Mahakavi (Great Poet) Kumaran Asan (a.k.a Kumaranasan) lived in Kerala a century ago. His classical poem titled “Veena Poovu” (The Fallen Flower) is an allegory on the transience of life, symbolised by the various stages in the life of a flower. Ironically, in a way, it depicts the very life of the poet himself, whose death was untimely and it happened at the pinnacle of his fame.
I first came across some of the poems by Asan when I was a school student. We had an abstract of Asan’s classic “Chintavishtayaya Sita” (Sita in Contemplation) in our Malayalam text book. The poem portrayed Sita Devi of the epic Ramayana, abandoned by her husband Sri Ram, sitting under shadows in the falling dusk in Valmiki’s Ashram grounds, in deep thoughts, solitude and sorrow. The poet says that she was so lost in thoughts that the Goddess was not aware that the Sun had already set and the earth filled with moon light, and that she was sitting all alone in the garden. The poet goes on to say that in the breeze from Tamasa river that ‘turned the tingling in the still waters to bloom as water lilies’, the strands of her hair playing in the breeze ‘shone in the moonlight, as though cast in silver’. Asan uses such lyrical expressions in describing the profile and mood of the pensive Sita.
Sita Devi reflects on her past life, especially the years spent with her consort Sri Ram. She expresses righteous indignation at the perceived acts of injustices committed by him, but soon corrects herself and apologises for her criticisms, attributing them to her confused state of mind. Towards the end of the poem we find Sita Devi bidding fare-well to everything around her, before finally returning to mother-nature.
In this poem Asan champions the cause of a woman of spotless character subjected to cruel, unfair and unjust treatment by a patriarchal society. With its original concept, emotional appeal, and philosophical musings, this poem ‘has few equals and none to excel it’.
Another poem I learned in school by Asan was dedicated to the Goddess of Poetry (Kavya Devatha). The poet feels her presence ‘in the slanting doe-eyes (of a beautiful woman) and in the hand-symbol of a sage in deep penance’. Further, ‘She at times bathes in the pool of unending tears of children who have lost their mothers, or, at other times in the rivulets of blood shed by fighting warriors”. So powerful are his expressions in depicting the goddess that the lines still haunt me, long after I learned the poem, way back in school.
Written in 1907, Veena Poovu (Fallen Flower) has been rated as the masterpiece of Asan by many critics. It opened up a new era in Malayalam literature.
It is said that the poet was inspired to write this poem by a fallen flower he noticed on the ground, one day, while walking.
The poet says in the very first stanza of the poem ‘Alas! the flower that once reigned supreme as a queen in its pristine glory, has now faded and fallen to the ground’. That prompts him to reflect on the ephemeral nature of life and fortune.
He describes the various stages in the life of a flower.
In the beginning of the poem, he describes the flower’s birth and infancy.
The mother-plant with loving care,
Enfolded your infant charm in calyx soft;
The gentle breeze came rocking you to sleep
To the lullaby of the murmuring leaves (Credit: KANIC)
After describing its joyous childhood, the poet moves on to the next stage of its life - youth -wherein it transforms into a resplendent bloom. By now ‘its body acquired a certain grace and beauty, expression changing in the face, cheeks glowing, with a new smile playing upon it’. The poet goes on to say that there is no parallel in the world to describe its radiance and beauty--- that even a monk who has renounced the world or a coward running away from his worst enemy - anyone with eyes would have stopped (and stared) at thee (this line is oft-quoted in Malayalam literature to describe any object of stunning beauty).
In the final stanzas of the poem the poet laments the gradual fading away of the flower’s grace and beauty. He expresses shock at fate drawing its clutches upon its tender self. He then goes on to ask ‘Can a hunter, for whom killing is his vocation, discriminate between a vulture or a dove?’ (this line from the poem is also quoted frequently to illustrate how fate doesn’t discriminate)
The poet now describes the flower’s final stage of death and decay. As one reader wrote “The way Asan drew parallels between human death rituals and nature's ways (e.g., spider web forming the cloth that wraps the dead flower, dew drops on it as a garland) is hauntingly beautiful”.
In the last few stanzas the poem reaches its philosophical heights, with a message on mortality of life.
“Retreat O eye, this flower will
Wither, dissolve into dust and be soon forgotten;
Know that this is the fate of all;
What avail are tears? Alas! earthly life is but a dream” (based on translation by KANIC-with minor changes)
My father had presented us children with a book on collected works of great poets in Malayalam. I came across this poem which was included in that book. It was a joy for me to read the poem while I was in college and memorize some of its lines. I subsequently lost the book. However, all through my life I have carried the memory the lines of this beautiful poem. They seem to grow on you. Every time petals from the flowers in my garden fall, I recall Asan’s lines on the life and death of a flower.
Poems based on Buddhist legends
Asan wrote two major poems based on Buddhist legends--- Chandala Bhikshuki and Karuna.
It was while I was in college that I saw a ballet based on Asan’s Chandala Bhishuki (Female Mendicant belonging to Chandala caste).
