Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan
Encyclopedia
Thunjathu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan (Malayalam
Malayalam language
Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people...

: തുഞ്ചത്തു രാമാനുജന്‍ എഴുത്തച്ഛന്‍, ; also known as തുഞ്ചത്തെഴുത്തച്ഛന്‍) was an India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

n poet from around the 16th century, known as the father of the Malayalam language
Malayalam language
Malayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people...

 — the principal language of the Indian state of Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

, spoken by 36 million people in the world. In his era, Vattezhuttu, an old script originally used to write Tamil
Tamil language
Tamil is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by Tamil people of the Indian subcontinent. It has official status in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and in the Indian union territory of Pondicherry. Tamil is also an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore...

, was generally used in Kerala to write this language. However, he wrote his Malayalam poems in Arya-ezhuttu, a Grantha-based script originally used to write Sanskrit
Sanskrit
Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

, so that he could accurately transliterate Sanskrit words into Malayalam. His works became unprecedentedly popular, which popularized the writing system adopted by him, and it is the current Malayalam alphabet
Malayalam script
The Malayalam script is a Brahmic script used commonly to write the Malayalam language—which is the principal language of the Indian state of Kerala, spoken by 36 million people in the world. Like many other Indic scripts, it is an abugida, or a writing system that is partially “alphabetic” and...

.

He was born in Trikkantiyur (തൃക്കണ്ടിയൂര്), in the town of Tirur
Tirur
Tirur is a town and a municipality in Malappuram district in the Indian state of Kerala spread over an area of 16.55 km2 . It is birth place of Thunchathu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan, the father of Malayalam literature. Thunchan Parambu is highly venerated and its sand is believed to be sacred. The...

, in Kerala. At that time, it was a part of Vettattnad
Vettattnad
Vettathunad or Tanur swaroopam was a small erstwhile feudal kingdom in southern Malabar on Arabian Sea in southwest India ruled by a Hindu dynasty known as Tanur dynasty, over whom the Zamorin of Calicut claimed certain nominal suzerain rights.The King was called 'raja'or 'thampuran' or...

. His personal name is Ramanujan. Thunchaththu is his “family name”, and Ezhuthachan (schoolmaster) is an honorific title or the last name indicating his caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...

. His name is transliterated in several ways, including Thunchath Ezhuthachan, Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan, and Thunjath Ezhuthachan.

Circumstances of birth and caste

Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan lived in the 19th century, He was born at Trikkantiyur (Trkkantiyur) in the Tirur
Tirur
Tirur is a town and a municipality in Malappuram district in the Indian state of Kerala spread over an area of 16.55 km2 . It is birth place of Thunchathu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan, the father of Malayalam literature. Thunchan Parambu is highly venerated and its sand is believed to be sacred. The...

 municipality, Malappuram
Malappuram
Malappuram is a municipality in the South Indian state of Kerala, spread over an area of 33.61 km2. It serves as the administrative headquarters of Malappuram district. As per the 2011 census Malappuram urban agglomeration is the fourth largest UA in kerala with a total population of...

, Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

. His birthplace is now known as Thunjan Parambu.

According to Arthur Coke Burnell
Arthur Coke Burnell
Arthur Coke Burnell , English scholar in Sanskrit, was born at St. Briavels, Gloucestershire.He was sent to King's College, London, where he met Professor V. Fausböll of Copenhagen, who seems to have turned towards Indian studies a mind that had already shown a keen interest in languages and...

, he was “a low-caste man who goes under the name , a native of in the present [1874] district of Malabar
Malabar District
Malabar District was an administrative district of Madras Presidency in British India and independent India's Madras State. The British district included the present-day districts of Kannur, Kozhikode, Wayanad, Malappuram, Palakkad , and Chavakad Taluk of Thrissur District in the northern part of...

