A true Indian poet alive to social concerns

Vishnu Narayanan Namboothiri was really an Indian poet. Not within the constricted sense through which ‘Indianness’ is spoken about today, however when it comes to his deep understanding of the Upanishads, the traditional texts, particularly of Kalidasa, and the literary and philosophical custom normally.

Although deeply rooted within the classical custom, he was among the many first in Malayalam poetry to get up to modern social concerns. In that manner, you possibly can name him a ‘transitional poet’ who splendidly built-in in his poetry the classical, romantic, and modernist streams.

Themes like ‘loss of identity’ recognized with modernism appeared in his poems. And, with poet R. Ramchandran, he collected the pioneering modernist voices in Malayalam poetry in Puthumudrakal within the early days.

He stood on the crossroads of classicism and modernism all alongside. His aesthetics have been reflective of the dilemmas of latest India, as seen in India Enna Vikaram, at the same time as his sensibility harked again to the classical values.

The imprint of Kalidasa was evident in his poetry, together with the love poems. But as a Gandhian, he remained alert to the current and was anxious in regards to the erosion of these values in Indian society. He was progressive in a Gandhian sense and his spirituality was ‘cosmic’, not tempered by non secular orthodoxy.

As a human being, he was unblemished, untouched by jealousy, calumny, and a aggressive angle. That’s exactly why when the Malayali studying class raised the eyebrows at a few of his contemporaries for his or her associations, he was by no means frowned at. Not even when he turned a temple priest post-retirement as an English professor.

Empathetic in direction of the struggling, it was solely pure that he sided with poets reminiscent of Sugathakumari when there was an uproar to defend the pristine environs of Silent Valley from destruction.

Although influenced by poets reminiscent of Vyloppilli, the path he adopted was of Vallathol. That is the place he needs to be positioned within the Malayalam poetic custom.

(As instructed to S. Anandan)