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A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s5: Malayāḷam

A History of South India from Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar c19.s5

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English

Malayāḷam

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Malayālam was the last of the South Indian languages to develop a separate existence and a literature of its own. In the Śangam age, the present Malayālam area was a land of Tamil speech though grammarians recognized that the dialect of the mountain country deviated from standard Tamil in many ways. The Śangam literature contains many words and expressions that survive in Malayālam today though they have gone out of use in Tamil. Attempts to derive Malayālam from Sanskrit or to postulate for it an origin independent alike of Sanskrit and Tamil are clearly misplaced, and there can be no doubt that it was a natural growth through centuries from the form of ‘Koḍum-Tamil’ that prevailed in Kerala at the beginning of the Christian era. The literary idiom of Malayālam, like that of Kannada and Telugu, borrowed freely from Sanskrit, and in order to express the Sanskrit sounds adequately, it had to discard the old Vaṭṭeḻuttu script and evolve a new script based on Tamil-grantha. This happened perhaps about the tenth century or a little later. The early inscriptions of the country used the grantha script for Sanskrit words in the midst of Tamil-Malayālam written in Vaṭṭeḻuttu.

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The Uṇṇunīli Sandeśam, an anonymous poem of the fourteenth century, is the earliest extant literary work in the language. Its model was the Meghasandeśa of Kālidāsa, and it purports to be a message sent by a lover in Trivandrum to his lady love at Koḍungallūr and a detailed description of the route to be followed, the messenger in this case being a prince, Ādityavarma by name, and not a cloud or a bird as in other *sandeśa* poems. On his way the messenger is required to pay his respects to Ravivarman (Kulaśekhara), the great ruler of Quilon, and other contemporary rulers are also mentioned in the poem. The style of the work shows a large admixture of Sanskrit, and is in fact *maṇipravāḷam*, like most works of Malayāḷam literature. It is universally accepted as one of the most exquisite poems in the language. The *Chan-drotsava* is another poem of the same period in Sanskrit metres, while the *Līlātilakam* (15th century) is a grammar of *maṇipravāḷam* style.

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Prior to the date of the first *sandeśa* poem, there had come into existence popular ballads of various kinds, now known as Paḻaiya-pāṭṭus, old songs. Though in their present form they appear in a very modernized garb, competent critics hold that some of them at least must be of really early origin. There were many varieties of these folk songs such as *Brāhmaṇip-pāṭṭu* sung in marriages, *Bhadrakālip-pāṭṭu* and *Śāstāp-pāṭṭu* in praise of the respective deities, *Yātrakkaḷip-pāṭṭu* and *Tiruvādiraip-pāṭṭu* which take their names from the festive occasions when they were sung; they appear to have been generally accompanied by dance. Similar in character, but longer on account of the continuous themes they handled, were compositions like the *Payyanūr Paṭṭōla*, of which only the memory has survived. This early literature shows the least admixture of Sanskrit in its vocabulary. More systematic and much nearer true literature among these early poetic compositions were *Rāmacaritam*, a long metrical work on the story of the Yuddhakāṇḍa of *Rāmāyaṇa*, believed to have been written by an ancient ruler of Travancore some time between the tenth and thirteenth centuries A.D.; and the somewhat later *Rāmakathāp-pāṭṭu* of a certain Ayyipiḷḷai Āśān. Both these works show signs of a strong Tamil influence in respect of words and metres. To this early period must also be assigned the anonymous *Bhāṣākauṭilīya*, a Malayāḷam commentary on the *Arthaśāstra* of Kauṭilya; it follows the Sanskrit commentary *Jayamangalā*, and only six out of the fifteen *adhikaraṇas* are known.

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From about the thirteenth century a strong impetus to literature came from the development of *Chākkiyār-kūttu*, a dance-recital of literary works which grew out of a simple and earlier form of the same art known as *Kūḍiy-āṭṭam* devoted to the exposition of dramas like *Nāgānandam* and *Āścarya-cūḍāmaṇi*. For enriching the repertoire of the Chākkiyār, many *Campūs*, works in mixed prose and verse, and *Prabandhas* came to be written under the inspiration of Sanskrit influences. Poetry follows Sanskrit metres and the prose passages are also really poetical in content and conception. Purāṇic stories and episodes form the themes of these compositions; but extraneous matter is often introduced and the *Campūs* abound in satirical references to contemporary usages and personalities. They were mostly written by Nambūdiri Brahmins, a class well known for their mordant wit and sarcasm, employed to good purpose in these works. Perhaps the most famous of them was Punam Nambūdiri of the fifteenth century to whom many *Campūs* are ascribed; the *Rāmāyaṇa-campū* is unquestionably his masterpiece. Second only to Punam was Maḷamaṅgalam Nambūdiri, an inspired poet of the sixteenth century, who was gifted with a vivid imagination and an easy flow of language. His great work is the *Naiṣadha-campū* in which piquant situations like Nala leaving his kingdom and Damayanti lamenting over her separation from him are portrayed with great effect. These front-rank writers were followed by imitators of lesser calibre among whom Nārāyaṇan, the author of the *Bhārata-campū*, is the most notable.

