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Vallathol Narayana Menon

Vallathol Narayana Menon popularly known as Vallathol, was one of the famous triumvirate poets of Kerala. others are Kumaran Asan and Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer. He was born in the Palakkad District of Kerala state, India. He died in March 1958.

He is the author of the famous ' Sahithya Manjari '.He got the title,'Mahakavi' for his MahaKaavyam 'Chitrayogam'. He played a primary role in setting up the Kerala Kalamandalam at Cheruthuruthy, near the banks of Bharathapuzha River. Later this place was renamed Vallathol Nagar. He raised Kathakali as a great art form to the level today. He wrote dozens of kavya.

Vallathol wrote predominantly in Malayalam, the language of Kerala. Along with Kumaran Asan and Ullur S. Parameswara Iyer, he was part of a highly creative period in Malayalam literature. Influenced by Tagore, Gandhi, and Marx, as well as by the Sanskrit classics, Vallathol's poetry evolved from its classical beginnings to increasing expression of nationalist and broadly socialist sentiment. He wrote in a variety of forms, using both Sanskrit and Dravidian meters. He did not know English. Vallathol's many works include the mahakavya (a form of epic poem), Chitrayogam (1914), and the narrative poems Magdalena Mariyam (Mary Magdalene, 1921) and Kochu Sita (1928), as well as 11 volumes containing his collected romantic poems entitled Sahityamanjari. In addition to subjects from nature and the lives of ordinary people, Vallathol's opposition to the indignities of the caste system and the injustices suffered by the poor form the themes of many of his poems. His own struggle with deafness from his early twenties also features in some works. Vallathol's poetry has been translated into English and Russian as well as Hindi.

In addition to his poetry, Vallathol also translated the Sanskrit Rig Veda and Valmiki's Ramayana into Malayalam verse, as well as producing a prose translation of the Puranas. He was awarded the prestigious honour of Padma Bhushan by the Government of India in 1955.

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