castes. The
Brahmins maintained a belief that the untouchables would pollute
the sacred language, Sanskrit. The gradual breakdown of such
structures of oppression opened up the culture and made the rise
of the novel posssible.
Chandu Menon's
heroine persists in her educated believes (she is an ardent
student of English language!) and eventually weds her lover,
Madhavan, in the process defeating the Brahmin who is shown as
an effete oppressor. Many of the social evils depicted in the
novel have disappeared in independent India, partly due to the
forceful representation of these problems in new literary forms.
Chandu Menon's Indulekha set the tone for the future development
of the novel in Malayalam: novelists began debating social
issues through their elaborate probing into the individual
experience of characters who were drawn from contemporary
society. This literary trend had shown its first signs in
Malayalam as early as during the eighteenth century (as it did
in Europe) when the poet Kunchan Nambiar satirized society and
its mannerisms and inequities. Had he written a prose narrative,
we would have called it a novel.
In the
absence of the print culture, prose fiction had to wait until
the final years of the nineteenth century. The second major
novelist to emerge in Malayalam was C.V. Raman Pillai. His
Walter Scott-inspired historical novels about the Travancore
dynasty, Marthanda Varma (1891) and Dharma Raja (1911) made up
for the late-blooming of the genre. He produced grand historical
romances about the different Travancore kings and war-heroes who
stood up to British imperialism. In his Dharmaraja, actually a
sequel to Marthanda Varma, C.V. Raman Pillai follows up on the
historical events that ended with the execution of a clan of
King Marthanda Varma's enemies. In Dharmaraja, two descendants
from the clan returns disguised as wandering monks seeking
revenge at the new King, and to usurp the throne of Travancore,
but the conspiracy is spoiled by the King's lieutenant,
Kesava Pillai, who himself becomes
the central character in the third part of the saga, Rama Raja
Bahadur.
The historical
context is that of the incursions of Tippu Sultan into the
kingdom and the persistence of clanish dissent which leads
Travancore into accepting the hegemony of the British. Very much
in the manner of Walter Scott's romances, C. V. Raman Pillai
also creates an elaborate human drama grounded in history, yet
peopled with realistic characters. Following in the tradition of
C. V. Raman Pillai, several historical novels were written.
Pallath Raman's Amrita Pulinam and Appan Thampuran's Bhoota
Rayar and Bhaskara Menon (the first detective novel) deserve
mention. Sardar K. M. Panikkar's Paranki Padayali (The
Portuguese Soldier), Dhumakethuvinte Udayam (The Comet of
Ill-Omen) and Kerala Simham (The Lion of Kerala) are also
important works of subaltern sensibility in presenting Kerala's
encounter with the colonizers and imperialists. The range and
popularity of the early novels helped the construction of a
culture of the novel in Malayalam literature.
When C. V. Raman
Pillai wrote his first satirical novel, Premamrutam, it also
spawned yet another series of imitations. At this time,
translations of novels from world literature began to appear,
further enhancing the credibility of the genre. Besides
Nalappat's classic translation of Les Miserables, several other
translations of John Bunyan, Maxim Gorky, Thomas Hardy,
Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Tagore elevated the position of the
novel in Malayalam. The Malayalam Novel in Transition If
Malayalam poetry was revitalized the moment it parted company
with the tiresome gods who came to dominate the South Indian
Literatures after the waning of the Sangam Period, resurgence of
the novel as the preeminent literary genre followed the social
and political transformations taking place in response to
Western humanist tradition, increasingly drawing its energy from
the Marxist philosophy and aesthetics.
By 1930s, a whole
new school of writers, known as Progressive Writers, had come
into existence. Three young critics, Kesari Balakrishna Pillai,
M. P. Paul, and Joseph Muntasseri became the theoreticians of
the school. Having understood the great potential of realistic
fiction, these critics theorized about the new role of Malayalam
Literature in an era of Western literary and cultural paradigms.
Through the many critical introductions he contributed to the
works of emerging writers, Kesari Balakrishna Pillai affirmed
the literary and aesthetic qualities of prose fiction. The
mature theoretical synthesis of M. P. Paul's critical
monographs, Novel Sahityam, Cherukatha Prasthanam, and
Gadyagathi defined the novel, the short story, and the essay
respectively, and aligned Malayalam literature with
international aesthetic trends. Joseph Muntasseri spoke
primarily as a Marxist aesthete grounded in Indian literary
traditions.
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