MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY MARCH 2017

KERALA SAHITYA AKADEMI Thrissur 680 020, Kerala 1

January - March 2017 Malayalam Literary Survey A Quarterly Publication of Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Thrissur Vol. 37 No. 1. January - March 2017 Single Issue : Rs. 40/- Annual Subscription : Rs. 150/-

Editorial Board Vaisakhan - President Dr. K.P. Mohanan - Secretary & Editor Dr.V. Sukumaran - Convenor Prabha Varma E.P. Rajagopalan Mangad Balachandran T. P. Venugopal V.N. Asokan - Sub editor

Cover Design : Vinaylal Type setting : Macworld, Thrissur Printed and Published by Dr. K.P. Mohanan on behalf of Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Thrissur 680 020 and Printed at Carmel Printers, Thrissur Published at Thrissur, Thrissur Dist., Kerala State. Editor : Dr. K.P. Mohanan Reg. No. 29431/77 Phone : 0487-2331069 [email protected] www.keralasahityaakademi.org

Articles published in this journal do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi. The Editorial Board cannot 2 be held responsible for the views expressed by the writers

January - March 2017 Editor’s note

This issue of Malayalam Literary Survey is dedicated to the deathless memory of N.V.Krishnawarrior to mark the celebration of his centenary. The reader might have already noticed how the word usually spelt as ‘varier’ is written as ‘warrior’ in the cover. This is not a spelling error. That is how N.V. used to write his surname with a specific intention to show that he is a warrior in the real sense of the word. N.V. was a multifaceted personality. He was a poet, a profound scholar, a sure-footed cultural and literary critic, an amazing polyglot fluent in about fifteen languages, a peerless editor and a sensitive translator. As the founder-Director of the State Institute of Languages, N.V blazed a trail as a highly innovative administrator. An ardent lover of verdant nature and green environment, he was in the fore-front of the spirited campaign to save the flora and fauna of the Silent Valley, the last home of the lion-tailed monkey. N.V. was all along a crusader, an untiring advocate of human rights. Here in this issue eminent writers like Dr.M.R.Raghava Varier, Dr.V.Sukumaran, Prof.K.V.Ramakrishnan and Dr.A.C.Sreehari dwell on the various vignettes of his personality N.V. as the editor of the famous Malayalam periodicals “Mathrubhumi” weekly and “Yugaprabhath” (in Hindi) promoted translations from Malayalam to other Indian languages and from other Indian languages to Malayalam. That exactly is the objective of Malayalam Literary Survey as well. MLS is thankful to these distinguished contributors. The text by M.R.Manohara Varma on Thullal, the legendary stage performance popularised by Kunjan Nambiar is very much significant because it treats the theme in a logical and scientific manner. The poems of Prabha Varma, who wrote of the famous work “Shyama Madhavam” and Sebastian translated by Ajirkutti and Keralavarma show the healthy and bright face of the Malayalam Poetry. The MLS comes out in a new format to you. Happy reading!

Dr. K.P. Mohanan Secretary & Editor 3

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January - March 2017 Contents

N.V. Krishna Warrior: A Note on His Contributions to Non-literary Issues M. R. Raghava Varier ...... 7

NV Krishna Warrior- An Editor with a Vision and a Mission. K. V Ramakrishnan ...... 13

A Poet who dared to be different V Sukumaran ...... 26

Translation as Transference: A Case Study of N.V. Krishna Warrior’s A.C. Sreehari ...... 33

‘THULLAL’- As an Art Form and Literary Form M.R. Manoharavarma ...... 39

A Lesson in Detachment Prabha Varma...... 51

Real Estate Sebastian ...... 53

Stories Taken from Everyday Life Dr. T. Jamal Mohammed ...... 54 5

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January - March 2017 N.V. Krishna Warrior: A Note on His Contributions to Non-literary Issues

M. R. Raghava Varier

Looking from a cultural perspective, twentieth century was a golden age of art and culture in general and literary arena in particular in Kerala. New genres like the Novel and the Short Story came up as popular items and they opened up new vistas of life in Kerala. The old type of musical plays influenced out and out by the Tamil theatre gave way to a theatre of social drama which was instrumental in bringing in tremendous changes in society, polity and culture of Kerala. In Malayalam poetry, following the Celebrated Trio Asan,Vallathol and Ulloor, there appeared a group of six or seven great poets who brought in a new era of rich and splendid poetry and N. V. Krishna Warrior was a prominent member of that group. Generally acclaimed as a poet, N. V. Krishna Warrior, was a great scholar in several subjects like Language and Literature, Grammar 7 and Poetics, Ayurveda and an effective writer with a pleasantly

January - March 2017 sharp style of writing in addition to a genius in literary journalism. As a Sanskritist, in the early days of his carrier he conducted vakyarthasadas, at the famous Sanskrit College, Thrippunithura which was in those days a great centre of Traditional scholar- ship. vakyarthasadas was an intellectual exercise showing one’s multifarious knowledge in Grammar and Poetics. Krishna Warrior was a multi-linguist with a working knowledge in English, German and Hindi. He started his carrier as a teacher and taught at High school and College levels and then turned to other fields like political activism, journalism etc. Participating in the Indian National Movement he went underground and edited and circulated the Swathanthrabharatham journal. It was a period of awakening in all social and cultural areas in Kerala. Later, as the editor of the Mathrubhumi weekly, ‘NV’ brought in a shift of paradigm in the thinking and writing in Malayalam language and literature. As the founder Director of the Kerala Language Institute he prepared ground for the further growth of Malayalam Language by making arrangements for publishing classics in Sanskrit language. All said, N.V. Krishna Warrior, no doubt, will be remembered as a poet who brought in a transformation in Malayalam poetry from the over-sentimental and hollow verses to a sharp and vital poetry, throbbing with problems of reality of life. His Kochuthomman is rightly described as the Trojan horse in this subverting shift. His fame as a poet has however, overshadowed his other contributions in the field of other intellectual activities including his writings on the economic, social, political and cultural problems of his age. Some of the poems of NV are, based on non-literary themes. For example, his Nannangaatikal is about the megalithic monuments widely scattered in South India in general and in Kerala and Tamilnadu in particular. The poet develops the subject with rare insights and information from the disciplines like History and Anthropology. Similarly, his ‘Missionary’ develops on the problem of the colonial strategies in constructing intellectual bondage of the colonial subject as part of the total subjugation of colonies by the western authorities in the eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. It has to be noted that the intellectual apparatus in this poetic experiments was a thorough under-standing of Modernity and its multifarious programmes. Here NV is particular in observing and establishing the fact that Ancient Indian thought and wisdom are superior to the western scientific knowledge and wisdom designed mainly for the endless exploitation of the nature and its limited resources. This need not necessarily mean that he 8 was not aware of new developments in the field of Knowledge. His writings bare testimony to the fact that he was always diligent

January - March 2017 in acquiring new knowledge and spreading it using all available means of communication. A casual look at the areas of interest and occupation of N.V. Krishna Warrier is really amazing. He was equally competent and sharp in writing on the topics like the necessity of a perspective in literary writing on one side and the need for archaeological explorations in Malabar on the other. He writes with equal zeal, knowledge and expertise about subjects like Thiruvathira, a regional popular festivity in Kerala, the Indian Advaita philosophy, the ideas and ideals of education contained in the thoughts of Swami Vivekananda, and a comparison of Communism and Christianity. While writing on the philosophical aspects of Sree Narayana Guru, N. V. Krishna Warrior observed that the great leader of Kerala renaissance propagated the ideal of sanyasa with a stress on social activism. Further, he goes on observing that the systems of Indian caste and the Western Class are equally illegitimate and dismissible in the system of Democracy. Coming to this point NV observes that the ideal of ‘one caste’ propagated by Guru was the only acceptable principle in a system of democratic set- up. Writing about the importance of mother tongue in education and culture of a people NV speaks with wonderful mastery over the history and culture of the ‘Mohawks’ of the United States of America with a rich fund of details about their language and its peculiarities when compared to the American English. Development was the key concept put forward and propagated by Modern Science. Industrial growth was the only way in order to reach this covetable point. Development at the national level all over the world paid little or no attention to the danger of uncontrolled exploitation of natural resources. It was against this detrimental desire that cultural organizations in the countries like India raised the slogan of ‘Sustainable Development’ in the sixties of the last century. N.V. Krishna warrior’s serious concern over this issue was the result of the inspiration he received from the awareness in the conceptual apparatus of the above said ‘Sustainable Development’. Environmentalism and the related issues were the major concerns of N.V. Krishna Warrior. It is necessary to know the historical background of the environmental hazards in Kerala for a better understanding of the writings of NV. Most of the articles included in the above said volume were written in the nineteen eighties. The preceding decades witnessed a series of issues thrown up by the human interventions in the environment. Gwalior Rayons in Mavur near Calicut and similar enter-prises elsewhere were 9 responsible for the hazards. The encounter was between the

January - March 2017 endless human desires and the limited resources of Nature. Professor K. Gopalakrishnan wrote in his biography of N. V. Krishna Warrior that his entry into the subject was in 1964 after conducting a survey and study of the Kanjirappuzha project in that year. He has written several articles with characteristic clarity and mastery over this topic. Fortunately, the articles pertaining to this area of study have been brought out in a volume from the Malayalam University, thanks to the painstaking efforts of G. Madhusudanan. This volume contains almost all important articles written by NV on the problem of Environmentalism and the related issues and topics. He has written extensively on various aspects of the subject and for a better understanding. These articles can be included in the following categories or areas of enquiry: The Earth and the Human race Bio-diversity Atmosphere and the weather The Danger of the Waist Degeneration of sources of Water Fuel Resources In the section on The Earth and the Human race NV observes that the earth on which we live is suffering from serious illnesses. According to his view the major diseases are the Erosion of Soil, destruction of forests, upsetting of bio-diversity, unclean atmosphere and population explosion. While developing on the issue of soil erosion NV warns that every year deserts are growing with the result that this growth claims large amount of cultivable lands. Soil erosion is caused by the large scale destruction of forests. Bio diversity is another sphere of the nature that encounters great menace from uncontrolled exploitation of resources. Use of fuels like coal and petrol aggravates the problem of impurities like carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and this results in what is generally known as the ‘Green House Effect’. This is sure to accelerate the destruction of life on the earth. Population explosion is another menace that brings in several hazards including diseases, famine etc. United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has been successful in identifying that these are the major problems but the implementation programmes for preventing these hazards are yet to begin. NV rightly and insightfully observes in continuation of this enquiry that the poor countries view the protection of environmentas an extravagance of rich countries while the rich countries are involved in projects 10 with their over exploitation of natural resources which are detrimental to the healthy environment.

January - March 2017 Skipping through the writings of N. V. Krishna Warrior it is interesting to note that in the pre- independence period his attention was in responding to the Orientalist ideas and programmes of the colonial authorities whereas in the post- independence epoch he is busy with criticizing the anti-social and undemocratic programmes of the governmental authorities within the country. Here he joins with popular movements like the Chipco Movement, Silent Valley protection movement etc. Even in dealing with this type of topics NV is careful in using poetic usages. While writing about the dirts in the river Ganga, he says that the death of Ganga means the death of India. Dilating on the intellectual enquiries of our academic institutions including our Universities NV asks a question: How can these universities find time for this kind of issues when they busy with the programmes like ‘mark marketing’? One of the major concerns of NV was the increasing amount of wastes in many forms all over the world. This is perhaps the greatest menace the world is going to encounter in the near future. NV observes in one of his articles on this issue that Industrialization has given several articles of use for mankind but at the same time industries produce a lot of wastes that cannot be managed. The articles for day-to-day use are sold in markets but the wastes are accumulated on the surface of the earth emanating dangerous poisons. It is detrimental to the health of men and animals. It destroys vegetation. The waste produced by the atomic energy is as dangerous as the atom bomb itself. Industrialization is considered to be the only escape from poverty and the high way to progress. At the same time it has to be borne in mind that industrialization is not a phenomenon based on big factories alone. Numerous related enterprises should come up around each factory providing livelihood for several people. Then only the benefit of industrialization shall reach at all levels of society. What is more alarming is the indifference of the governmental authorities towards the menace thrown up by the industrialization and its allied enterprises. Here NV is particular in showing the examples of the industrial establishments in Kerala such as the Gwalior Rayons factory at Mavur, east of Kozhikode. Numerous families lost their livelihood when the Mavoor company purchased bamboo in large scale. In one of his articles entitled ‘Are the Scientist Trustworthy’ he raises the issue, whether all sciences are for the betterment of human life. He continues saying that it is clear that the making of atom bombs is not for human progress. Therefore it is necessary 11 to think well before trusting the scientists. His writings are relevant

January - March 2017 even today when we are facing the hazards of ‘scientific knowledge’ which is busy with all sorts of profit making enterprises including the preparation of poisonous articles as preservatives and for quick ripening of the fruits. Dilating on the nature and functions of science, NV takes up the issue of ancient Indian scientific traditions and their knowledge and wisdom about the relation between the Nature and the human life. In one of the sections in the collection of articles referred to above NV discusses the scientific tradition of the ancient Indian religious groups including the school of the Vaiseshika-s the Ajivika-s, the Jain-s, the Buddhists and. After mentioning the nature and content of the knowledge of these the author proceeds to a comparison of these different schools. This is an occasions on which N.V. Krishna Warrior presents his view in order to explain the difference between the modern western science and the ancient Indian knowledge and wisdom of the Nature and its basic elements. It is really a wonderful experience to go through this kind of writings with a multi-disciplinary enquiries. N.V. Krishna Warrior is at his best when he takes up this kind of topics for discussion.

