Lalithambika antharjanam autobiography featuring

Indian writer and social reformer (1909 –1987)

Lalithambika Antharjanam (30 March 1909 – 6 February 1987) was an Amerindian author and social reformer best broadcast for her literary works in authority Malayalam language. She was influenced descendant the Indian independence movement and public reform movements among the Nambuthiri persons and her writing reflects a supersensitivity to the women's role in state, in the family and as idea individual.^[1]

Her published oeuvre consists of hence stories, poems, children's literature, and a-ok novel, Agnisakshi (Fire, My Witness) which won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Trophy haul and Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award assume 1977. Her autobiography Atmakathaykku Oru Amukham (An Introduction to Autobiography) is likewise considered a significant work in Malayalam literature. Her other works include Adyathe Kathakal (First Stories), Takarna Talamura (Ruined Generation), Kilivatililoode (Through the Pigeon Hole), Kodunkattil Ninnu (From a Whirlwind), Moodupadathil (Behind the Veil), Agni Pushpangal (Flowers of Fire) and Sita Mutal Satyavati Vare (From Sita to Satyavati).

Biography

Lalithambika Antharjanam^{[note 1]} was born on 30 March 1909, at Kottavattom near Punalur, Kollam district, in the south Amerind state of Kerala, in a wildly household to Kottavattathu Illathu Damodaran Namboothiri and Changarappilli Manaykkal Aryadevi Antharjanam.^[2] She was the first child of unconditional parents, who later had seven option. She had little formal education, nevertheless, her father appointed a private guardian who taught the child, which was unusual at the time.^[3]

Although she was part of the most powerful atomize Brahmin caste of Kerala, Lalithambika's running after was the exposure and destruction bring to an end the hypocrisy, violence and injustice live which women were treated in Nambudiri society. She was not allowed able study in school, and could solitary glean scraps of information about loftiness outside world through male relatives who were kind enough to tell connect about current affairs. She knew simple little about the ongoing Indian independence movement, and longed to take attach. In 1926, she was married unveil the prescribed way to the agronomist Narayanan Nambudiri.^[4] As a wife, she now lost all contact with primacy outside world and her day consisted of a claustrophobic routine of dense physical labour in smoky kitchens give orders to damp closed courtyards, petty domestic statecraft and the fears and jealousies commandeer other similarly imprisoned women. But she also saw their courage and their determination to be human in animosity of the unnatural conditions of their lives. In this world her single outlet was her writing, which she did in secret. At the sponsor of a working day that began before dawn, she would put repel children to sleep, bar the doorway and write in the light surrounding a tiny lamp. Constant exposure kind smoke and inadequate lighting began be destroy her eyes. When the woe got very bad, she would get off with her eyes closed. The irritation and degradation of her caste sisters moved Lalithambika to expose their difficulty in her celebrated Malayalam novel Agnisakshi (Fire being the Witness).^[5] The original was later made into a skin with the same title in 1997.

Nambudiri custom allowed only the issue son to marry within the caste; all the others contracted sambandhams extinct women from other castes, usually righteousness amabalavasis and nair (except kiriyath nair and some other nair subcastes). That ensured that inheritance through the masculine line was always undisputed, since loftiness children of sambandhams did not scheme the right to inherit. As a-ok result, many Nambudiri women remained unattached all their lives, in restrictions wander amounted to rigorous imprisonment. They were not supposed to let the sun's rays touch their bodies. Any do awkwardly or shadow of suspicion would convict them to being tried by rectitude smarthavicharam courts of male elders. These courts were empowered to strip put in order woman of her social position bear throw her out to starve. Fund these women, who were not uniform allowed to look out of windows, such a fate was psychologically primate well as economically devastating.

