Historian M.G.S. Narayanan releases the book Malayalavum Herman Gundertum by handing over a copy to literary critic M.M. Basheer at a function at Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University at Tirur on Tuesday.
‘Even serious historians have neglected books like ‘Kerala Pazhama’ by Gundert’
“If Thunchathezhuthachan was the father of Malayalam Language, Herman Gundert was its foster father,” opined historian M.G.S. Narayanan. Releasing the book ‘Malayalavum Herman Gundertum’ (Malayalam and Herman Gundert) at the Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University at Tirur on Tuesday, Mr. Narayanan said that even serious historians have neglected books like ‘Kerala Pazhama’ by Gundert, who is mostly known for the first lexicon in Malayalam as well as ‘Rajyasamacharam’, the first newspaper in the language.
Study of Gundert’s works have helped historians much in clearing certain misunderstandings and misconceptions. His works were milestones that marked the history of Kerala. The myths portrayed in his books give us a hint of the culture of those times. He was recovering the culture of Kerala for the later generations through his books. His work as a missionary only showed that the problems and culture of people are the same around the world, Mr. Narayanan said and appreciated the Malayalam University for establishing a ‘Gundert Chair’ in Germany.
Vice-Chancellor K. Jayakumar, in his presidential address said that the university has set aside the traditional methods and has formed its own policy on research activities.
The book, in two volumes, was published by the Gundert Chair established by Malayalam University in Tubingen University in Germany. A seminar on ‘The contemporariness of Gundert’ was held later.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kozhikode / Staff Reporter / Kozhikode – February 03rd, 2016
As a part of Kerala’s vast and scattered diaspora, I grew up hearing interesting titbits about the land I had sprung from: communism, literacy, matriliny and, more recently, Arabian Nights-type tales about treasures hidden in the vaults of Padmanabhaswamy Temple. I absorbed this information in my childhood without exploring it in any depth because the only books available were either written by colonial-era social anthropologists or Indian historians too wedded to the format of academic books to make them genuinely readable, crammed full of dates and details but with little attention paid to literary art.
Portrait of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi by her granddaughter and artist Rukmini Varma |
Luckily, debut author Manu S Pillai has now accessed all of those texts and created the book I always longed for—a narrative history of Kerala that faithfully records and indexes its sources but also tells a cracking story. The focus is on the last queen of erstwhile Travancore state, Sethu Lakshmi Bayi (aka Senior Maharani), who ruled from 1924 as a regent for seven years while the British authorities waited for the future Maharajah, Chithira Tirunal, to come of age. Chithira Tirunal was the son of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi’s adoptive sister who came to be known as Junior Maharani. Many people in Trivandrum remember the publicly fraught relationship that existed between these two Maharanis grappling for power in the decade before India became independent, an event that was unforeseen at the time and ultimately rendered their fight rather poignantly futile.
In reality, the two ‘sisters’ were first cousins who were adopted together in 1900 from the Kolathiri clan of Mavelikkara to preserve Travancore’s shaky matrilineal line. After a series of miscarriages beset the Senior Maharani, it was the Junior Maharani who bore the heir to the throne. While it fell upon Sethu Lakshmi Bayi to play regent as the future Maharajah grew up, the Junior Maharani, cast in an unenviably vacuous position during the regency years, naturally made it her business to ensure a powerful role for herself as soon as her son became king. This was eventually achieved, with much help from the flamboyant and brilliant Sir CP Ramaswami Iyer, and was—the book suggests—employed to make the Senior Maharani’s position untenable once Chithira Tirunal came to power. The present royal family residing at Kowdiar Palace in Trivandrum are descendants of the Junior Maharani while the family of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi left Kerala to settle in Bangalore, Chennai and beyond after the regency period came to an end.
Manu Pillai charts this divided journey in vivid and comprehensive fashion, bringing events virtually up to the present day and telling the story occasionally like a family saga. Personal letters and interviews reveal the kind of tensions and jealousies that run through all families and this is rendered doubly riveting when set against the backdrop of ‘palaces and princes’.
However, it would be doing the book a huge disservice to suggest that it does not rise beyond mere historical biography. This 700-page whopper of a book is much, much more than the story of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, fascinating as it is to read about this able female ruler who was responsible for many policies now taken for granted in Kerala (eg, the Nair Succession Act that effectively and, in my view, rather regrettably abolished matriliny). For me, the best aspects of The Ivory Throne lay in those authorly excursions that efficiently answered all the questions I had stored up from my childhood in a maranaadan Malayali home.
