Vallathol Narayana Menon Author Sahithya Manjari Founder Of Kerala Kalamandalam
Vallathol Narayana Menon is one of the celebrated triumvirate of
Malayalam literature; the others are Mahakavi Ulloor Parameswara Iyer and
N.Kumaranaasan. Vallathol Narayana Menon is not only the most outstanding poet
of Kerala but the preserver of the cultural tradition represented by the fine
arts, notably Kathakali. He has been described as a 'classicist, progressivist and nationalist, all rolled into one'.
Born in
Chennara village, near Tirur, in Malappuram
District of Kerala state,
southern India,in October16 1878, Vallathol was mainly involved in the study of
Sanskrit and the Ayurveda system. He began writing poems in Sanskrit and
Malayalam from a young age. After becoming the manager of Kerala Kalpadrumam, a
publishing house, he translated the Valmiki Ramayana. Though he became totally
deaf in 1909, this affected neither his literary pursuits nor his journalistic
career. In 1921, he met Gandhi and came to regard him as his teacher. His dream
of establishing a Kathakali art-centre came true with the founding of the
Kerala Kalamandalam in 1930. The Madras Government made him 'poet laureate' in
1948. From 1950 to 1953, he visited a number of countries abroad including
Poland, Soviet Union and China participating in important functions and meeting
leaders. He received a golden 'Manihara' from the then Prime Minister,
Jawaharlal Nehru during the silver jubilee celebrations of the Kerala
Kalamandalam in 1955. The Nehru Peace Prize was conferred posthumously upon him
by the Soviet Land in 1966.
Of his many
poems devoted to the nation's cause are To the Motherland (1917), Salutation to
the Mother (1918), The Puranas (1918), My Ingratitude (1919), This Way, This
Way (1921), Unity Before Everything Else{1924), Our Reply (1925), The Blood
Must Boil (1933), and Please Forgive us, Mother (1941). Higher and Higher
(1923) was a panegyric on the Indian National Congress flag that he saw as a
symbol for India's freedom and progress. Peasants' Song (1919), inspired by
Gandhi's philosophy of ahimsa, is a call for peace. A tribute to Gandhi emerged
in the form of My Master (1922). Our Mother (1949) was written on the first
death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