. He lived in the seventeenth century, but his real name is forgotten; Tunjatta being his ‘house’ or family-name, and (=schoolmaster) indicating his caste”. In 1865, Burnell saw the manuscript of the Bhagavata translated and adapted by Thunchaththu, allegedly copied by his sister, preserved at Puzhakkal
Puzhakkal
Puzhakkal or Puzhakkal Padam is one of the business districts of Thrissur city in Kerala state, of India. A decade ago, Puzhakkal was a vast paddy field situated in the two sides of Guruvayur Road. Now, it has become the most developed suburban area of Thrissur city. Major three-wheelers and...

 in the Chittur
Chittur
Chittur is a small town in Palakkad district of Kerala, South India.-Politics:Chittur assembly constituency is part of Alathur .It contains 16 panchayats.-Demographics:...

 taluk, and wrote in his book published in 1874: “The author’s stool, clogs, and staff are preserved in the same place; it thus looks as if was a sannyâsi
Sannyasa
Sannyasa is the order of life of the renouncer within the Hindu scheme of āśramas, or life stages. It is considered the topmost and final stage of the ashram systems and is traditionally taken by men or women at or beyond the age of fifty years old or by young monks who wish to renounce worldly...

 of some order.”
Some sources state that he was born into a Chakkala Nair
Nair
Nair , also known as Nayar , refers to "not a unitary group but a named category of castes", which historically embody several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom bore the Nair title. These people historically live in the present-day Indian state of Kerala...

 family, held low among Savarna Hindu caste system of Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

 and among the Nair
Nair
Nair , also known as Nayar , refers to "not a unitary group but a named category of castes", which historically embody several castes and many subdivisions, not all of whom bore the Nair title. These people historically live in the present-day Indian state of Kerala...

 caste. Some apocryphal legends have that Ezhuthachan's father was a Namboodiri. That version is unhistoric. A few sources claim that he was of the Ezhuthachan caste. A. C. Burnell
Arthur Coke Burnell
Arthur Coke Burnell , English scholar in Sanskrit, was born at St. Briavels, Gloucestershire.He was sent to King's College, London, where he met Professor V. Fausböll of Copenhagen, who seems to have turned towards Indian studies a mind that had already shown a keen interest in languages and...

, a noted Indologist, categorically stated that Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan belongs to the Ezhuthachan caste only. He had stated this when he edited an article written by another important scholar, F. W. Ellis
Francis Whyte Ellis
Francis Whyte Ellis was a British civil servant in the Madras Presidency and a scholar of Tamil and Sanskrit.-Biography:Ellis became a writer in the East India Company's service at Madras in 1796. He was promoted to the offices of assistant-under secretary, deputy-secretary, and secretary to the...

, when he published an article in Indian Antiquery in 1878 after the death of linguist Ellis. In that path-breaking article Ellis articulated the evolution of Malayalam ("Malayanma") and other south Indian languages.

Ellis stated:
"A Brahman without a father must be born of an unmarried female of that tribe, whose celibacy ought to have been inviolate: he is considered, therefore, illegitimate, and has scarcely an assignable place in society. Elutt' Achan, or the 'Father of Letters', was a Brahman without a father, and on that account has no patronymic ... The Brahmans envied his genius and are said to have seduced him by the arts of sorcery into the habit of ebriety ... he enriched the Malayalam with the translations, all of which, it is said, he composed under the immediate influence of intoxication."


To which Brunell added the footnote:
"Eluttachchan [sic] lived in the 17th century; there is no reason for supposing that he was a Brahman father's illegitimate son; he was certainly an Eluttachchan (or schoolmaster) by caste."


Great Malayalam poet and historian Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer
Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer
Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer , commonly known as Ulloor was a famous Malayalam poet and a noted historian. Ulloor was one of the famous triumvirate poets of Kerala, South India in the first half of the 20th century....

 concludes Ezhuthachan as either Chakkala Nair or Vattekattu Nair. Sri K. Balakrishna kurup in his famous book Viswathinte Kanappurangal published by Mathrubhumi
Mathrubhumi
Mathrubhumi is a Malayalam language newspaper that is published from Kerala, India. Mathrubhumi was founded by K. P. Kesava Menon, an active volunteer in the Indian freedom struggle against the British.-History:...

 printing and publishing company Kozhikode
Kozhikode
Kozhikode During Classical antiquity and the Middle Ages, Kozhikkode was dubbed the "City of Spices" for its role as the major trading point of eastern spices. Kozhikode was once the capital of an independent kingdom of the same name and later of the erstwhile Malabar District...

 had stated that Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan belongs to Ezhuthachan caste. Prof. T. B. Vijayakumar, a noted scholar and historian who wrote many articles in prestigious journals, like Mathrubhumi Weekly
Mathrubhumi
Mathrubhumi is a Malayalam language newspaper that is published from Kerala, India. Mathrubhumi was founded by K. P. Kesava Menon, an active volunteer in the Indian freedom struggle against the British.-History:...