The poem deals with the story of Ananda, a disciple of Buddha, who while wandering as a mendicant (Bhikshu) on foot through villages, feels thirsty. He comes across a woman drawing water from a well and asks for water. She hesitates, as she was an untouchable belonging to the Chandala community. Ananda, nevertheless, dismisses her protests and nonchalantly accepts water from her. His love and compassion in treating her like a human being, disregarding her caste origins brings enlightenment to the woman. She, later on, joins the Sangam as a nun, renouncing her previous life. Watching the ballet was an uplifting experience.
Karuna is another poem of Asan based on a Bhuddhist tale dealing with sensory attraction and its aftermath. Vasavadutta, a courtesan in North Mathura, famed for her beauty and wealth, gets a glimpse of Upagupta, a Bhuddhist monk walking down the streets, along with his disciples, from her opulent home. She is attracted by the mystique and radiance emanating from the monk’s face (‘like a thousand Suns rising at the same time’). She yearns for him and sends an invitation to him through a maid to visit her. The monk politely declines, saying that ‘the time has not yet come’. Years pass by. Vasavadutta’s waiting yields no result. In the meantime, she is condemned in a murder case and as punishment, her body is dismembered and thrown into a jungle. She lies in pain waiting for her imminent death, attended by a lone maid. By chance, Upagupta passes that way. He stops near her. Seeing her plight, a drop of tear falls from his eyes on her. Vasavadutta, thereafter, dies in peace.
Karuna was made into a popular Malayalam film. Although it was not a commercial success, the film songs based on the poem were big hits. Their haunting melodies were indeed a touching tribute to Asan.
Life of Asan
N. Kumaran Asan (12 April 1873 – 16 January 1924) was not only a great poet of Malayalam literature, but also was a social reformer and philosopher. Along with Vallathol Narayana Menon and Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer, Asan is regarded as one of the trinity of modern Malayalam poetry. He is credited with transforming Malayalam poetry from the metaphysical to the lyrical in the early part of twentieth century.
Asan was born on April 12, 1873 in Kayikkara village, Trivandrum district, Kerala. His father was a trader in coir and copra, but was well-versed in Malayalam and Tamil literature. He also took interest in classical music and Kathakali, which explains Asan’s love for literature and arts. After schooling, although he took up the job of a teacher and later worked as an accountant at a local grocery in 1890, he quit both the jobs to study Sanskrit.
The same year he met Shri Narayana Guru, the great spiritual leader and social reformer of Kerala, and became his disciple. Some compare their relationship with that of Sri Ramakrishna and Swami Vivekananda. But unlike Swami Vivekananda he did not opt for the life of an ascetic. Under the Guru's influence, Asan followed spiritual pursuits and soon joined Guru at his Aruvippuram hermitage. In 1895, he moved to Bangalore to study law, and stayed there until 1898. He was forced to return to his village without completing it, due to the plague epidemic.
Asan spent the next few months in Madras, and, thereafter in Calcutta, where he studied Tarka Sastra at the Central Hindu College. He also studied English simultaneously. He got involved with the Indian Renaissance, but his stay was again cut short , due to plague epidemic. He returned to Kerala in 1900.
He was involved with the activities of the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) and become its secretary in 1904. He founded Vivekodayam, a literary journal in Malayalam, and was its editor. In 1913, he was elected to the Sri Moolam Praja Sabha, the first popularly elected legislature in India. He relinquished the position at SNDP in 1919 and a year later, took over the editorship of Pratibha, another literary magazine in 1921.
He started a clay tile factory, Union Tile Works, in Aluva, but soon abandoned it due to pollution and handed over the land to SNDP. Thereafter, he moved to Thonnakkal, a village in the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, where he settled with his wife Bhanumathiamma, an active social worker, whom he had married in 1917.
His tragic end came due to drowning on January 16, 1924, at the age of 51, when Redeemer, the boat he was traveling capsized in River Pallana.
Works
Asan was a prolific writer. Despite his short life-span, his accomplishments were substantial. Through his poems he explored themes such as the meaning of life, immortality, love, devotion, womanhood, besides social issues like caste inequality and untouchability. His poems were simple, lyrical, and profound, ‘characterised by their moral and spiritual content, as well as dramatic contextualisation’.
Some of his earlier works like Subramanya Sathakam and Sankara Sathakam, were devotional poems, but the later ones dealt with social issues. He wrote Veena Poovu (The Fallen Flower) in December 1907, which is considered a literary classic in Malayalam. With its publication he ushered in a renaissance in Malayalam literature.
Some of his other major works include Prarodanam (1919- Lamentation), an elegy, Khanda Kavyas (poems having only one section or Khanda similar to English poems) such as Nalini (1911) Leela (1914), Chinthaavishtayaaya Sita (1919), Duravastha (1922) Chandaalabhikshuki (1923) and Karuna (1923). Besides, he wrote two epics, Buddha Charitham in 5 volumes (1915-29) and Balaramayanam (1917-21), in three-volumes.
