Literary Criticism: Western Influence
The influence of Western literary models is most clearly seen in the field of criticism. The attempt to relate old Indian values to new western values will account for most of the developments in literature in the first half of the 20th century. The rapid growth of prose through journals like
Drama and the Stage
In the history of drama too, we find the Indian tradition trying to adjust itself to the growing influence of European drama. The Portuguese brought into Kerala their miracle plays which supplied the inspiration for Chavittunatakam. One of the earliest examples of this type is Genoa (date not known). Among the historical plays that followed were CaralmanCharitram and Napolean Charitram. These plays however did not influence Malayalam literature in any way. The first translation of a Shakespearean play came out in 1866 (Almarattam from A Comedy of Errors). Dramatic literature proper began with Kerala Varma’s translation of AbhijnanaSakuntalam (1881-1882). This was a popular hit. It also led to numerous, other translations, few of which were put on stage. C.V. Raman Pillai’s Chandramukhivilasam (1885), Kochunni Thampuran’s Kalyani Kalyanam (1888), K.C. Kesava Pillai’s Lakshmi Kalyanam (1893), Kandathil Varghese Mappila’s Ebrayakutty (1894) as well as Kalahinidamanakam (from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew) and Kocheepan Tharakan’s (1861- 1940) Mariamma (published in 1903, the author claims 1878 as the date of composition) were major landmarks in the growth of Malayalam drama. C.V.’s Chandramukhivilasam is a combination of Sanskrit elements and western elements, Mariamma dramatizes the characteristically Christian domestic problem of the conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-inlaw. It is a play clearly modelled on western social problem play in prose interspersed with quatrains in verse. The use of dialect is realistic and effective. C.V. Raman Pillai returned to the stage in 1909 with Kurupillakalari, a prose comedy in the manner of Goldsmith and Sheridan. It was a very effective social satire. The henpecked husband and the westernized English educated lady are satirized in the play. C.V.’s later dramatic works included Thentanamkottu Harischandran (1914), Kaimalassante Kadassikkai (1915), Pandathe Patchan (1918) and
Pappan (1921). These are basically farces with an emphasis on social satire. His real contribution to drama perhaps consists of dramatizations of his famous historical novels: they are among the best historical plays still put on stage. K.P. Karuppan’s Balakaleswam (1914) is a play with a message, although traditional in form. The traditional kind of verse used in it may be said to give an added sharpness to its social criticism. It advocates progressive measures of social reform in unmistakable terms and calls upon the government to put an end to caste practices by law and to promote the education and upliftment of the lower classes. It is prophetic in this sense and provoked bitter opposition at the time. E.V. Krishna Pillai (1895-1938) inherited from C.V. Raman Pillai the tradition of social comedy on the one hand and historical tragedy on the other. E.V.’s native comic gift was put to good use in his Pranayakkammishan (1932), B.A. Mayavi (1933) and Vivahakammattam (1934). Himself an actor, he could exploit devices of stage presentation effectively. The serious side of his personality found expression in his historical tragedies. Sitalakshmi (1926), Raja Kesava Dasan (1930) and Iravikutty Pillai (1934). They are really the dramatic counterpart to C.V. Raman Pillai’s fictional representation of history. E.V.’s comic legacy was pursued by N.P. Chellappan Nair, M.G. Kesava Pillai and T.N. Gopinathan Nair. His tragic heritage was sustained and improved upon by Kainikkara Padmanabha Pillai with his Velu Thampi Dalava and Kalvariyile Kalpapadapam (1934), Kappana Krishna Menon with his Cheraman Perumal and Pazhassi Raja, Kainikkara Kumara Pillai with his Harishchandran (1934), MohavumMuktiyum (1938) and Kuttanad Ramakrishna Pillai with his Taptabashpam (1934). The part played by Sree Chithira Thirunal Vayanassala, Thiruvananthapuram, in promoting the writing of new plays every year for the annual performance on the Maharaja’s birthday is very significant in this regard, although on many occassions it had to be satisfied with secondrate or third rate plays. But it has kept up the longest continuous tradition in amateur acting in Thiruvananthapuram: a rare achievement in itself. The most important theatre arts in Kerala have always had their devoted audience in the villages. There in the open air the ritualistic arts like Padayani, Theyyam, Kakkarassi, Poothamkali and Poorakkali are still attracting large crowds. The classical performing arts received a big boost in the present century with the founding of Kerala Kala Mandalam by the poet Vallathol. Attakkathas continue to be written on old subjects as well as new ones. The purists and the traditionalits do not quite favour the widening of the range of the Kathakali repertoire. Changes nevertheless are taking place, however imperceptible they may be at the time. Drama on the western model has always had to face an implicit challenge from these traditional performing arts with a hoary heritage behind them. In more recent times the cinema may appear to be a threat, but these challenges should be a source of inspiration for the dramatist committed to his vocation. The influence of Tamil musicals and their Malayalam adaptations or imitations was keenly felt in the 1920’s and 1930’s . It is perhaps a legacy from the tremendously popular Sangitanaishadham (1892) of T.C. Achutha Menon (1870-1942) and the later Balagopalam (1920) of Kuttamath Kunjukrishna Kurup. The musical drama version of Kumaran Asan’s
