Attoor Ravi Varma (27 December 1930 – 26 July 2019)"Poet Attur Ravi Varma passes away"
Chennai: ''The Hindu''. July 26, 2019. Retrieved July 28, 2019. was an Indian poet and translator of

Malayalam literature Malayalam, the lingua franca of the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (union territory), Puduchery, is one of the six classical languages of India. Malayalam literature comprises those literary text ...

. One of the pioneers of modern

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

poetry Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

, Ravi Varma is a recipient of

Kendra 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 ...

Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry The Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry is an award given every year by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi (Kerala Literary Academy) to Malayalam writers for writing poetry of literary merit. It is one of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award#Awards, twel ...

and Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Translation, besides many other honours. The

Government of Kerala The Government of Kerala (abbreviated as GoK), also known as the Kerala Government, is the administrative body responsible for governing the Indian States and territories of India, state of Kerala. The government is led by a chief minister, who ...

honoured him with their highest literary award, the

Ezhuthachan Puraskaram The Ezhuthachan Puraskaram is the highest literary honour given by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Government of Kerala. The award is named after Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan, the father of the Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian languages ...

, in 2012 and the

Kerala Sahitya Akademi The Kerala Sahitya Akademi or Academy for Malayalam Literature is an autonomous body established to promote the Malayalam language and Malayalam literature, literature. It is situated in the city of Thrissur, Kerala in India. History The acad ...

inducted him as their distinguished fellow in 2017.

Biography

Attoor Ravi Varma was born on 27 December 1930 in Attoor, a small village in Trichur district of the erstwhile

Kingdom of Cochin The kingdom of Cochin or the Cochin State, named after its capital in the city of Kochi (Cochin), was a kingdom in the central part of present-day Kerala state. It originated in the early part of the 12th century and continued to rule until i ...

(now part of the south Indian state of

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

) to Krishnan Namboothiri and Ammini Amma. He joined

Zamorin's Guruvayurappan College The Zamorin's Guruvayurappan College is an aided college in Kozhikode, Kerala, India offering graduation and post-graduation courses. It is affiliated to the University of Calicut. History The original institution was founded by the Zamorin ...

Calicut Kozhikode (), also known as Calicut, is a city along the Malabar Coast in the state of Kerala in India. Known as the City of Spices, Kozhikode is listed among the City of Literature, UNESCO's Cities of Literature. It is the nineteenth large ...

for his pre-university course but was expelled from college due to his involvement in

left-wing politics Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...

. Later, he continued studies at Malabar Christian College before graduating in Malayalam with

honours Honour (Commonwealth English) or honor (American English; see spelling differences) is a quality of a person that is of both social teaching and personal ethos, that manifests itself as a code of conduct, and has various elements such as valo ...

from the

University College, Trivandrum University College, Thiruvananthapuram, often abbreviated as UCT, is a public college situated in Palayam, Thiruvananthapuram, India. Established in 1866, it is one of the oldest colleges in Kerala. The college has been accorded "College with Pot ...

. Subsequently, he joined

Presidency College, Madras Presidency College is an art, commerce, and science college in the city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, India. On 16 October 1840, this school was established as the Madras Preparatory School before being repurposed as a high school, and then a gra ...

Malayalam department as a faculty where he had the opportunity to be in touch with M. Govindan, the noted writer, which helped him in the studies of

Tamil language Tamil (, , , also written as ''Tamizhil'' according to linguistic pronunciation) is a Dravidian language natively spoken by the Tamil people of South Asia. It is one of the longest-surviving classical languages in the world,. "Tamil is one of ...

. He started his career as a teacher in

Madras Chennai, also known as Madras ( its official name until 1996), is the capital and largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost state of India. It is located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal. According to the 2011 Indian ce ...

but returned to Kerala to work at Sree Neelakanta Government Sanskrit College Pattambi before joining the Brennen College, Tellicherry where prominent politicians

Pinarayi Vijayan Pinarayi Vijayan (; born 24 May 1945) is an Indian politician who has served as the List of chief ministers of Kerala, Chief Minister of Kerala since 25 May 2016. A member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), politburo ...

and A. K. Balan were his students. Ravi Varma was married to Sree Devi and the couple resided in Trichur. Ravi Varma died on 26 July 2019. He was 88 and was undergoing treatment for pneumonia in a private hospital in Trichur.

Legacy

Ravi Varma's poems ignored the metre and used free verse and he was one among the group of poets who pioneered modernism in Malayalam literature. His oeuvre consists of several poems compiled under three anthologies, translation of four novels from Tamil which include two of

Sundara Ramaswamy Sundara Ramaswamy (30 May 1931 – 15 October 2005) was an Indian novelist, poet, translator, and literary critic, widely considered to be a preeminent figure in post-Independence Tamil literature. His notable works include "'' Oru Puliyamarat ...

and one of Rajathi Salma, two books of translation of Tamil poetry and an edited work of poems of young writers. It was Ravi Varma who translated the ''Bhakthi poems'' on the Malayalam calendar in

vattezhuthu script ''Vatteluttu'' (, ' and , ', ), also transliterated as ''Vattezhuthu'', was an alphasyllabic or syllabic writing system of south India (Tamil Nadu and Kerala) and Sri Lanka formerly employed for writing the Tamil and Malayalam languages. The ...

published by Moozhikulam Sala.

Awards and honours

Attoor Ravi Varma received the

for his poetry anthology, ''Attoor Ravi Varmayute Kavitakal'' in 1996 and he received the Asan Smaraka Kavitha Puraskaram in 1997, the same year as he received the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Translation for ''Oru Pulimarathinte Katha'', his translation of the debut novel by

. The

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 off ...

chose the anthology, ''Attoor Ravi Varmayute Kavitakal'', for their annual award in 2001 and the second part of ''Attoor Ravi Varmayute Kavitakal'' fetched him the P. Kunhiraman Nair Award in 2005. The Government of Kerala honoured Ravi Varma with their highest literary award of Ezhuthachan Award in 2012 and three years later, he received the 2015 ''Vani Samnvay Distinguished Translator Award''. The

inducted him as a distinguished fellow in 2017. He is also a recipient of the

Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize or Sahitya Akademi Prize for Translation is a literary honour in India, presented by Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, given to "outstanding translations of creative and critical works" in 24 ...

by Kendra Sahitya Akademi, Premji Award, E. K. Divakaran Potti Award,

Deviprasadam Trust Award This is a list of literary awards given for Malayalam–language. Abu Dhabi Sakthi Award Akkitham Award Akkitham Award was established in 2021 by Thapasya Kala Sahithya Vedhi in memory of prominent poet Akkitham Achuthan Namboothiri. The aw ...

(2010),"Awards, Trusts and Scholarships: 2. Deviprasaadam Trust"
Namboothiri.com. Retrieved 3 January 2023. and Mahakavi Pandalam Kerala Varma Kavitha Award. ''Maruvili'' is a documentary film made on the life and work of Ravi Varma, directed by Anvar Ali.

Bibliography

Poetry

* * * * *

Translation from Tamil to Malayalam

* * * * * * ''Bhakti kavyam (Translation of Nayanars and Azhvars)''

Edited poems

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Varma, Attoor Ravi 1930 births 2019 deaths Writers from Thrissur district Poets from Kerala Malayalam poets Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Malayalam Recipients of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award Recipients of the Ezhuthachan Award University College Thiruvananthapuram alumni 20th-century Indian poets Indian male poets 20th-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian poets Indian male novelists 20th-century Indian male writers 21st-century Indian male writers