From Vasco da Gama’s chaotic arrival on the shores of Calicut to Martanda Varma’s ingenious melding of royalty and divinity when he declared himself Padmanabhadasan, from the Temple Proclamation Act that finally allowed lower caste Hindus into temples to the abolition of the privy purse—this book swirls through Kerala’s history like a dervish possessed by the intention of telling a magnificent story, and telling it marvellously well.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> LifeStyle> Books / by Jaishree Misra / January 09th, 2016
Says the system preserves the identity of every community
Kerala’s traditional multiculturalism has much to offer to the policy and decision makers in modern times, says Ophira Gamliel from the University of Ruhr, the Israeli academic who has been closely associated with Kerala studies.
Ophira Gamliel says the traditional festivals and performing arts in Kerala are highly structured so as to ensure the collaboration of the various communities at different levels.
Speaking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the third International Kerala History Conference here on Friday, Prof. Gamliel says a closer look at the multiculturalism inherited by the State would point to a dynamic system which preserves the identity of every community, even as it provides space for each of them to integrate into one system.
“You don’t lose your identity. Even small communities do not get swallowed. Your literature, culture, everything are well preserved. Instead of getting integrated at the personal level, you are integrated at the community level,” she says.
Prof. Gamliel says the roots of this unique system, still preserved, could be traced to the ancient long-distance trade exchanges which were exceptionally different in character from the modern global trade. “Unlike the modern global trade, which is marked by brutal expropriation of resources and labour, the ancient trade between the western coast of India and west Asia was marked by a great amount of cultural and knowledge exchanges at the community level,” she adds.
Documents
The more-than-1,000-year-old Cairo Documents (referring to deals between west Asian traders and those from Kerala) and the 9th century Tharisapalli plates (referring to a grant issued to Syriac Christians of Kerala) are rich evidences to this multiculturalism. “In fact, the Tharisapalli plates are signed in three languages: Persian (in Hebrew script), Pahlavi, and Cufic Arabic,” she says pointing to the efforts taken to preserve the identity of the different trading organisations.
Even the traditional festivals and performing arts here are highly structured so as to ensure the collaboration of the various communities at different levels. Beyond the complexity of what happens on the stage, this underlying structure assured collaboration at the communal level even in performing art forms, she says.
This unique system of multiculturalism should be subject of in-depth research, especially at a time when traditional communities are under threat of being swallowed up in the wave of globalisation, leading to tensions and conflicts at the community and societal level, she adds.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Kerala / by George Jacob / Kottayam – November 29th, 2015
The State Central library, Palayam, is organizing an exhibition ‘A Series of Stray Papers’ that will showcase rare books, photographs, cartoons and library equipment from Wednesday to November 30. Minister for education P K Abdu Rabb will inaugurate the exhibition.
The exhibition will display over 300 rare collections of books including ‘A Series of Stray Papers’. The biographies, photo exhibition of world class laureates like Keates, Yates and Galsworthy etc will also be exhibited. “The exhibition will also display the digital print of digitised books. The rare collections in this segments include government gazettes and rare books,” said P K Shobhana, state librarian.
World famous cartoons from the library collections will be displayed along with library equipment that was used since the formation of library in 1829.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Thiruvananthapuram / TNN / November 17th, 2015
Rama Mandiram / Photo: Nita Sathyendran / The Hindu
Rama Mandiram is one of the last but proud remnants of a vast household complex in Vazhuthacaud
It was once the centrepiece of an expansive complex of buildings that was the home of N. Raman Pillai, son of Dewan Nanoo Pillai, and excise commissioner of erstwhile Travancore. Today, the 100-year-old Rama Mandiram, a double-storied mansion opposite the Freemason’s Hall in Vazhuthacaud, stands tall as a small but regal glimpse of a bygone era.
The relief of Goddess Lakshmi at Rama Mandiram / Photo: Nita Sathyendran / The Hindu
At first sight itself Rama Mandiram’s quiet grandeur takes your breath away and that’s despite the hugekannikonna (golden laburnum), the pride and joy of a well-manicured garden, obstructing the view of the house from the road. As you walk towards the well-maintained house, set at the far end of the property, the simple, columned portico draws your eye as does the traditional sloped, Kerala-style tiled roof and the four huge wooden windows, supported by wrought iron railings, which enclose the veranda upstairs. To the left, almost hidden behind the leaves of a tree, is a relief of Goddess Lakshmi, flanked by two elephants.