Poetry: The Second Generation of Romantics
Of the three poets, Asan, Ulloor and Vallathol, it was Vallathol the youngest that attracted the largest following in his life-time and enjoyed the greatest popularity. Among those who were close to him in style are Nalappat Narayana Menon, Kuttippurathu Kesavan Nair, K.M. Panikkar, G. Sankara Kurup, Pallathu Raman, Bodheswaran, Vennikulam Gopala Kurup, P. Kunjiraman Nair, Palai Narayanan Nair, M.P. Appan and Balamani Amma. Nalappatt Narayana Menon (1887-1955) is mainly remembered for his classic elegy on the death of his wife, Kannuneer Tulli (Tear Drop), one of the best meditative lyrics in Malayalam. Like the English elegiac poets, he is prompted to speculate on the mearning of life by the experience of bereavement: Infinite, inscrutable and ineffable. The route on which spins this cosmic globe; What does man know of its true meaning, Who looks at it from an obscure corner? This philosophical strain which is an undercurrent of romantic poetry makes Nalappatt Narayana Menon closest to Asan; of all the poets in the Vallathol school, Kuttippurathu Kesavan Nair (1883-1959) in his poem Grameena Kanyaka (The Village Maid) wrote about the simple joys of the rural society that were threatened by the prospect of urbanization. Pallathu Raman (1892-1950) mainly wrote poems of social revolt, K.M. Panikkar (1895-1963), also a historian in English and a novelist in the C.V. tradition, came under the influence of the early Vallathol and wrote poems in several genres. G. Sankara Kurup (1900-1978), brought up in the classicist tradition of Ulloor and Vallathol, fell early under the influence of Rabindranath Tagore and emerged as one of the major voices in the 1930’s. He passed through various stages of evolution marked by movements such as mysticism, symbolism, realism and also socialist realism. Among his major lyrical and meditative poems are Nakshatragitam (Song of the Star), Suryakanthi (The Sunflower), Innu Njan Nale Nee (Today I, Tomorrow Thou), Nimisham (The Moment) and Viswadarsanam (The Cosmic Vision). They are all imbued with a spiritual earnestness which often brings him closer to the poetry of Kumaran Asan. His dramatic monologue Perumthachan (The Master Carpenter), is one of the successful poems in that genre in Malayalam. Vennikulam Gopala Kurup (1902-1980) has stayed more or less within the Vallathol frame-work, but has achieved some fine effects in his best poems about scenes in everyday life. P. Kunhiraman Nair (1909-1978) was an indefatigable champion of the native tradition of life and an unwearied admirer of the beauty of Kerala landscape. Nalappatt Balamoni Amma is the greatest poetess Kerala has produced so far. She is equally good at domestic themes and at speculative philosophy. Her longer monologues based on Parasurama, Viswamitra, Mahabali and Vibhishana add a new dimension to Vallathol’s portrayals of puranic characters and episodes. Two poets, Edappally Raghavan Pillai and Changmpuzha Krishna Pillai, brought in a new breath of life into the Malayalam poetry of the 1930’s. Edappalli Raghavan Pillai (1909-1936), one of the true inheritors of unfulfilled renown among modern Malayalam poets, brought out and emphasized the finer elements which were often muted in the poems of the Vallathol School. His poetry reminds us of a vibrant melody played on a single string instrument. Before he committed suicide in 1936 he wrote a few excellent lyrics in the purer romantic strain with no hangover from neoclassicism. The close alliance between nature and the poet’s mood of the moment is a recurring theme in his work, as in the following lines from![Kudiyozhikkal Kudiyozhikkal](/uploads/1/1/7/7/117722229/341851044.jpg)
Prateeksha (Hope):
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The influence of Western literary models is most clearly seen in the field of criticism. The attempt to relate old Indian values to new western values will account for most of the developments in literature in the first half of the 20th century. The rapid growth of prose through journals like
- His mastery of the medium is evident in all his poems both lyrical and narrative. Many critics consider the long poem Kudiyozhikkal (Eviction of the tenant) as his magnum opus. In the prefatory lines to the poem the poet says: 'Punchiri! Ha, Kuleenamam kallam. Nenchu keeri njan nerinekkattaam' (The smile! Oh, It's but a noble lie.
