Lore & Legends of Kerala: Selections from Kottarathil Sankunni's Aithihyamala

by Kottarathil Sankunni, T.C. Narayan (Translator), C.N. Karunakaran (Illustrator)

Kerala, on the south-western coast of India, was described as late as 1838, as 'God's Garden' by German missionary and scholar, Hermann Gundert. Even as this land continues to sustain its reputation, little is known about its social and cultural ethos. Lore and Legends of Kerala is a distillation of 48 of the most sparkling of the 800 or so stories that form Aithihyamala, the definitive collection of the myths and social history of Kerala. Aithihyamala, which was first published in 1909, is a compilation of narratives that were recorded by Kottarathil Sankunni and published by the Malayala Manorama newspaper and its literary journal Bhashaposhini. Peopled by sorcerers, spirits, dynamic women, and snakes and elephants, the stories of this grand collection explore universal human values like faith, commitment to spirituality, respect for elders, reverence for parents and mentors, love for the young, and compassion for dependants. Significantly, the stories range across all the religious groups of Kerala. A representative selection of the themes and stories of this classic work, this book includes illustrations by leading Malayalee artists C.N. Karunakaran and Namboodiri. This book has been designed to appeal to young readers who will find the stories interesting and the illustrations delightful, as also for enthusiasts of Indian literature and culture and general readers.

208 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2009

About the author

Kottarathil Sankunni is a well-known author of Malayalam literature. He made huge contributions in both poetry and prose. He started compiling the legends of Kerala in 1909 and completed the work in eight volumes over a quarter of a century. "Aithihyamala" (Garland of Legends), is a collection of stories of legends prepared by Kottarathil Sankunni. The works on the legends were collected and published by Sankunni in the famous Malayalam literary magazine of the nineteenth century, the Bhashaposhini. Later, they were collected in eight parts and published by the Reddiar Press in Quilon, sometime in the early twentieth century. India's first writers' cooperative, the National Bookstall started publishing these articles as collections on behalf of the 'Kottarathil Sankunni Memorial Committee' in 1974 and later this was taken up by another publisher, D. C. Books, in 1991. Such is their popularity that, from 1991 till 2004 almost 150,000 copies of these stories were distributed.

Reviews

[Devi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Firstly, the most noticeable aspect about this book are the simple but unique sketch-like illustrations. Next, the stories are written in an adorable, easy to follow "once upon a time" style.
This book comprise a medley of stories that range over diverse protagonists: royals, priests, teachers, sages, professionals like astrologers, physicians; saints, magicians, thieves, commoners, foreigners, supernatural creatures, gods, animals etc.
A major part of the set of narratives in the book are presented as folklores, anecdotes with little or some degree of credibility. A good example of this is the story of the Brahmin medical student, Vakbhatacharian who infiltrates the Muslim community to study medicine.
However, some other stories do possess greater historical authenticity as in the story titled, "A Foreigner's Faith". The story proceeds to narrate how a resident British dewan, Mr. Munroe was saved by the Kerala deity, Shri Padmanabhaswami when he was forced to make a hard choice concerning the succession of the Travancore state-throne.
In short, all the stories in the book provide a link to Kerala and Keralite culture of the past --- ranging from ancient, medieval to early modern period. Selected from the original work, "Aithihyamala" --- a garland of legends--- published in 1909, the stories reveal surprising facets of ancient kerala society; a number of them are surely worth mentioning. For e.g, were you aware that people of all castes in ancient Kerala took an interest in martial arts and were allowed to pursue this as a hobby or profession?
The book also features a glossary of cultural terms used in Kerala of the past.

[Anand Ganapathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good collection of tales - hope the translator brings out companion volumes to this book.

[Blessy Abraham · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting set of folktales from Kerala.

[Vijai Jayaram · Rating 3 out of 5]

quick read...esp for a foreigner or non mallu who gets some insight into Kerala folklore....including ppl like kayamkulam kochunni, kadamatathu kathannaar, etc