Malayalam literature
Malayalam, the lingua franca of the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puduchery, is one of the six classical languages of India.
Designated a "Classical Language in India" in 2013,[12] Malayalam literature developed into the current form mainly by the influence of the poets Cherusseri Namboothiri,[13][14] Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan,[14] and Poonthanam Nambudiri,[14][15] in the 15th and the 16th centuries of Common Era.
Ullor wrote in the classical tradition, appealing for universal love, while Vallathol responded to the human significance of social progress.
[36] The generally held view is that Malayalam was the western coastal dialect Middle Tamil[37] and started separation from Proto-Tamil-Malayalam sometime in the 8th century CE.
[40] This is based on the fact that Malayalam and several Dravidian languages on the western coast have common archaic features which are not found even in the oldest historical forms of literary Tamil.
[36] The Old Malayalam language was employed in several official records and transactions (at the level of the Chera Perumal kings as well as on the village temples).
[53] The Champu Kavyas written by Punam Nambudiri, one among the Pathinettara Kavikal (Eighteen and a half poets) in the court of the Zamorin of Calicut, also belong to Middle Malayalam.
[56] The words used in Ramacharitam such as Nade (Mumbe), Innum (Iniyum), Ninna (Ninne), Chaaduka (Eriyuka) are special features of the dialect spoken in North Malabar (Kasaragod-Kannur region).
[59] Lilathilakam, a work on grammar and rhetoric, written in the last quarter of the 14th century discusses the relationship between Manipravalam and Pattu as poetic forms.
The Sandesa Kavyas are an important poetic genre in Sanskrit, and on the model of Kalidasa's Meghadūta and Lakshmidasa's Sukasandesa, a number of message poems came to be written first in Manipravalam and later in pure Malayalam.
The author is Ayyappilli Asan who lived sometime about 1400 CE at Auvatutura near Kovalam and whom P. K. Narayana Pillai, who discovered the full text of the book in 1965, calls "the Homer of Malayalam."
The Bhakti school was thus revived, and in the place of the excessive sensuality and eroticism of the Manipravalam poets, the seriousness of the poetic vocation was reasserted by them.
[54] The 15th century CE saw two paralleled movements in Malayalam literature: one spearheaded by the Manipravalam works, especially the Champus, and the other emanating from the Pattu school and adumbrated in Cherusseri's magnum opus, Krishnagatha (Song of Krishna).
The poets like Moyinkutty Vaidyar and Pulikkottil Hyder have made notable contributions to the Mappila songs, which is a genre of the Arabi Malayalam literature.
[14] P. Shangunny Menon ascribes the authorship of the medieval work Keralolpathi, which describes the Parashurama legend and the departure of the final Cheraman Perumal king to Mecca, to Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan.
Cherusseri's Krishnagatha bore witness to the evolution of modern Malayalam language as a proper medium for serious poetic communication.
Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan wrote his two great epics Adhyathmaramayanam and Srimahabharatam and two shorter pieces, Irupathinalu Vrittam and Harinama Kirtanam and thereby revolutionised Malayalam language and literature at once.
The earliest of the aattakathas is believed to be a cycle of eight Ramayana stories (collectively known as Ramanattam), composed by Kottarakkara Tampuran and about whose date there is an ongoing controversy.
Since the four aattakathas he wrote Bakavadham, Kalyanasaugandhikam, Kirmeeravadham and Kalakeyavadham punctiliously conform to the strict rules of Kathakali, they are particularly favoured by orthodox artistes and their patrons.
The word "Thullal" 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 art form popular till then.
[23] Nineteenth century was not a very creative period for Malayalam literature (except towards the end) from the point of view of imaginative writing.
The establishment of colleges for imparting English education, the translation of the Bible and other religious works, the compilation of dictionaries and grammars, the formation of the text book committee, the growth of printing presses, the starting of newspapers and periodicals, the introduction of science and technology, the beginning of industrialisation and the awakening of social and political consciousness: these constitute the giant strides towards modernisation.
Christian missionaries Benjamin Bailey (1805–1871), Joseph Peet, Richard Collins and George Mathen (1819–1870) were responsible for many works on Malayalam language based on western models.
Meanwhile, many literary magazines were established to encourage all kinds of writers and writings, such as C. P. Achutha Menon's Vidyavinodini, Kandathil Varghese Mappillai's Bhashaposhini and Appan Thampuran's Rasikaranjini.
[14] The developments in prose at this time were very significant, Vengayil Kunhiraman Nayanar (1861–1895), more famous under his pseudonym Kesari, was one of the first to explore the essay form in Malayalam.
P. Kesava Dev, who was a Communist in the thirties and forties turned away from diehard ideologies and wrote a symbolic novel called Arku Vendi?
After portraying the class struggle of farm labourers in Randidangazhi (Two Measures) in 1949, Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai turned away from party politics and produced a moving romance in Chemmeen (Shrimps) in 1956.
For S. K. Pottekkatt and Vaikom Muhammad Basheer, who had not dabbled in politics, the continuity is marked in the former's Vishakanyaka (Poison Maid, 1948) and the latter's Ntuppuppakkoranendarnnu (My Grandpa had an Elephant, 1951).
The non-political social or domestic novel was championed by P. C. Kuttikrishnan (Uroob) with his Ummachu (1955) and Sundarikalum Sundaranmarum (Men and Women of Charm, 1958).
[79] Writers like Edasseri Govindan Nair, N. N. Pillai, Cherukad, Thoppil Bhasi, Kavalam Narayana Panicker have contributed much to Malayalam drama.
