Kumaran Asan

Malayalam Content of the same is published here

N. Kumaran Asan (1873-1924) also known as Mahakavi Kumaran Asan, the name prefix Mahakavi (Awarded by Madras University in the Year 1922) meaning great poet and the suffix Asan meaning scholar or teacher) was a Malayalam poet, philosopher and social reformer.

Kumaran Asan initiated a revolution in Malayalam poetry in the first quarter of the 20th century, transforming it from the metaphysical to the lyrical and his poetry is characterized by its moral and spiritual content, poetic concentration and dramatic contextualization. Kumaran Asan was one of the famous triumvirate poets of Kerala along with Vallathol Narayana Menon and Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer in the first half of the 20th century and a disciple of Sree Narayana Guru.

Kumaran Asan was born in a merchant family belonging to the Ezhava community in April 1873 in Kayikkara village, Chirayinkeezhu taluk, north of Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala, south India. Named Kumaran, he was the second son in a family of nine children. His father, Narayanan Perungudi, was well versed in Malayalam and Tamil. His mother, Kaali. Asan inherited his taste for Kathakali and classical music. Kumaru trained in mathematics and Sanskrit for which he had a passion. Even though through his father’s efforts, he got a job as a primary school teacher and an accountant to a wholesaler at the age of 14, he quit the job two years later to pursue higher studies in Sanskrit. He undertook a studentship in poetry under Manamboor Govindan Asan. He wished to learn Yoga and Tantra and worked as an apprentice in a Muruga temple at Vakkom. He composed a few devotional songs for the benefit of regular worshipers at this temple. In 1890, he met Sree Narayana Guru and became the spiritual leader’s disciple.

In 1917 Asan married Bhanumathiamma, the daughter of Thachakudy Kumaran – younger brother of Padmanabhan Palpu’s father. . Bhanumathiamma, who was an active social worker, later remarried after Asan’s death and died in 1975.

Kumaran Asan and Sree Narayana Guru

Kumaran was dogged by ill-health all through his early life. When he was eighteen, Sree Narayana Guru visited his house at the request of his father. Kumaran was bedridden at that time. The great saint suggested that Kumaran should stay with him and become his disciple. The little boy found the invitation irresistible. Thus began a new phase of life for the young lad.

Swamy took the fledgling devotee under his care and in 1895 Kumaran was sent to Bangalore for 3 years for higher studies in Sanskrit, at the Sree Chamarajendra Sanskrit College. He specialized in Tarka sastra. He could not take the final exam. Leaving Bangalore he came to Madras and after a brief stay, left for Calcutta to join the Sanskrit College(Central Hindu College). His teacher was Mahamahopadhyaya Kamakhya Nath who encouraged the poetic gift of his student and prophesied that he would one day become a famous poet. But his stay was again cut short due to plague epidemic. He returned to Aruvippuram in 1900.

Asan was also involved with the activities of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) and became its secretary in 1904. The same year, he founded Vivekodayam, a literary journal in Malayalam, and assumed its editorship. Under his leadership, the magazine became a monthly from a bi-monthly. In 1913, he was elected to the Sree Moolam Popular Assembly (Sri Moolam Praja Sabha), the first popularly elected legislature in the history of India. He relinquished the position at SNDP in 1919 and a year later, took over the editorship of Pratibha, another literary magazine In 1921, he started a clay tile factory, Union Tile Works, in Aluva but when it was found that the factory was polluting the nearby palace pond, he shifted the project to a site near Aluva river and handed over the land to SNDP for building an Advaitashramam. Later, he moved to Thonnakkal, a village in the periphery of Thiruvananthapuram, where he settled with his wife. In 1923, he contested in assembly election from Quilon constituency but lost to Sankara Menon.

Major works of Kumaranasan

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