, also stated that Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan belongs to the Ezhuthachan caste.

In nutshell, Ezhuthachan was a Kaniyan by caste and had the title Ezhuthu Asan in relation to his teaching service in Ezhuthupalli. In the pre- and early-British ruling era of Kerala, the Kaniyans (traditional astrologers) were the only class who had undertaken the role of teaching letters, grammar, Sanskrit and literature to non-Brahmin communities. So they were known Ezhuthu Asan (Ezhuthachan in the vernacular) but, later, this professional name was adopted by the descendants of families of non-Brahmin disciples of Thunchat Ezhutahchan as a special caste or class. Most of these people were from the Chakkala Nair and Kadupattan castes.

Census reports from 1870 onwards show the Ezhuthachan caste as low Sudra caste.

Mahakavi Kodungallore Kunhikuttan Thampuran, a titan among poets who singlehandedly translated entire Mahabharatham into Malayalam vernacular within short span, stated in an article in a literary journal, Rasikaranjini (edited by himself) that Thunchath Ezhuthachan belonged to Ezhuthachan Caste only.

Father of Malayalam language

According to Dr. K. N. Ezhuthachan, noted scholar, writer, essayist, poet, only Ramayanam and Bharatham belong to him. Others, usually attributed to him, were not really his. According to Dr Ezhuthachan even Uththara ramayanam is not his. Its composition lacks Ezhuthachan's stamp and genius. There may have been many popular keerthanas, namam
Namam
Namam may refer to:*Sricharanam, identification mark of Sri Vaishnavites and Iyengars*Thirunamam, used by Ayyavali...

or japa
Japa
Japa is a spiritual discipline involving the meditative repetition of a mantra or name of a divine power. The mantra or name may be spoken softly, enough for the practitioner to hear it, or it may be spoken purely within the recitor's mind...

m
by other poets, but it was impossible to find a single house in Kerala without Ezhuthachan's Adhyathmaramayanam
Adhyathmaramayanam
Adhyathmaramayanam is the Malayalam version of Ramayana written by Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan in the early 17th Century. It is considered to be a classic of Malayalam literature...

during those dark times of war, disease and famine.

There is no doubt about his contribution to the literary level of the common man. Ezhuthachan taught the people to respect and worship the language and the alphabet, a level of culture which is difficult to find even in the modern era. He refined the Malayalam language style and wrote his works for ordinary people, incorporating whatever is good with a strong sense of righteousness and worship. His contribution to the Malayalam language through the Adhyatmaramayanam (a translation of the Ramayana and Mahabharatham (a translation of the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....

) is unparalleled, and his contribution in the cultural level is immense. His chief original works are said to include the::
  • Keralolpathi
    Keralolpathi
    The Keralolpathi is a Malayalam work that deals with the origin of the land of Kerala. Shungunny Menon ascribes the authorship of this work to Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan, a 17th century scholar of the Malabar region of India. The Keralolpathi is mostly an expansion from an earlier Sanskrit...

  • Hari Nama Keerthanam
    Hari Nama Keerthanam
    Hari Nama Keerthanam is a medieval devotional and philosophical text in Malayalam. Its title translates into English as "The Song of the Holy Name Hari". It was composed by Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan in Kerala around the 16th century...

    (the song of the holy vame "Hari")
  • Ganapatistavam
  • Kilippatu Prasthanam
  • Devi Mahathmayam
  • Kerala Natakam
  • Harihara Sudham



"...[T]he phrase ‘father of language’ is a symbolic reference. Language represents culture. So Ezhuthachan is in fact denoting culture. He shone as a brilliant star above our culture. He renovated the alphabets of heart. We see the light of conscience and moderation in Ezhuthachan. We call him ‘the father of Malayalam language’ because he led the language to a new dimension."
— Chattanath Achuthanunni, chair, Thunjan Festival meeting (1998)

Malayalam alphabet

Until Ezhuthachan’s time, there were a few competing and parallel alphabet systems in use in Kerala (See Malayalam script#History):
  1. Vatteluttu
    Vatteluttu
    Vatteluttu alphabet, also spelled Vattezhuttu alphabet is an abugida writing system originating from the Tamil people of Southern India...

