Kerala bhasha
charithram by Dr. E. V.N.Namboothiry
( A worth reading book about Malayalam language, its origin
, literature )
1.Kerala bhasha
charihram byDr EVNNamboothiry. Dr Namboothiry`s book is a good study about the origin of Malayalam , and
various branches of the Malayalam, the
rise of Malayalam as a separate language from the original Dravidian language
etc
As per the writer first document available in Malayalam is Vazhappally
Saasanam written in 832 AD.Vazhappally saasanam is a royal decree by
Rajasekhara Varma who was Cheraman perumal .It was discovered atVazhappally
nearChanganassery (kottyam Dist)used Vattezhuthu and Grandhaksharam .It was
inscribed in Copper sheet. It is an
agreement between administrators of Vazhappally temple 18 citizens of a place
known as Thiruvattay. ( The currency used those days was Dinaaram.)
After Vazhappaly Saasanam many other saasanams like
Tharisappaly saasanam, Thiruvattay sasanam s were discovered. So as we have got Vazhappally sasanam of AD 832, it
is confirmed that Malayalam was prevailing in Kerala during 9th
century and it does not mean that it originated only in 9th century.
In old Tamil, Keral is called Cheram. The complete Kerala
was called as Malabar,Malayalam and MalaNaadu
also. Malabar may have originated
from Malavaram .In Persian
language Bar means country.or continenet .ThoughMalayalam is the name of
language now, in olden days it was the name of the area itself. As per the writer the original inhabitance of this
area were Kadar whowere there in the
forests of Chalakkudy and they are of Negro family. After them people of Astraloyed family migrated to Kerla like Malavedar,
Kurichyar,Malaaryar . It is not known that where from these people came to
Kerala. Next inhabitors of Kerla are people from Meditarania who left their land due to Greek invasion
Perhaps some of them settled
near the banks of Indus one group
came to far South. Last occupants of Kerala could be Namboothiries. The Tamil
Brahmins and TuluPottis who came later to Kerala did not accept Malayalam as
their Mother tongue where as
Namboothiries accepted Malayalam.
Before coming to Kerala Namboothiries spoke Prakrutham(prakrit) which was the for runner of Sanskrit. Thus
these people who knew Sanskrit, Prakrit, Kannada, Tulu etc mixed these
languages and spoke a mixture language
with the local language known as Malayalam. Slowly Tulu and Kannada went out of this
mixture and the mixture language of
Sanskrit,Prakrit and local Malayalam gave origin of Manipravaalam.
As parallel to the Manipravalam, another form
known as Paattu - also flourished in 15th century. The modern
Malayalam language is developed with the combination of these two forms in 16th century through
ThunchathuRamanujan Ezhuthassan. Chera kingom is believed to have been
established by Uthiyan Chera Laathan who was originally the king of Kuttanad
which spred fromto days` Kollam to Ponnani.
He accepted the title as Vaana Varamban(Vanum means sky, Varambu means
boundary) means king of places up to sky. He and his son Nedumchera Laathan were great warriors and both had trajic deaths. Father suicide due to defeat in war and son died
during war with Cholas. Cheran Chenguttuvan was the famous Chera
king. The first Chera kingdom fell by 6th century and up to 9th
century the historians are dark about
what happened till 9th centuryAD
Near 800AD a chera king called Kulasekhara Varman reestablished another Chera kingdom and due to his name Cheraman perumals got the name Kulasekharapaerumal.Kulasekhara
Varman ( 800 to 820AD) was a Vaishnava
poet and known as KulasekharAzhvaar. Perumal thirumozhi is a famous work of
him He was followed by Rajasekhara
Varman(820- 844) and was a shaivaite.
BhASHA Kautaleeyam is the
first oldestMalayalam book
discovered till now.It is a free translation of Artha saasthra of
Kautalya. Elamkulam kunjan pillay opined
that this book may have been written in 12th century A.D. After the fall of Perumals there were many
kings inKerala and they did not have the
knowledge of Sanskrit to read and understand
The Artha saasthra of Kautilya.
Perhaps , this book was written to educate the kings about the
administration of their kingdoms. Any
way ,as Bhasha kautaliyam is written in Malayalam it can easily be inferred
that Malayalam became an independent language by then in 12th century.
The kshatriyas, Ambalavasis and Brahmins spoke a mixed language of Malayalam with Tulu ,Prakrit, Sanskrit and kannada
which got respect later. Leela thilakam
says that there were two types of languages spoken .First spoken by the
elites of Brahmins, Kshatriyas etc and other by the common man. In 13th century from these two generated Manipravalam and Paattu.
