KUMARANASHAN

Ashanashaya gambheera.., meaning Kumaranashan wrote poems about life and death. His veena poovu (the fallen flower) is very famous. It is an elegy about the flower which attracted all and everybody liked to pluck it and adorn his hair, is now lying on the ground, only to be trampled upon  by all.  It is symbolic and implies a girl.

Ashan  is the first poet belonging to the backward class, Ezhuvas. He did not marry. He went out on a tour of India and came back as a Budhist. “nalini”is an autobiographic poem.  The theme of “vasavadatha” is also that of a Budhabikshu. Vasvadatha is a prostitute whom she loved, but he sends back the maid, saying the time has not come.

“Did you not tell him, I want his love only, not money?” she asks the maid. Years passed and she is involved in a serious crime and sent away, after cutting off her legs.  She lies in a remote place, attended by the faithful maid. The Budha Bhikshu then approaches the prostitute and gives her the much needed advice about life, which would have been ignored in her hey- day. I wept when I first read this poem.

His “duravastha” is a critic of contemporary society.

Alas! He died in a boat accident, drowned in the lake “Pallana chalu”

“Kunju kunjalakalal, pallanachalinnuma kannnerin katheparanjozhukayavam” ( The gentle waves of Pallanachal, may be singing the elegy on his tearful life)