     (Vattezhuthu): A 30-letter alphabet which was taught as the Malayalam alphabet by kalaries or schools to the common people.
  2. Grantha-based alphabet used to write Sanskrit
    Sanskrit
    Sanskrit , is a historical Indo-Aryan language and the primary liturgical language of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism.Buddhism: besides Pali, see Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit Today, it is listed as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India and is an official language of the state of Uttarakhand...

    .
  3. Combinations of Vatteluttu and Grantha (see Manipravalam
    Manipravalam
    Manipravalam was a literary style used in medieval liturgical texts in South India, which used an admixture of Tamil and Sanskrit. Manipravalam is termed a mixture of Sanskrit and Tamil...

    ).


As the influence of the Sanskrit language upon the Malayalam language increased, the Vattezhuthu alphabet was used commonly to write Sanskrit words and other derivations, though distorted. The names of parts of Vedas
Vedas
The Vedas are a large body of texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the oldest layer of Sanskrit literature and the oldest scriptures of Hinduism....

 like Samhita
Samhita
Samhita may refer to"*the basic metrical text of each of the Vedas**specifically, these texts with sandhi applied *post-Vedic texts known as Samhitas:** Ashtavakra Gita...

, Ashtakam, Varggam, Anuvakom were written as changatha, attam, vakkom, anam respectively, in Vattezhuthu. What was written, was not exactly what was read. Works were also written in this way. Vattezhuthu was used with interposition of letters of the Grandhakshara to denote essential Sanskrit phonetics (e.g., in important decrees or shasanas).

One can clearly see the obvious problems that arise from have a multitude of alphabets and mixtures of alphabets used by different people for different purposes at different times.

It would not have been sufficient to just create a new alphabet set, as it would not be accepted in all places easily. Most probably there were different views at that time. The most practical way out was to write a popular Keerthanam (a poetic song) in a standardized alphabet, so that it will be widely used. Ezhuthachan thus composed the Hari Nama Keerthanam
Hari Nama Keerthanam
Hari Nama Keerthanam is a medieval devotional and philosophical text in Malayalam. Its title translates into English as "The Song of the Holy Name Hari". It was composed by Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan in Kerala around the 16th century...

 in his new 51-character alphabet. Since the song was wildly popular, the alphabet grew in use and popularity along with it. The 31-character Vattezhuthu alphabet continued to be taught as the Malayalam alphabet until the British regulations relating to registration of bonds and deeds eventually led to its disappearance.

“Hari Sree Ganapathaye Namah” is also 51 according to the system of counting with alphabets. This method of initiating children to the alphabets was begun by Ezhuthachan according to Prof. K. P. Narayana Pisharody. Ra and zha were used as parishishtam after the 51 alphabets. Malayalam does not have words which begin with these characters, but these alphabets are essential in the language.

It is also believed that Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan contributed to the peace and unity of Kerala in his age because it was a dangerous age of political anarchy. According to Dr. K. N. Ezhuthachan only AdhyalmaRamayanam and Mahabharatham were his. Even the Uthararamayanam was not his. K. N. Ezhuthachan had clearly stated this in his selected works part one published by Kerala Sahitya Academy Thrissur.

The Thunjan Parambu

It was in the Thunjan Parambu that Ezhuthachan modified the Malayalam alphabet and wrote the Hari Nama Keerthanam
Hari Nama Keerthanam
Hari Nama Keerthanam is a medieval devotional and philosophical text in Malayalam. Its title translates into English as "The Song of the Holy Name Hari". It was composed by Thunchaththu Ramanujan Ezhuthachan in Kerala around the 16th century...

 to popularize the 51-letter alphabet. Even centuries after these events, people from around the state come to take sand from the Thunjan Parambu to use in the initiation of their children to the alphabet. Every year, hundreds of people bring their children to Thunjan Parambu to write their first letters during the Vijayadasami festival which falls in October–November. Children are initiated to the world of letters by masters, teachers or parents by holding their fingers and writing the letters in a plate filled with rice. The letters will also be written in their tongues with a golden ring. They write:

"Anpathoraksharavum oronnithenmozhiyil

Anpodu cherkka Hari Narayanaya Nama" — Hari Nama Keerthanam 14th stanza


There is no controversy that the great teacher was the strongest sponsor of the 51-letter alphabet for Malayalam instead of the 30-letter Vattezhuthu.

External links

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