STATEMENT ABOUT OWNERSHIP AND OTHER PARTICULARS ABOUT NEWSPAPER FORM IV MALAYALAM LITERARY SURVEY QUARTERLY (See Rule 8 of the Registrar of Newspapers (Central) Rules, 1956) 1. Place of Publication : Thrissur 2. Periodicity of Publication : Quarterly 3. Printer's Name ` : Dr. K.P. Mohanan Nationality : Indian Address : Secretary, Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Thrissur - 680 020 4. Publisher's Name : Dr. K.P. Mohanan Nationality : Indian Address : Secretary, Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Thrissur - 680 020. 5. Editor’s Name : Dr. K.P. Mohanan Nationality : Indian Address : Secretary, Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Thrissur - 680 020. 6. Name of Printing Press : Carmel Printers, Thrissur. 7. Owner's Name : Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Thrissur. I, Dr. K.P. Mohanan, hereby declare that the particulars given above are true to the best of my knowledge and belief. 12 Thrissur 29.02.2016 Signature of Publisher

January - March 2017 NV Krishna Warrior- An Editor with a Vision and a Mission.

K. V Ramakrishnan

“Literary journalism is as sacred and solemn as teaching. It is a mission, not a profession.”

All editors are journalists; but all journalists are not editors. Everybody connected with a journal – from the Proprietor or Printer and Publisher to the Distributer – can be called a journalist, in the sense of one who does a given job related to a journal. But none other than the editor need necessarily to know anything about editorship. In Malayalam, there may perhaps be only one – NV Krishna Warrior – who can claim to have worked and acquired experience in all different fields of work connected with a journal – Printer and Publisher, Editor, News Reporter, Compositor, Proof- reader, Printer, Distributer and everything else. Of course, in a few of these fields, he worked only for short periods. A detailed survey of his work in these fields will result in the comprehensive biography of NV Krishna Warrior; because, he lived as a journalist 13 throughout his life save very short occasional intervals.

January - March 2017 A renowned poet among critics and an acclaimed critic among poets, NV Krishna Warrior was a “Sathavadhani” in the real sense of the Sanskrit term. As a poet, he was the harbinger of modern trends in Malayalam poetry. With a conscientious effort, he pioneered the changing of the thrust of Malayalam poetry from decadent romanticism to healthy humanism. A multi-faceted genius, he was an editor with a vision, a fervent freedom-fighter, a great teacher, a grammarian, an erudite multi-linguist, a translator, a fore-runner of the eco-scientific and eco-protection movement, promoter of science literature; and all these assert that there was nothing alien to him in his field of activity. Nevertheless, he wanted to be known more than anything else as a poet and this is evidenced in the way in which he referred to himself, more than once, in the recorded speech he made on receiving the Doctorate conferred upon him by the Calicut University. There he refers to himself as ‘a poet, journalist and cultural activist.’ it is worth noting that when he uses the term ‘cultural activist’ to include all his various activities in different fields, he underlines that he is a poet first and a journalist too. The contributions of NV Krishna Warrior as a journalist have not been properly and entirely studied and evaluated, though there are occasional references and stray articles. The background that molded the journalist in him, his various activities and contributions in the field, his distinct vision on the subject, his conclusive ideas about literary journalism etc. still remain as a resourceful and challenging area to devoted research scholars in future. The manuscript magazine “Kerala Bhashaposhini”, run in 1937, with NV as its Editor, marks his starting point as a journalist. Though such an enthusiasm in those days, is to be taken only as something common to anyone with a literary bend of mind, the fact that NV was an enthusiastic activist throughout his career striving to empower and enrich Malayalam language, and that the very name of the magazine foretells it, (“a magazine which nourishes and develops Malayalam”), should not escape attention. The freedom-movement in India was at its melting-point during the nineteen-forties, particularly in the early years of the decade. It was in 1942, when every nerve of the Quit-India movement was ablaze, that NV, resigning his Head-master’s post in the Sanskrit school at Kalady, plunged himself head-long into the freedom movement. All eminent national leaders of the Movement were in 14 British jails and freedom of expression was at the mercy of foreign rulers. All news papers were tongue-tied, and they could speak

January - March 2017 to their readers only what the British masters permitted them to. No news from the battlefield could be taken to the public. The Mathrubhoomi Daily published its issue on a particular day leaving its editorial column blank to record its strong protest against this denial of freedom of expression. The natural outcome of this boiling suppression was the idea of an underground newspaper. The Socialist ideology was gradually taking shape in Kerala politics and Sri. KB Menon, Sri. Mathai Manjooran, Sri. VA Kesavan Nair etc. formed the vanguard of the movement. Sri. KB Menon was the Secretary of the All India Pouraswathanthrya Sangham, (Civil Freedom society), of which Sri. Jawaharlal Nehru was the President. The idea of the underground newspaper was put into effect by this Socialist group. Sri. N Krishnan Nair, the then Manager of the Mathrubhoomi, suggested the name “Swathanthrabharatham”, and NV’s diary tells us that Sri. Krishnan Nair helped this project by offering a small printing press too. The first issue of it was brought out as weekly and NV entered the actual field of Journalism as its distributer in Thrissur area. NV’s diary says that one Mr. Kunhiraman Kidavu, son of the veteran freedom fighter Sri. K Kelappan was in charge of the distribution work in Thalasseri area. Shortly, activities connected with the publication of the paper were shifted to Thalasseri. For the colonial powers, the paper was an attempt to bomb its authority and hence everything connected with its work was under police surveillance. Even keeping “Swathanthra Bharatham” with one was more than enough for one to be sent to jail (NV has referred to an incident of one sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, having caught with the paper) and so, activities connected with it had to be shifted from place to place at short intervals. With the shifting to Thalasseri, the entire work of the paper – collecting news and preparing reports, editing, composing and getting it ready to be sent to press, and distribution too became the sole responsibility of NV. He found shelter for himself and his paper in the premises of the wood industry buildings of one Mr. Krishnan. During daytime he helped Mr. Krishnan to maintain his accounts; and at night, he did all the works of the paper so as to send the composed matter for printing to a press in Mercara in Karnataka, through Mr. Krishnan’s lorry driver. None other than the foreman in the press, who was formerly in the printing section of the Mathrubhoomi, knew what was being brought there and got printed, because none could read Malayalam in the Karnataka town. They were given to understand that they were printing and sending back to Kerala, the labels needed for some Beedi factory. Everything was well 15 shielded and protected.

January - March 2017 But the camouflage was short-lived. The Police surveillance reached Mercara; the press was raided, closed and sealed. Luckily, NV could escape raid and arrest because he shifted all his belongings, before Police reached Mr. Krishnan’s wood Industry, to an almost isolated, dilapidated house in the deep jungle in Iritty. NV set the “Swathanthrabharatham Press” in the attic of the house, while a certain ‘Travancore family’, to quote NV’s words, occupied the ground floor. Shortly afterwards, Sri. Kesavan Nair asked NV to go to Pattambi. They felt it too risky to continue the newspaper work in Iritty and so discussed and prepared some plans to shift the location to Pattambi, where they rented a small hut, under the pretext that NV was a student preparing for his Malayalam Vidwan Examination. Thus NV returned to Iritty and it was almost midnight when he reached there. It was palpably dark night, appallingly frightening. He somehow managed to reach his attic in the deep thick forest, only to see that the ‘Travancore family’ had left the place, leaving nothing behind. Now, for the first time he felt he was alone, left alone to the mercy of wild nature. NV has remarked, he warded off his fear by chanting aloud the “Ashtadhyayi” of Panini. In an article written later in 1986, (“Irittykkattil Oru Rathri” – ‘Mananangal, Nigamanangal’ - 254) he records, “rats in the attic would, neither before nor after, have heard such a sound”. He managed to organize the minimum requirements for printing the paper and set them in the rented hut in Pattambi. There was a trace of truth in the claim that he was a student, for, he prepared for the said examination during these troublesome days, and appeared for the preliminary examinations and got through them. The diary entry of NV dated 11th March 1944 reads like this: “I want to be a journalist”. (A multi-linguist, NV could handle eighteen languages. While trying to attain mastery over Hindi, he writes his diary in Hindi, the diary entries are in English during the days when he masters English.) This entry may be a mark of his inborn interest in Journalism. Early in 1947, the Socialist group of the Congress Party, mentioned above, decided to start a weekly called “Jai Hind”, and NV joined it as its Printer and Publisher. His diary dated 14th April 1947 reads: “I can manage editing; but not finance……” This periodical was, quite naturally, the thorn in the gullet of the Government of Kochi. Kochi, before its merging with Travancore to form the erstwhile Travancore-Cochin, was ruled by the Maharaja of Cochin. In short order, the authorities initiated legal action against the publication under the charge of treason, 16 and NV was threatened of a jail term as he was the Printer and

January - March 2017 Publisher. This court case tortured NV mentally for months together, until he was exonerated in July 1948. Sri. KP Kesava Menon, the then Chief Editor of the Mathrubhoomi, asked NV on 30-08-1948, whether he was willing to join the Paper as the Editor of its Weekly, and NV very willingly consented. But the Director Board of the Paper, of which the deciding voice was that of some at the helm of the Congress Party, was not happy about NV’s political affiliations, though they had great appreciation for his sound scholarly and literary faculties. Only after long deliberations for almost three years, the Mathrubhoomi could officially invite NV to join them. It was on 21-06- 1951, that Sri. Kuroor Neelakandhan Namboothiripad, the then Printer and Publisher of the Paper, visited NV at his residence in Thrissur – NV was on the Malayalam faculty of Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur then – to ask him officially to take charge of the Mathrubhoomi Weekly. And he joined as the Editor of the periodical on 13-08-1951. Different periodicals like Janayugom, Jayakeralam, Janatha, Mangalodayam etc. extended their invitations to NV during these two plus years, asking him to join them as their Editor. He refused the offers on his own reasons. The Mangalodayam invited him with a plan to replace Sri. PC Kuttikrishnan (Uroob), the well known writer. On this, NV has noted in his diary, “I don’t want to join them ousting PC. I wrote to them I am unwilling.” NV’s joining the Mathrubhoomi marks the beginning of a new, fruitful chapter in his career. It marks the beginning of a glorious chapter of that periodical too. Also it is the crimson dawn of an unprecedented blooming in Malayalam literature, the language in general, and the cultural life of Kerala as a whole. A detailed, conscientious and unbiased study of the progress achieved by Malayalam language, literature and culture during the two decades when NV was the Editor of the periodical will vouch for this. Modern electronic media like Blog writing, Twitter, Face Book etc. were unknown in those days. Today, a literary editor with a mission is in ICU, waiting for his doctor to remove the breathing- aid. He is but a pepper shaker on the dining table of the Proprietor whose sole taste is in his business and profit. Vision, integrity, principles, commitment to society, sense of independence etc. are just counterfeit currency in the market-oriented publishing world. I don’t mean to say that the middle decades of the twentieth 17 century, during which period NV took the Mathrubhoomi weekly