- Critical studies of Kudiyozhikkal, Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon's magnum opus. 'Kudiyozhikkal Padanangal' has studeis by K P Mohanan, Dr Jaysree V R, Kadankod Prabhakaran and Dr Adheena Niranj.
- His most ambitious poem is perhaps Kudiyozhikkal ( Eviction), a kind of lyrical - dramatic narrative in which the poet tries to dramatize his own ambivalence vis-a-vis the community at large and to clarify the role of the poet in a world of changing values.
- Kudiyozhikkal Vyloppilli. Malayalam Poem 'Poothappat' By VKS. ♪കെസ്റ്റർ പാടിയ അതിമനോഹര ആരാധനാ ഗാനങ്ങൾ With Lyrics.
Drama and the Stage
In the history of drama too, we find the Indian tradition trying to adjust itself to the growing influence of European drama. The Portuguese brought into Kerala their miracle plays which supplied the inspiration for Chavittunatakam. One of the earliest examples of this type is Genoa (date not known). Among the historical plays that followed were CaralmanCharitram and Napolean Charitram. These plays however did not influence Malayalam literature in any way. The first translation of a Shakespearean play came out in 1866 (Almarattam from A Comedy of Errors). Dramatic literature proper began with Kerala Varma’s translation of AbhijnanaSakuntalam (1881-1882). This was a popular hit. It also led to numerous, other translations, few of which were put on stage. C.V. Raman Pillai’s Chandramukhivilasam (1885), Kochunni Thampuran’s Kalyani Kalyanam (1888), K.C. Kesava Pillai’s Lakshmi Kalyanam (1893), Kandathil Varghese Mappila’s Ebrayakutty (1894) as well as Kalahinidamanakam (from Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew) and Kocheepan Tharakan’s (1861- 1940) Mariamma (published in 1903, the author claims 1878 as the date of composition) were major landmarks in the growth of Malayalam drama. C.V.’s Chandramukhivilasam is a combination of Sanskrit elements and western elements, Mariamma dramatizes the characteristically Christian domestic problem of the conflict between mother-in-law and daughter-inlaw. It is a play clearly modelled on western social problem play in prose interspersed with quatrains in verse. The use of dialect is realistic and effective. C.V. Raman Pillai returned to the stage in 1909 with Kurupillakalari, a prose comedy in the manner of Goldsmith and Sheridan. It was a very effective social satire. The henpecked husband and the westernized English educated lady are satirized in the play. C.V.’s later dramatic works included Thentanamkottu Harischandran (1914), Kaimalassante Kadassikkai (1915), Pandathe Patchan (1918) and
Kudiyozhikkal Poem Lyrics Pdf
Butler![Poem Poem](/uploads/1/1/7/7/117722229/109300086.jpg)
Kudiyozhikkal Kavitha Lyrics
Karuna was also a very popular play on the commercial stage. This tradition may be said to continue still, occasionally with an overdose of spicy humour or with a leftistoriented political message. Malayalam drama underwent a significant development in the 1930’s. It may be said to have started with the discovery of Ibsen. A. Balakrishna Pillai, one of the major critics of the period, translated Ibsen’s Ghosts into Malayalam in 1936 and wrote articles about him to popularize the kind of drama that Ibsen seemed to stand for. In 1940 C. Narayana Pillai translated Rosmersholm. This trend merged