“I’m told that Rama Mandiram was part an ‘ettukettu’ (a traditional house with two central courtyards). Raman Pillai, known as ‘Tiger’, reared horses and there used to be a stable for them somewhere in the back of the compound, before it was all torn down to make way for buildings. This particular section of the complex was the men’s quarters,” says Mrs. Nair, great-granddaughter of Raman Pillai, who now lives in the house. She rents out the upper floor of the house, which has a separate entrance.
Her grandmother Madhavi Amma, one of Raman Pillai’s five daughters, inherited this portion of the house, which she then passed on to her son, Krishnan Nair, a doctor. “My sister and I were brought up in Chennai and so I don’t know much about the house’s history. It was only in 1969 that my father moved to the city and began restoring the house. Until then and for a time afterwards the house was given out on rent. During my grandmother’s time, I believe, it used to house an annex and hostel of the Government Women’s College. Later it was rented out to various government offices,” she explains. Mrs. Nair and her late husband, N.G.K. Nair, a geologist with the National Centre for Earth Science Studies, and their children, set up home in Rama Mandiram in the early 1980s.
Not much of alteration has been done to the house since her father’s times, claims Mrs. Nair. “He enclosed the downstairs verandah but retained the original wooden staircase,” she explains, pointing to a small but wide wooden staircase on the left side. The staircase is reminiscent of those in old Victorian public buildings that dot the city.
“A bunch of architectural students who visited the house suggested that it might be this wide because Raman Pillai used to hold court in his office here,” explains Mrs. Nair. The verandah leads into a spacious living-cum-dining room, dotted with vintage 1970s/80s furniture, and a high wooden ceiling. It has bedrooms and a small pooja room on either side. “Once upon a time, the pooja room used to be my grandmother’s brother’s meditation room,” says Mrs. Nair.
The bedroom on the left (with an old world four poster bed), in turn leads to what the family calls ‘the dark room,’ which still has an original tiled floor. “The dark room was the section of the house that connected the men’s quarters to the other areas. It once even had a separate entrance (over which the relief hangs) and has since been enclosed,” she says.
To the back of the dining room is the kitchen. “When the house was divided among the six children of Raman Pillai, this portion did not have a kitchen. So, my grandmother had one constructed. The house also has a cellar and a huge attic upstairs,” explains Mrs. Nair, rounding up the tour.
(A column on houses in and around the city that are more than 50 years old)
Poems by ten people who were imprisoned during the Emergency.
The Emergency in 1975 has had many gruesome after-effects. But ‘Thadavara Kavithakal’ is one positive outcome of the times.
The anthology, the English translation of which is getting ready to be published soon under the title ‘Poems from the Prison’, consists of poems penned by ten people who had been imprisoned during the emergency for various reasons. It was their endless days in prison that unearthed the poets in most of them.
The anthology in Malayalam was first published in 1977, edited by Civic Chandran, one of the poets, and republished with extensive notes and memoirs in 2010. Some of the poems had been translated and used in various English anthologies over the time.
The cover photo of ‘Thadavara kavithakal’ the English translation of which is getting ready to be published.
First time
This is for the first time an attempt was made to translate the anthology completely into English and published as one book.
Freshly translated by noted Malayalam poet K. Satchidanandan, with a foreword by Balachandran Chullikkad, the anthology carries 25 poems by ten poets, most of whom are still alive, while a few like Muhammed Ali and Udayabhanu have bid adieu to this world.
The remaining — M. Somanathan, V. K. Prabhakaran, M. M. Somasekharan, Das (Kuttikrishnan), C. K. Raghunath, Purushothaman, C. K. Abdul Azees and Civic Chandran –- are mostly still active as writers, theoreticians, editors and activists, having moved away from the Maoist ideology that had stirred them in the Seventies.
The poems are on diverse themes. ‘An evening note’ by P. Udayabhanu recalls the turbulent times when revolution was brewing across the country while V.K. Prabhakaran’s ‘The People of my village’ is about the unrest beneath the surface.