Saasanams are the only available documents to study the
state of Malayalam language till 12th
century. RamaswamyIyer, A.C.sekhar,Ilamkulam kunjan pilla
,PuthusseryRamachandran and Ratnamma have studied about the saasanagal. They
are written in a language mixture of Tamil,Sanskrit andMalayalam. SOME HAVE
OPINED THAT THE LANGUAGE USED WAS TAMIL AND NOT MALAYALAM .BUT THESE WERE
PEOPLE WITH TAMIL MOTHER TONGUE.WHEN THEY PUBLISHED THESE WORKS THEY DEFORMED
SOME WORDSTO SUITE THEM TO TAMIL
LANGUAGE. Ilam kulam kunjan pillay has quoted some words of which the
Tamil experts could not understand the meaning and hence interpreted wrongly.
Tholan who was a Sanskrit scholar and the minister of Bhaskara Ravi varma has used
both languages.
Manipravalam is
defined as mixture ofMalayalam and Sanskrit.”Bhasha samskrita yoge Manipravalam
“ is the definition given inLeelathilakam. It
has played an important role in the development ofMalayalam literature. The
changes in the Kerala society due to
the fall of Kulasekharas,
breaking of the empire in to pieces, power of Namboothiries in the society,
development of temple arts etc may have
made changes in Manipravalam also.Vaisika thantram is a work in Manipravalam in which a prostitute known as Angasena is given advise of her
“Kuladharma “ by her mother
and it is belived to have been written in the first half of 13th
century. One can see that Sanskrit Vibhakthis are used inMalayalam words.
Three important
three works in old Manipravalam are Unniyachicharitham, Unnichiruthevi
charitham andUnniyadi charitham where heroins are three dancers and are
wriiten in 13th and 14th centuries.But Unnuneelisandesham
is a famous work written in 14th century There were many sandesa
Kaavayams like Koka sandesham, aatoorneeli sandesam written in the last part of 14th
century ‘
Paattu is a form of literature which developed in old Malayalam almost parallel to Manipravaalam.
Leelathilakam defines paattu as “
Dramida namkhathakshara Nibidamethuka mona vrutha
viseshayuktham paattu” Means it must have been tied(nibandha) with
dravidaletters only. Though it was defined so,
in paattu many Sanskrit words like Karam
(=Hand) were actually used. But
words like Ponnan for hiranyan (Hiranyam=gold), Kesava as Kechava
were used. Ramacharithamm , Thiru
nizhal mala are some pattu written in old Malayalam.
By and large, in
Pattu dravida letters were used and
inManipravalam Sanskrit words can be used. In paatu more Tamil style is more
where as inManipravalam Sanskrit is
more.
Ramacharitham is a renouned Paattu work written by a
cheeraman who as per Ulloor SParameswaraIyer was SrreVeeraRama varman (1195-1208
who ruled Travancore
Thiru nizhal maala is anotherpaattu written by one Govindan.
Another form of literature is Nambiyathamizh. Compared
toBhasha kautilyam long long sentences were used in this form and less Sanskrit words. Though
writer of Leelathilakam named it as
Nambiyathamizh it is actually
Malayalam. The
Ambareeshopakyanam, Brahmandapuranam etc
are some examples of this branch of old
Malayalam.
Folk songs or Naadan paattukal is another branch worth mentioning. There were 3 types of folk
songs inMalayalam sung by upper, middle
classes and work men. Some have influence of Sanskrit, Tamil, Arabic, Syriac (Suriyani) , Latin etc in the Malayalam folk songs. Many of them
are not formed inold Malayalam days.
Yatrkalipaattu is an
old form of Paattu inMalayalam used by “ Chathiraru “ Brahmins presented
during the marriage , Sashtabda poorthy)
sixtieth birth day etc of kings
and rich people. Brahmini songs were
sung by Nambiar ladies .But Mazhmangalam Namboothiry has corrected them in to
modern Malayalam and hence their old forms are not available.
Krishi paatu kal
The Songs sung by
farmers and agricultural workers have practically no Sanskrit words.
One sample song is
Jananumentaliyenum
ali kanman poye..
Abitabachaliyene Veya mookkan thotte…
(Me and my brother in law went to see the play
There my brother in law was bitten by a poisonous cobra. )
Abidunethaliyane kiyakkotteduthey
Abidathe vyavavari avidayillanju..
Avidenthaliyane keyakkottekkeduthe
Avidathe vyavavari avideyillanje
Avidenthaliyane
thekkotteduthe..
Avidathe vyavavari avideyillnje aviduntaliyane kuyiyilotte
tuthe…
(as medical assistance was not available any where South or East
he was buried).
Another one is
Bhagavan pampinte
palleduthey..
Jnan ente chembinte vitheduthey..
(God removed the toth of the snake and I removed the root of my chembu )
.Paanappattu. Panappattu
is a type of folk song which is sung in Brahmin houses and courts in the morning to
wake. It has influence of Sanskrit more than the agricultural songs(Krishi
paattu)
BHadrakaali paattu includes
Kalamezhuthu paattu, Thottam paattu, Paana paattu etc which are sung in
Kali temples. They have good amount of Sanskrit words.
