N. Kumaran Asan (1873-1924)

The high tide of renaissance was brought into Malayalam literature by a variety of influences. The familiarity our poet acquired with British romantic poets was one of them. There were in 19th century Kerala, as in 18th century England, a number of precursors of the Romantic movement.

One of the most gifted of them was V.C.Balakrishna Panikkar (1890-1915)-"the marvellous boy" of Malayalam poetry. In his short life he was able to make a tremendous breakthrough in the language and sensibility of Malayalam poets. His most important poems are Oru Vilapam and Viswaroopam. The former, "A Lament" is a major elegy in Malayalam. The lover who is lamenting the death to his lady in an epidemic of cholera is the focus of our attention here. The opening quatrain presents him "as seated facing a lamp that continued to burn while he could not even push its wick". One quatrain must suffice to illustrate his intensity and power of phrasing:

The freshness that comes of beauty,
The frame arising from poetry,
The prestige due to scholarship,
The pomp on account of martial skill:
All virtues so described knock at the same gate
And merge at the end into the same ultimate
Source of all.