January - March 2017 to the apex of glory, were free of all these marks of decadence. But the moral courage and the integrity needed to withstand this decay had not been drained out completely. This is vouchsafed by NV’s Mathrubhoomi period. NV Joined the Mathrubhumi in September 1951, as mentioned above, resigning from the Sree Kerala Varma College. Recently, I happened to read in media that NV joined the Mathrubhomi to be in charge of the Weekly, resigning his teaching post in the Kerala University. This is incorrect. Never in his life did NV belong to the faculty of this University, though he served it in his later years as a member of Board of studies etc. Of course, he had once been a Senator in the University and also had contested to the Syndicate, only to get defeated. Describing the ignominious activities behind the election stage, he writes in his diary, on 30- 04-1958, “I wonder at the silly cockney-fighting to gain authority to control our highest cultural institution. It pains me too, though, to admit, it is slightly interesting also.” It was with high expectations, deep interest and abounding enthusiasm that NV took charge of the Mathrubhoomi Weekly. The Director Board of the Paper was, as noted above, fully aware of his unbending political opinions. But their magnanimity in recognizing his profound scholarship and literary acumen has to be well appreciated. It can be reasonably deduced that they decided to take in NV, notwithstanding his politics, with the hope to make the Weekly the trendsetter in Malayalam literature. And the following years proved it true. It was during these years that the Mathrubhoomi Weekly proved to be the most illustrious periodical in Malayalam. To get his or her work published in it was the most ambitious dream of everyone with some literary talent, for, it would mark one as an established writer, the recognition one can dream of from nowhere else. Even the simple refusal of a work by the Weekly, one can quote instances, could be celebrated in an organized way to attribute literary grandeur to a work and this marks the envious grandeur attained by the periodical, with NV at its helm. It may not be possible for any to point out an instance of hue and cry made by any writer on a work being refused by any other periodical. NV believed that it was a desirable part of editorial ethics and also respect to the author to return a work with a formal refusal slip, when it was not found worth publishing. He writes: “Getting back the work with a refusal slip may often make some writers irritated and enraged. Some may get totally dejected also. None theless, an editor should 18 understand that when an author sends his work to a publication, he is helping it and also that it is a service to the reading public.

January - March 2017 It is only simple etiquette on the part of the editor to return with full regard to the author the work that he cannot use.” (“Literary Journalism” – ‘Mananangal Nigamanangal’ – 254) ‘Refusal slip’ may perhaps be unknown to the ‘new-gen’ writers. Sooner than they write any nonsense on the Blog or Face Book, can they take it straight to their “like clicking men” of the digital world for which they need no help of either a publication or an editor. They know, thousand ‘likes’ are more pleasing than a refusal slip. But they don’t know what is lost to them – the rare occasion to get their works reviewed by experienced eyes; to correct and improve the works so as to achieve perfection in creative writing and also to better their critical acumen. The total heap of written materials that accumulates on the table of the editor of a literary journal, according to NV, can be divided into three sections – first: those, of course, very few in comparison, which can be sent to the press, without much editorial effort; second: those which can be improved with proper editing, and made worth publishing; and third: the greatest bulk, which can never be improved by anybody. NV was very much conscious of the responsibility of a literary editor. He believed that an editor’s job is greatly noble and sacred. “Literary journalism”, he writes, “is as serious as teaching. It is a noble service that demands handling with a deep sense of seriousness, responsibility and devotion. I would like to stress the point ‘service’. It is a mission and has to be a mission rather than a profession.” (Literary Journalism) He believed that an editor was not, of necessity, bound to publish the entire thing written by any author. At the same time he must be very careful not to add any of his own ideas to a work. He can edit it and correct the slips that might have inadvertently crept in, so as to make it a perfect piece. Editing is not truncating a work to fit in the available space. About the ultimate aim of literary journalism, NV had evolved very clear ideas. “It must”, he writes, “better the aesthetic sense of readers; it must cultivate their tastes; it must educate them properly; It must open to them new horizons of thoughts; it must enlighten their culture and sense of value. Along with this, it has another aim also, which can be termed as linguistic engineering: it must improve the beauty of language, the most valued common property of the society and it must help increase its power of expression too.” NV could never tolerate any external interference in carrying out this sacred responsibility. “As long as I hold charge of the Weekly, I must have the authority either to accept or reject a matter. If it is denied, I may be relieved of this responsibility.” In undaunted terms, NV made it clear to all authorities in the 19

January - March 2017 Mathruhboomi, even to the Chief Editor, Sri. Kesava Menon. On occasions of attempted Interference from either the Director Board or the Chief Editor, NV never felt hesitant to tender his resignation. Instances of such incidents are part of the history of the Paper, or, let us say, are the blazing pages of NV’s biography. Publication of the review article by the eminent writer Prof. Kuttippuzha Krishna Pillai and the confused yelling that followed it, publication of the series of article on Russian tour by EMS Nambuthiripad, publication of the series of articles By CA Balan, etc. are only but a few of such instances. And, on all occasions, the attacks on NV were politically motivated. In 1956, the Mathrubhoomi started the Hindi periodical, “Yugaprabhath”, with NV as its Editor and the foundation of it was NV’s erudition in Hindi and also his close association with writers in North India. It continued to be published for some years, remaining as a strong link in Indian literature and culture, between the north and the south. In 1968, NV left the Mathrubhoomi to join the Language Institute as its founder director. The leave applied for by him was refused. He had completed seventeen years of service in the Institution, taking the Weekly to the apex of glory that it enjoyed then. But the Director Board pretended to be quite blind to everything and asked him to resign and leave without any of the severance benefit he duly deserved, almost with some sort of vengeance. NV writes in his diary, “The decision of the Director Board is so deftly worded as to deny me any kind of benefit, not only now but in future also.” Apart from the members of the Director Board, there were some other influential members also in the Institution who were eager to see that NV was somehow or other smoked out. These second- line soldiers might have thought it to be their duty to support the masters by attacking NV constantly. Frequent entries in his diary will stand proof to this. Political biases tinged by personal grudges in the society will never go to sleep. Outside the Paper also there were some individuals, clever enough to create situations, and interpret words to their taste, waiting to fall upon NV. He lived through his Mathrubhoomi period facing all these tortures not without great mental strain. Had he remained holding on to his editorship just as a profession instead of a mission, playing the second fiddle, none would have even marked him an Editor. Furled 20 sails never breathe blast. At the Language Institute, NV’s sole attention was concentrated

January - March 2017 on empowering the Malayalam language and on making it the efficient vehicle to carry all intellectual explosions in each and every field of knowledge, the world over, and to promote this he started the magazine, “Vijnanakairali”. He had the clear vision that he was not editing now a literary journal. With an eye on the distinct character of the journal, he organized it, approached expert writers in all fields needed, urged them write on selected topics, edited the matter and published. Here also he proved to be an Editor with a mission. To evaluate his contributions in laying the foundation of the Institute will be out of place in this article. Leaving the Language Institute, he joined the Madurai University to complete his research he had left years back unfinished and in 1976, after the University assignment, he joined the Kumkumam Publications as their Editor. The Kumkumam had different periodicals and NV had the editorial responsibility of all of them. In the Kumkumam, NV enjoyed overwhelming support and whole- hearted respect from everybody in the Institution. Nobody was there to torment him interfering with his work and the owner of the Paper was ever willing to carry out all his wishes. So peaceful and contended These days were that he was quite reluctant to leave the Kumkumam, when the Mathrubhoomi people approached him asking him to join them again. But the fact was that despite all ill- treatments he received, the Mathrubhoomi was his weakness; the attachment to it was so emotional that he considered it to be his “Tharavad” (ancestral home), his own home where he was born in. In December 1978, the Mathrubhoomi asked him to join them as the Editor of the Weekly. When Mr. Krishna Mohan, the then Managing Director contacted NV with this request, NV clearly told him that he did not want join them, ousting Sri. MT Vasudevan Nair, who was the Editor of the Weekly then. He had written in his diary dated 28-12-1978, “Sri. Krishna Mohan told me that MT had informed him he was willing to work under NV.” Thus NV joined the Mathrubhoomi for a second term as the Editor of all the periodicals and books also. He reached there with great expectations. He thought he could initiate publication of some new periodicals and bring out valuable books. On this second coming, he might have thought it only modest on his part not to ruminate on the past distressing experiences, particularly when he was coming back to his ‘own home’. But it appeared that even the bringing back of NV was contrived to create occasions to humiliate him. One Mr. VP Ramachandran was appointed as the Editor of the 21

January - March 2017 News Paper and he was given overall charge of all the publications of the Mathrubhoomi. For selection of materials for the periodicals and selection of books also, an advisory committee was formed and it seemed to be a clear move to cut NV into shape. NV selected a novel by a young promising writer for serialization in the Weekly and sent to press for composing. When NV was not present in the office, Mr. Ramachandran took away the novel, writing to NV that he was shocked to see the novel sent to press without the approval of the advisory committee. NV scribbled his resignation and sent it to the Managing Director by registered post. As a proper notice of three months was needed, he wanted to be relieved on 18-5-1981. But the next Director Board meeting decided to check him out immediately giving two months’ notice pay. On this, NV writes in his diary, “I am not sorry for leaving the Mathrubhoomi. But the humiliation cuts me deep.” The Kumkumam authorities wasted no time to contact NV and invite him back to them. They had promised to keep his room and chair in their office vacant, ready for him to return on any day. And this time NV lived as the senior-most member of the Kumkumam family for almost seven years (from 1981 to 1988). NV had in his life never lived so happy, contented, peaceful and also productive a period. All the 845 – may be, but for a few – articles dealing so deeply, clearly and comprehensively as to give, even a common reader, a sound understanding of the subject, with all imaginable topics under the sun, compiled later in eight thick volumes, were written by NV as editorials in the various periodicals, the Kumkumam published during these years. The encyclopedic nature of these volumes marks them an inevitable asset to any cultured mind. Any library, in Kerala at least, without them will remain poor ever. The entry in NV’s diary on 30-11-1987 reads like this: “This morning, Madhavan Kutty, MP Veerendrakumar and the Manager of the Kochi Unit of the Mathrubhoomi came. Veerendrakumar requested me to return to the Mathrubhoomi. I told them, ‘I was happy and contented in the Kumkumam. I would not leave them unless they permitted me.’ Nevetheless, I told them I would consider, because, the Mathrubhoomi was my home.” And, early in January 1988, NV joined the Mathrubhoomi for a third time, as the Chief Editor, against the earnest request of his friends and well-wishers. But NV thought it, as could be reasonably presumed, to be his duty to save the Mathrubhoomi, when it was under the threat of a take-over. Bennett Coleman and Co. had completed all the 22 necessary paper work to take over the Mathrubhoomi, purchasing sufficient number of shares. Sri. K Gopalakrishnan, the biographer

January - March 2017 of NV, writes, “the Director Board of the Mathrubhoomi might have felt it inevitable to have one with the stature of NV as their Chief Editor to lead the multi-faceted battle against the take-over. NV entered the arena fully prepared, fought the battle and saved the Mathrubhoomi.” (‘NV Krishna Warrior’ – Prof. K Gopalakrishnan. Department of Cultural Publications, Govt. of Kerala – 2005. P.189) Nevertheless, NV had to suffer, Prof. Gopalakrishnan has recorded, all sorts of prohibitions and tortures, direct and indirect, during this third term also in the Mathrubhoomi, which undoubtedly had their adverse impact upon his health and quickened his demise. NV breathed his last on 12-10-1989, while he was the Chief Editor of the Mathrubhoomi. A teaching position in University was an ambitious dream of NV during his early years. He appeared before the interview board in the Madras University and the board conveniently side-tracked him on the charge that he was a communist. With utmost mental stress he writes in his diary on 11-08-1947, “….. it is only sorrow and helplessness, tinged with righteous indignation. I had a right, I think, for the job, which is overlooked. Well, let me forget the imagined right.” This was written four days before India became independent. And, on 20-10-1947, the fifth day of independence, he writes: “The whole city (Madras) seemed to celebrate independence. I who had done a bit – however small – of sacrifice to see the dawn of this same day was denied a living twice within a week for the simple reason that I had politics. And the fruits of independence were gathered by people whose virtue it was that they had no politics and that they had not done any sacrifice and had sat tight in their chairs as comfortably as they could while I was leading a life of perpetual fear and adventure, while I was starving and wandering and living as a vagabond. Fine justice! Fine independence!” I don’t know whether Time has to be thankful or not to this denial of University position, for, had he been offered the post, none could have thought about “NV the Editor”. NV has divided and discussed journalism into three - Political / News-paper journalism, Literary journalism and Educational journalism. Though there is no specific dividing line between them, in ultimate aim, they mark themselves distinctively. He had undaunted conviction that the first and foremost responsibility of a literary editor is to be true to his readers. And quite naturally, he believed, his obligation to the proprietors of the paper was only secondary. We have already noted the humiliations faced by him for keeping true to himself. The proprietor of a journal 23 may be one without much of an idea about the high standard