Kurathy Paattu has influence of Tamil andMalayalam.
And also Kaani paattu.(Aaayirathettu kaiyalirangiya pathira kaali yen pathirakaali..)
Thekkan paattu
kal(south Kerala songs) includes Ulakuda perumal paattu, Anchu thampuran
paattu, Eravikuttypilla poru, etc have
abundant Tamil influence .
Middle age Malayalam. (1400 to 1500 AD)
Middle AGE OR Madhya kaala
Malayalam has shown rapid progress
in Malayalam literature. From
Ramakatha paattu by Aayipilla Aassan , it passed through changes through the works of Kannassa Panickers of
Niranam,Cherusseri`s KrishnaGaadha, Ramayanam Chambu of Punam and finally
reached 16th century with kilippaau s of ThunchathuRamanujan Ezhuthassan. The
Zamorin(saamoothiry) of
Calicut(Kozhikode) , kings
Venadu(Travancore) , Kolathiry of Kolathunaadu, king of Kochi(Cochin) etc became power ful by this time. Great poet of 15th century and author ofKrishna gaadha “Cherussery was a
dependent of Kolathiry,Punam Namboothiry was a mmemeber of Zamorin`s court.
Notable change happened in 15th century was many non Brahmin
poets became known out of them
prominanat were Ayyippilla aassan and Kannassapanickers .The changes they made
in the Paattu literature made distance
between paattu and Manipravalam less and
ultimately this trend lead to the rise of modern Malayalam
Ramakatha paattu
of Ayyipplilla aassan
Differing from the
definition given in Leelathilakam, Ayyippilla aassan has used Sanskrit words and letters . Thus he has reduced the distance between Paattu and Manipravalam.
Niranam Poets
Kannassa panickers or Niranam poets are Karunesa
Panicker,his sons Mahavapanicker and
Sankara Panicker, Karunesa panicker`s daughters son(grand son) Ramapanicker. But we have not discovered any
works of Karunesa Panicker though inRamayanam, Ramapanicker described him as a
poet.
He writes ”Ubhya
kaveeswarannaya Mahathma maanithanakiya
Karuneswan Paramathmave..”
The distinct nature of works of Niranam poets are as follows
a)
Words, Varnas etc of Dravia origin can be found
in these works
b)
Ethuka and Mona
( Dwitheeyakshara prasam and Aadyakshara praasam) are followed in
Niranam works as inPaattu.
c)
Meter used inNiranam works are doubling of Malayalam meter known as Tharangini.(Dwimaathram Ganam ettenennam yethi madhyam Tharangini) Instead of 8 ganam
there are 16 ganams used by Niranam poets. They have 4 lines in one stanza.
d)
Kannassa have used Vibhakthis of Sanskrit like “Mahadese,anuraaga vasena..
etc
e)
Influence of Tamil. Is much less compared to
Paattu and more than Manipravalam.
Krishna Gaadha of cherussery
The
time difference between Niranam
poets and Cherussery may not be more
than a generation. It must have been written in between 1446 and 1475 as the writer himself mentioned in the work
that he has wrote it as per the
instruction of king Goda Varman of
Kolathu naadu. Krishna Gadha is written in very simple Malayalam which can
easily understood by common man.
Notable characteristics of Krishna Gaadha are dealt deeply in the book by
DrNamboothiry.
For example:
a)
Use of Malayalam words and also words originated from Prakrit, Sanskrit also.
b)
Typical
use of Vibhakthis like
Thathanodayittu choleedinan,
melottu,Keezhpattu
c)
When Vibhakti was added to jnaankal (=we) it was used Engal like Engal vasickunnu9We
live)
d)
Use of “
Than “ like Simhangal thannude(Of lions) ,Danthangal thannude(of teeth) is very common
Like above mentioned few example
has shown in detail 21 number of speciality
of language used in Krishna gaadha
Bharatha Gaadha
There was another Gaadha named Bhaaratha Gaadha also written in the days of Krishna Gaadha .But
the author of Bharatha Gaadha was not
knowledgable inSanskrit as many
framatically wrong words were
used inBharatha Gadha. (For example Konka yugalangal for Konka
Yugalam , Apsari for Apsara stree
etc) Such mistakes are not found in Krishna Gaadha.
Manipravalam
Many changes happened to the look and
deapth of Manipravalam in 15th
century.
Chandrothsavam and Ramayanam Chambu are two
important books written in this period.
Chandrothsaval narrates about the moon festival arranged by a Devadasi named Mediny Vennilaavu. This book
has followed strictly the definition of
Manipravalam as given inLeelathilakam.Malayaqlam words withSanskrit Vibhkathis
is very common in this book and also
some old Malayalam words. Chandrothsavam
has mentioned about the poet Punam Namboothiry
also one of its stanzas. This
means the author of Chandrothsavam was a
contemporary of Punam .
