Akavoor Narayanan was a

Malayalam language Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

writer, scholar and critic from

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

, India. His most important work is ''Venmani Prasthanam'', which is a study on the nineteenth century Malayalam poetry movement known as '' Venmani Movement''. He has authored more than twenty books, including three Aattakkathas.

Biography

Narayanan Nampoothirippad was born in 1929 at Akavoor Mana in Vellarapilly,

Aluva Aluva (; also known by its former name Alwaye) is a town in the Ernakulam District in Kerala, India. It is a part of the Kochi metropolitan area and is situated around from the city center on the banks of Periyar River. A major transpor ...

of present-day

Ernakulam district Ernakulam, ; ISO: ''Eṟaṇākuḷaṁ'', in Malayalam: എറണാകുളം), is one of the 14 districts in the Indian state of Kerala, that takes its name from the eponymous city division in Kochi. It is situated in the central part o ...

. As a child he studied

Vedas upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the '' Atharvaveda''. The Vedas (, , ) are a large body of religious texts originating in ancient India. Composed in Vedic Sanskrit, the texts constitute the ...

and

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

. After passing intermediate at

Union Christian College, Aluva Union Christian College, Aluva (known as UC College) is a college affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam. It is one of the earliest colleges in India to be established and managed by Indian Christians. It was founded in 1921 by four ...

, degree in chemistry from University College, Thiruvananthapuram and post graduate degree in Malayalam literature with first class, he became Malayalam lecturer at Sree Kerala Varma College, Thrissur and worked there for nine years. Then in 1968, he became a lecturer of Malayalam in the Department of Modern Languages at the

University of Delhi Delhi University (DU), formally the University of Delhi, is a collegiate central university located in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 1922 by an Act of the Central Legislative Assembly and is recognized as an Institute of Eminence (IoE) ...

and continued there till he retired in 1994. Narayanan has written reviews of Malayalam books in the Hindu daily since 1950. He has also written several articles and books on

Kathakali Kathakali ( ml, കഥകളി) is a major form of classical Indian dance. It is a "story play" genre of art, but one distinguished by the elaborately colourful make-up and costumes of the traditional male actor-dancers. It is native to the M ...

. He has also served as chairman of the International Center for Kathakali and editor of ''Pranavam'' magazine. He was appointed Malayalam Sub Editor of the Directorate of Audio Visual Publicity in Delhi in 1961 and later became the Malayalam Editor of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR). Narayanan, who was a member of the Malayalam language advisory board of several institutions including

Aligarh University Aligarh Muslim University (abbreviated as AMU) is a public central university in Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, which was originally established by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan as the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College in 1875. Muhammadan Anglo-Orienta ...

, Punjab University, UPSC, CBSE and UGC, was also served as advisor at the Civil Service Training Academy in

Mussoorie Mussoorie is a hill station and a municipal board, near Dehradun city in the Dehradun district of the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is about from the state capital of Dehradun and north of the national capital of New Delhi. The hill st ...

Personal life and death

He and his wife Gowri Antharjanam have 3 children. He died on 2 December 2009 at

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

Works

* * * * * Essays * * * * *''Kavi Kokilam'' (attakkatha) *''Uthara Ramayanam'' (attakkatha) *''Sreeramodantham'' *''Krishi Bodhini'' * (translation) *''Perspectives'' (essays in English) * * (memoirs)

Awards and honors

Kerala Sahithya Akademi Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South Cana ...

Endowment Award 2005 for ''Akavoorinte Lokam''

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Narayanan, Akavoor 1929 births 2009 deaths Malayalam-language writers Indian literary critics People from Ernakulam district 20th-century Indian male writers University College Thiruvananthapuram alumni