January - March 2017 expected of the publication. And, even if he has, his primary concern will, quite naturally, be about increasing the circulation, in the success of his business. He will be pleased if the circulation is on the increase, even at the cost ofquality. But NV would not compromise on this. He has clearly remarked: “The Editor who concentrates on the taste of the readers to increase circulation is more a business man than a true literary editor. Perhaps, he may prove to be a successful business man; but as a literary editor he will be a total failure.” (“Sahithya Pathra Pravarthanam”) Even getting back a literary work from NVwith a rejection slip, or sometimes with a one-sentence letter was a sort of training – or “kavisiksha”, as the ancient dictum goes. Sometimes, NV used to send back my poems with some marginal comments or with some words underlined to help improve it and sometimes untouched. Sometimes, the poem will never come back, which means it has gone to the waste-paper basket. Getting back with no comments means it is not up-to the mark; but not so worthless as to be pushed into the basket. I can send it to some other publication, if feel so. Those with comments and underlinings, are to be improved upon, which I should do myself, and if satisfied, send back to him. My not-too-short experience in this field has taught me to approach my own work with a critical mind, keeping sufficient distance to work on it as if it were written by somebody else. This sort of “kavisiksha” has helped me handle, quite effectively, the works I received on my editorial table, later at Mathrubhoomi and Kavanakaumudi. NV underscores the idea that serious editing is inevitable in literary journalism. Even a good work can be made better by serious and dexterous editing, and in this there is no difference between a senior, established writer and a beginner. NV writes: “The Editor need not necessarily publish the entire thing, as it is, written by a writer; but he must be careful not to publish anything of his own in the name of a writer. Getting angry and agitated at such editing declares a writer to be one wanting self-confidence and lacking mental maturity.” In the article mentioned above, NV has dealt with literary journalism comprehensively and in an in-depth way, and also has left no area untouched. A simple reference to his ideas on the importance of book-reviews in literary journalism alone will reveal the gravity with which he has dealt with the issue. He says, a book review invigorates the literary taste of the readers and also it has remarkable influence in the total progress of literature. Book reviews in periodicals is the most effective tool to bring about total progress, not only in literature in general but in 24 refining the taste of readers also. By evaluating new books properly,

January - March 2017 it invites the attention of the readers to them. And, along with that, it can make the readers acquainted with new ideas and perspectives that evolve in literary aesthetics world over. New books must be evaluated in the light of new principles of criticism. There is nothing other than the book review to impart effectively this kind of literary education to the society and also to quicken the progress of literature in general. NV’s vision on book reviews becomes significant when viewed in the light of the negligence with which our literary periodicals in general, handle this column today. Our literary editors today are pleased to fill a few pages with as many stamp-size photos of the front cover of books as possible, added with one or two sentences from the blurb on the back cover. They might perhaps be thinking that it would be a criminal waste of space to use two or three pages to review a book or some few books together and in our modern times, it would be out-dated also. Unhesitatingly, let me say, they haven’t heard of the international literary periodicals of high reputation like Times Literary Supplement, New York Review of Books, London Review of Books, New Yorker, to mention a few, which are specifically devoted for book reviews. Though slightly different in character, the Malayalam monthly, Grandhalokam also deserves mention here. Again, they may perhaps argue that no good book deserving serious consideration is forthcoming. If it is to be accepted, I am afraid, it is a pointer to their negligence too. A proper evaluation of the contributions of NV in different fields – aesthetic sense in literature, empowerment of language, scientific awareness of the society, general consciousness about the conservation of nature and ecosystem, to point out but some – will prove him to be a far-sighted, epoch-making Editor. Now, after writing these pages, I realize that ‘NV – the Editor with a Vision’ still escapes my full comprehension – a testimony to the genius of one of the greatest literary and educational editors / journalists Malayalam has ever seen, if not the greatest.

25

January - March 2017 A Poet who dared to be different

V Sukumaran

In the throbbing thirties of the last century, Malayalam poetry stood still for a while at the cross-roads, not sure of the road it should take. The golden age of the three greats-the Poet Trio-had to an end with a whimper. A mango season of maudlin melody made its namby-pamby way to the palpable emptiness A new sobbing verse swept in, distributing bleak despair and an over does of distilled defeatism. Its accept was chiefly on forlorn love and early death. Malayalam poetry was turned overnight into a weeping willow tree. Songs of nameless aches gushed out of the yound nightingales, half in love with easeful death. The landscape of Malayalam poetry was hopelessly drenched in torrential tears. There was a cloying sweetness about the poetic idiom that surfaced. A generation of adolescents and youths came under the spell of the verse-culture that “RAMANAN,” a much-read dramatic pastoral elegy, brought into vogue. Changampuzha brand of affected pessimism became a craze and a cult. Meaning came to play the second fiddle to melody. A tearful, sentimental muse attracted amazingly wide worship. 26 It was exactly then, that the sledge-hammer of modernity was relentlessly knocking down the romantic structures in the west.

January - March 2017 Some extraordinary men of letters were in demolition squad. EZRA POUND, T.S. ELIOT, T.E. HULME. They made a portal for New Poetry and a new New Critical practice. The Wordsworthian definitions of poetry were unceremoniously ousted from the high chair and the Coleridgian maxims on literature were out right rejected. It was a creative subversion that Liot and his fellow- rebels successfully carried out. Modernity had teeth and claws and it was not afraid to stike. Every modernist puch broke the romantic jaw. Imagists like T.E. Hulme, Amy Lowell, H.D, J.G. Gletcher, gave stout poetic support to T.S. Eliot and Ezra Pound. “THE LOVE SONG OF ALFRED J PRUFROCK” a bold, wall- breaking poem, hit the old guard hard on the face. Ezra Pound’s ‘Cantos’ and Eliot’s Dystopian epic, the waste land’ drove the last nail into the coffin of what the literary historians call the Edwardian Poetry. The romantic hot air balloon lay punctured. Poetry was going cerebral and experimental. New criticism came in with a bag of new tools. The western literary scene underwent a change into something rich and strange. I dwelt length on the Eliot era because I believe it hand an impact on the modernist movement in Malayalam poetry that Nerekkavu variath Krishnan Kutty varrier spear-headed in the early forties. I have noticed a sort of relucatance on the part of some critics to credit him with the captaincy of modernity, saying that he had never been far away from the camp of aesthetic orthodoxy. That is because they are determined to underplay the pivotal role this poet played in the making of a sound, vibrant, muscular poetic culture. N.V. was not alone in the memorable mission of bringing the Promethean fire back to a weak and waning poetry. Two great poets stood by him: Vyloppilly Sreedhara Menon and Edasserry Govindan Nair. Without their knowing, they formed a new trio. Their poetry was powerful, distinctive, refreshing, forward-looking. Their voices were not the same but were similar. They spelt out the new poetry in Malayalam. K. Ayyappa Panicker appeared later. It was in May, 1936, that N.V, burst a bomb with his first poem published in the Mathrubhumi weekly: ‘RAVANA VADHANTHAT HILE VIBHEESHANAN’ an off-beat treatment of a leaf from Ramayana. Vibheeshana, the new heir to the Lankan throne, stands forlorn amidst the ashes of the battle field. It was a moon-lite, but his heart was filled with gloom. the war had come to a bloody close and his brother Ravana, the lord of Lanka, lay dead. The arrows 27 of Raman and Laxmana and the maces of the mighty vanaras

January - March 2017 had killed most of his kith and kin. In the war, Vibheeshana had crossed over to the enemy camp. He had opted to turn the traitor to his king and eldest brother. He had played the role of a fifth column. He made out to the world he had deserted his ‘agraja’ on high moral grounds. He knew all the defence secrets of Ravana and he prompty delivered them to the northern prince who had come to fight at the head of a big monkey brigade. On the final hour when Ravana was slain, Rama takes the diamond crown from the dead king’s gory head and places it on the head of his faithfulally. Now the new king stands alone, surveying the silent killing field. The poet invites the reader to the tumultuous mind of the protagonist where his conscience sets up a court room. Memory is painful. The days of his care-free boyhood parade inside. Being the youngest in the family, both his elders-Ravana and Kumbhakarna lavished all their love and care on him. He was the pampered child, the blue-eyed boy. Every wish was granted by his doting brothers. And what did he do in return when he grew up? He showed the darkest ingrattiude; he became a party to fratricide. He played the despicable role of spy. Introspection lays bare the magnitude of his ugliness. What prompted him to desert his own brother and to seek asylum with an enemy from the Northern lands? was it his moral peinciple? Was it his ethical compulsion? Was it his sense of insecurity? That night the answer explodes within: His ambition, that frailty of all noble minds. He coveted the crown. He wanted the sceptre of an empire. N V shows commendable guts in the choice and treatment of a theme that would raise the eyebrows of the conservative and the orthodox. He was asking for trouble, but that was what this bomb- maker really wanted. Vibheeshana is held aloft in song and legend as a model of virtues and righteous conduct. We have been taught to praise Laxmana for his exemplary loyalty to his brother, Rama and Vibhishana for his stinking disloyalty to his brother Ravana. N V upsets the table. It is, I think, One of the poems of this modernist poet that demands a closer reading and deeper examination. N.V gave us a dozen collectons of Verse. This is much less than the volume of prose he wrote byway of literary criticism, prefaces, cultural and theoretical studies, and casual essays I don’t say his poetic out put is lean, but it could have been more copious than what it is. He had many irons on the fire and he couldn’t 28 always keep his date with the muse. Prose, the other harmony, claimed the better part of his wirting hours.

