Malayalam Langauge -- Part 4

Evolution of Literature

Poetry:- Malayalam literature passed though a tremendous process of development in the 15th and 16th centuries. Cherusseri's Krishnagatha bore witness to the evolution of modern Malayalam language as a proper medium for serious poetic communication. Alongside there flourished numerous Sanskrit poets who were very active during this period. The greatest of them was {Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri}, the author of {Narayaneeyam}. The Manipravala poets were no less active, as is shown by a series of {Chambus} and {Kavyas} and single uatrains produced in the period, the greatest monument of which is perhaps the {Naishadham Chambu}. But the most significant development of the time took place in the field of Malayalam poetry. {Thunchattu Ezhuthachan}, the greatest Malayalam poet of all time, wrote his two great epics {Adhyatma Ramayanam} and {Srimahabharatam} and thereby revolutionized Malayalam language and literature at once.

Prose:- Malayalam poetry to the late twentieth century betrays varying degrees of the fusion of the three different strands. The oldest examples of /pattu/ and maniprvAlam respectively are /rAmacharitam/ and /vaishikatantram/, both of the twelveth century. The earliest extant prose work in the language is a commentary in simple Malayalam, Bhashakautaliyam (12th century) on Chanakya's Arthasastra. Malayalam prose of different periods exibit degree of influence of different languages such as Tamil, Sanskrit, Prakrits, Pali, Hindi, Urdu, Arabi, Persian, Syriac, Portuguese, Dutch, French and English. Modern literature is rich in poetry, fiction, drama, biography, and literary criticism.

Novel:- {Kundalatha} published in 1887, is considered to be the first Malayalam novel. Even before that Malayalam translations of English works were becoming popular. The second Malayalam novel was {Indulekha} (1889) which has taken an English novel as its model. {Indulekha} is considered to be the first outstanding novel in Malayalam. In 1891, {C.V. Raman Pillai} published the first outstanding historical novel {Marthanda Varma}. It was followed by his other works, namely, {Dharma Raja (1913)}, and Rama Raja Bahadur (2vols.) (1917-1920). C.V.'s language was highly dramatic and intense that still it is considered to be a unique contribution in the annals of Kerala's literary history. {Paarappuram} by {Kurukkal} was the first political novel and {Bhaskara Menon} (1904) by {Appan Thampuran} was the first detective novel.