Puthezhath Raman Menon

Puthezhath Parameshwara Raman Menon (19 October 1891 – 22 September 1973) was an Indian writer of Malayalam literature. Known for essays, historical writings, biographies and translations, Menon was the first to translate Tagore's works into Malayalam. He was a judge at the Kerala High Court and a recipient of the title, Sahitya Kushalan, conferred on him by the Rajah of Cochin. Kerala Sahitya Akademi honoured him with the distinguished fellowship in 1971.

Biography

Puthezhath Raman Menon was born in an ancient Nair family on 19 October 1891 at Manaloor, in Thrissur district of the South Indian state of Kerala to Kodaykkattu Parameshwara Menon and Pappi Amma "Padmavati". Raman got his family name, Puthezhath, through matrilineal succession.

After completing school education at Church Mission Society Higher Secondary School, Thrissur, he did his regular college education at Maharaja's College, Ernakulam and Madras Christian College before securing a degree in law to start a career as a lawyer at Thrissur. Later, he became a special prosecutor at the Magistrate Court in Thrissur and went on to hold such positions as those of a District Judge and Sarvadhikaryakkar to end his official career as a judge of the Kerala High Court. He was the first to translate the works of Rabindranath Tagore into Malayalam. published in 1942, is one of the small number of books which detail the life of Sakthan Thampuran, the erstwhile Rajah of Cochin. His essays on Thrissur was later compiled as a book, Thrissur Trichur which has details about the cultural history of the place, its literary milieu and about Thrissur Pooram. He was also associated with Kairali magazine, where he worked alongside G. Sankara Kurup and Joseph Mundassery, though there were rumours of a rift between Kurup and Menon due to a remark made by Menon that no Malayalam writers deserved the Jnanapith Award, later won by Kurup in 1965.

Menon, whose autobiography was titled Kazhchappadukal, was conferred with the title of Sahitya Kushalan by the Rajah of Cochin. In 1971, he was inducted as a distinguished fellow by the Kerala Sahitya Akademi.