January - March 2017 RAKTHA SAKSHIKAL (MARTYRS) was published in 1944. It was the first compilation of N.V. poems. It was followed by CHATTAVAR (THE WHIP). Mangalodayam, Thrissur brought out NEENDA KAVITHAKAL (Long Poems) that made history. Then came KUREKKOOTY NEENDA KAVITHAKAL (LONGER POEMS). KOCHU THOMMAN, VIDYAPATHY, GANDHIYUM GODSEYUM came in quick succession. D.C. Books published KALIDASANTE SIMHHASANAM (THE THRONE OF KALIDASA) National Bookstall and brought out a collection of NV verses to mark his sapthathi in 1986. A comprehensive volume of all the poems of N.V. appeared in January 2006., under the banner of N V Krishnavarrier Memmorial Trust. We don’t know how many poems he had written so far. Some pieces are believed to be lost. NV was very keen on the quality of what he wrote and subjected his verse to his own acid test. He must have rejected some of his early poems as below grade. This almost obsessive concern for fibre and quality gave his poetry a power that isn’t easy to come by N V believed that a poet is very much a part of the carnival called life and he has to tune his heart and his ear to the still, sad music of humanity. He did not stand apart from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife and make ponetific pronouncement on the vanity of human wishes, He was a refined satirist and an inspired parodist. A poet he believed, should be both. N.V. as a poet never hesitated to declare his difference and chose to plough a lone furrow in his field. He knew what his job was: to baptize in fire a bewildered Muse. N.V. knew well that he was embarking on a perilous course of creative adventure that would invite cat-calls and brick-bats; cold looks and hostile reaction. This man was made of sterner mettle. He was more than equipped to face the strom. Kochuthomman, the titular hero of his mile-stone poem ‘Vidyarthi puranam’, represents the foppish younder set of the thirties and the forties, a green generation up rooted from reality and floating on vague dreams. It was hepelessly addicted to romantic make- believe. The poet draws his material and his hero from Madras Christian College, Thambaram where he had taught for a while. The protagonist is the son of a minor official in a rubber plantation who sweats hard to give his son an expensive, upper class collegiate education. All the hopes of the middle class family are centred on the boy. The father longs to see him in the Civil Serivices. It is a typical middle-class dream. Kochuthomman lives in the Heber Hall of the college and sports a lavish life style above his means. The poet draws his profile in 29 the mockheroic style, much in the manner of Alexander Pope in

January - March 2017 ‘The Rape of the Lock.’ The description of his bathing and dressing reminds us of Belinda’s toilet. Thomman is both a hero and an anti-hero. He is a dandy who distances himself from the hard and the real in life. He goes to the lectures, sits in the back row never takes notes, and day-dreams till the college peon, Pichannan, wakes him up when the hour comes to close the lecture hall. Thomman then returns to his hostel, takes tea, spruces himself in the bath, dresses with care and off he goes to take the electric train to the city. Our hero, in due course, falls head over heels in love with his classmate, Miss. Clara Clarke, a n Anglo-Indian blond of fetching feature. She repulses his advances in the beginning and scowls at his mawkish protestations of love. The poet sharpens his satirical skills on the tratic-ecomic presentation of the Thomman predicament. Our hero loses his appetite for food and tosses on a sleepless pillow. The finale is remarkably comic with a shade of the tragic. Clara reveals her identity. She is not a princess from the fairy tale, nor is she a girl with a golden spoon in her mouth. She is the daughter of a railway ticket examiner, and motherless. She isn’t from England, but from Thaalsserry. Her dad, at the moment, is in jail. She prays to the hero to take her. This anti- climax may make us laugh, but it may also make out eyes moist. That is the art of a poet. Here is a tell-tale Modernist peom which rips apart the frayed romantic mantle. A few years before the explosion called KOCHUTHOMMAN took place, NV had given us refreshingly different poem: NANNANGADIKAL (THE BURIAL URNS). This is the poet’s inspired travel into ancestry, tribal culture, anthropology and dateless history. The ancient burial urns are found in many parts of Kerala, especially in Thrissur district. These urns have tales to tell. A lover of poetry would recall Keats’s’ ‘ODE TO A GRECIAN URN. In NANNANGADIKAL, the spirit of inquiry meets the spirit of poetry and beautiful poem is born. It reminds us what we tend to forget in the sick hurry of our troubled times. My all-time favourite is N.V’s ‘AFRICA.’ This grand poem in praise of resurgence and retrieval, of defiance and revolt, of the dignity of man, of resistance and recovery, easily qualifies itself to be called a modern classic. IT HAS EVERY RIGHT TO BE RANKED AMONG THE MOST CITED SONGS ON FREEDOM AND EMANCIPATION. It takes us for an African safari, a journey into the very heart of darkness. A great poem is not written; it just happens. The poet becomes an instument. Standing on the beach at Calicut on a rain-soaked evening in 30 July, the poet’s fancy rides over the waves to the far-off African

January - March 2017 bush, the oldest home of mankind, where Times stands still. He sees the primeval forests where lion and leopard, elephant and giraffe, bison and antelope roam free. He sees the age-old hills and verdant valleys, the great rivers and vast lakesh: he sees the hunter, the cow herd, the colourful tribes. Here man and wild life co-exist in tune with untamed nature. The poet presents the pageant of colonial history, the story of slavery, oppression, denial of human rights; the saga of the struggles of the black man to claim his kingdom back. N.V walks with history through the expanse of a much-abused contient, drawing our attentions to mile stones and landmarks on the way. Nothing escapes his notice. He declares ‘To day Africa is my land, my country. I sob in her sorrow’. This not a poetic affectation; it’s empathy at its best. “Africa” throws up the image of a poet who belongs to every fight of man for freedom. He transcends al national frontiers and becomes the clasion of human liberation.” Wherever man is in chains, there my hand feels the hurt; where there its oppression, there the lash is on my back. Where man stuggles to stand up, there i live.” The poet proclaims wherever a man rises to fight against injustice, I feel I am alive. I am he, Iam he ‘AFRICA’ is a great poem holding up a flaming torch. It sings defeated, who cannot be destroyed. N.V had not been to the great lands of the dark men. He had not seen the tribes he had described in his poem: the Massais, the Thusis, the Zulus. His pictures must have come from his reading. His imagination structures the African landscape and its human scape. The magic carpet of his poetic creativity takes us to the deep, dark wilds where man and beast live in harmony. I find a lot of common ground between T.S. Eliot who was main conduit of modernity in English poetry and N.V. Krishna Varrier who kick-started modernity in Malayalam verse practice. Both were cerebral poets and both were impish idol-breakers. Both had a razorsharp critical sensibility and a refined sense of word and sound. Both dared to think differenlty and to speak out differently. Both had a razorsharp critical sensibility and a refined sense of word and sound. Both dared to think differently and to speak out differently. Both stuck to the stand that poetry is not a turning loose of emotions. Both maintained that poetry must have well-shaped muscles. Eliot wanted the art of verse to be sharp, sinewy, allusive. There should never be a loose word that doesn’t fit in. N.V, it is clear, shared these concerns. N.V as a poet, defies conventional, academic definitions. He 31 refuses to shrink into neat and convenient categorization. There

January - March 2017 are different stages in the progress of his poetry that require very close inspection and analysis. They may even merit deconstruction. Deconstruction should not be mistaken for demolition. One thing is certain: N.V is strikingly different from most of the poets we are familiar with. This poet brought a capacious, well-stocked mind and universal vision to bear on his poetry. He gifted to us a number of poems which time will not willingly let die: ‘KALIDASANTE SIMHASANAM’, ‘AVASANATHE AASPATHIR, ‘MADIRASIYILE ORU SAYAHANAM’, ‘CHOVVARA TBYIL’, ‘ELIKAL’, ‘GANDHIYUM GADSEYUM’, ‘VAIGA’, ‘BAAKI VALLATHUMUNDO’, ‘THRIPATHAGA’, This is a random choice. No poem of N.V fails to touch the reader under the skin. Have we read this poet aright? I have a feeling we haven’t. His re- reading and restoration may be delayed, but it can’t be stopped.

Reference : 1. NV yude kavithakal nv krishna varier trust, kottakkal 2006 2. N.V. Krishna varier biographical study by prof.k. gopalakrishnan department of cuture, govt.of kerala N.V. krishna varrier by k.v. ramakrishnan kendra sahitya akademi new bearings in english poetry by fr leavis, faber, london

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January - March 2017 Translation as Transference: A Case Study of N.V. Krishna Warrior’s

Translation of Robert Frost’s Poem

A.C. Sreehari

It is significant to ask why N.V. Krishna Warrior translated the most famous of the 20th century poem, “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” by Robert Frost into Malayalam. Frost has produced a poem out of the tension between poetry and practicality, says Terry Eagleton. N.V. Krishna Warrior’s (hereafter N.V.) translation of the poem too has some tensions and contradictions inherent in it. The contradictions in N.V. find its most visible expression in Frost’s poem, which he was unable to achieve in his ‘own’ poems in Malayalam. The translation of Frost’s poem thus becomes an act of transference1 of his own unresolved contradictions onto a poem that forks between “lovely, dark and deep woods” and the miles that had to be covered before being able to go to sleep. According to Gayathri Chakravarthy Spivak, translation is the most intimate act of reading, which requires surrendering to the 33 text that is to be translated (398). Translation of “Stopping by

January - March 2017 Woods,” in that sense was a most intimate act on the part of N.V. to come into terms with his own contradictions. Canonized Malayalam literature includes translations of epics by different poets in multiple ways, and from different perspectives. “Stopping by Woods” itself has had more than one translation. Poetry is not something that is lost or gained in translation, but rather one that is transferred. This article intends to reread N.V.’s translation as a process of transference whereby unresolved conflicts, dependencies, and aggressions of the writer and his time are displaced onto the work of translation. A writer with a firm ‘Perspective’ and an activist, N.V.’s poems have been considered by himself and his critics as utterances of a ‘Karmayogi.’ However, his translation of Robert Frost stands apart by its varied treatment of tone. Poems of a poet can be not only diverse but even contradictory, says M.N. Vijayan in his article on N.V. The contradictions in N.V.’s poems are not his; on the contrary, N.V. was a product of the intellectual and emotional conflicts of his time, he argues (398). The rereading of N.V.’s translation of the poem by Frost gains significance in such a context. In the introduction written to the poems of Sugathakumari, N.V. has explicitly stated that for a poet living in the post World War period in India, a period of political turmoil, expressions of individual grief in poems or otherwise were considered a frailty which had to be suppressed or kept personal (6). He did not have a double life, one for youthfulness and the other for protest. According to N.V., Sugathakumari manifested a different, individualistic vision in keeping with the changed political climate. Her poems, to him, display a vision that is ordered and devoid of any contradiction. N.V. says that he cannot prescribe to such a philosophy, although he confesses being carried away by the irresistible charm that such a vision facilitates. Poetry for N.V. was to be a manifesto of the social and not the personal. Referring this, M.N. Vijayan has rightly observed that N.V. might have found out in Sugathakumari’s poems, the world of romance and sensitivity which he had to put on hold for a political life (400). This conflict must have been a major impulse behind the translation of the poem as well. The poem “Stopping by Woods” has been interpreted in many ways. There is the great mass of readers, indiscriminate of age, who can conjure a few lines of “The Road Not Taken” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and possibly 34 “Mending Wall “ or “After Apple- Picking,” and who think of Frost as quintessentially American.2 To these readers he is a symbol of

January - March 2017 Yankee stoicism and rural wisdom. Others consider “The Road Not Taken” to be a paean to triumphant self-assertion. The poem has become popular for its ‘misreading.’ Frost is a mainstay of syllabus, the poem “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” has also been a typical text book poem like “The Road not Taken.” The poem is usually recited ending it in a rising tone, hinting on the need for being very alert and active on the onward journey, regardless of the beckoning beauties of the world on either sides of the road. The sense that one ultimately gets out of it is that nothing can deter one if one has a clear destination. An American is bound to toil to establish a supportive environment in which his ‘Great American Dream’ can be nurtured. For that purpose he, like all dreamers has to be controlled by some stringent laws. One might have many things to achieve in life. A breach is sure to play havoc with his intentions and plans. Thus he relieves himself of a transient fit of temptation and resumes his journey. The patient farmer, that Frost is, has miles to travel before he reaches his New Hampshire farm-house where his duties and obligations as a land owner await him. The sadder but wiser man has to sleep in time one would conclude: The Woods are lovely, dark and deep / But I have promises to keep /And miles to go before I sleep / And miles to go before I sleep (Rising tone). The tenets of socialism had inspired Jawaharlal Nehru to direct the society through changes in such a way that would make it modern. It might be because of this that he took positive energy from the poem and kept the last four lines of the poem on his table during the last days of his life. Like the poet, he also had to travel miles before going to sleep. The kind of developmentalism that Nehru envisioned for India, made him read the poem with the spirit of a great national leader and no wonder he identified himself with the traveler in the poem. The context of reading the poem changes the text of the poem. Business executives, who are usually not able to carry out their ambitions and compensate them with lines from popular poems instead, observes M.N. Vijayan. Nehru does something similar. N.V. resembles ordinary people who are unable to compensate losses in this way. N.V. attempts to find his lost half in realistic and romantic poems (405). A recital of the poem by Robert Frost himself would prove it otherwise. The last lines may not be even audible. A weak and tired voice speaking about the beauties of the world and how his duties prevented him from enjoying it, could be the meaning one could get from the poet’s own voice: The woods are lovely, dark and deep. / But I have promises to keep /And miles to go before 35 I sleep / And miles to go before I sleep (Falling tone).3 Eagleton is