with the new movement which had already made some advances in Malabar. That drama was no mere entertainment, that it was a strong means of social awakening and that serious drama could make a powerful appeal to the audience: these truths were demonstrated by two plays based on the Brahmin community in Malabar. Adukkalayilninnu Arangathekku (From the Kitchen to the Scene of Action; 1930) by V.T. Raman Bhattathiripad, traces the history of the liberation of the Namboothiri women. It was an epoch-making play,mainly because of its ideological thrust. Ritumati (The Nubile Maiden 1939) by M.P. Bhattathiripad continued the movement. K. Damodaran’s Pattabakki (Rental Arrears; 1938) is our first play on a socio-political theme. It is out and out propangandist, yet has an important difference from the conventional type of commercial drama without any serious thought in it. The forties were thus ready for a real take-off. New playwrights like N. Krishna Pillai, Pulimana Parameswaran PIllai, Edasseri Govindan Nair and C.J. Thomas brought into the stage in Kerala the muchneeded seriousness of genuine tragedy through the front door itself. N. Krishna Pillai had declared his intentions as a playwright in categorical terms. “the ideal play, as far as I am concerned, is one in which some serious and fundamental human problem is realistically analysed and handled with the utmost concentration, avoiding wastage in words, dialogues, situations and characters. This ideal was instilled in me by Ibsen whom I consider to be the most successful master dramatist of the modern age and hence have attempted to emulate, with discrimination, his dramatic form and technique in my plays”.Krishna Pillai’s major works are Bhagnabhavanam (Shattered Home: 1942), Kanyaka (The Virgin 1944) and Balabalam (The Trial of Strength 1946) Pulimana Parameswaran Pillai’s Samathva wadi (The Socialist: 1944) is a precocious work; it employs the expressionist device with consummate skill. Edasseri Govindan Nair’s Koottukrishi (Joint Farming: 1950) emphasised the value of rustic realism. A new dimension to the serious problem play was given by C.J. Thomas in his Avan VeendumVarunnu (He Comes Again). It is a work that anticipates the later development of Malayalam drama. C.J. Thomas’ experimental urge achieves its magnificent fulfilment in his Crime 27 of 1128 (1952-1954). A challenge to directors and actors, Crime is unique among Malayalam dramas. Before Beckett and Ionesco became known as writers of the Absurd Theatre and without proclaiming himself to be the founder of any school, C.J. Thomas gave total expression to his concept of drama-neither-tragedy nor comedy alone, but both at the same time, each seeking its justification in the other. C.J. Thomas was to write one more tragedy, Aa Manushyan Nee Thanne (Thou Art That Man), a dramatization of the Bibilical story of David and Bathsheba. This pattern of epic dramas on puranic themes was taken up by C.N. Sreekantan Nair after his first attempts the social drama. The fifties and early sixties were the period of stage musicals, often with a pronounced socio-political bias. Thoppil Bhasi, N.N. Pillai, K.T. Mohammed, G. Sankara Pillai and Kavalam Narayana Panicker, among others, have kept the theatre active and meaningful during the post-independence period.