Ramayanam Chambu is believed to
have been written by Punam Namboothiry.
When Ramayanam Chambu is dealing with a religious story of Rama, most of other chambu works in Malayalam have
dealt with the description of Devadaasis. Punam had written many other Chambus
like Bharatham ,Kodiya Viraham etc
The works up to Chandrothsvam and
works after Chandrothsavam have distinct in the language used. Hence , Chandrothsvam was a mile stone in the
development of Manipravalam and thus Malayalam as a language. In short, Punam has developed a anew Manipravalam. In 1459, he has submitted a few lines
to Manavikraman Zamorin of Kozhikode
when he was only 34 years old . Hence he is considered to have lived in the
second half of 15th century.
He was considered as a half poet in the court of Zamorin who has 18 ½
poets there because he wrote in “ Bhasa”
and not in Sanskrit as others did!!.
Punam was selective about words of
different characters. For example when he described Chandrakethu who lived in Ayodhya and
Lava who lived in forest with his
mother Sita he used very apt words suitable for a civilian and a forester.
The new Malayalam has almost
developed in these days and stanzas written in Rokmini swyam varam chambu looks
like a modern Malayalam verse.
“Achan thane paranjeetina Vachanamidam
Kettu kopam muzhuthi-
Ttuychura kannurandum nrupa
sadsi chuva-
Ppichu manjadi pole”
The above stanza looks like modern
verse only!!
Modern Malayalam 1500 to 2000
Dr Namboothiry`s book is
published in 2002 and he dated
modern Malayalam up to 2000AD. (I do not know whether he means the present
Malyalam as most modern or TV Malayalam or internet Malayalam or electronic Malayalam . How ever he has not
touched that area in the book.)
The changes in the
Malayalam language became slow after the language structure is defined by ThunchathuRamanujan Ezhuthachhan. The process of changes happened in the
language through Kilipattu of Ezhuthachhan
are basically as follows
a)
The Alphabets
. Malayalam had 12 swaras and 18 Vyanjanas as per Leelathilakam which was written in the
end of 14th century. They
were dravida alphabets. When Sanskrit words were written
Sanskrit alphabets were used. But they
were not considered as Malayalam. By the time of 16th century it
became essential to make use of
Sanskrit alphabets .Hence Sanskrit
letters like Ru, Lu, athi khara
vyanjanas like Kha, ga, gha chha, ja tjha, Tda, da, dd`a, tha, ba,
pha ooshmas like sa , sha, s`a ha were used.
b)
Sanskritised language: Adding Sankrit Vibhaktis to Malayalam words became obsolete by 15th century
itself. Many sanskritised words like achhan , aphan came in to written langage also, though such
words were used colloquially earlier
also.
c)
With Krishna Gaadha, words with Tamil
influence became extint .Words like
Naan, Nankal, unkal , ontu, kaanintu etc
were not seen in the language later.
d)
Changes in Varbas,sandhis, Names(subjects) ,
pronouns, figures, tenses, genders, niyojaka roopams etc have taken place inMalayalam.
History of Kerala and changes
happened after the arrival of Vasco de Gama.
Vasco de Gama reached Kerala in
1498 May at Kozhokode .He was sent to develop the business with
India by the king of Portugal. But
slowly their desire to establish an empire became strong.First to oppose such a
move was Zamorin (saamoothiry) of
Kozhikode. Kolathiry and Kind of Kochi were enemies of Zamorin and they wanted to oppose Zamorin with the
help of Portuguese. On 1stMarch 1503 Zamorin attacked Kochi(Cochin). But he was not successful as Kochi was
supported by Portuguese with guns and ammunitions. No body won the war and king of Cochin
allowed Portuguese to make a fort .This is said to be the first for made by
Westerners and corner stone of this fort was laid on 27th September 1504. Slowly
Portuguese could occupy Kannor,Chaliyam,
Kodungalloor, Purakkad kollam .But due
to the opposition from Zamorin they could not expend more in SouthIndia.
The Dutch
reached India in 1604 and this resulted the down fall of Portuguese.In
1663, they were completely eliminated from Kerala by the Dutch. Dutch
defeated Zamorin inChettuVaay and
after that they started posing as if they are the ruler of Kerala. In 1755, Zamorin also started
moving to South by defeating many small principalities. Marthanda Varma of Venad defeated the Dutch
in Kulachal war and moved towards North.
So, Dutch were left with Thangassery fort of Kollam and fort of Cochin
only.
Ralf Fitch in 1583
was the first English man to reach Kerala.
In 1615 Keeling reached Kozhikode with 3 ships. The British promised Zamorin to eliminate Portuguese from
Kerala .
To continue....
.