Tradition of Satire in Malayalam Art and Literature and its social Relevance

Tradition of Satire in Malayalam Art and Literature and its social Relevance

There has been a great tradition of satire in Malayalam Art and Literature. When we go through the cultural history of Kerala, we see satire in Kooth and Koodiattom in an institutional manner. Traditionally Chakyars have been performing these art forms. They enjoyed the freedom of criticizing even the rulers of that time. There was another tradition of satire existing at the same time in Malayalam poetry, which was nurtured by the Manipravala poets. Unniacheecharitham, Unniyadeecharitham, and Unnichiruthevicharitham are some examples.

Both these traditions inspired Kunchannambiar, the poet who lived in eighteenth century. He was the inventor of Thullal. The literary base provided by this popular performing art and its literature to Malayalam is undeniable. Later, in the second half of the nineteenth century and in the first half of the twentieth century, so many satirical poems were written in Malayalam. Kavi Bharatham, Kavi Ramayanam, Kavi Mrigavali, and Kavi Pakshimala are some poems that show jealousy, selfishness and enmity of the poets rather than their social commitment.

Let us also see the position of the satirical compositions in Malayalam prose in the last part of the nineteenth century. The pioneer of satire in Malayalam prose is Vengayil Kunjuraman Nayanar. He published a satirical article in the famous Vidya Vinodini Magazine on the imitations of ‘Indulekha’ in the month of Makaram in 1066(M.E). Following that, Kizhakkeppattu Ramankutty Menon wrote a satirical novel named Parangodi Parinayam. A satirical drama was also published at that time named Chakkee - Chankaram to check the number of second-rate dramas published in Malayalam as translations and independent ones.Ramakkuruppu Munshi is the author of this play.

In the history of Malayalam language and literature, nobody could ignore or exclude the names of E.V.Krishnapillai and Sanjayan. E.V.Krishnapillai dealt with the basic evils of humankind like jealousy, selfishness and egotism. Sanjayan gave emphasis on contemporary and local problems that we see in our surroundings. Both of these writers used the literary forms like essay, short story and poetry to make satires.

When we come to the later period, almost all the writers seem to prefer to choose any one of the literary forms of their own choice. In the field of satire also, we see this trend. In accordance with this trend, Satires were made in every literary form. Among these, some were satire in every respect right from the beginning to the end. While the rest create satire when the situation required.

According to the western conception, there are three types of Hasyam. They are wit, humour and satire. While the value of wit and humour is bound in the limitations of literary aesthetics, the satire has a social value also. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, satire is an ‘artistic form, chiefly literary and dramatic, in which human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, sometimes with an intent to bring about improvement’.

Therefore, this project aims at to find out the tradition and the contemporary social relevance of satire in Malayalam.