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Malayalam
Malayalam is one of the Dravidian
languages, which dates back to the 10th century. Malayalam is the baby
in the Dravidian family. It’s an offshoot of old Tamil and remained
in the latter’s shadows for a long time before gaining independent
identity in the 10th century. But soon after the young Malayalam stepped
out on its own, it met with the biggest bully of all – Sanskrit.
Thanks to the endeavors of the Namboodiris, the powerful feudal
aristocrats of Kerala, Aryan Sanskrit had almost replaced Malayalam in
its own land. The Mani-pravalam or ‘ruby and coral style’ was
the baby of such a pileup, a style which meant using as many Sanskrit
words as possible. The linguistic result of the two dominions, however,
has been a happy one; the orchestral resources of Malayalam have been
infinitely enriched.
But while Tamil and Sanskrit took turns in stamping their authority, a
third kind of Malayalam evolved and survived – the pure or pucca
Malayalam. This was the folk stream of lullabies, wedding songs and
dirges, which flowed through the centuries and became the source of
Malayalam literature later. It had Christian and Muslim elements too.
The Kathakali dance form, which is famous the world over, traces its
roots in this folk culture of Kerala.
Malayalam literature takes a lazy and winding route till the end of the
18th century, after which the modern period begins. The Ramacharitam
(1300AD) is the oldest Malayalam text. Writings of the first few
centuries were in Mani-pravalam or the ‘high style’. This went
on until Cherusseri Namboodiri turned his attention to pure Malayalam
and wrote Krishna Gatha in early 15th century. This was again followed
by a generation of campu compositions, a mixture of prose and verse with
a liberal sprinkling of Sanskrit words. The themes were from the great
Sanskrit epics and Puranas. As late as the 17th century, the first big
Malayali poet, Tunchattu Ramanuja Ezhuttachchan adopted the Sanskrit
alphabet in place of Malayalam’s incomplete one. A new literary
type arose in the 18th century, the Tullal or dance drama, which again
dipped into the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas for themes.
Kotungallur (in North Kerala) and Trivandrum (in South Kerala) became
the two hectic centers of literary activity in the second half of the
19th century. Volumes of translations were being written – Valiya
Koyil Tampuran’s Shakuntala (1881), Kunnikkuttan Tampuran’s
Hamlet and Mahabharata, Vallattol Narayana Menon’s Ramayana (1878)
and others. It was a period of original works too, with a flood of
essays on historical and literary topics, dramas, novels and poems and
literary journals. The first and original novel in Malayalam was T. M.
Appu Netunnati’s Kundalata (1887), but more popular was Chantu
Menon’s Indulekha (1889). Some of the later novelists were Vennayil
Kunniraman Nayanar, Appan Tampuran, V. K. Kunnan Menon, Ambati Narayana
Potuval and C. P. Achyuta Menon who grounded the present day Malayalam
prose style. Vaikkom Mohammad Bashir is one of the most loved literary
figures of Kerala. Some poets of the modern school are Kumaran Ashan, G.
Sankara Kurup, K. K. Raja, Channampuzha Krishna Pilla and N.
Balamaniyamma.
As the state with the highest literacy rate, Kerala is one of the
intellectual centers of the country. Kerala is just the place for
literature and litterateurs.