Hridayakumari (1930 – 8 November 2014) was an Indian writer, educator, scholar, translator, and orator. She wrote primarily in the

Malayalam 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 ...

language, and in 1991, was awarded the

Kerala Sahitya Academy Award Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award is given each year, since 1958, by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi (Kerala Literary Academy), to Malayalam writers for their outstanding books of literary merit. The awards are given in various categories.

for her book, ''Kalpanikatha''.

Career

Hridayakumari taught English at several colleges in the state of Kerala during a forty-year career, eventually retiring as the principal of Government College for Women in Thiruvananthapuram in 1986. She had also taught previously at the University College, Thiruvananthapuram; at Maharajas College, Ernakulam;at Brennen College, Thalassery and Victoria College, Palakkad. She won several awards, including the S Guptan Nair award, the Captain Lakshmi Award, and the Shankaranarayanan Thampi award. Following her retirement, Hridayakumari gave public lectures on literature, poetry, and philosophy. She also and served on several government committees that dealt with educational reforms in Kerala, and was the chair of a committee that was created by the Kerala State Higher Education Council to reform college credits and semester structures. She also wrote two books. ''Kalpanikatha'' is a study of

romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

in literature, comparing English and Malayalam poets, such as

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication ''Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

John Keats John Keats (31 October 1795 – 23 February 1821) was an English poet of the second generation of Romantic poets, with Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley. His poems had been in publication for less than four years when he died of tuberculo ...

Percy Bysshe Shelley Percy Bysshe Shelley ( ; 4 August 17928 July 1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets. A radical in his poetry as well as in his political and social views, Shelley did not achieve fame during his lifetime, but recognition of his achie ...

, and

Kumaranasan Mahakavi Kumaran Asan (Malayalam: എൻ. കുമാരൻ ആശാൻ) (12 April 1873 – 16 January 1924) was a poet of Malayalam literature, Indian social reformer and a philosopher. He is known to have initiated a revolution in Malayalam ...

Changampuzha Krishna Pillai Changampuzha Krishna Pillai (Malayalam: ചങ്ങമ്പുഴ കൃഷ്ണപിള്ള; 10 October 1911 – 17 June 1948) was a celebrated Malayalam poet from Kerala, India, known for his elegy ''Ramanan'' (Malayalam: രമണന ...

and

Edappally Raghavan Pillai Edappally Raghavan Pillai (30 May 1909 – 4 July 1936) was an Indian poet of Malayalam literature and a close associate of Changampuzha Krishna Pillai. The pair, the front-runners of romanticism in Malayalam, was considered by many as the Shel ...

. In 1991, ''Kalpanikatha'' won the

Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award is given each year, since 1958, by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi (Kerala Literary Academy), to Malayalam writers for their outstanding books of literary merit. The awards are given in various categories.

. She later published an autobiography, ''Ormakalile Vasanthakalam'', which detailed her experiences as a teacher. Hridayakumari translated several works between Malayalam and English, including her sister, poet

Sugathakumari Sugathakumari (22 January 1934 – 23 December 2020) was an Indian poet and activist, who was at the forefront of environmental and feminist movements in Kerala, South India. Her parents were the poet and freedom fighter Bodheswaran and V. K. K ...

's poetry, as well as works by

Vallathol Narayana Menon Vallathol Narayana Menon (Malayalam: വള്ളത്തോൾ നാരായണ മേനോൻ) (16 October 1878 – 13 March 1958) was a Malayalam poet and one of the triumvirate of modern Malayalam poetry, along with Asan and Ulloor ...

(from Malayalam to English) and by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

(from English to Malayalam). Hridayakumari also translated ''Rathrimazha,'' a Sahitya-Akademi award-winning novel by Sugathakumari, from Malayalam to English.

Personal life

Hridayakumari was born to V. K. Karthyayani, a professor and scholar of Sanskrit, and Bodheswaran, a poet and Indian freedom fighter, in 1930, in

Aranmula Aranmula is a temple town in the state of Kerala, India. It is known as the cultural capital of Pathanamthitta district, located at a distance of around 116 km from Trivandrum, the capital of Kerala, it is situated on the banks of the ...

. Her sisters,

and Sujatha Devi were also writers and social activists. Her daughter, Sreedevi Pillai, is a journalist. She died at the age of 84 on 8 November 2014.

References

{{Authority control 1930 births 2014 deaths 21st-century Indian writers 21st-century Indian women writers 21st-century Indian translators Indian women academics Malayalam-language writers Writers from Kerala People from Aranmula