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Mention must be made of the Niraṇam poets, so called from their native village Niraṇam in central Travancore, who from the fifteenth century sought to develop an independent Malayāḷam style relatively free from the domination of Tamil and Sanskrit models. Most prominent among them was Rāma Paṇikkar, of the *Rāmāyaṇam*, popularly known as *Kaṇṇaśśa Rāmāyaṇam*, which narrates the whole of the Rāma story. He was also the author of *Bhārata Gāthā*, *Savitrī Māhātmyam*, *Brahmāṇḍapurāṇam*, and *Bhāgavatam*. His poems are marked by great narrative power and he has been called ‘the Chaucer of Malayāḷam’. The translation of the *Gītā* by Mādhava Paṇikkar, the maternal grandfather of Rāma Paṇikkar, also deserves more than a passing mention. The Niraṇam poets also popularized a metre which takes its name after them, *Niraṇavṛttam*, but even this is seen to have its prototype in Tamil.

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Cheruśśeri Nambūdiri (early sixteenth century), author of the *Kṛṣṇagāthā*, may be said to close the middle Malayāḷam period and herald the literature of modern Malayālam. The subject-matter of his great poem is the entrancing theme of the life of Śrī Krishna as narrated in the tenth skandha of the Bhāgavata, and Cheruśśeri's gāthā is hailed by critics as a marvellous work of art which captivates the mind of the reader by the wealth of its imagery and the rich harmony of sense and sound.

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For some time after Cheruśśeri, only local songs and ballads, like some of the Vaḍakkan-pāṭṭukkaḷ, the Añju Tampurān-pāṭṭu and Eravikuṭṭipiḷḷa-pāṭṭu, were produced. These continued the old tradition of popular songs on contemporary events which ushered Malayālam literature into being. The great luminary after Cheruśśeri was the renowned Tuñcat Rāmānujan Eḻuttaccan who gave shape to modern Malayālam. His chief works were: Adhyātma Rāmāyaṇam Kiḷippāṭṭu, Bhāratam Kiḷippāṭṭu, Harināmakīrtanam, Cintāratnam—a work on Advaita Vedānta, and perhaps also Bhāgavatam Kiḷippāṭṭu and Dēvīmāhātmyam. It will be seen that he covers practically the whole range of Hindu mythology giving his own versions of the two great epics and Bhāgavatam, and did not neglect religion and philosophy. The Kiḷippāṭṭu reached its perfection in his hands, and he is hailed as the genius who conferred literary dignity on the daily speech of the common man by adapting it to the highest purposes of literary art. Eḻuttaccan's date is not settled beyond dispute, but he may be placed late in the sixteenth or early in the seventeenth century.

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A word must be said about Āṭṭakatha or Kathakaḷi. This variety of dance-drama was till a few years ago believed to be a development of recent origin, not older than two or three centuries at the most. Recent research has shown, however, that the first Āṭṭakathas were composed towards the close of the fifteenth century, and that the Rāman-āṭṭam of Koṭṭārakkara Tampurān, meant to be completed in eight performances, is the earliest of the extant Āṭṭakathas; though there is no direct evidence, the author may be taken to belong to the sixteenth century. Later contributions to this type of popular literature—about two hundred Kathas have so far been listed—lie outside the period covered by this book.

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Tamil

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S. SOMASUNDARA DESIKAR: Sixteenth-century Tamil Poets (in Tamil: Madras, 1936) —: Seventeenth-century Tamil Poets (in Tamil: Madras, 1936) M. SRINIVASA AIYANGAR: Tamil Studies (Madras, 1914)

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Kannada

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R. NARASIMHACHARYA: History of Kannada Literature (Mysore, 1940) —: Karnataka Kavicarite (3 vols. in Kannada: Bangalore, 1924, 1927 and 1929)

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Telugu

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T. ACHYUTA RAO: A History of Andhra Literature in the Vijayanagar Empire (2 parts in Telugu: Rajahmundry and Pithapuram, 1933 and 1940) P. CHENCHIAH AND BHUJANGA RAO: A History of Telugu Literature (‘Heritage of India Series’, Calcutta, 1930) P. T. RAJU: Telugu Literature (Bombay, 1944) GURUJADA SRIRAMAIAH: Kavipritamulu (in Telugu: Madras, 1925) K. VEERESALINGAM: Kavula Carita (3 vols. in Telugu: Rajahmundry, 1917, 1910 and 1911)

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C. ACHYUTA MENON: Eluttachan and his Age (Madras, 1940) P. GOVINDA PILLAI: History of Malayalam Literature (2 vols. in Malayalam: Trivandrum, 1889) H. GUNDERT: Malayalam Dictionary (Mangalore, 1872) P. KRISHNA NAIR: Attakatha or Kathakali (Madras, 1939) R. NARAYANA PANIKKAR: Kerala Bhasha Sahitya Caritram (4 vols. in Malayalam: Trivandrum, 1927, 1929, 1941, 1944) T. K. VELU PILLAY: Travancore State Manual, Vol. 1 (Trivandrum, 1940)

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