January - March 2017 of the opinion that there is a curious sense of stasis in the poem. The dying fall of the repletion makes it sound more regrettable than reassuring. The poet has had a glimpse of a seductive stasis he is unwilling to abandon (97). N.V.’s translation sounds like this. Frost’s own reading is in tune with this idea. N.V.’s translation of the poem is one among its two important translations in Malayalam. N.V. who was a committed Gandhian while being a committed writer, had given a translation to it that would never have satisfied the Nehruvians. The spirit Nehru got from it was totally absent in this translated version. His translation is loosely built up in the very ordinary prosaic Malayalam metre - keka. It reads like this: Mohanam vanam saandragahanam neelashyaamam / Njan pakshe paalikkenamottere prathijnakal / Pokanamere dooram veenurangeedum mumbe / Pokanamere dooram veenurangeedum mumbe. The ‘epic rhythm of keka,’ which N.V. uses in his translation, would not permit one to end the reading in a rising tone. E.P. Rajagopan’s reading of “Kalladaivangal” would help understand the meaning of the form in poems. N.V. “discards music, arranging words” in his long narrative poem “Kalladaivangal” (125). In the poem N.V. retains the contradictions as such.4 N.V. establishes in different voices the different ideologies that he agrees and disagrees with as there lay the loss of history in both the positions (129). The contradictions of the poet and his period have been retained in this poem, as in his translation and as in his reading of Sugathakumari’s poems. Eagleton is of the opinion that the rhyme scheme gives the appearance of moving forward only to keep curving back on itself, which brings with it a curious sense of stasis. The dying fall of the repetitionof the last line makes it sound more regrettable than reassuring (97). Eagleton speaks about the inherent paradox of the poem as form and content move at different levels. The poem’s ritualistic rhyming pattern, with its sober, almost fatalistic drumbeat, lends it a sense of inevitability; but there is nothing in the situation it depicts which would seem to warrant this. The situation itself is random, down-to-earth and open-ended, whereas the form is taught, closed and ceremonial. It is as though the form has a meaning which is at odds with the content. Perhaps the poet is being tempted to extract a meaning out of something which he suspects does not have one, and this is part of the poem’s meaning. There is an unembellished, casually conversational feel to the poem’s language (98). 36 However, the Nehruites would be happy when they come across the kinesis in the translation done by Katammanitta

January - March 2017 Ramakrishnan: Manoharam mahaavanam irundagaadha- menkilum /Anekamundu kaatthitenda maamakaprathijnakal / Anakkamattu nidrayil layippathinnu mumbilaay / Enikkatheeva- dooramundavisramam natakkuvaan. The translation ends up in a rising tone. The staccato rhythm of the horse’s hoofs is heard here. The tight form of the Sanskrit metre enables him to achieve this meaning. And the vigor and vitality of the writer and performer of “Kurathi” could be heard in his reading, to a certain extent, he being an ardent supporter of the cause of the downtrodden. Eagleton speaks about inherent contradiction in the form and content of the poem - the everydayness the event within itself rendered itself is in low key while the closely packed rhymes thud as portentously as a heartbeat and the unvaried metre, with its regular, metronome-like tapping (96-97). Nehru’s economic philosophy bears testimony from the days of the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress in 1936 when he said, “I am convinced that the only key to the solution of world’s problems and India’s problems lies in socialism.... In short it means a new civilization.... If the future is full of hope it is largely because of Soviet Russia and what it has done and I am convinced that if some world catastrophe does not intervene, this new civilization will spread to other lands and put an end to the wars and conflicts which capitalism feeds.”5 Though politically poles apart, the left, liberal, progressive Katammanitta joins hands with Nehruvian ideology. The Marxists were subscribing to this ideology of development projects, which were Russian in its model. Katammanitta was a Marxist and his humans were people who revolted against the existing establishments, transformed within the space of poetry and changed themselves.6 Terry Eagleton raises a question whether the poem wraps itself up or simply trails off. Is the final line indeed a dying fall or exhausted murmur, or a slight turning up of volume and emotional intensity, he asks. In any case, we cannot be sure that it is an ominous gesture; it might just be a tired trailing off. If the poem prevents itself from pursuing its own intimation, however, given that it has just come to an end, it may be because of its respect for the integrity of the everyday world it describes. According to E.V. Ramakrishnan, Malayalam has not yet found an adequate space for including the everyday in poetry. While the world of ‘eternal verities’ influenced poetry in a very significant way, what became formative for prose was the societal norms of everyday life and relationships of the ordinary (172). To move into a more visionary or metaphysical mode might risk undercutting its faith in ordinary things, a faith reflected in its idiomatic, scrupulously 37 unshowy language.

January - March 2017 The darkly mysterious woods draw him in one direction whereas the un-poetic, commonsensical horse tugs the poet in another. Perhaps it is not surprising that Frost, who was both a poet and a farmer, should feel a tension between an aesthetic and an instrumental attitude to nature. The poem may be about how he would simply be a poet, savouring the sounds and textures of things, but can't afford to do so. So this prospect is both seductive and unsettling. N.V. also was in such an unsettled world, whether to enjoy the poems of Sugathakumari or to go out to occupy the long queue with Mahatma Gandhi in the public space in poems like “Mohandas Gandhi and Nathuram Godse.” “Good, better, best / never let it rest, / till our good is better / and our better best” is an anonymous poem quoted by N.V. in his 1981 Note Book 22 which would mean, one must not be complacent but must continually change and strive to get better. His poems become polyphonic because of this dilemma, which is actually the dilemma of his time.

End Notes 1 Transference in psychoanalytical parlance refers to a displacement of unresolved conflicts onto others for reasons that are not easily understandable. http://braungardt.trialectics.com/ projects/my-papers/transference-in-freud-and-lacan/; accessed on 31/01/2017. Web. 2 https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2015/09/11/the-most-misread-poem-in-america/; ac- cessed on 13.02.2017. Web. 3 http://www.openculture.com/2012/03/robert_frost_recites_stopping_by_ woods_on_a_snowy_evening.html, accessed on 17.02.2017. Web. 4 M.R. Raghava Varier writes similarly about N.V.’s anti-lyrical utterance and ambivalence in “Nannangadikal: Charithrathmaka Patavum Patathmaka Charithravum.” Kavanakaumudi. Vol II-1. Aug- Oct 1999. 7-15. Print. 5 http://www.thehindu.com/2000/11/14/stories/13140782.htm; accessed on 03/02/2017. Web. 6 R. Narendra Prasad. 1980. “Kadamanittayude Kavithakal.” Kadammanittayude Kavithakal. Kottayam: DC Books, 2005. 11-37. Print. 7 http://www.nvkrishnawarrior.org/nv_archives.php; accessed on 17.02.2017. Web. Works Cited Eagleton, Terry. “In Pursuit of Form.” How to Read a Poem. USA: Blackwell Publishing, 2007. 65- 101. Print. Rajagopalan, E.P. “Kalla Daivangal: Vipareethangalude Yogam.” Kavithayude Gramangal. Kozhikode: Medha Books, 2004. 122-130. Print. Ramakrishnan, E.V. Locating Indian Literature, Texts, Traditions, Translations. Chennai: Orient Blackswan, 2011. Print. Spivak, Gayathri Chakravarthy. “The Politics of Translation.” The Translation Studies Reader. Ed. Lawrence Venuti. London: Routledge, 2000. Print. Sreehari A.C. “Words are Lovely, Dark and Deep.” Misreadings. http://vayanavikriti.blogspot.in. Web. Sreekumar. P.K. “Stopping by Words on a Snowy Evening.” Stopping by Words on a Snowy Evening. Kothamangalam: 1999. 42-60. Print. Vijayan, M.N. “N.V.: Karmayogathinde Kavi.” M.N. Vijayan Sampoorna Krithikal [Complete Works: Vol. 1. Literature].Gen. Ed. N. Prabhakaran. Thrissur: Current Books, 2008. 395- 407. Print. 38 Warrior, N.V. Krishna. 1968. “Introduction.” Pavam Manavahridayam. Calicut: Poorna Publica- tions, 1981. 5-14. Print.

January - March 2017 ‘THULLAL’- As an Art Form and Literary Form

M.R. Manoharavarma

INTRODUCTION Thullal is considered a new art form emerged in Kerala by the 17th century. The dance forms having that character of observance are called thullal, in general. In folklore it is interpreted as a metaphysical act as the deity empathises man. There is thullal as an inevitable part of many observances of of Kerala such as Sarppam thullal, Kolam thullal, Padeni thullal etc. The art form ‘thullal’ is gradually evolved from the thullal tradition in relation to the non-Brahmin system of worship. All traditional art forms of Kerala are caste-centred in general. Kathakali is perhaps the first art form evolved irrespective of caste considerations. But it has a limitation - only the learned class can appreciate it. Hence thullal has great social significances as an art form that can ne enjoyed by all, orrespective of the differences as the learned and the ignorant and as the one performed by all castes. However, thulla too has started deserting the stage, with many other art froms. 39 Thullal is a great art that maintained the folk tradition of Malayalee

January - March 2017 both in words and on the stage. Hence the loss of thullal that abounds in Malayalam tradition more than Koodiyattam and Kathakali, will leave a great blank on the culture of Malayalee. Koodiyattom and Kathakali have in them cetain essential elements of the culture of trhe elite class. Their relationship with the Natyasasthra, the seience of dance, won them popularity in foreign countries also. This in turn, won them recognition in Kerala as well. But today thullal is facing evasion in stage even as a temple art form. This art form that united the cultures of the lower and upper class of people will have to be preserved. It calls for studies of a special kind. A narrative and critical study is meant here. A detailed study keeping all information related to the subject recorded with the help of still camera and audio, video tapes, and interviews with artists etc. is required. Besides, the visual beauty of the thullal literature is to be analysed on the background of modern visual language.

Chapter - 1 The history of Thullal art The origin of Thullal is linked to the name of Kunchan Nambiar. He was born in the Nambiar community who used to play Mizhavu (a percussion instrument) to accompany the performance of art forms namely Chakyarkoothu and Koodiyattom. The records obtained say that Kunchan Nambiar was born in the Kalakkathu family near the Siva temple Killikkurissimangalam in Palakkadu. He is said to have complited forty two thullal works including the literature of twenty one Ottan thullal, eleven Seethankan thullal and ten Parayan thullal. Initially Kunchan Nambiar too adopted the vocation of his clan. There is a legend that says once while Kunchan Nambair was playing mizhavu accompanying the performance of Koothu in Ampalapuzha temple, committed a mistake and was teased by the Chakyar, and that in protest, Nambair compiled Kalyana Saugandhikam thullal that very night and perofrmed it in a dais in the temple the next day. It is also said that Nambiar was teased not because he committed mistake in striking the mizhavu, but because he fell asleep in between. However, the legend goes on to say that while thullal was first performed, the viewers of Koothu moved to the dais where Nambiar performed thullal. Thus the story of the origin of the art form was the mainfestation of Nambiar’s protest and revenge against the Chakyar who teased him. Neverthless, the literature of Krishnarjuna Vijayam thullal, evidently compiled before the time 40 of Kunchan Nambiar raises a question mark. Nambiar himself has pointed out that thullal existed even before him. Hence it is

January - March 2017 better to consider Kunchan Nambiar as the reformer of the art form who gave it an order. He composed thullal for the common man, taking several elements from the folk art forms. Besides, he developed it as an art form to effect social criticism, incorporating satire which was part of all folk arts. There are three categories of thullal namely Oattan, Seethankan and Parayan. There are differences in costumes and performance. ‘At the words of Oattan, Lost the nerves of Suyodhanan’ In this verse of Nambiar that appears in ‘Khoshyaathra’, Oattan stands for a messenger. However it seems this category was named Oattan to denote the fast and steady go of the art form. The category of Parayan thullal is named after a community. The term Seethankan that stands for gracefulness, is familiar among the Pulaya community. The term Seethankan that stands for gracefulness, is familiar among the Pulaya community. When we analyse the resemblances and differences of these three categories, we come to know that there are striking differences among them. Many organizations are at work to promote and propagate the art forms of Kerala. Among them, the Killikkurissimangalam Thullal Smarakam’ and the ‘Ambalappuzha Thunchan Smarakam’ are centres that function solely for the promotion of thullal art. Besides, in Thrissur Kalamandalam and Thiruvananthapuram Gurugopinath Natanagramon also, thullal is taught. As it was made a competition item in school-college youth festivals, the new generation also comes forward to learn this art form. A few works on Thullal literature were compiled even after the time of Kunchan Nambiar. Among them, Santhanagopalam Seethankan thullal by Killimanoor Vidwan Koithampuran, Ambareeshacharitham Oattan thullal by Poomthottathu Achan Namboothiri, Jubilee Mahotsavom and Panchali Swayamvaram by Mahan Namboothiri etc. are of literary value. Jubilee Mahotsavam stands apart for its varied theme. Today themes like the biography of great men also become subject to this art form. Veluthampi Charitham and Chattampi Swami Charitham of Palukil Gangadharan Nair for instance are perormed on stage. They have won the appreciation of the audience as well.

