Edappally Raghavan Pillai | |
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| Born | (1909-05-30)30 May 1909 Edapally,Kingdom of Cochin, British India |
| Died | 4 July 1936(1936-07-04) (aged 27) Kollam, Kerala, India |
| Occupation | Poet, writer |
| Nationality | Indian |
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Edappally Raghavan Pillai (30 May 1909 – 4 July 1936) was an Indian poet ofMalayalam literature and a close associate ofChangampuzha Krishna Pillai.[1] The pair, the front-runners of romanticism in Malayalam, was considered by many as theShelley andKeats combination ofMalayalam poetry.Kesari Balakrishna Pillai compared Pillai to the Italian poet,Giacomo Leopardi.
Raghavan Pillai was born on 30 May 1909, at Elamakkara, nearEdapally inErnakulam district of the south Indian state ofKerala to Pavathu Neelakanda Pillai and Kalyani Amma, in a family with limited financial means.[2] His mother died when he was young and his father, who was an alcoholic, remarried;[3] he could not get along well with his step mother.[4] His early schooling was at a local school in Ponekkara after which he completed middle school from the English School inEdapally Chuttupadukara before completing his high school education from a school inCheranellore and later atSt. Albert's HSS, Ernakulam; he passed the 10th standard examination only on the second attempt. During this period, he worked as a private tuition teacher and he fell in love with one of his students who came from a rich family in Edapally. The girl's parents discover it and forced him to leave Edapally.[3]
Pillai moved to Thiruvananthapuram where he stayed with a friend by name M. Balakrishnan Nair and worked at various establishments viz. Bhashabhivardhini Book Depot,Sreemathi weekly andKerala Kesari magazine as well as at a local grocery shop as their accountant.[2] He also tried unsuccessfully to pass Vidwan examination. WhenKerala Kesari was closed down, he moved toKollam where he was accommodated by V. M. Narayana Pillai, a known lawyer and a relative of the girl he loved.[4] It was here he learned about the marriage of the girl when the lawyer received her wedding invitation. On 4 July 1936, when the lawyer was away from home to attend the girl's wedding, Pillai, aged 27, bathed himself clean and wore a jasmine garland before killing himself.[5] His body was found the next morning, hanging from a tree.[6]
Raghavan Pillai was a close friend ofChangampuzha Krishna Pillai and the friends were referred to asEdapally poets[7] or as thetwins of Edapally.[8] Both the poets were exponents ofromantic poetry[9] which earned them the epithet,Shelley andKeats combination ofMalayalam poetry.[10][11] It is believed that thepastoral play,Ramanan, byChangampuzha is anelegy based on the life and death of his friend Raghavan Pillai.[1]
Kesari Balakrishna Pillai likened Pillai to the Italian poet,Giacomo Leopardi.[12] Pillai's body of work comprisesSudha,Chillikkashu,Thushara Haaram (1935),Nava Saurabham (1936),Hridhaya Smitham (1936) andManinaadham (1944), the last one considered by many as his best work.[13]Ramanan has since been adapted as afeature film, into aKadhaprasangam byKedamangalam Sadanandan and into a music album.[7] A memorial was built atMulamkadakam in Kollam, the place where Pillai killed himself.[14]
Pillai wrote a poem,Naalathe Prabhatham (Tomorrow's Sunrise), the day before his death and sent it toMalayalarajyam press with instructions to publish it the next day.[3]Maninadam, The poem he wrote shortly before his death opens as:[15]
മണിമുഴക്കം! മരണദിനത്തിന്റെ | The bell tolls; It is the sweet knell |
Changampuzha wrote a short poem,The Broken Flute, mourning the loss of his friend which reads as:[8]
നീലക്കുയിലെ, നിരാശ്രയാം നിൻ നീറും മനസ്സുമായ് നീ മറഞ്ഞു | O blessed nightingale You have vanished with your scourging despair |
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