Friday, December 26, 2014
C.V. Raman Pillai, popularly known as C.V., is classed with the greats in Indian literature like Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in Bengali and Hari Narayan Apte in Marathi. In the grand epic sweep of his great classics, Marthandavarma, Dharmaraja and Ramarajabahadur, he is in the class of the greatVyasa. In world literature, he ranks with Dostoevsky and Shakespeare.
Modern Malayalam drama traces its origins to C.V.'s works. His very first attempt at literary creation, was the first original play in Malayalam. Candramukheevilasam was written in 1884 and was staged for four days successively in 1887 at His Highness Maharaja's College, Trivandrum. This was also the first staging of a play in Malayalam by educated amateur actors. In fact, original Malayalam drama in prose began with his eleven farces, nine of which were published. They set the tone and paved the way for the Kerala theatre that it is now.
Kerala's folklore and Kathakali became an integral part of his literary metier. He drew out myriad forgotten episodes from his country's history and the genius in him wove them into unforgettable epics. Marthandavarma, his first novel, called by him a "historical romance, which was also the first historical novel in Malayalam, was written by him in 1885 but could not be published owing to lack of finance. It was published by Addison & Co., in Madras in 1891 only after "Indulekha" by Chandu Menon was brought out in 1889 and became the first-ever original novel in Malayalam. Marthanda Varma, however, was an instant hit and editorially hailed by The Hindu of Madras, on 21 December 1891. It continues to be a popular classic even today and has gone through more than 125 editions.
For nearly twenty years from 1891, C.V. did not produce any major literary work. 1909 saw the production of his major comedy, Kurupillakalari. It was in 1913, a year after he resigned from the post of Superintendent of the Government Press, in protest against the State Government's anti-people policies that he wrote his second novel, Dharmaraja, the first of a trilogy, that he conceived on an epic scale. The novel marked him out as a master craftsman in fiction. In 1915 he wrote a social novel,Premamritam which is the first satirical fiction in Malayalam. C.V.'s masterpiece, however, is Ramarajabahadur, published in 1918 and hailed by outstanding critics as the greatest novel in Malayalam.