Chapter - 2 Thullal as an art There are three categories of thullal namely Oattan, Parayan 41 and Seethankan as cited earlier. They differ in their costumes

January - March 2017 and performance. In Parayan thullal, organge colour is daubed in the face, and eyes and eye brows are lined. The costume is of saramundu (a dhothi) and Kadyavu (a dressing). The performer wears a crown in the shape of a snake hood. In another version of the costume of Parayan thullal, holy ash is smeared all over the body, eyes and eyebrows lined, a rudraksha chain worn around head-dress, dhothi worn on waist over which a covering with silk cloth, and an anklet worn on right on right leg. In Seethankan, plaited tender coconut leaves are tied on hands, head and around the body. Turmeric powder ois applied on the face. Eyes and eye brows lined, lip stick applied and ornaments made of tender coconut leaves worn on the body and sandal wood paste smeared on the body can also be a version of the costume of Seethankan thullal. The costume of Oattan is more attractive. Green colour is applied on face, eyes and eye brows are lined, gariands worn in such a way that they cover the chest and belly, anklets on both legs, a saramundu (dothi), waist band, Ambalappuzha loincloth made of long ribbons etc. give the performer a distinct look. Besides, he wears crown in the shape of a spread snake-hood.

Presentation Thullal is a art form in which a single performer comes to the dais and performs representing different characters. After having kindied a Nilavilakku (a long stemmed oil lamp in bronze), the performance begins. After the initial rites such as Ganapathi, Padivattom, Kalaasam and Munnarangu, the story is sung with thullal steps accompanied by Thoppimaddalam (a percussion intrustment) played. As the thullal starts with rhythmic steps, the percussionist starts singing in Naatta raga. After the initial steps in chempadarythm, the performer recites ‘Ganapathy’ and ‘Saraswathi’ showing mudras (sings). The co-singer repeats the song of the performer. At the end of the song, Kalaasam (expressing the idea in acting) is there. Then after a praise-verse and a Kalaasam, the story begins.

Acting The acting involved in thullal art is a single person acting the role of different characters. This acting system that calls for much difficulty, is made a successful manifestation in thullal. It makes this art form a unique experience. In order to give countinuity to acting, the ‘Vaachka element’ (here, the singing) is cleverly made 42 use of. All the techniques of acting namely aangikam, vaachikam, aacharyam and vesham are there in thullal also. Though mudras

January - March 2017 (signs using fingers) as per the ‘Natyasaasthra’ and ‘Hasthalakshana deepika’ are there, since word to word representaion of sings is not possible, a little-deviated-mudras are also quite common. The song sung by the dancer is reeated by the percussionists as well. Though there are vaadyam (instrument) geetham (song), acting and dance in the performance of thullal, dancing is all the more important. But this dnce form does not have much variety movements of the body in it. In the pacing of steps also the three categories of thullal differ-Parayan follows a slow pace, Seethankan medium pace and Oattan, fast pace. Since Aamagikam (acing using facial expressions and body movements) is generally fast, dancing here does not go for the details. The costume of thullal represents all characters alike. In north Kerala a character named ‘Marameedan’ who wears a mask, used to appear on the stage in between the thullal to amuse the viewers. However, this character is no longer to be seen now- adays. Though there is mudra acting in thullal as dictated by Hastalakshana deepika, signs are not shown for every word in acting. Besides, ‘saamyakkai’ (free sings) will also be applied. In Amgika acting, facial expressions, the scene, movements, rhythm and stamping, are important.

Singing and accompaniments In thullal, the performer himself sings. Thoppi maddalam (a kind of drum) and kaimani (cymbal) are accopmaniments. Those who play the instruments are the cosingers. In Oattan, Tharangini, in Seethankan, Kaakali and in Parayan, Mallika are the meters followed. The style of singing is slow, medium and fast for Paryan, Mallika are the meters followed. The style of singing is slow, medium and fast for Parayan, Seethankan and Oattan respectively. Though the rhythm of singing has close resemplance to the tone and rhythm of padeni, because of the peculiarities of its meter, it can be better sung and acted upon. In Harineeswayamavaram Seethankan thullal, there is reference to the systems of rhythms used by Kunchan Nambiar. The fact that such rhythms were quite Keralite in essence, as an example show how thullal remained closely connected to the folk styles in vongu. Kunchan Nambiar uses ‘Kumbha’ rhythm and ‘Lakshmi’ rhythm in many of his thullal compositions.

Chapter - 3 Literature, the language of Poerty Thullal poems have extensive collection of literature. Kunchan 43 Nambiar himself has written forty two thullal peems including

January - March 2017 twenty one Oattan, eleven Seethankan and ten Parayan ones. These thullal poems, whose themes are situations from puranic stories, remain instances. In the course of the story, Kunchan Nambiar takes care to create situations with which to connect them with the present and to provide the story an indigenous touch. He has used the figure of speech extenisvely in his poems where an indirect way of comparison is made effectively. This peculiarity of thullal poems of Kunchan Nambiar also deserves detailed study. Sarcasm is the main tone of thullal poems and their chief functions is social criticism. The Keralite features evident in Nambiar’s works are also remarkable. The ecology and geography of the land undergo keen observation and subsequent depiction in his poems. The banyan trees, the pipal trees, the places, te streets, the markets, the avenues with trees on both sides, houses, rivers, rest-house, gardens, courtyards, wells, barns, shades, sands, castles, the fragrance of tulsi plants etc. that appear in his poems represent long vista of the then-Keralite society. He was poet who stood by the people, in one poem he asks, ‘Hey man, tell me what’s the advantage of Amrithu (the nectar) over stale gruel? Thus he belonged to the faction of the layman. The power of his poetry was its progressive nature. Wherever possible, Kunchan Nambiar has made it clear that he would compile poems in common man’s tongue only. The figure of speech he promoted also made his poems more effective in driving home ideas. Those poems that aim at social reformation are good models for well- interntioned literature ever created. The greatness of the style of thullal is that it makes possible the presentation of one’s state of mind solely relying on the means of poetry. Thullal poems hav an extensive literary collection. Having combined the rhythm of Malayalam language and the rhythm of life of the primitive human society with the modern observance arts namely koothu and koodiyattom, and using pure, simple language, Kunchan Nambiar complied poems which caused the then-generation and the present generation burst into laughter and think deeply at the same time. This thullal preceptor lives in the hearts of appreciaters over generations. The miracle of the art form thullal whose essence is satire and sarcasm, is that just as it amuses man, it effects a cleansing of his mind also. If ever there is anybody in the entire world this great artist 44 who lived between 1705 and 1770 AD,itis Charles Chaplin the ever most talented figure in comedy film.

January - March 2017 Kunchan Nambiar who was born and brought up in Killikurissi Mangalam in the north of Kerala, spent most of his artistic life in Ambalappuzha and Thiruvananthapuram. Kunchan who started his stage experiences as a mizhavu player for Koothu, knew the lives of hilly areas of Malabar, Kochi and Travancore and the folk arts in vogue then. He knew the very essence of the then-human life at large. Selecting legendary situations of stories and assimilating them through these art forms, he performed each of these thullal on the stage with striking creativity. Therefore each work has its own peculiarities. Among some fifty numbers of thullal poems, Kalyanasaugandhikam is a more remarkable one. In this Seethankan thullal, during an interaction session, there is a scene where Bhima asks Hanuman to move from the path and let him walk on. Human who lies across the path blocking the way of Bhima, provocates him and humiliates him. This part if a classical example for the humour-evoking and sarcastic style of KunchanNambiar in his writing. Syamanthakam, Khoshayaathra, Kiratham,Sanatanagopalam,Paathracharitham, Karthaveeryarjuna, Vijayam, Bakavadham, Kalyanasauga ndhikam, Harinee Swayamvaram etc. are some of Nambiar’s famous works. It seems the traditional and folk routes of this land are blended tigghtly hard with the make up articles and colour appliances that enable a cleaver disguise. Nambiar’s thullal art that makes use of costumes, color appliances, and bedeckings taken from nature was considered by the Malayalees as part of their self. Having stood on this background, as Nambiar criticized the shortcomings and unethical practices widely spread in the society, the common man felt they were his own words, views and experiences. This appereciation passed from generation to generation in folk verses and idioms. A striking example : ‘Deepasthambham Mahascharyam Enikkum kittanam panam’ (The light house is astounding; I too must get money) This is a sharp and pointed sarcasm applied by by Nambiar at a king of Travancore when he was asked to compose a verse in praise of the light house erected by the king, evidently in return for a royal reward. Nambiar at once wrote these lines teasing the practice of kings promoting poets to write in praise of their works. The story goes on to say that it opened the eyes of the king and he rectified his mistake. The thullal poems of Nambiar present our highly complex epics and puranas in simple language so that everyone would 45

January - March 2017 understand them. What he has written and peformed through the three categories of thullal namely Parayan, Seethankan and Oattan, can be serialized into immense number of episodes in today’s visual media. His was a mind that always kept awake towards the life situations of the upper class as well the lower class alike. His vision of life as a whole was with sarcasm-from Namboothiri to Nayadi. Many of the later proverbs, idioms, dialogues and life sketches of Malayali tradition were the contribution of Kunchan Nambiar. They were his very darsanas. He left behind several situations of laughing ceaselessly at his own life and making others burst into laughter and thinking at the same time. There will be few who would not quote or recite the lines from ‘Kalanillatha Kalam’ (A time Kalan, the Lord of Death, is no more), ‘Thottodiya pada’ (a troop run away, defeated) etc. and laughed to the fill. Namboothiris, Tamil Brahmins, Royal Servants, administrators, all became characters in Nambiar’s poems. Just go through the conversaton, all became characters in Nambiar’s poems. Just go through the conversation between Ravana and Narada in “Kathaveeryarjuna vijayam”. In Nambiar’s poems, Gandhara became a desert land, Sinhala Kingdom was invaded by lions and foxes, the pompous king of Chera dynasty underwent fortune and misfortune, king of Chola dynasty declined ot poverty, and the king of Kuru dynasty had to feed himself on seeds (Kuru in Malayalam means seed) of Jackfruit. The chieftain lords and the corruption of the royal servants were put to severe attacks in the guise of humour. Some of his verses stand great dicutms as well. ‘Aembranalpam kattu bhuchichal Ambalavasikalocke kakkum’. (If the Brahmin priest steals and eats from the offering to the deity, the other workers in the temple will steal everything indiscriminately) ‘Aasanaksharamonnu pizhachal Ampathettu pizhakkum sishyanu’. (If the master commits one mistake, the disciples will commit fifty eight) Inspite of the fact Kunchan Nambiar placed the king of Chempakasseri as his Guru, the memory of the Guru remains alive solely owing to the disciple, itself seems to be a bit of humour. 46 An instance to the easy compilation of rhyming verses:-

January - March 2017 “Nampiyarennu chodichu Nambiarennu chollinaen Nampi kettatha kopichu Thampuranae porukkanam”. In answer to the king’s enquiry, Nambiar explains a situation: “Nampi (a lower class Brahmin) asked me who I was. I said I am Nambiar. Hearing this, Nampi got angry with me. Oh Lord, forgive me.” Another rhyming line where sarcasm is inbuilt: “Ulla polae paranjal thullal thudangum” It means if you tell the truth right away, the listener will start jumping in anger. Guru Mani Madhava Chakyar strongly believes that the great Sanskrit poet Ramavani Padan and Kunchan Nambiar are one and the same person. Chapter - 4 Folk tradition in the art of Thullal Thullal is a great art that kept the folk tradition of Malayalee in its literature and on the stage. In that respect the relation between the art of thullal and the folk tradition of Kerala needs to be studied. The elements of humour in thullal have resemblance to the minic aspects of Padeni, in several respects. It is a pity that those who seek to examine the close relation of Nambiar’s humour with the sarcasms of Chakyar, do not care to take notice of its resemblance to the art form Padeni. All the three categories of thullal have resemblance to the performance of Padeni. On the tenth day of the month Medam, during the Kadammanitta Padeni, after the performance of the day, Seethankan thullal, Paray thullal and Oattan thullal are staged respectively. Seethankan thullal is performed before noon. Here the performer appears all adorned in tender coconut leaves. He moves in dancing steps singing songs to drive out the evil spirits and in praise of the deity. The song is accompanied by rhythmic beating of Udukku (a hand drum) or Para (another percussion instrument). In the afternoon, the performer of Parayan thullal wearing black dress and plaited tender coconut leaves with a crown made of the spathe of areca nut tree on head comes singing in praise of the diety and intending to drive away evil spirits possessed, and songs of amusement. In ‘Rukminee swayamvaram’ Kunchan Nambiar himself has presented the 47 picture of a Parayan thullal scence at the venue of Padeni.