Poetry: The Second Generation of Romantics
Of the three poets, Asan, Ulloor and Vallathol, it was Vallathol the youngest that attracted the largest following in his life-time and enjoyed the greatest popularity. Among those who were close to him in style are Nalappat Narayana Menon, Kuttippurathu Kesavan Nair, K.M. Panikkar, G. Sankara Kurup, Pallathu Raman, Bodheswaran, Vennikulam Gopala Kurup, P. Kunjiraman Nair, Palai Narayanan Nair, M.P. Appan and Balamani Amma. Nalappatt Narayana Menon (1887-1955) is mainly remembered for his classic elegy on the death of his wife, Kannuneer Tulli (Tear Drop), one of the best meditative lyrics in Malayalam. Like the English elegiac poets, he is prompted to speculate on the mearning of life by the experience of bereavement: Infinite, inscrutable and ineffable. The route on which spins this cosmic globe; What does man know of its true meaning, Who looks at it from an obscure corner? This philosophical strain which is an undercurrent of romantic poetry makes Nalappatt Narayana Menon closest to Asan; of all the poets in the Vallathol school, Kuttippurathu Kesavan Nair (1883-1959) in his poem Grameena Kanyaka (The Village Maid) wrote about the simple joys of the rural society that were threatened by the prospect of urbanization. Pallathu Raman (1892-1950) mainly wrote poems of social revolt, K.M. Panikkar (1895-1963), also a historian in English and a novelist in the C.V. tradition, came under the influence of the early Vallathol and wrote poems in several genres. G. Sankara Kurup (1900-1978), brought up in the classicist tradition of Ulloor and Vallathol, fell early under the influence of Rabindranath Tagore and emerged as one of the major voices in the 1930’s. He passed through various stages of evolution marked by movements such as mysticism, symbolism, realism and also socialist realism. Among his major lyrical and meditative poems are Nakshatragitam (Song of the Star), Suryakanthi (The Sunflower), Innu Njan Nale Nee (Today I, Tomorrow Thou), Nimisham (The Moment) and Viswadarsanam (The Cosmic Vision). They are all imbued with a spiritual earnestness which often brings him closer to the poetry of Kumaran Asan. His dramatic monologue Perumthachan (The Master Carpenter), is one of the successful poems in that genre in Malayalam. Vennikulam Gopala Kurup (1902-1980) has stayed more or less within the Vallathol frame-work, but has achieved some fine effects in his best poems about scenes in everyday life. P. Kunhiraman Nair (1909-1978) was an indefatigable champion of the native tradition of life and an unwearied admirer of the beauty of Kerala landscape. Nalappatt Balamoni Amma is the greatest poetess Kerala has produced so far. She is equally good at domestic themes and at speculative philosophy. Her longer monologues based on Parasurama, Viswamitra, Mahabali and Vibhishana add a new dimension to Vallathol’s portrayals of puranic characters and episodes. Two poets, Edappally Raghavan Pillai and Changmpuzha Krishna Pillai, brought in a new breath of life into the Malayalam poetry of the 1930’s. Edappalli Raghavan Pillai (1909-1936), one of the true inheritors of unfulfilled renown among modern Malayalam poets, brought out and emphasized the finer elements which were often muted in the poems of the Vallathol School. His poetry reminds us of a vibrant melody played on a single string instrument. Before he committed suicide in 1936 he wrote a few excellent lyrics in the purer romantic strain with no hangover from neoclassicism. The close alliance between nature and the poet’s mood of the moment is a recurring theme in his work, as in the following lines from
![Kudiyozhikkal Kudiyozhikkal](/uploads/1/1/7/7/117722229/341851044.jpg)
Prateeksha (Hope):
Come away, come away, my bird of hope;
Darkness is spreading everywhere!
Singing its last song, to the west
Has flown the golden bird of twilight;
In the flower garden of the night
Already the jasmine buds of tonight have blossomed.
The last flickering smile of the lotus
Has melted into the twilight glow;
The cuckoo, tired of its singing,
Is asleep on the tree in the yard.
My bird of hope, wandering somewhere
In the heavens, please come away!
The double-distilled essence of romantic lyricism, tender and delicate and wistful: never before or after in the history of Malayalam poetry has it been captured in words. Edappalli Raghavan Pillai has been compared by A. Balakrishna Pillai to Leopardi of Italy: the brooding melancholy of an autumnal afternoon lingers over the poems of both. Raghavan Pillai’s best poem is perhaps Maninadam which ends with a quiet prayer:
Will each drop of my blood
Dripping from my heart’s broken wall
Tired of the repeated batterings
Of the rough rubbles of insult
Kudiyozhikkal Poem Lyrics Meaning
Inspire the pen that writes love songs?
And if it does, will it be effective?
