BRP Bhaskar
Gulf Today
Who is the father of Malayalam language, music composer Sarat asked noted playback singer KS Chithra recently during a television musical reality show in which both are judges.
“I don’t know the father but I know the mother of Malayalam,” Chithra quipped. “Who’s that?” asked Sarat. “Ranjini,” she replied, pointing to the ebullient presenter of the popular programme.
The judges and the studio audience broke into laughter. The viewers, too, enjoyed Chithra’s banter. It is possible to espy a prophetic element in it. For, Ranjini is one of the young television presenters who use an admixture of Malayalam and English, which may well be the language the next generation of Malayalis speaks.
In the last century, spoken Malayalam had undergone change, helped by the spread of education and appearance of mass communication media like newspapers and films. The print media influenced the spoken language most. Television having emerged as the most popular medium, it now has greater ability than the press to shape the spoken language.
It is natural for a living language to undergo changes. It will be unrealistic to try to freeze it in a particular form in the name of maintaining its purity. However, those who love the language have a duty to watch on the trends and do what they can to ensure that the language evolves in a manner suited to the needs of the society and does not move away from the traditions of the native speakers. That does not seem to be happening.
Leading writers regularly express concern at current trends and voice anxiety over the future of Malayalam. However, they have not put forward, singly or collectively, any proposals to arrest the undesirable trends.
The proposals being canvassed by the literary and political establishments are directed more at establishing the glory of Malayalam than at promoting its healthy evolution. The demands for grant of classical status to the language and setting up of a Malayalam university are examples.
The Central government having recognised Tamil, Telugu and Kannada as classical languages, Kerala is the only southern state whose official language does not enjoy that status. Also, Malayalam is the only major Dravidian language without a university to foster its growth.
One reason why Malayalam’s claim for classical status has received short shrift is that it is of comparatively recent origin. Until a few years ago, it was projected as a modern language by playing down its ancient association with Tamil and playing up its more recent link with Sanskrit.
Thunchath Ramanujan Ezhuthachan, the putative father of Malayalam language, composed his masterpiece “Adhyathma Ramayanam” as recently as the 16th century. The late Dr K Ayyappa Paniker, while hailing “Ramacharitham,” believed to have been written by Sree Veera Rama Varma, who ruled Travancore in the closing years of the 12th century, as the oldest extant classic in Malayalam, had conceded that it was in an early form of the language “which appears to be almost indistinguishable from Tamil, except perhaps for a linguist”.
Neither classical status nor a university bearing its name can save Malayalam if it is not able to meet the needs of the people. Television channels’ increasing resort to English even for names of programmes is but one manifestation of the widespread feeling about its inadequacy.
The state government is committed to the use of Malayalam for all official purposes, but it still transacts much of its business in English. Malayalam has a low rating as a medium for acquisition of knowledge. Since English is seen as the key to upward mobility, more and more parents are putting their children in schools where that language is the teaching medium, sometimes paying fees that are beyond their means.
This year enrolment in schools under the state system was 115,000 less than last year. The fall is attributable in part to the drop in the number of children in the school-going age group as a result of the decline in the growth of population. But it is also due in part to children shifting to other systems.
From 2003-04 to 2009-10, enrolment fell from 1.6 million to 1.3 million in government schools and from 3.0 million to 2.8 million in aided schools. During the same period, enrolment in expensive unaided schools imparting education in the English medium rose from 270,000 to 365,000. It is for the government and scholars to devise measures to enhance the appeal of the mother tongue. –Gulf Today, Sharjah, June 28, 2010
Showing posts with label Ezhuthachan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ezhuthachan. Show all posts
Monday, June 28, 2010
Monday, May 10, 2010
Selective pursuit of the past
BRP BHASKAR
Gulf Today
Along with Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan and Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy, a writers' delegation met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi last week to press the demand to declare Malayalam as a classical language.
The delegation included poets ONV Kurup, K Satchidanandan and Sugathakumari.
They said later Dr Manmohan Singh had offered to refer the matter to experts. He had observed that Malayalam appeared to have a strong case but this was a matter for experts to decide.
The government of India began the practice of granting recognition as classical language in 2004. Tamil was given classical status that year, Sanskrit in 2005 and Kannada and Telugu in 2008. Since then Kerala has been nursing the grievance that it is the only southern state whose language does not enjoy classical status.
No language of the eastern or western region has received classical status so far. There is no clamour for such recognition there either.
The Centre originally laid down three criteria for granting classical status to a language:
1). It must have high antiquity with texts and recorded history going back more than 1,000 years.
2). It must have a body of ancient literature which has been considered a valuable heritage by generations.
3). It must have a literary tradition that is original and not borrowed from another language.
Later it added a proviso. "The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may be discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or offshoots."
Until recently the Malayalam literary establishment did not claim great antiquity for the language. Thunchath Ezhuthachan, who is considered the Father of the Malayalam language, is believed to have lived in the 16th century.
This, of course, does not mean the language was born in the 16th century. A language evolves gradually over a long period. Ezhuthachan's Adhyatma Ramayanam and Mahabharatam are acclaimed as Malayalam classics. A classic may emerge only after a language had produced considerable volume of literature of a lesser order.
Earlier the literary establishment was eager to highlight Sanskrit's impact on Malayalam and distance it from its Dravidian past. The Kerala Sahitya Akademi's 1993 publication "Malayalam Literary Survey," for instance, points out that, though Dravidian in origin, around 80 per cent of the Malayalam words are taken from Sanskrit.