However, they are marked by certain recurring symbols such as storm and rain and the spirit of revolution.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kozhikode / by Aabha Anoop / Kozhikode – November 04th, 2015
Malayalam University VC K Jayakumar (left) releasing the book ‘The Nectar of the Gods’ by Gopikrishnan Kottoor (centre) by handing it over to RBI regional director Nirmal Chand on Wednesday | Manu R Mavelil
Thiruvananthapuram :
If your Malayalam is not good, it only means that your linguistic skills have not been used to their full potential, and do not in any way contribute to a better fluency in English, K Jayakumar, Vice-Chancellor of Malayalam University, has said. He was speaking at the release of Gopikrishnan Kottoor’s book ‘Nectar of the Gods – King Marthanda Varma and Devasahayam’ at the Press Club here on Wednesday.
Applauding the chaste English employed by the author, the poet and former Chief Secretary said that writers like Gopikrishnan enrich Indian writing in English. He underscored the need to ensure proficiency both in English and Malayalam among our students. “For a writer, using English that is coloured by the influence of one’s mother tongue is like trying to escape the gravitational pull of the earth. Gopikrishnan has achieved this laudable feat,” he said.
‘Nectar of the Gods’ is Gopikrishnan’s twelfth book and is a play based on the little-known history of the execution of the Nair noble Devasahayam for converting to Christianity under the influence of the the Dutch naval commander Eustachius De Lannoy. Kottoor, a senior Reserve Bank officer, is the author of the book of poems ‘Vrindavan -The Coloured Yolk of Love’ and several other poetry collections and novels. He also founded and edited the poetry quarterly ‘Poetry Chain’ and currently edits the online poetry magazine undergroundflowers.com.
RBI regional director Nirmal Chand received the first copy of the book. S Adikesavan, Chief General Manager, SBT, shared his memories about growing up in Puliyoor Kurichi, where the play is set and which houses historically significant structures like the Udayagiri Fort and tomb of De Lannoy who was in the service of Marthanda Varma after being defeated by the king in the Battle of Colachel. C K Thomas, Deputy Director of Doordarshan Kendra, Thrissur, and Devi Prasad, General Manager, SBT, also spoke. The visual adaptation of two scenes from the play, shot by the author himself, was screened after the release.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Express News Service / October 22nd, 2015
Geetha Varma [CPI(M)], Urmila Varma (Congress), and Radhika Varma (BJP) will fight it out in a ward in the Tripunithura municipal election. Photo: Thulasi Kakkat / The Hindu
Geetha Varma, Radhika Varma and Urmila Varma — all relatives — are battling it out against each other.
They might belong to the same family that once ruled this part of the State. But in this local bodies’ election, relatives are divided on political lines and they are battling it out against each other.
In ward number 38 of the Tripunithura municipality, Geetha Varma, Radhika Varma, and Urmila Varma, three members of the royal family of Kochi, have started running their campaign ‘‘from different floors of the same house.’’ And with the family members pitted against one another, the fight has turned exciting.
For the masses
Married to Ramesh Varma of Edoop Palace, Geetha Varma, a CPI(M) candidate, hopes to serve society at the grassroots. ‘‘The decision to contest was rather easier as I enjoy the support of both the family and the party to the maximum,’’ said Ms. Geetha, a known Kathakali artiste.
Radhika Varma, who recently retired as the head of the junior wing of Chinmaya Vidyalaya School here, said being in the BJP would help her continue with her social work. The daughter of the late Captain Kerala Varma, she looks forward to learn from the straight-jacket demeanour her father had exhibited all his life. “He led a service-oriented life and never gave room to the dirty politics all through,’’ she said.
The youngest candidate among the three, Urmila Varma, is the grand-daughter of Mangu Thampuran, the present Valiyamma Thampuran of the family. Having started her professional career as an HR trainer in Chennai, she has been involved in social work for a long time through an NGO. With her father Ravi Varma being an active Congress worker, Urmila’s name came up as a natural choice for the party.
‘‘Camaraderie in the family remains unaffected with political affiliations,’’ says Ms. Urmila.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Kerala / by Shyama Rajagopal / Kochi – October 19th, 2015
In 1949 August, Radio Moscow aired the name of a tiny village in Kannur suburbs in a news bulletin for writing a new chapter in the history of democracy. The village panchayat there was elected through voting and for the first time in India’s history a communist local government came to power through electoral process.