His companion Changampuzha Krishna Pillai (1911-1948) met the same challenge of life with greater resilience. But deep down in him too there glowed an incurable idealism which saw the world in primary colours. In a ‘statement’ in verse prefixed to his first volume Bashpanjali (Tearful Offerings; 1934) he said:
Maybe it’s right - this world
May be a source of unique joys;
May be a wave in the milky sea
Of the life of power and pomp:
Unlucky that I’am, whatever I saw
Was shrouded in pain!
Whatever fell upon my ears
Was the cry of pity!
Whatever my burning soul suffered
Were sighs, deep and hot.
Changampuzha’s most popular work is a pastoral play in verse called Ramanan. It is a dramatization of the life and death of Raghavan Pillai presented in idealized terms. Its romantic melodies have captured the loveliness of the landscape of Kerala with its evergreen trees and its numerous rivers. With Changampuzha, Malayalam poetry comes directly under the influence of world poetry other than English too. He was a prolific writer with an ever-widening readership. He was susceptible to different kinds of influence from time to time: he has written poems both extolling Vedic culture and condemning it vehemently; he has denounced socialism and has hailed Marx. These contradictions exist only on the intellectual plane. The magic of his poetry subsumes all these paradoxes. His last collection of poems Swararagasudha (1948) represents his art at its most mature. “Rakkilikal” (Night birds: 1946) is in the form of a duet recited by a young man and a young woman calling upon the sleeping world to awaken to a new day, better and brighter than ever before. “Manaswini” (Woman with a generous heart: 1947) is an autobiographical poem in which the poet pays his homage in glowing words
As my heart, reflecting on you,
Melts and dissolves in a reverie,
My soul, urged by some ecstasy,
Is thrilled through and through
Pain, pain, intoxicating
Pain: let me drench myself in it!
Drench myself; and from within me
Let a soft strain of the flute flow.
Changampuzha passed away in 1948 and with that the magic world of romanticism too came to an end. In the thirties and forties, realism had threatened to creep into Malayalam poetry, but never could raise its head very high, Edasseri Govindan Nair was one of the first poets to use a nonromantic diction and talk about the problems of life with precision and sharpness. Rural life and industrial life appear in his poems (Puthenkalavum, Arivalum (The new pot and the sickle); “Panimudakku” (Strike) in naked, unadorned and not-too-musical verse. Changampuzha’s protest songs were so mellifluous that they often lulled both the rebel and his opponent into the luxury of a daydream. Edasseri made the rebel think and understand, before rushing into a fury of violence. Through him Malayalam poetry learned to shed some colourful but unhealthy encrustations and speak the language of truth as in “Bury the griefs in a pit and let us take a leap to power”. Vyloppilli Sreedhara Menon (1911-1985) is perhaps the last of our major links with Vallathol. He survived the flood tide of the poetry of Changampuzha, his exact contemporary. He started publishing collections late and in the late forties and fifties he wrote some of his very best poems. He had once declared himself to be a “poet of beauty”, but later extended the meaning of the world “beauty” to cover all aspects of life. His poetry gained in depth and complexity in the years that followed. His most popular
Poem is “Mampazham” (Ripe Mango), a very early work illustrating the Wordsworthian view that children are prophets. Among his more mature works are “Sahyante Makan” (Son of the Western Ghats) presenting with sympathy and understanding the troubled thoughts of a temple elephant in the process of going crazy and running amuck. The romantic strain is not absent in him, for example “Oonjalinmel” (On the Swing), but it does not lead to uncontrolled outbursts or torrential overflow or loose meanderings. He always exercises severe control over his matter and manner; seldom does he tolerate sentimentality or melodrama. His most ambitious poem is perhaps Kudiyozhikkal (Eviction), a kind of lyrical-dramatic narrative in which the poet tries to dramatize his own ambivalence vis-a-vis the community at large and to clarify the role of the poet in a world of changing values. The Edappalli school continued for a little while in the fifties as in the works of P. Bhaskaran. But the Edasseri line got strengthened with the coming into the scene of N.V. Krishna Warrier (1916-1989) author of Neenda Kavitakal (Long Poems) and Kochuthomman, Akkitham Achuthan Nambudiri, author of Irupatham Nootandinte Itihasam (The Epic of the Twentieth Century) and Olappamanna, author of Nangemakutty.
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