January - March 2017 After the Parayan thullal, it is the turn of Oattan thullal artist. Wearing the chest-chain and waist-chain made of spathe of an area nut tree, a skirt of tender coconut leaves, bell on ankles, ornaments made of spathe on both hands and smearing green colour on face, he appears and conducts his performance to rid the land of evil spirits and aliments in subttle forms. Observing all this, let us come to the conclusion that Padeni was the source of inspiration for Nambiar.Similarly, the smearing of green colour on face, lining the eye and wearing of crown by the velans who came over to Ambalapuzha to perform Poothullal during the Onam too had close resemblance to Oattan thullal. The crown and make up on face of Oattan thullal artist has much resemblance to Arjuna nritham, an observance art of Kottayam district too need to be taken into account. In Ambalappuzha areas, Padeni was performed frequently. There were co-stories titled Seemakkaran (the English man), Pattaum pennum (Tamil Brahmin and his wofe), Pattaum kuttiyum (Tamil Brahmin and his child), Namboothrium vaeliyum (Namboothrir and his wife), Sarkkarakkudakkaran (one possessing a pot of jaggery) etc. performed side by side with Ambalapuzha padeni. When compared with the original humour evoked in their performance, the laughter presented in thullal is, no doubt, the theme of co- stories incorporated to the main stroy. Further, the facial makeup and the crown of Oattan thullal artists resemble the facial makeup and crown of performers of Maylipeelithookkam of Kottayam district. Thus thullal has very evident relation with the folk culture and tradition of different parts of Kerala. This deserves a detailed study at large. The proverbs and idioms used in between different situations of the story and the peculiarities of the language of the poem have relation with the folk tradition. The use of many proverbs as figures of speech befitting the situations amuses the situations further. The inspiration behind this is also none other than the folk culture he had. The name of folk objects and social systems are also referred to in the poems of Nambiar. Once these elements are studied closely, a re-creation of the cultural history of the society Kunchan Nambiar lived in is possible.

Conclusion The place of thullal today is among the art forms that bid farewell the stage gradually. It will be a great blow to Malayali culture if thullal which is Keralite in essence far more than Koodiyattam 48 and Kathakali, suffers. Koodiyattam and Kathakali which are

January - March 2017 essential part of the culture of the upper class, made use of theoir relation with Natyasasthra and became popular in foreign countires as well. It in turn gave them better recognition in Kerala also, But today thullal is ignored wven as a tempel art. We, however, should not forget to fulfil our obligation to do justice to this artform that once blended the cultures of the upper and lower classes of the society, on the one hand and remained as an effective tool of social criticism as well as corrective force on the other. In thullal, the costume of the artist is simply tgrifle. Green or yellow colour is applied on face. Some garlands worn around the neck. A dress worn on the waist. In certain performances, it is of tender coconut leaves. The crown is also of not much worth. As a whole, the appearance is not much attractive. In every category namely Seethankan, Oattan and Parayan, this is the case. The artist or the performer has not much visual charm. However, in thullal literature, there is stiking visual effect. Each narration of Kunchan Nambiar is highly picturesque. From trifle matters unto serious matters, he describes without losing any details. This can be verified against the background of modern visual language. The movie, TV or any other visual medium has its visual grandeur owing to its language. The emotional or blissful experience as we read narrations are visualized by the director in a movie. This is what Nambiar is also doing. But this is presented before the viewers through very small role (the story teller, ie the artist himself) Nambiar is transmitting these visuals into our minds through his words, his verses. Verifying the visual impact of this literary charm in the styles of new visual language may appear to be a new experience. Such an enquiry is the objective. It is in the modern times that the concept of a visual language became popular. As science progressed into a level olf viewing everything, visuals became important. Everything today speaks through visuals. In earlier days communication was effected through words. In those days if you wanted to show a person a city, you could not depict it visually. It would be possible only through verbal narration or literature. Each and every movement of the city would have to be communicated verbally. Similar was the case with emotions. Showing a person getting angry visually is easy. But expressing it by way of words is not easy. Similarly joy and sorrow are also not easy to express verbally. Just as every emotion is given visual treatment, the poet is bound 49

January - March 2017 to give it expression through verbal language. When the thullal artist sings these words of the poet and performs on stage, the viewvers must experience the same feeling. In Kathakali and other dance forms, the feelings and other and other peculiarities of the characters can be conveyed to the audience owing to their specific format of presentation. Thullal has no such scope as well. It has only its costume, but even that evokes the least attraction. It is here that we have to recognize the significance of its literary from. While giving manifestation visualize in mind. He can make it quite catching and with all the details according to his power of appreciation and resourcefulness. But once it is given manifestation on the stage, its scope gets limited. The sight in one’s imagination and the manifested one, stand distinctly.

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January - March 2017 A Lesson in Detachment Prabha Varma (Translated from Malayalam by K M Ajir Kutty)

Having lost in fun and game it did not occur to me at all that the dusk had just been burnt out. had utterly forgotten to take to the temple an earthen crucible filled with oil for lamp which mother had given to me! Who was it then that whispered to me that ‘mother was lunging forward with a cane in hand to teach me lesson ?!’ Did the little ball then of its own will slip away from my leg? I lost no time in slinking away from the arena! But still, even as the night was thickening 51

January - March 2017 went right away into the abode of the deities with the brimful crucible in hand taking utmost care not to spill a drop of oil from it. Was the deserted pathway already closed? Even before I climbed down the steps of stone I saw the shrine shrouded in darkness! To which flame shall I give the unmixed oil given to me? The lamps that were burning around all went out guttering. Should I take it back home, mother will be incensed to chatise me saying that for sport I didn’t even mind lighting lamp at dusk! Why not spill it over sand and tell her a white lie that I had lit the lamp indeed? The mind would not stop at this or that! Many thoughts were churning me, agitated as I was right inside, and see how I bumped into mother who was out frantically searching for me! Where were you left alone in darkness my son? I remember mother asking me thus showeing me with kisses all over. Sobs and cries mingled with salty tears! For the first time in life, wasn’t it the sweetness of honey that I tasted in tears? No reply did occur to me as the oil itself passed for reply enough. My mind was still then as brimful as the earthen crucible! Up till the moment I haven’t been able to pick out the one who told me the lie that mother was coming to teach me a lesson! But even today when it is duskfall I remember then the truth I was taught first in lesson one which goes like this: ‘When I have an earthen crucible with oil filled to the brim in my hand, 52 no burning wick should be allowed to go out for want of oil!’

January - March 2017 Real Estate

Sebastian Translator : Dr. B. Keralavarma

Clear limpid stream waveless, clear cloudless sky- ing perfect harmony. No time to waste Before the river swells with waves, let’s lift it, gently, no jerking, no spilling. Before the clouds fill the sky let’s lower it, softly no part falling off, or, slipping off our hands. At some point in the vast void let’s put them one on top of the other and glue them hard hat they don’t part again. O,men of trade buying and selling You have eaten up the earth. Listen to my humble plea: 53 don’t cast your convetous eyes on this.

January - March 2017 Stories Taken from Everyday Life

Dr. T. Jamal Mohammed

A Story teller can assume different roles such as social critic, a satirist, a historian and an activist. The existing social mores prevailing at the time can influence the narrative as the writer is the part of the events of the place where he lives. He has to identify with the gullible, the fallen and the marginalised sections of the society. K.M. Anthru, the author of “The Banana Bunch and other strories” is not different. He knows his milieu intimately- the traditions, practises and beliefs that shape the life of common people. Very often it becomes unthinkable for the people to go astray from the traditions that are kept intact by generations. Here the author looks at the day to day events in an impartial way a sarcastic approach as if he has nothing to do with it. Sometimes he becomes a social critic. The book is a collection of ten stories that deal with close observations of the author with the events in one way or other connected with his life. He says; “My stories largely reflect ordinary experiences in well recognised situations of life. They also reflect aspects of conteporary life.” The story “ The wife” can be called a real piece of life with the odour of blood. It very oftenm happens that the people with the habit of drinking sometimes lose their control leading to many untoward incident. The man in the story forgets his own name 54 and is able to get it back as the driver recognises him and calls his name, when the car driven by him is going to hit the man s he

January - March 2017 stands in the middle of the road...The driver comes out of the car after showering abuses on the man who is obstructing his journey and later finds out hat he is ‘Ramesan’, Who is known to him. He carries the drunkard to his house ad tells his wife that it is Ramesan, her husband, His wife that it is Ramesan, her husband. His wife comes out, looks at her husband, waits for a moment and slam the doors saying “He is nobody to me” How many drunkard husband are bold enough to say that they have never met with such an experience? The story titled “Banana Bunch” is a typical example to show the approach of the writer towards problems of everyday life of ordinary people. Observing from outside we may feel that the events are quite insignificant and ignore them, but the people involved find it very important. Banana Bunchhas a historical touch as it brings to our mind the famous poem of Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, who criticised the social system which does not have any compasion for human sentiments. The same attitude continue to exist today with camouflaged appearance. If it was the landlord who exploited the poor at that time, it is the politician who is torturing the people today All the events narrated in the strories are invariably connected with the life of common man in one way or other, In some cases, they are imaginary events that never happen in life, but they are the product of hallucinations due to the mental agony or anxiety that threaten the peace and tranquillity of the social being. The author keeps himself away from the happenings and view them with a sense of humour. The stories do not dwell upon complicated human relations that lead to twists and turns. Simple events that occur in the daily life are taken into account. One feels as part of the events when they are disclosed by the author. That is the case of the story of a man who does not learn anything in life in spite of much experiences and experiments. The experience of being pampered and painted by a young and beautiful girl is something looked upon by any young man. But the eagerness to look young and resorting to do anything for that may lead to may difficulties. The role of hair dye and the allergy caused by it is a common experience for many middle aged men who want to look young. After going through all these srories, one feels to have come across the events in the normal life of ordinary people surrounding us. Though some events appear to be beyond our daily experiences or unbelievable they may occur occasionally in our thoughts and imagination. The master story teller has been successful in making us feel like the reflections in our life. The overall impression coming out of the stories is that the narration becomes more 55 attractive and readable when it is added with a touch of humour.

January - March 2017 Our Contributors

M.R.Raghava Varier Publications Department, Kottakkal Aryavaidhyasala Kottakkal, Malappuram

K.V.Ramakrishnan Apoorna, Cherumukku, Near Central Avenue Chembukkavu, Thrissur-20

Dr.V.Sukumaran Surabhi, A5, Girinagar,Vengeri P.O. Kozhikkode-673 010

Dr A.C. Sreehari Asst. Professor of English Payyanur College, Payyanur P.O. Edat - 670327, Kannur Dt.

M.R.Manoharavarma Aksharam, T.C.51/2059 (3) Industrial Estate P.O., Thiruvananthapuram-695 019

Prabhavarma Office of Chief Minister Govt. Secretariat, Thiruvananthapuram

K.M.Ajeerkutty Mankoottam Thodi Edava-695 311

Sebastian Kalathil House, P.O.Kottappuram Kodungallur, Thrissur

Dr.B.Keralavarma Dept. of English, Govt.College, Nattakam P.O., Kottayam

Dr.T.Jamal Mohammed Charitham, Kariavattom 56 Thiruvananthapuram-695 581

January - March 2017