Scholars are of the view that the modern languages spoken in the southern states have a common proto-Dravidian ancestor but evolved differently over the centuries. The varying degree of impact of Sanskrit was one factor that influenced their development along different paths. Sanskrit made the least impact on Tamil and the most impact on Malayalam.
Some scholars believe that Ilango Adigal, author of Silappadikaram, and Chathanar, author of Manimekalai, which were written in the early part of the Christian era, were natives of Kerala. Both the works are in an old form of Tamil, which was apparently in use in the region in their time. They also contain references which indicate that the region was under Jain and Buddhist influence when they were written.
The difference between the language of these ancient works and modern Malayalam is reflective of the socio-political changes that have occurred since then. The discontinuity between the two may be attributed to the emergence of a new literary establishment with a pro-Sanskrit bias and its attempt to make a break with the Jain-Buddhist past.
Thanks to the proviso to the Centre's criteria for grant of classical status to a language, this discontinuity need not come in the way of Malayalam's claim to be declared as a classical language.
The government and the literary establishment have a selective approach to the past. While seeking to establish the antiquity of the regional language they have shown little interest in reclaiming the rest of the region's culture and history, especially the period before the establishment of the caste system.
The excavations at Pattanam, near Kodungallur, have yielded archaeological evidence to believe it may be the lost port town of Muchiri (Muziris). An expert has identified an Indus Valley motif in the engravings in the Edakkal cave in Wayanad. These are indicative of a rich pre-Sanskrit past.
The state is keen to secure classical status for Malayalam as that will lead to generous Central grants for development of the language. The declaration of Tamil as a classical language was followed by the establishment of the Centre for Excellence in Classical Tamil, which is now working on 10 major literary projects with Central assistance.-- Gulf Today, Sharjah, May 10, 2010.
Gulf Today
Along with Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan and Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy, a writers' delegation met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi last week to press the demand to declare Malayalam as a classical language.
The delegation included poets ONV Kurup, K Satchidanandan and Sugathakumari.
They said later Dr Manmohan Singh had offered to refer the matter to experts. He had observed that Malayalam appeared to have a strong case but this was a matter for experts to decide.
The government of India began the practice of granting recognition as classical language in 2004. Tamil was given classical status that year, Sanskrit in 2005 and Kannada and Telugu in 2008. Since then Kerala has been nursing the grievance that it is the only southern state whose language does not enjoy classical status.
No language of the eastern or western region has received classical status so far. There is no clamour for such recognition there either.
The Centre originally laid down three criteria for granting classical status to a language:
1). It must have high antiquity with texts and recorded history going back more than 1,000 years.
2). It must have a body of ancient literature which has been considered a valuable heritage by generations.
3). It must have a literary tradition that is original and not borrowed from another language.
Later it added a proviso. "The classical language and literature being distinct from modern, there may be discontinuity between the classical language and its later forms or offshoots."
Until recently the Malayalam literary establishment did not claim great antiquity for the language. Thunchath Ezhuthachan, who is considered the Father of the Malayalam language, is believed to have lived in the 16th century.
This, of course, does not mean the language was born in the 16th century. A language evolves gradually over a long period. Ezhuthachan's Adhyatma Ramayanam and Mahabharatam are acclaimed as Malayalam classics. A classic may emerge only after a language had produced considerable volume of literature of a lesser order.
Earlier the literary establishment was eager to highlight Sanskrit's impact on Malayalam and distance it from its Dravidian past. The Kerala Sahitya Akademi's 1993 publication "Malayalam Literary Survey," for instance, points out that, though Dravidian in origin, around 80 per cent of the Malayalam words are taken from Sanskrit.
Scholars are of the view that the modern languages spoken in the southern states have a common proto-Dravidian ancestor but evolved differently over the centuries. The varying degree of impact of Sanskrit was one factor that influenced their development along different paths. Sanskrit made the least impact on Tamil and the most impact on Malayalam.
Some scholars believe that Ilango Adigal, author of Silappadikaram, and Chathanar, author of Manimekalai, which were written in the early part of the Christian era, were natives of Kerala. Both the works are in an old form of Tamil, which was apparently in use in the region in their time. They also contain references which indicate that the region was under Jain and Buddhist influence when they were written.
The difference between the language of these ancient works and modern Malayalam is reflective of the socio-political changes that have occurred since then. The discontinuity between the two may be attributed to the emergence of a new literary establishment with a pro-Sanskrit bias and its attempt to make a break with the Jain-Buddhist past.
Thanks to the proviso to the Centre's criteria for grant of classical status to a language, this discontinuity need not come in the way of Malayalam's claim to be declared as a classical language.
The government and the literary establishment have a selective approach to the past. While seeking to establish the antiquity of the regional language they have shown little interest in reclaiming the rest of the region's culture and history, especially the period before the establishment of the caste system.
The excavations at Pattanam, near Kodungallur, have yielded archaeological evidence to believe it may be the lost port town of Muchiri (Muziris). An expert has identified an Indus Valley motif in the engravings in the Edakkal cave in Wayanad. These are indicative of a rich pre-Sanskrit past.
The state is keen to secure classical status for Malayalam as that will lead to generous Central grants for development of the language. The declaration of Tamil as a classical language was followed by the establishment of the Centre for Excellence in Classical Tamil, which is now working on 10 major literary projects with Central assistance.-- Gulf Today, Sharjah, May 10, 2010.
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