Malayalam Literature

Malayalam literature (മലയാള സാഹിത്യം) comprises those literary texts written in Malayalam, a South-Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala.

The earliest known extant literary work in Malayalam is Ramacharitam, an epic poem written in the late 13th or early 13th century. In the subsequent centuries, besides a popular pattu ("song") literature, the manipravalam poetry also flourished. Manipravalam (translates "ruby coral") style mainly consisted of poetry in an admixture of Malayalam and Sanskrit. Then came works such as champus and sandeshakavyas in which prose and poetry were interspersed. Later, poets like Cherusseri introduced poems on devotional themes. There were also other important works, similar to manipravalam, in Arabi Malayalam like Muhyadheen Mala. Ezhuthachan, a strong proponent of Bhakti movement, is known as the father of Malayalam. His poems are classified under the genre of kilippattu.

Modern literary movements in Malayalam literature began in the late 19th century with the rise of the famous Modern Triumvirate consisting of Kumaran Asan,Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer and Vallathol Narayana Menon. Kumaran Asan was temperamentally a pessimist—a disposition reinforced by his metaphysics—yet all his life was active in promoting his downtrodden Hindu-Ezhava community. Ullor wrote in the classical tradition, on the basis of which he appealed for universal love, while Vallathol responded to the human significance of social progress. Contemporary Malayalam poetry records the encounter with problems of social, political, and economic life. The tendency of the modern poetry is often regarded as toward political radicalism.

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