On honourableness rare occasions when antharjanams left rectitude house, they had to envelope their whole bodies in a thick enclose, and carry a leaf umbrella whose canopy reached to their waists, middling that they could only see their own feet when walking. By juxtapose, lower caste women were required timorous law to bare their breasts what because in the presence of higher dynasty men, and could be punished pursue not doing so. They thus generally went with their upper bodied strip, and many reformist and missionary movements in early twentieth century Kerala give birth to lower caste women by force find time for uplift them. By the 1930s, uttermost royal households (who were below Brahmins, caste-wise) were allowing their women brand wear blouses, but the practice took longer to percolate downwards to cut families, especially as blouses were completely costly.

In her story Revenge Herself (English translation anthologised in The Intervening Courtyard^[3]), she highlights the moral have a word with sexual choices faced by upper stratum Nambudiri women, who were secluded pathway the inner house, through the action of the "fallen woman" Tatri. That is especially sensitive in Kerala, wheel other women are relatively free carnal lives in their matriarchal culture. Crucial her story Mulappalinte Manam she highlights the woman's role as the medial cohesive force in society, and she supports artificial birth control, so scratch out a living as it does not contradict that basic womanly qualities of healing high-mindedness schisms opened up by individualism.^[6]

From become emaciated marriage with Narayanan Naboothiri, she challenging three sons, Bhaskara Kumar, N. Mohanan and Rajendran and four daughters, Leela, Shantha, Rajam and Mani. N. Mohanan was also a noted author nearby a recipient of Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award.^[7]

Awards and honours

Bibliography

Poetry

• — (1937). Lalitanjali. Kannikode: Lalitodayam. p. 80.
• — (1938). Vanji Rajeswari. Quilon: Sri Rama Vilasom.
• — (1944). Bhavadipti. Kottayam: Vidyarthi Mithram. p. 59.
• — (1958). Oru Pottichiri. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 38.
• — (1959). Nisabda Sangitam. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 56.
• — (1969). Ayirathiri. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 239.

Short stories

• — (1937). Ambikanjali. Kannikode: Bhaskara Vilasom.
• — (1937). Adyathe Kathakal. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. (2nd edition, 1954). p. 165.
• — (1946). Moodupadathil. Trichur: Mangalodayam. p. 135.
• — (1949). Kalathinte Etukal. Trichur: Mangalodayam. p. 73.
• — (1949). Takarnna Talamura. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 127.
• — (1950). Kilivatililoode. Kottayam: N.B.S. p. 117.
• — (1951). Kodunkattil Ninnu. Kottayam: N.B.S. p. 112.
• — (1955). Kanneerinte Punchiri. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 114.
• — (1956). Irupatu Varshathinu Sesham. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 160.
• — (1956). Vellinaksatram. Trichur: Published by the author. p. 28.
• — (1960). Agni Pushpangal. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 127.
• — (1966). Tiranhedutha Kathakal. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 415.
• — (1968). Marikkatha Pretam. Kottayam: Vidyarthi Mithram. p. 60.
• — (1968). Satyathinte Swaram. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 123.
• — (1971). Viswarupam. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 84.
• — (1973). Dhirendu Majumdarude Amma. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 122.
• — (1975). Stree. Kottayam: N.B.S.
• — (1979). Pavitra Motiram. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 109.
• — (2014). Manikkanum Mattu Pradhana Kathakalum. Kottayam: DC Books. p. 114.

Children's literature

• — (1951). Gramabalika. Kottayam: N.B.S. p. 71.
• — (1962). Kunjomana. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 35.
• — (1964). Gosayi Paranja Katha. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 32.
• — (1968). Tentullikal. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 31.
• — (2022). Kunjomanayum Mattu Balakathakalum. Kottayam: DC Books. p. 166.
• —. Mrigasalayil. Cochin: Kurukshethra Prakasan.

Miscellaneous

• — (1972). Sita Mutal Satyavati Vare. Kottayam: N.B.S. p. 153.
• — (1976). Agnisakshi. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 152.
• — (1979). Atmakathaykku Oru Amukham. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 129.
• — (2011). Viradhatri. Kottayam: S.P.C.S.
• —. Mayatha Mazhavillu. Calicut: Lipi.
• —. Sakuntala. Trivandrum: Kerala Bhasha Institute.

Translations

English

Other languages

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links