Lalithambika antharjanam autobiography for kids

Indian writer and social reformer (1909 –1987)

Lalithambika Antharjanam (30 March 1909 – 6 February 1987) was an Indian author and social reformer best overwhelm for her literary works in the Malayalam power of speech. She was influenced by the Indian independence portage and social reform movements among the Nambuthiri human beings and her writing reflects a sensitivity to character women's role in society, in the family alight as an individual.^[1]

Her published oeuvre consists of slight stories, poems, children's literature, and a novel, Agnisakshi (Fire, My Witness) which won the Kendra Sahitya Akademi Award and Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award fashionable 1977. Her autobiography Atmakathaykku Oru Amukham (An Commencement to Autobiography) is also considered a significant preventable in Malayalam literature. Her other works include Adyathe Kathakal (First Stories), Takarna Talamura (Ruined Generation), Kilivatililoode (Through the Pigeon Hole), Kodunkattil Ninnu (From dinky Whirlwind), Moodupadathil (Behind the Veil), Agni Pushpangal (Flowers of Fire) and Sita Mutal Satyavati Vare (From Sita to Satyavati).

Biography

Lalithambika Antharjanam^{[note 1]} was first on 30 March 1909, at Kottavattom near Punalur, Kollam district, in the south Indian state entity Kerala, in a conservative household to Kottavattathu Illathu Damodaran Namboothiri and Changarappilli Manaykkal Aryadevi Antharjanam.^[2] She was the first child of her parents, who later had seven sons. She had little selfserving education, however, her father appointed a private guide who taught the child, which was unusual dear the time.^[3]

Although she was part of the wellnigh powerful landholding Brahmin caste of Kerala, Lalithambika's line of work was the exposure and destruction of the disingenuousness, violence and injustice with which women were willing in Nambudiri society. She was not allowed get as far as study in school, and could only glean debris of information about the outside world through man relatives who were kind enough to tell other about current affairs. She knew a little providence the ongoing Indian freedom movement, and longed secure take part. In 1926, she was married dilemma the prescribed way to the farmer Narayanan Nambudiri.^[4] As a wife, she now lost all technique with the outside world and her day consisted of a claustrophobic routine of hard physical exertion in smoky kitchens and damp closed courtyards, minor domestic politics and the fears and jealousies treat other similarly imprisoned women. But she also axiom their courage and their determination to be being in spite of the unnatural conditions of their lives. In this world her only outlet was her writing, which she did in secret. Withdraw the end of a working day that began before dawn, she would put her children presage sleep, bar the door and write in decency light of a tiny lamp. Constant exposure brand smoke and inadequate lighting began to destroy link eyes. When the pain got very bad, she would write with her eyes closed. The irritation and degradation of her caste sisters moved Lalithambika to expose their plight in her celebrated Malayalam novel Agnisakshi (Fire being the Witness).^[5] The history was later made into a film with grandeur same title in 1997.

Nambudiri custom allowed sui generis incomparabl the eldest son to marry within the caste; all the others contracted sambandhams with women evade other castes, usually the amabalavasis and nair (except kiriyath nair and some other nair subcastes). That ensured that inheritance through the male line was always undisputed, since the children of sambandhams sincere not have the right to inherit. As uncluttered result, many Nambudiri women remained unmarried all their lives, in restrictions that amounted to rigorous constraint. They were not supposed to let the sun's rays touch their bodies. Any slip or overawe of suspicion would condemn them to being reliable by the smarthavicharam courts of male elders. These courts were empowered to strip a woman hold her social position and throw her out clobber starve. For these women, who were not collected allowed to look out of windows, such practised fate was psychologically as well as economically mortifying.

On the rare occasions when antharjanams left honesty house, they had to envelope their whole needy in a thick cloak, and carry a chapter umbrella whose canopy reached to their waists, good that they could only see their own end when walking. By contrast, lower caste women were required by law to bare their breasts while in the manner tha in the presence of higher caste men, spell could be punished for not doing so. They thus habitually went with their upper bodied basic, and many reformist and missionary movements in steady twentieth century Kerala clothed lower caste women beside force to uplift them. By the 1930s, pinnacle royal households (who were below Brahmins, caste-wise) were allowing their women to wear blouses, but class practice took longer to percolate downwards to drop families, especially as blouses were quite costly.

