Kerala Varma Valiya Koyitampuran

          Kerala Varma represnts the confluence of two major traditions in literature, the Oriental as represented by the Sanskrit classics and the Western represented by English/European classics. His translation of Kalidasa's Abhinjana Sakuntalam (completed in 1882), and of Von Limburg Brower's Akbar (started in 1882) clearly illustrates the historic role of a synthesizer which he was destined to play on the Kerala cultural front. His connections with the royal family, his education and upbringing, his position as president of the Text Book Committee, his progressive and independent outlook, his intellectual prowess and other personality factors made him tower head and shoulders above all his contemporaries. He wrote a number of works in both Sanskrit and Malayalam, both in prose and verse but his personal influence was greater than what was achieve through these works. It may be said that the man was greater than all his writings. Well versed in all aspects of classical Sanskrit poetics and quite at home in the native tradition, master of a sonorous Sanskrit diction and proficient in simple colloquial Malayalam, Kerala Varma's reputation, still depends not on any single book he wrote.
          The development of Malayalam and literature was his life's mission: and in collaboration with C.P.Achutha Menon (editor of Vidyavinodini magazine) and Kandathil Varghese Mappila (editor of Malayala Manorama), he did his utmost to encourage all kinds of writers and writings. Even underserving quill-pushes received his support, encouragement and blessing in this process of all-out promotion of letters. His most widely known literary work is Mayursandesam (Peacock Message) written in 1884. Its intrinsic merits were perhaps exaggerated at the time of its first appearance, but itss historical importance is yet to be properly assessed. It is a work that looks in many directions. It harks back to Kalidasa, the most romantic and subjective work of that poet, whose influence among other things was chiefly responsible for the revival of romanticism in 19th century Europe. It combines the mixed style of Manipravala poems with the pure Malayalam of Venmani poets but used for a "personal" communication. It allows the free play of fancy (as seen in the pun on Neelakanta), but also reveals the operation of a complex imagination at times (as in the identification quatrain). It would be too much to say that Mayurasandesam anticipates the romantic movement, but there is no doubt that there is a softening of the rhetoric of classicism in several of its quatrains. Already in the heart of classicism one hears the soft notes of romantic lyricism.

Once while alone hunting birds in the park,
O blue-eyed one, I happened to kill a bird.
Out of pity for his bereaved companion close by
Did you not, O timid one, ask me to kill her too!

          The lyrical note is heard at some depth; the subjective element is openly acknowledged; these are important gains.Mrigayasmaranakal Some of his prose essays are of an informal, subjective type like (Memories of Hunting).

The Growth of Literary Criticism

           The establishment of periodicals was directly responsible for the development of literary criticism. The year 1890 saw the starting of two important periodicals, Kandathil Varghese Mappila's Malayala Manorama and C.P.Achutha Menon's Vidyavinodini. Apan Tampuran started his Rasikaranjini in 1903. Varghese Mappila had the active co-operation of Kottarathil Sankunni, the author of Aitihyamala. Bhashaposhini Sabha acted as a catalyst. C.P.Achutha Menon wrote a number of perceptive reviews which are still marvels of honesty, frankness, fearlessness and commitment to definite values. Here is an example to show his sense f commitment:
          Since defects exceed virtues in new it books,is inevitable that, when one tries to express unbiased and impartial opinions on them, the demonstration of faults may be more conspicuous. We are sincerely sorry that as we do point out these defects, some people are deeply hurt. But then we cannot but do so, since our interest in our literature is far greater than their hurt feelings.
Reviewing another book called Rathisundari Achutha Menon says: "Man's life on earth is limited and sorrow filled; hence whether wasting part of it on the painful experience of reading books like this is a sin, let the conscience of good people decide; whether it is a legal crime, let the advocates decide".

