Invitation

Seminar Series - 4 Release and Review of the Book Pre Modern Society BASED ON ORAL TRADITION by M. Janaki

At KCHR Annexe Kesavadasapuram

On 30th August 2019 ( 3:00 pm)

Kerala Council for Historical Research Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala www.kchr.ac.in Abstract Pre Modern Kerala Society Based on Oral Tradition This book is on Pre Modern Kerala Society as reflected in oral narratives, northern ballads, southern ballads and invocative songs substantiated by corroborative evidences. “Dr. Janaki finds that the medieval society was a hierarchical, caste ridden one with graded authority. There were major and minor principalities. Land was for administrative purposes divided into Nadus, Desams and Tharas. Since authority was parcelised, Rajas, Natudayavar and Desavazhikal were not very powerful. Standing army was not maintained. The rulers were often dependent on warrior-fighters of knights. During the medieval period, notes Janaki, ‘Kalari played a vital role as a military institution. Martial training was imparted to both girls and boys’. The Nairs of North Malabar followed matrilineal system and ‘men and women enjoyed freedom in the selection of their partners’. Great diversity existed as far as festivals, traditional beliefs and religious practices and customs were concerned. This is an important addition to our knowledge of pre-modern Kerala. Janaki’s is a sincere and painstaking effort and the book offers a fresh and deep understanding of Kerala society in the pre-modern periods. Janaki writes in an elegant easy to read prose. I have great pleasure in introducing this well documented book to the general public and to the students of History.” (Excerpt from the ‘Forward’ to the book by Professor K. Gopalankutty) Kerala Council for Historical Research is organizing Release and Review of the Book Pre Modern Kerala Society Based on Oral Tradition by M. Janaki on 30th August 2019 (03:00 pm) at KCHR Annexe Kesavadasapuram, Thiruvananthapuram Chair Dr. V. Sathish

Discussants Dr. K. S. Madhavan Professor P. Sanal Mohan Professor M. Janaki

Release of the book Dr. V. Sathish

Reception of the book Dr. K. S. Madhavan

You are cordially invited

Professor P. K. Michael Tharakan Chairperson, KCHR

( Join us for High Tea at 2:30 pm) Dr. V. Sathish is an Associate Professor and Head of the Department of History, . He previously worked with History departments of different government colleges in the State. He has Post Graduate degrees in Law and History and completed his Doctoral research from the Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram in 2009 in a multi-disciplinary research theme on History and Law. He has a number of journal articles and edited volumes to his credit. His areas of interest include Human Rights Jurisprudence, Gender Equality, Rights of Minorities and Weaker Sections, History of Freedom Movement, Ethnic Studies, Right to Life and Personal Liberty, Distributive Justice, Law and Social Change in Historical Perspective and Constitutional History of India.

Dr. K.S.Madhavan is an Associate Professor at the Department of History University of Calicut. He has specialized in the areas of Early Historic and Early Medieval Kerala. His PhD thesis, Primary Producing Groups in Early and Early Medieval Kerala 300-1300 AD is a very significant contribution to the field of historical research in Kerala. His areas of interest, in addition to History, include Social Theory and Cultural Studies.

Professor P. Sanal Mohan is currently the Director of the KCHR. He taught at the School of Social Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, . He was Smuts Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge and Post-Doctoral Visiting Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, Gottingen, Germany, among others. His areas of research interest include colonial modernity, social movements and questions of identity, Dalit movements and Christianity in India. His book Modernity of Slavery: Struggles against Caste Inequality in Colonial Kerala was published by the Oxford University Press in 2015.

Professor M. Janaki is a researcher in the areas of Social and Economic History of Kerala. Her PhD thesis is titled Land Revenue Administration in Malabar under the English East India Company. She retired as Principal, Government College, Kodenchery, Calicut. Prior to that, Professor Janaki taught in various Government Colleges in Kerala including Government Arts and Sciences College, Calicut for nearly twenty-seven years. Her areas of specialization include Oral tradition, Social and Economic History and Colonialism. The bookPre Modern Kerala Society Based on Oral Tradition shows Professor Janaki’s analytical skills as a historian. She has several published research papers in journals and books. She is currently working on a monograph titled Land Revenue Administration in Malabar under the English East India Company.

Kerala Council for Historical Research Vyloppilly Samskrithi Bhavan, Nalanda, Thiruvananthapuram- 695003 Phone / Fax – 0471 2310409, Mob: 94471 37651 E mail: [email protected], www.kchr.ac.in