EDASSERI GOVINDAN NAIR (ഇടശ്ശേരി ഗോവിന്ദന്‍ നായര്‍)

EDASSERI GOVINDAN NAIR

(ഇടശ്ശേരി ഗോവിന്ദന്‍ നായര്‍)

Edasseri Govindan Nair was a prominent Indian poet from Kerala who wrote in his native Malayalam tongue. His works include 19 books and over 300 poems in 10 anthologies, 6 books of plays and a collection of essays. Born in a village, Kuttippuram, in Kerala (India) on December 23, 1906. Father was P. Krishna Kurup and mother Edasseri Kalathil Kunjukutty Amma. The child was named "Govindan", a very common name meaning "Lord Krishna". His works include 19 books and over 300 poems in 10  anthologies, 6 books of plays and a collection of essays.He died on 16 October 1974, and a  memorial is erected in his name - Edasseri Smaraka Samithi. He was an important member of the Ponnani kalari to which several malayalam literary figures belong. An area of his home town Ponnani has been named Edasseri Nagar in his memory. He was a law clerk by profession. His poetry deals with the harsh realities of life. A literary prize bearing his name is awarded annually to the best Malayam book of the year.His  works have assumed greater socio-literary significance after his death. Readers of Malayalam poetry now go back to him with renewed interest; critics recognize him as one of the most important poets of Malayalam. On the one hand, his works attempt to truthfully reflect the untold effects of socio-economic changes which metamorphosed the life of Kerala in the second and third quarters of this century; on the other, they also try to critically redefine - with an inimitable mix of anxiety, irony, humour and objectivity - its changed priorities and concerns. Steeped at once in the local mythological tradition as well as the pressures of modernisation, his poems also represent the ambivalent reaction of a Third World poet of his time. Spread as they are almost equally in the pre and post Independence eras his writings offer eternally valid commentaries on the Gandhian politics with notes of approval, admiration and dissent, evaluate the beginnings of socialist awareness in Kerala and analyse the pitfalls in the short term political strategies and long term economic policies of the Nehruvian era.Edasseri’s writings also afford a very different perspective of the various aspects of womanhood; he has been rightly called the bard of the heroic Motherhood. And long before ecology and environmental pollution were heard of in this state of Kerala, Edasseri has internationalised the impending problem and prophesied the inevitable doom. Now, practitioners of Feminist Literary theory and eco aesthetics have re-discovered in him a kindred spirit. Edasseri also ranks as a major playwright and eminent prose writer of Malayalam. Interestingly he is one poet who has inspired many of his successor poets as a subject of poetry.§  Awards Government of Madras Award for the play Koottukrishi.Government of Madras Award for the collection of poems called  Puthan Kalavum Arivalum ,Kerala Sahithya Academy Award for the collection of poems  Oru Pidi Nellicka - 1969§  Sahithya Academy Award (New Delhi) for the collection of poems Kavile Pattu- 1970Kumaranasan prize given for the collection of poems Anthithir  i - 1979.§  Literary works1. Kavile Pattu 2. Kootukrishi 3. karutha chettichikal 4. Poothappattu 5. Puthan kalavum Arivalum 6. Thathvashasthrangalurangumbol 7. Oru pidi Nellikka 8. Anthithiri 9. Nellukuthukari Paruvinte katha 10.Ambadiyilekku veendum 11.Alakavali 12.Kunkuma Prabhata

                                                                     Prof. John Kurakar

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