The Plethora of Plays

          In the wake of Kerala Varma's transalation of Kalidasa's Abhijnana Sakuntalam (whih got him the title of Kerala Kalidasa) several attempts were made to translate numerous plays from Sanskrit and English into Malayalam. Chathukutty Mannadiar translated Uttararamacharitham and Janakiparinayam. New plays came to be written in this fanciful style. These plays were seldom acted. The stage conditions of those days were crude and unfit to project a performance. Most writers did not care for or know enough of the technique of stage presentation. This delayed the growth of an indigenous dramatic form and structure in the language. Numerous plays on the model of Sanskrit drama- using both prose and verse-came to be written about this time. As if irritated by this and with a view to discouraging the plethora of plays of low quality, P.Rama Kurup wrote Chakki Chankaram (1893). There was another Chakki Chankaram (1894) by K.C.Narayanan Nambiar (1873-1922). The effect of this burlesque of the couple Chakki and Chankaran was to put an end, temporarily at least, to the mad rush for producing plays fashionable at the time.

A.R.Rajaraja Varma (1863-1918)

           Kerala Varma's nephewA.R.Rajaraja Varma went a step further than his uncle in the promotion of a synthesis between the different trends current in the literature of his time. A professor in the University College, Thiruvananthapruam, he had to modernize the process of teaching Malayalam language and literature; this made him write books on grammer and rhetoric (which earned him the title of Kerala panini) and eventually prepare the ground for an enlightened renaissance in Malayalam poetry and literary criticism. His differences of opinion with Kerala Varma were not confined to the continued use of the second syllable rhyme: behind the controversy lay the basis of a new poetics: the rejection of neoclassicism and the acceptance of a romantic theory of literature. The influence of the study of British Romantic poets of the 19th century, coupled with a renewed interest in the real classics of Sanskrit literature can be seen in Rajaraja Varma's poetic efforts. The critic and scholar in him might have stifled the poet, but in works like Malayavilasam he may be seen as looking forward to an expected romantic revival. His translations of Kalidasa and Bhasa and the preface he wrote for Kumaran Asan's Nalini point to this trend in unmistakable terms. Like Kerala Varma, Rajaraja Varma also contributed significantly to the growth of prose through his essays.

K.C.Kesava Pillai (1868-1914)

           A close associate of both Kerala Varma and Rajaraja Varma, K.C.Kesa Pillai was a man of remarkable talent. His major works are Kesaviyam (a mahakavya), Sadarama (a musical play on the Tamil mode, extremely popular at the time), Asanna marana chinta satakam (Reflections of a Dying Man, in a century of quatrains)and a number of attakkathas. His Kesaviyam is a mahakavya modeled on the Sanskrit pattern and strictly adhering to the rules of structure and style laid down by the classical rhetorician, Dandi.
          The first fifteen years of the 20th century saw a mushrooming of mahakavyas: Kesava Pillais contemporaries like Azhakathu Padmanabha Kurup (1869-1932: author of Ramachandravilasam), Pandalam Kerala Varma (1879-1919: author of Rukmangatha charitam), Kattakkayam Cherian Mappila (1859-1937: author of Sri Yesu Vijayam), Ulloor Parameswara Iyer (1877-1949: author of Umakeralam) and Vallathol Narayana Menon (1878-1958: author of Chitrayogam). All these paid their obeisance to this neoclassicist trend.P.Sankaran Nambiar refers to the appearance of a mockmahakavya Kothakelam by one Vidushaka, which did to the flood of these exercises what Ramakurup's Chakki Chankaram did to the imitation plays, Datyuha Sandesam (1897) by Seevolli Narayanan Nambudiri (1869-1906) did to spurious message poems and Parangodi Parinayam (1892) by Kizhakkeppatt Kunhiraman Nayanar, tried to do to the spurt of uninspired novels in imitation of Indulekha.

          K.C. Kesava Pillai was also a distinguished composer of songs of rare merit and his position as a composer is next only to those of Swathi Tirunal and Irayimman Tampi among Kerala musicians. But his best work as a poet is Asanna marana chita satakam which, although written for a competition, is a touching lyrical monologue with a predominant elegiac tone and anticipates the Khandakavyas or shorter poems of the poets of the renaissance. It has an underground connection with C.S.Subramanian Potti's Oruvilapam (A Lament: 1903), V.C.Balakrishna Panikkar's Oruvilapam (A Lament:1908) and even Kumaran Asan's Oru Veena Poovu (A Fallen Flower:1907) which may be thought of an elegy in disguise.