The Later Champoos

          The 15th century A.D. saw two parallelled movements in Malayalam literature: one spearheaded by the Manipravala works, especially the Champoos, mixing verse and prose, and continuing the trend of the earlier Champoos at least in part; and the other emanating from the pattu school and adumbrated in Cherusseri's magnum opus, the Krishnagatha (Song of Krishna). As the elitist Manipravala Champoo school is to disappear later in the next century, it may be disccussed first. The language of the later Champoos reads more like modern Malayalam than that of the earlier Champoos and Sandesakavyas. Perhaps it can also be said that there is an improvement in poetic quality and craftsmanship too. The greatest Manipravala Champoos of the 15th century is Punam Nambudiri's Ramayanam, a close rival to Mahishamangalam's Naishadha of the 17th century. It is believed that Punam was responsible for using Puranic themes and episodes in Champoos for the first time, unlike the 14th century Champoos which were tales of the courtesans.

          The later Champoos came to be used for dramatic oral narration by performing artists in their Koothu and Pathakam. Their diction like their themes, seems to be more refined than that of the earlier Champoos showing a self-conscious effort on the part of their authors. Ramayanam Champoos consists of 20 Prabandhas viz., Ravana's birth, Rama's incarnation, the killing of Thataka, the deliverance of Ahalya, the marriage of Sita, the truimph over parasurama, the foiled coronation, the killing of Khara, the treaty with Sugriva, the killing of Bali, the entry into the garden, the scene of the ring, the entry into Lanka, the killing of Ravana, the ordeal by fire, the entry into Ayodhya, the coronation, the repudiation of Sita, the Aswamedha and the Swargarohana.

          A recurring feature of some of these Champoos is that several passags are common to many of them. It would appear as though the performing artists, the Chakyars or the Nambiars, appropriated passages from other Champoos and introduced them into any given Champoos chosen for presentation. A remarkable feature of Ramayanam Champoo is the sense of humour that sparkles in many passages. Punam also wrote a Bharatam Champoos. There are also many others, the authorship of which is ascribed to him.

          Mahishamangalam (or Mazhamangalam) Narayanan Nambudiri is the author of some of the best Champoos of all time. The most widely known of these is Naishadham followed by Rajaratnavaliyam and Kodia Viraham. Like Punam, Mahishamangalam also reveals in humour. This aspect of the work must have specially appealed to the performing artists who used the text for public performance. It may be this sense of the comic that eventually percolated into the Thullal poems of Kunchan Nambiar, centuries later.

Chandrotsavam

          Chandrolsavam, a long narrative poem written in Manipravala on the model of the Kavyas in Sanskrit, should also be mentioned here. The authorship is unknown. A shy intrusion of romantic sensibility may be detected in parts of this poem. There are also lines which seem to strike an ironic note. Some scholars consider it a work of satire. Hyperbole was a regular feature of Chambu literature, but to our taste today, it might look like conscious exaggeration to provoke ridicule and laughter.

          The story of Manipravala poetry will remain incomplete, unless the Muktakas or single quatrains are also touched upon. Some of them are exquisite wordpictures. Some have a lyrical perfection rarely equalled by later lyricists.

Cherusseri's Krishnagatha

          If the Chambus represents the aesthetic tastes of the scholarly and sophisticated readership, the average readers without much grounding in Sanskrit had their favourite poems and poets in the so-called Pattu school. The folk poems as well as Ramacharitham and Niranam works helped to preserve the proletarian tastes. The poetics of the Pattu school find a further confirmation in the celebrated and popular Song of Krishna (Krishnagatha) by Cherusseri Nambudiri. With the writing of Krishnagatha, the validity of the use of spoken Malayalam for literary purposes receives its ultimate justification. Unlike the language of Ramacharitam and the works of the Niranam poets the language of Krishnagatha marks the culmination of a stage of evolution. Cherusseri excels by the simplicity and limpidness of his diction and imagery. Krishnagatha is an epic in Malayalam written in a popular Dravidian metre which has evolved from a folk metre. It does not have the tightness and characteristics of either Ramacharitam or Kannassa Ramayanam. There are also local touches in an abundant measure. Sweetness and light, rather than vigour or high seriousness, is Cherusseri's forte. It arises partly from his localizing devices. There is also an entrancing freshness about his description of domestic life. The naturalness and ease of his flowing lines also accounts for Cherusseri's popularity.

          Cherusseri belonged to Kolathunad in northern Kerala. The consensus among scholars is that he lived and wrote in the 15th century A.D. There is some dispute about the author's name and his identity. Some scholars are of opinion that he was the same as the Punam Nambudiri of the Chambus. The difference between the style of Krishnagatha and that of any of the Chambus should point to the impossibility of this identification. Even a casual reading of the work will convince one of the uniqueness of its style. Later poets have learned a lot from him, but no one can successfully imitate him. The distinctive Cherusseri stamp is deeply marked on every line of his poem. His use of figures of speech, his pleasant diction and his mastery over the metrical structure (especially the pause and the caesura) are borne out by almost any part of the poem. Here is an example, a description of Poothana's arrival in Ampadi with the intention of causing baby Krishna's death through milk poisoning:

As she saw the place from a distance
She went close and shyly sneaked in
Even as the python stealthily goes
Close to the perch of the king of birds.

She stood there for a while
Watching the darling's charming face,
As though she waited in impatience
She went forward and stood touching
Why the lord of death had not come.

That flower-soft body, softer than tender leavers,
As if touching real fire
Taking it for a jewel.

Then she picked up the darling child
Like taking a serpent for a rope.

          In this string of smiles the poet shows both insight and wit; the figures anticipate her future course. Here is an eloquent picture of the pitiful position in which she puts herself unknowingly. Bhakti, Vatsalyam (love of children, etc.) Karuna, Sringara: these are the dominent moods in Cherusseri's poetry.

The Growth of Prose

          The evolution of prose literature in the early centuries was a very slow process. In the wake of Bhashakautaliyam several translations began to appear in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The prose of Attprakarams was meant to aid the Chakiyars in learning the art of Koodiyattam. Doothavakyam (14th century A.D.) is one of the earliest of these free renderings which reveals a kind of style that is suited for elaborate oral narration. The long, rolling sonorous sentences are interspersed with pieces of dialogue which contain spoken forms. Fifteenth century Malayalam prose is represented by Brahmanda Puranam, a summary of the original in Sanskrit. The prose here is more free from Sanskrit influence than in Doothavakyam. The syntax is less cumbersome and the units are presented in the sequential order without resorting to specific co-ordination or sub-ordination. There are however, numerous Tamil and Sanskrit expressions scattered here and there. These give a stylized effect to the prose. A large number of prose works appeared during this period, most of which are either narratives based on puranas and eligious works in Sanskrit or commentaries on similar works. With the starting of the first printing presses in the Sixteenth century by Christian missionaries, prose literature received a great boost.