Mathuram Bhoothalingam (pen name Krithika) was a

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

writer who wrote plays and short stories in

and English.

Personal life

Krithika was born as Mathuram in a Kannada-speaking family in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

in 1915. At an early age, she moved to

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

where she spent a considerable part of her life. She was married to Subrahmanya Bhoothalingam, an ICS officer from Delhi. The couple have a daughter, Mina Swaminathan. Krithika died in 2009 at the age of 93.

Literary career

Mathuram started writing under the pen name "Krithika" from an early age. Making her debut with the Tamil-language novel ''Puhai Naduvil'', an acid look at the bureaucracy, she went on to write a number of children's stories, novels, and plays based on the ''

puranas Puranas (Merriam-Webster's Encyclopedia of Literature
(1995 Editio ...

''. Her play ''Manathile Oru Maru'' was directed by another famous writer of her time, Chitti ( P. G. Sundararajan), with whom she shared a strong bond of friendship. Chitti even authored a book titled ''An Introduction: Krithika and Mathuram Bhoothalingam''. Midway through her career, Krithika also started to write in English. As Krithika started to write children's books apart from adult-centric stories, she began using her given name. Krithika was one of the first Indian authors to regularly publish children's books in English. Some of her important works in English are ''Movement in Stone'', which looks at early

Chola The Chola Empire, which is often referred to as the Imperial Cholas, was a medieval thalassocratic empire based in southern India that was ruled by the Chola dynasty, and comprised overseas dominions, protectorates and spheres of influence ...

temples and the influence of

Pallava The Pallava dynasty existed from 275 CE to 897 CE, ruling a significant portion of South India, the Deccan, also known as Tondaimandalam. The Pallavas played a crucial role in shaping in particular southern Indian history and heritage. The ...

art prior to the 9th and 10th centuries; and, ''Yoga for Living'' (1996), a contemporary look at the direction of India. ''Vasaveswaram'' is one of her works which focused on women and dealt with issues faced by them in the society. Krithika has also authored books on

Hindu Epics Indian epic poetry is the epic poetry written in the Indian subcontinent, traditionally called ''Kavya'' (or ''Kāvya''; Sanskrit: काव्य, IAST: ''kāvyá''). The ''Ramayana'' and the '' Mahabharata'', which were originally composed i ...

such as

Ramayana The ''Ramayana'' (; ), also known as ''Valmiki Ramayana'', as traditionally attributed to Valmiki, is a smriti text (also described as a Sanskrit literature, Sanskrit Indian epic poetry, epic) from ancient India, one of the two important epics ...

. Her written correspondence with Chitti which spanned over 30 years have been brought together and published in the form of a book titled ''Lettered Dialogue'' by K. R. A. Narasaiah, a relative of Chitti.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Krithika Tamil-language writers Tamil writers 1915 births 2009 deaths Writers from Mumbai Pseudonymous women writers 20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Indian short story writers Indian women children's writers 20th-century Indian novelists 20th-century Indian women writers Women writers from Maharashtra Indian women short story writers Indian women dramatists and playwrights Indian women novelists Indian children's writers Indian Tamil people Dramatists and playwrights from Maharashtra Novelists from Maharashtra 20th-century pseudonymous writers