That is the history of Chirakkal panchayat, the capital of the erstwhile Chirakkal dynasty, and a major hub of the handloom textile industry in Kerala. The polls were held on August 16, about a month after the panchayat was formed in July 1949.
It was then part of the Madras state. The communist party came to power in Chirakkal at a time when it was banned in the country and party leaders were mostly operating from underground fearing arrests. Unlike today, there was no ballot paper and votes were taken by counting the raised hands of the voters. As per the existing law in the Madras state, only those who can read and write and have completed 21 years of age, were eligible for voting.
The government had appointed the local village officer Chengalath Nanu Menon as the polling officer and the election was held at Raja’s Higher Elementary School, where nearly 600 voters gathered, according to the panchayat records. While the Congress had nine candidates, the communists could field only seven, as two candidates refused to contest. Though the Congress objected to the communists contesting the elections claiming there were criminal cases against them, the police or the complainants could not provide any evidence and the polling officer allowed their candidatures.
The communists romped home by winning seven seats while the Congress candidates bagged five. The next day the panchayat council elected communist leaders K P Narayanan as president and T C Madhavan as vice president. Since the panchayat didn’t have a building of its own, it functioned out of a rented building.
Senior CPM leader and former MLA M Prakashan master hails the event as “unparalleled in the history of Indian democracy”. Barring 1988 elections, the panchayat has always retained that tradition. “The communist party came to power for the first time in a panchayat in the country when the party was banned and that was why it was a big news even in the Soviet Union and the Radio Moscow aired it,” he said. “And we keep that tradition alive.”
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City / TNN / October 14th, 2015
From the travel log of ISKCON founder Abhay Charan De during his stopover.
An artist’s impression of Abhay Charan De boarding the ship M.V. Jaladuta.
Fifty years ago, Abhay Charan De, a young man who was actively involved in Mahatma Gandhi’s Civil Disobedience movement, inspired by the teachings of Srila Bhaktisiddhanta Sarasvati, agreed to his mentor’s request to spread Hindu culture to the Western world. He set sail on August 13, 1965, as the lone cabin passenger onboard M.V. Jaladuta, a cargo ship bound for the United States.
With a complimentary ticket courtesy Sumati Morarjee, owner of Scindia Steam Navigation Company, a two-month tourist visa and Rs. 40 in hand, embarked on the rigorous journey. On August 22, the ship anchored at Kochi. Abhay Charan De stayed at Mattancherry as the guest of the shipping agents, Jairam & Sons. Abhay Charan De in his diary records his Kochi stopover. “The dock is peculiar,” he writes, “because it is by nature full of small islands. Some of the islands are full with nice hutments formerly known as British Island.”
Abhay Charan De saw his books that had arrived from Bombay in five boxes loaded into the ship in the evening. He then went around Mattancherry and Ernakulam. “Out of the group of islands, two big islands joined by an iron overbridge are known as Kochi and Ernakulam.
The iron overbridge was constructed by the Britishers very nicely along with railway lines. The railways line is extended up to the Port. There are many flourishing foreign firms and banks. It is Sunday and the bazar was closed. I saw a peculiar kind of plantain that is available in this part of the country. The island known as Kochi is not an up-to-date city. The roads are like narrow lanes. The parts of the city where the foreigners reside are well situated. The buildings, factories, etc. all big, are well maintained. The Mohamedan quarters are separate from the Hindu quarters like in the other Indian cities.” His diary makes a mention of Ernakulam, which he found to be ‘up-to-date.’ “There is a nice park on the bank of the gulf and it is named Subhas Bose Park. It is good that Subhas Babu is popular in this part of the country. I saw the Kerala High Court and the public buildings, the High Court being situated in Ernakulam it appears that the city is the capital of Kerala.”
The movement he started, International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), from a small shop space spread across the world.
This year marks the Golden Jubilee of Abhay Charan De’s, (who later became popular as A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada) visit to Kochi. The organisation will celebrate this historic visit with various programmes at TDM Hall, Ernakulam, on October 10, from 5 p.m. onwards.
source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Kerala / by K. Pradeep / October 04th, 2015
![Geetha Varma [CPI(M)], Urmila Varma (Congress), and Radhika Varma (BJP) will fight it out in a ward in the Tripunithura municipal election. Photo: Thulasi Kakkat / The Hindu](https://i0.wp.com/www.thiruvananthapuramfirst.in/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/VarmaKERALA19oct2015.jpg)
