V. T. Bhattathiripad

Vellithuruthi Thazhathu Karutha Patteri Raman Bhattathiripad (26 March 1896 – 12 February 1982) was an Indian social reformer, dramatist and an Indian independence activist. He was best known for his contributions in the reformation of the Namboothiri community. He wrote a number of books which include a play, Adukkalayail Ninnu Arangathekku and his autobiography, Kanneerum Kinavum (Tears and Dreams in English) and many critics consider them as notable works in Malayalam literature. Kerala Sahitya Akademi honoured him with distinguished fellowship in 1976.

Biography

V. T. Bhattathiripad, born Raman Bhattathiripad, was born on 26 March 1896 to Thuppan Bhattathiripad and Sridevi Antharjanam in Kaippilly Mana at Mezhathur, Ponnani taluk Malabar District, Madras Presidency, British India (present day Pattambi taluk) , on the bank of River Ponnani. He belonged to the family of Mezhathol Agnihothri on his father's side and had the lineage of Adi Sankara on his mother's side. After early education in the traditional way under Narayanan Othikkan, he studied under Pathakkara Manaikkal Meledam and Muthukurissi Mana Kunjunni Namboothirippad and on completion of vedic studies, he started working as a priest at shornur Mundamuka Sastha temple, owned by Kudalloor Mana. A ten-year-old girl from the neighbourhood taught him Malayalam alphabets and mathematics. He would study English soon after by joining Edakkuni Namboodiri School during which time he also ran a magazine by name, Vidyarthi.

The first marriage of Bhattathiripad did not last long and later he married Sreedevi Antharjanam of Ittyaparambath Illam. Along with M. R. Bhattathiripad, popularly known as MRB, he campaigned for widow remarriage by putting it in practice in his own household; he gave his sister in law. a widow, in marriage to MRB which was the first widow remarriage among Namboothiris in Kerala. Another widow marriage also followed soon which was the marriage of M. P. Bhattathiripad, better known as Premji, who was MRB's younger brother, to Arya, a 27 year old Namboothiri widow and Bhattathiripad, along with E. M. S. Namboothiripad, as well as the couple were excommunicated (Brashtu) by the community leaders.

Bhattathiripad utilised his writing skills as a tool for social reforms and his writings contrasted the social changes that followed the Indian independence movement against the dormant state of Namboothiri community. The staging of his play, Adukkalayilninnu Arangathekku (From the Kitchen to the Stage), which featured Premji as one of the actors, in 1929 at Edakkunni, a village in Thrissur, was an important event in the social reform calendar of Kerala; the play highlighted the discriminatory rituals and practices prevalent in the Namboothiri community, especially the plight of Namboothiti women. The drama also marked a deviation in Malayalam theatre from historical plays to social dramas.

Bhattathiripad's oeuvre consists of a play, a short story anthology, eleven essay compilations and three memoirs, of which Kanneerum Kinavum, the first of his three memoirs, narrates his life from 1896 until 1916 and is a documentation of the Namboothiri rituals and feudalism. The book was later translated into English by Sindhu V. Nair under the title, My Tears, My Dreams and was published by Oxford University Press. The Sreekrishnapuram VT Bhattathiripad College in Sreekrishnapuram, Palakkad district, is named after him.