Marthanda Varma
Book Details
Author(s)C V Raman Pillai
PublisherSahitya Akademi
ISBN / ASINB003DRNQCG
ISBN-13978B003DRNQC9
Sales Rank5,748,888
MarketplaceUnited States 🇺🇸
Description
Language: English
Pages: 382
About the Author
CV. Raman Pillai (1858-1922) is not only one of the earliest Malayalam novelists, but is easily the greatest of them all, CV., as he was popularly known graduated in 1881 from the University of Madras. He was associated with Malayali as its founder-editor and with a few other Malayalam and English dailies and periodicals as a contributor.
Marthanda Varma (1891) is the first of a trilogy of historical novels which C.V. wrote on the royal family of the erstwhile state of Travancore. The other two are Dharmaraja (1913) and Ramaraja Bahadur in two parts (1918-1920). Marthanda Varma on the surface, is a historical romance, but its subtext is a political one of contemporary significance. In the novel there is a subplot with Subhadra at the centre. Through what she does or what happens to her, C.V. is projecting a futuristic vision of the New Woman in the Indian context. The conventional image of the woman is replaced by an imagined figure that was to emerge on the Indian scene. Another unique feature of this novel is the introduction, for the first time, of untouchables, the channans of south Travancore, Hence is fiction asserting humanistic values over and above the taboos and superstitions of yester-years.
B.K Menon (1907-1950) was educated in Ernakulam and Madras He wrote poetry in Malayalam and articles and short stories in English. Marthanda Varma was his first master piece in translation.
Foreword
I have very vivid memories of my father, though I have never seen him. The father in my memories is a young man who reads a lot, is rather critical of sentimentalism, impatient of pretension, a poet and a writer who loves Malayalam and English.
These memories have come to me not from the family, but from his friends who took the trouble to keep track of their friends posthumously born daughter and told her stories of their youth
Pages: 382
About the Author
CV. Raman Pillai (1858-1922) is not only one of the earliest Malayalam novelists, but is easily the greatest of them all, CV., as he was popularly known graduated in 1881 from the University of Madras. He was associated with Malayali as its founder-editor and with a few other Malayalam and English dailies and periodicals as a contributor.
Marthanda Varma (1891) is the first of a trilogy of historical novels which C.V. wrote on the royal family of the erstwhile state of Travancore. The other two are Dharmaraja (1913) and Ramaraja Bahadur in two parts (1918-1920). Marthanda Varma on the surface, is a historical romance, but its subtext is a political one of contemporary significance. In the novel there is a subplot with Subhadra at the centre. Through what she does or what happens to her, C.V. is projecting a futuristic vision of the New Woman in the Indian context. The conventional image of the woman is replaced by an imagined figure that was to emerge on the Indian scene. Another unique feature of this novel is the introduction, for the first time, of untouchables, the channans of south Travancore, Hence is fiction asserting humanistic values over and above the taboos and superstitions of yester-years.
B.K Menon (1907-1950) was educated in Ernakulam and Madras He wrote poetry in Malayalam and articles and short stories in English. Marthanda Varma was his first master piece in translation.
Foreword
I have very vivid memories of my father, though I have never seen him. The father in my memories is a young man who reads a lot, is rather critical of sentimentalism, impatient of pretension, a poet and a writer who loves Malayalam and English.
These memories have come to me not from the family, but from his friends who took the trouble to keep track of their friends posthumously born daughter and told her stories of their youth
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