Malayalam Poet Vallathol Narayana Menon. He did not receive any formal education but was trained in Sanskrit language, first under the Sanskrit scholar Variyam Parambil Kunjan Nair and then under his own uncle Ramunni Menon, who introduced him into the world of Sanskrit poetry. He also trained for a year under Parakkulam Subrahmanya Sastri and Kaikkulangara Rama Variar in Philosophy and Logic.
He was one of the triumvirate poets of modern Malayalam, along with Kumaran Asan and Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer. The honorific Mahakavi title was given to him in 1913 after the publication of his Mahakavya Chitrayogam. He earned the title Mahakavi after the publication of the Mahakavya Chitrayogam in 1913. Chitrayogam conformed to all the principles of a traditional Mahakavya and was divided into 18 Sargas. The story of Chandrasena and Taravali, taken from Kathasaritsagara, was the theme of this poetry work. Vallathol portrayed the protest of Parvati against Shiva in the work Gangapati (1913) and of Usha defying her father for the sake of her love in Bandhanasthanaya Anirudhan (1914).
He was a nationalist poet and wrote a series of poems on various aspects of the Indian freedom movement. He also wrote against caste restriction, tyrannies and orthodoxies. He founded the Kerala Kalamandalam and is credited with revitalising the traditional Kerala dance form known as Kathakali. He played a prominent role in setting up the Kerala Kalamandalam at Cheruthuruthy, near the banks of Bharathapuzha River. The revival of the art of Kathakali in modern Kerala was mainly due to the efforts of Vallathol and the Kerala Kalamandalam. He stimulated the world’s interest in this art during his tours abroad between 1950 and 1953.
He is the author of ‘Sahithya Manjari’. He received the title, Mahakavi, for his Mahakaavyam ‘Chitrayogam’. Menon wrote predominantly in Malayalam, and, along with Kumaran Asan and Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer, was part of a highly creative period in Malayalam literature. Influenced by Rabindranath Tagore, Gandhi, and Karl Marx, as well as by the Sanskrit classics, Menon’s poetry evolved from its classical beginnings to increasing expression of nationalist and broadly socialist sentiment.
He wrote in a variety of forms, using both Sanskrit and Dravidian meters. He did not know English. Vallathol’s many works include the mahakavya (a form of epic poem), “Chitrayogam” (1914), and the narrative poems “Magdalena Mariyam” (Mary Magdalene, 1921) and “Kochu” Sita (1928), as well as 11 volumes containing his collected romantic poems entitled Sahityamanjari. In addition to subjects from nature and the lives of ordinary people, Vallathol’s opposition to the indignities of the caste system and the injustices suffered by the poor form the themes of many of his poems. His own struggle with deafness from his early twenties also features in some works. Vallathol’s poetry has been translated into English and Russian as well as Hindi. Kerala Kalamandalam – The temple of classical arts – It is the realisation of a poet’s dream, of a life of dedication, of a journey through the agonies of creation, of the ecstasies of fulfilment.
