Malayalam is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was designated a "Classical Language of India" in 2013. Malayalam has official language status in Kerala, Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé), and is also the primary spoken language of Lakshadweep and is spoken by 34 million people in India. Malayalam is also spoken by linguistic minorities in the neighbouring states; with a significant number of speakers in the Kodagu and Dakshina Kannada districts of Karnataka, and Kanyakumari, Coimbatore and Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. It is also spoken by the Malayali Diaspora worldwide, especially in the Persian Gulf countries, due to the large populations of Malayali expatriates there. They are a significant population in each city in India including Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Kolkata, Pune etc. Malayalam is closely related to the Tamil language.
This article focuses on poetry from the United Kingdom written in the English language. The article does not cover poetry from other countries where the English language is spoken, including Republican Ireland after December 1922.
Malayalam, the lingua franca of the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puduchery, is one of the six classical languages of India. Malayalam literature comprises those literary texts written in Malayalam, a South-Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala. The first travelogue in any Indian language is the Malayalam Varthamanappusthakam, written by Paremmakkal Thoma Kathanar in 1785. Malayalam literature has been presented with 6 Jnanapith awards, the second-most for any Dravidian language and the third-highest for any Indian language.
Vallathol Narayana Menon was a Malayalam poet and one of the triumvirate of modern Malayalam poetry, along with Asan and Ulloor. The honorific Mahakavi was applied to him in 1913 after the publication of his MahakavyaChitrayogam. He was a nationalist poet and wrote a series of poems on various aspects of the Indian freedom movement. He also wrote against the caste system, the tyranny of the British and Brahmanas and other social orthodoxies. He founded the Kerala Kalamandalam and is credited with revitalising the traditional Keralite dance form known as Kathakali.
The Prāchīna Kavitrayam, of Malayalam poetry are Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan, Cherusseri Namboothiri and Kunchan Nambiar. These medieval era triumvirate poets was chosen in the basis of Bhakthi.
The culture of Kerala has developed over the past millennia, influences from other parts of India and abroad. It is defined by its antiquity and the organic continuity sustained by the Malayali people. Modern Kerala society took shape owing to migrations from different parts of India and abroad throughout Classical Antiquity.
Dr. K. Ayyappa Paniker, sometimes spelt "Ayyappa Panicker", was a Malayalam poet, literary critic, and an academic and a scholar in modern and post-modern literary theories as well as ancient Indian aesthetics and literary traditions. He was one of the pioneers of modernism in Malayalam poetry, where his seminal works like Kurukshethram (1960), is considered a turning point in Malayalam poetry. Many of Ayyappa Paniker's poems and his several essays were an important influence on later generations of Malayalam writers.
Manoj Kuroor is an Indian poet and lyricist who writes in Malayalam.
S. Joseph is an Indian poet writing in Malayalam in the post modern era. He was born in the village of Pattithanam near Ettumanoor. He has published a number of works on contemporary issues that affect the common man and also the ones who toil in the lower rungs of the society. His poetry collection Uppante Kooval Varakkunnu won the 2012 Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award.
Nationality words link to articles with information on the nation's poetry or literature.
Nellickal Muraleedharan (1948–2010) was a writer and poet in Malayalam. He received the Kerala Sahitya Academi award in the `poetry' section for his collection, Nellickal Muraleedharante Kavithakal in 2004.
A. Ayyappan was an Indian Malayalam-language poet in the modernist period. He is considered as the "Icon of anarchism" in Malayalam poetry. He was also an iconoclast figure who had a close friendship with famous Malayalam film director John Abraham (director).
Malayalam poetry is poetry written, spoken, or composed in Modern, as well as Old and Classical, Malayalam.
The Venmani School of poets were involved in a movement in Malayalam Literature also known as the Venmani Movement. The style of poetry was pioneered by members of the Venmani Illam of Kodungalloor in the 19th century.
Tang poetry refers to poetry written in or around the time of or in the characteristic style of China's Tang dynasty, and/or follows a certain style, often considered as the Golden Age of Chinese poetry. The Complete Tang Poems includes over 48,900 poems written by over 2,200 authors. During the Tang dynasty, poetry continued to be an important part of social life at all levels of society. Scholars were required to master poetry for the civil service exams, but the art was theoretically available to everyone. This led to a large record of poetry and poets, a partial record of which survives today. The two most famous poets of the period were Li Bai and Du Fu. The Qing dynasty selection, Three Hundred Tang Poems, has made Tang poetry familiar to educated Chinese in modern times.
Cherusseri Namboothiri is a 15th-century Malayalam poet who belonged to Kolathunadu, in present-day North Malabar region of Kerala. He was a court poet of Udaya Varma (1446–1475) and the author of Krishna Gadha, a poem which is considered a landmark in the development of Malayalam literature.
Edappally Raghavan Pillai was an Indian poet of Malayalam literature and a close associate of Changampuzha Krishna Pillai. The pair, the front-runners of romanticism in Malayalam, was considered by many as the Shelley and Keats combination of Malayalam poetry. Kesari Balakrishna Pillai compared Pillai to the Italian poet, Giacomo Leopardi.
Thirunalloor Karunakaran was a poet, scholar, teacher and leftist intellectual of Kerala, India.
Punalur Balan (1927–1987) was an Indian writer and a poet in Malayalam. He was born on 3 January 1927 in Punalur, Kollam district, Kerala. From his student days he was associated with the Communist movement and shot to fame during the 'Pink Decade' in Malayalam poetry.
Vijayalakshmi is a Malayalam–language poet from the South Indian state of Kerala.
