''Kayar'' (English: ''Coir'') is a 1978

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry ( Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam wa ...

epic novel written by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai. Widely considered one of the most seminal works in

Malayalam literature Malayalam, the lingua franca of the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puduchery, is one of the six Classical languages of India. Malayalam literature comprises those literary texts written in Malayalam, a S ...

, ''Kayar'' received many major literary awards, including the

Vayalar Award The Vayalar Award is given for the best literary work in Malayalam. The award was instituted in 1977 by the Vayalar Ramavarma Memorial Trust in memory of the poet and lyricist Vayalar Ramavarma (1928-1975). A sum of 25,000, a silver plate and ce ...

Plot summary

Set in

Kuttanad Kuttanad ( ml, കുട്ടനാട്‌) is a region covering the Alappuzha, Kottayam and Pathanamthitta Districts, in the state of Kerala, India, well known for its vast paddy fields and geographical peculiarities. The region has the lo ...

, the novel traces the evolution of the central

Travancore The Kingdom of Travancore ( /ˈtrævənkɔːr/), also known as the Kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor, was an Indian kingdom from c. 1729 until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvananthapuram. A ...

society from the early 19th century to the mid-twentieth century. It covers more than two centuries of Kerala life, encompassing six generations of characters. The historic transformation of man's relationship with land, as also between man and man, men and women and even man and God, forms the staple theme of ''Kayar''.

Background

The idea of a novel which contains the vignettes of social life in Kerala stayed in the author's mind for many years. "Two hundred and fifty years of Kerala life flowed past my mind's eye. But I needed a form. I could find no help from the Western classics," Thakazhi reminisces. For years he carried the "germ" inside his head. One night, as he lay sleepless in bed, the

Mahabharata The ''Mahābhārata'' ( ; sa, महाभारतम्, ', ) is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India in Hinduism, the other being the '' Rāmāyaṇa''. It narrates the struggle between two groups of cousins in the K ...

epic with its episodic structure drifted into his mind as a possibility. The next day he started work on Kayar. It took him three years to complete the book.

Translations

* ''Coir'': English translation by N. Sreekantan Nair;

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

; 1998 * ''Kayiru'': Tamil translation by C.A. Balan;

; 2003 * ''Hagga'': Kannada translation by K.K. Nair and Ashok Kumar;

; 2007 * ''Rassi'' (1995), Hindi translation by

Sudhanshu Chaturvedi Sudhanshu Chaturvedi is a writer, translator and academic from Uttar Pradesh, India. He has authored or translated over 120 books in Malayalam, Hindi, Sanskrit and English. Even though his mother tongue is Hindi, he has written most of his book ...

. For this, Chaturvedi has won

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

for translation.

Adaptations

*''

Bhayanakam ''Bhayanakam'' (English: ''Fearsome'') is a 2018 Indian Malayalam–language period drama war film directed by Jayaraj, produced by Sureshkumar Muttath, and stars writer-turned-actor Renji Panicker and Asha Sarath. The film is an adaptation o ...

'' (2018), directed by Jayaraj.

Awards

* 1980:

References

External links

''Kayar''
at

DC Books DC Books is a publisher in Kerala publisher of books in Malayalam, and one of the publishers in India . It also operates one of the largest book store chains in India, with a network of over 45 bookshops under the DC Books and Current Books b ...

official website
Review of the English translation by M. Mukundan
(''India Today'')

(''The Hindu'')

(''The Hindu'') {{Vayalar Awards 1978 novels Malayalam novels Epic novels Novels set in Kerala Novels by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai DC Books books Indian novels adapted into films 1978 Indian novels Jnanpith Award-winning works