Sahitya Akademi Vaikom Muhammad Basheer and Indian Literature Author(s): K. Satchidanandan Source: Indian Literature, Vol. 53, No. 1 (249) (January/February 2009), pp. 57-78 Published by: Sahitya Akademi Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23348483 Accessed: 25-03-2020 10:34 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
[email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Sahitya Akademi is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Indian Literature This content downloaded from 103.50.151.143 on Wed, 25 Mar 2020 10:34:33 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms A BIRTH CENTENARY TRIBUTE Vaikom Muhammad Basheer and Indian Literature K. Satchidanandan I Vaikom like Muhammadto call the democratic Basheer tradition (1908-1994) in Indian belongsliterature, firmly a living tradition to what I that can be traced back to the Indian tribal lore including the Vedas and the folktales and fables collected in Somdeva's Panchatantra and Kathasaritsagar, Gunadhya's Brihatkatha, Kshemendra's Brihatkathamanjari, the Vasudeva Hindi and the Jatakas. This tradition was further enriched by the epics, especially Ramayana and Mahabharata that combined several legends from the oral tradition and are found in hundreds of oral, performed and written versions across the nation that interpret the tales from different perspectives of class, race and gender and with different implications testifying to the richness and diversity of Indian popular imagination and continue to produce new textual versions, including dalit, feminist and other radical interpretations and adaptations even today.