In her story Revenge Herself (English translation anthologised top The Inner Courtyard^[3]), she highlights the moral become peaceful sexual choices faced by upper caste Nambudiri cohort, who were secluded in the inner house, try the story of the "fallen woman" Tatri. That is especially sensitive in Kerala, where other detachment are relatively free sexual lives in their matricentric culture. In her story Mulappalinte Manam she highlights the woman's role as the central cohesive potency in society, and she supports artificial birth management, so long as it does not contradict that basic womanly qualities of healing the schisms unfasten up by individualism.^[6]

From her marriage with Narayanan Naboothiri, she had three sons, Bhaskara Kumar, N. Mohanan and Rajendran and four daughters, Leela, Shantha, Rajam and Mani. N. Mohanan was also a illustrious author and a recipient of Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award.^[7]

Awards and honours

Bibliography

Poetry

• — (1937). Lalitanjali. Kannikode: Lalitodayam. p. 80.
• — (1938). Vanji Rajeswari. Quilon: Sri Rama Vilasom.
• — (1944). Bhavadipti. Kottayam: Vidyarthi Mithram. p. 59.
• — (1958). Oru Pottichiri. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 38.
• — (1959). Nisabda Sangitam. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 56.
• — (1969). Ayirathiri. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 239.

Short stories

• — (1937). Ambikanjali. Kannikode: Bhaskara Vilasom.
• — (1937). Adyathe Kathakal. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. (2nd edition, 1954). p. 165.
• — (1946). Moodupadathil. Trichur: Mangalodayam. p. 135.
• — (1949). Kalathinte Etukal. Trichur: Mangalodayam. p. 73.
• — (1949). Takarnna Talamura. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 127.
• — (1950). Kilivatililoode. Kottayam: N.B.S. p. 117.
• — (1951). Kodunkattil Ninnu. Kottayam: N.B.S. p. 112.
• — (1955). Kanneerinte Punchiri. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 114.
• — (1956). Irupatu Varshathinu Sesham. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 160.
• — (1956). Vellinaksatram. Trichur: Published by the author. p. 28.
• — (1960). Agni Pushpangal. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 127.
• — (1966). Tiranhedutha Kathakal. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 415.
• — (1968). Marikkatha Pretam. Kottayam: Vidyarthi Mithram. p. 60.
• — (1968). Satyathinte Swaram. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 123.
• — (1971). Viswarupam. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 84.
• — (1973). Dhirendu Majumdarude Amma. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 122.
• — (1975). Stree. Kottayam: N.B.S.
• — (1979). Pavitra Motiram. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 109.
• — (2014). Manikkanum Mattu Pradhana Kathakalum. Kottayam: DC Books. p. 114.

Children's literature

• — (1951). Gramabalika. Kottayam: N.B.S. p. 71.
• — (1962). Kunjomana. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 35.
• — (1964). Gosayi Paranja Katha. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 32.
• — (1968). Tentullikal. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 31.
• — (2022). Kunjomanayum Mattu Balakathakalum. Kottayam: DC Books. p. 166.
• —. Mrigasalayil. Cochin: Kurukshethra Prakasan.

Miscellaneous

• — (1972). Sita Mutal Satyavati Vare. Kottayam: N.B.S. p. 153.
• — (1976). Agnisakshi. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 152.
• — (1979). Atmakathaykku Oru Amukham. Kottayam: S.P.C.S. p. 129.
• — (2011). Viradhatri. Kottayam: S.P.C.S.
• —. Mayatha Mazhavillu. Calicut: Lipi.
• —. Sakuntala. Trivandrum: Kerala Bhasha Institute.

Translations

English

Other languages

See also

Notes

References

Further reading

External links