Vallathol Narayana Menon (1878-1957) was one of the pioneers of modern Malayalam poetry. Educated traditionally, well-versed in Sanskrit, he translated Valmiki Ramayana and the Rigveda into Malayalam. Though handicapped by deafness, he spent his whole life in the service of literature and Kathakali. As the founding father of Kalamandalam, he took his troupe to Santiniketan, Soviet Russia, China and France. He called Gandhiji his 'guru' and refused an Award from the British government. The range of his subjects is astounding. As an artist, Vallathol's supreme achievement was that he showed what the Malayalam language could do. He was a classicist and a romantic at the same time. He was a member of the Sahitya Akademi. In 1955, he was decorated with 'Padmabhushan'.
B. Hrdayakumari is a scholar of Malayalam, who teaches English. She has many critical works to her credit.
THE twentieth century has been an unprecedented growth in Indian literatures. The stimulus to this growth came mainly from contact with western literature and culture, and also from upheavals in social and political life. Malayalam literature too, under the impact of such forces, developed along new lines, acquired new dimensions of awareness and grew in both quan- tity and quality. The leaders of the renaissance in Kerala were men of genius, firmly entrenched in traditional culture and they were able to blend the old with the new. Malayalam poetry entered the modern age with three great poets-Kumaran Asan, Vallathol Narayana Menon and Ulloor Parameswara Iyer. All the three were born in the 1870's. In amplitude of mind and variety of interests they almost equalled one another, though the genius of the language, the new influences at work and the old traditions expressed themselves in them differently.
Narayana Menon, popularly known as Vallathol, was born on 16th October 1878. Vallathol was the family name. His father was Damodaran Elayathu, a Malayali Brahmin and mother, Kuttipparu Amma of the Vallathol family. He was their only son. Chennara, the small village where Vallathol was born, belongs to Vettathunadu which is part of the taluk of Ponnani in north Kerala. Vettathunadu was once an indepen- dent principality famous for its heroic princes and the poets they patronized. Tunchatu Ezhutachan, father of Malayalam poetry, belonged to this place.
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