Impact
Kumaran Asan hailed from the Ezhava communtiy, one of the backward communities in Kerala. Till that time the upper castes had monopolized the literary and cultural life of the state. Asan had mastered Sanskrit language, a forte of traditional poets. He decided to ‘outstep the barriers of convention and move out of traditional obscurantism into the lime-light of cultural refinement’. He created a new way of writing poetry, which had both emotional appeal, as well as spiritual luminance.
Women formed the central characters in many of his poems. Asan was greatly influenced by the in women in Buddhistic tales. The women he portrayed were dignified, bold and courageous. They stood up against discrimination and tradition.
Asan is considered to be a poet of love: but the love he preached was of the ethereal kind as could be noted in poems like Nalini, Leela, Karuna and Chandalabhikshuki. These women ultimately realize the true nature of love and fulfilment.
Chintavishtayaya Sita portrayed Sita Devi critically looking at her past life. It is unimaginable that anyone could criticize Lord Ram, especially his consort Sita Devi, pointing out one by one his perceived acts of injustices. But Asan makes Sita regret doing so later in the poem in order to set aside any misgivings on that account, without hurting the religious sentiments of the readers.
His work drew much strength from Buddhism, which challenged the inequalities of caste. Asan was also greatly influenced by the teachings of Sri Narayana Guru. Those influences gave him the courage to take on feudalism and caste system through his poems. A good example is his poem Duravastha in which portrays Savitri, a Brahmin woman, marrying Chathan, a youth belonging to marginalized caste in whose hutment she has taken shelter during a riot.
Asan exhorts in Duravastha “Change your effete traditions yourselves / Or else they will change your own selves” (these lines are often borrowed by political parties and people’s movements to confront the establishment)
Asan faced criticism from several quarters after its publication, but he outlived it due to perhaps the cordial atmosphere created by the Guru’s teachings on ‘One God, One religion and One caste’ at that time, and his own greatness as a poet.
A Memorial to Asan
Asan purchased 03 acres of land in 1921, three years before he died, in Thonnakkal village, located about 25 kms from Trivandrum city. He stayed there with his wife till his very end. Sri Narayana Guru is said to have visited Asan’s home.
As a mark of respect to the great poet, the Government of Kerala acquired Asan's home, along with the surrounding land to establish the Kumaran Asan National Institute of Culture (KANIC), as a memorial for the poet. The foundation stone of the complex was laid in 1958 by the then Chief Minister. The memorial houses an archive, a museum and a publications division.
On an impulse I visited the Memorial some years ago. I was impressed by eco-friendly design and the Kerala- style architecture of the complex, existing in complete harmony with the surrounding greenery. A peaceful and serene atmosphere prevailed in the campus. The garden around the buildings did have a large collection of rare medicinal plants.
I walked around the complex and had a glimpse of various memorabilia, including a replica of a gold bangle (original reportedly stolen) presented in his honour by the Prince of Wales, as well as his personal belongings, and, an impressive collection of his works. There was also a collection of manuscripts of his renowned poems. The attending staff, however, could not satisfy my curiosity about certain corrections Asan made in his own hand, in some of his poems.
An art gallery with a large collection of mural paintings based on Asan’s poems, is a special attraction of the institute.
However, what impressed me most were the twin hutments made of mud and thatched with palm leaves, with a near-by well, standing just behind the main building. One hutment was Asan’s living quarters and the other his work place. One could only marvel at the simplicity of his life. Perhaps, Asan might have been unconcerned about his personal comforts, when all the while his imagination was soaring high in the literary firmament.
Looking out through the window from his humble home Asan might have visualized various characters from his poems coming alive- Sita sitting in deep thought under the dark shade of a tree in the garden bathed in moon light, or Vasavadutta lying in the green woods, with her mutilated body, awaiting her last moments or Budha Bhikshu Ananda asking for water from an untouchable woman from the well. I stood there silently for a moment in reverence.
I learned later that, presently, the sprawling campus also exhibits some of the unique sculptures crafted by the famous artist Kanayi Kunhiraman, drawing inspiration from some of the poems of Asan, including Veena Poovu, Chinthavishtayaya Seetha, Karuna and Duravastha.
The project started in 2005, but was left incomplete due to a dispute between the artist and the administration. But it got restarted in 2018. Now, I believe, the work is complete. Those sculptures were absent at the time when I had visited the Memorial. However, I saw the images of those amazing sculptures.
The images show that the white pillars erected near the entrance blend well with the greenery around. The ground of the Memorial opens towards the first art piece named Swathantryam (Freedom) inspired by Asan’s short poem collection ‘Manimala’. One could only marvel at the genius of Kanayi, the great artist, in visualizing and crafting those extra-ordinary sculptures. I am sure that these art pieces should be offering a unique experience to the onlookers. But one sad outcome of adding those artifacts to this park could be that it no longer would be a place of pilgrimage, but a crowded tourist destination.
While leaving the Memorial, I started reflecting on Asan’s ideas on life and mortality. Then his lines ‘Retreat O eye----' from Veenapoovu kept echoing in my mind.
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(Ref: en.wikipedia.org; www.kanic. Govt. in; malayalamkavithakal.com)
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