The evolution of a poet from his childhood days at Nooradikudy, a remote settlement in the Edamalakkudy tribal grama panchayat in the Munnar Forest Division, was not easy as Ashokan Marayur’s poems written in Muthuvan dialect suggest.
It is an effort to portray the life in a village which is cut off from the mainstream.
When ‘Pachaveedu’ received the Kerala Sahithya Academy’s Kanakasree award this year, Ashokan Marayur’s effort in protecting the Muthuvan dialect captured the State’s recognition.
Forest life
There are 30 poems in Muthuvan dialect and over a 100 in Malayalam language. All the poems are closely related to the life of a community living deep in the forest.
Talking to The Hindu over phone, Mr. Ashokan said that Muthuvan language without the lipi (alphabet) was closely linked to Malayalam and Tamil. He said that the award was a recognition of the language of his community.
Ashokan Marayur’s poems trace their roots to the Sangam period.
‘Thina’ tradition had been an inspiration for his poems, he said. Though he started scribbling poems when he was a child, it was kept as a secret. However, when he started high school at Marayur, it caught the attention of the people.
Guide
Mr. Ashokan said that poet P. Raman came there as a teacher and he had given him all support. “It was he who guided me to literature and the world of poems,” he said. He loved his life deep in the forest and it helped him continue his literary pursuits.
‘Pachaveedu’ was published in 2017 and was included in the syllabus of MA Malayalam at the Calicut University.
Mr. Ashokan said that he was lucky as for the first time a fund from Tribal Department had been used for printing ‘Pachaveedu’.
“Gothra bhasha’ (tribal language) has a unique place in our culture. It is something close to our hearts,” he said.
