Malayalam recognized as a national language by the
Indian Constitution, has the pride of place among the different
languages found in Kerala, for it is the language of nearly 96.5% of
the people. The development of Malayalam Language has a long
history. The origin of the language is still a topic of controversy.
Yet it is safe to assume that Tamil and Malayalam are closely
related, both having their origin from a common stock called
proto-Dravidian or proto-Tamil-Malayalam. This view has been shared
by scholars of the present day.
It has various dialects on the basis of regional, communal, caste
and-occupational factors, Kerala Malayalam had, Vattezhuthu,
Kolezhuthu (older ones), Grandha script (book script) and new
script. Malayalam literature had a rich harvest of all branches
poetry, novels, short stories, drama, literary criticism, prose,
historical works, grammar, dictionary and technical literature.
Tamil is spoken by 2.37 per cent of the people. Tamil was the common
heritage of the people on both sides of the Ghats. Kerala has the
distinction of having produced even some classics.
Besides the above the people of Kerala were also conversant with
several other languages like Tulu, Kan-nada, Konkani, Telugu,
Marathi, Urdu, Hindi and Gujarathi. But these languages had only a
limited exposure.
The four major languages of South India are Tamil, Telugu, Kannada
and Malayalam. The most ancient of these is Tamil and the most
modern, Malayalam. Malayalam is the regional language of Kerala.
In the ancient days the whole of South India consisting of the Chera
(Kerala), Chola and the Pandya kingdoms was together known as
Tamizhakom. An early form of Tamil called Muthamil or Mula Dravidam
was the language of the whole region. Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and
Malayalam slowly evolved from this early Mula Dravidam.
With the arrival of the Aryans in Kerala, probably in the early
centuries of the Christian Era, Sanskrit also became popular. Up to
the 10th century A.D. all the major literary works of Kerala were
composed either in Tamil or Sanskrit. Great classics of Kerala like
the Chilappathikaram by Prince Elanco Atikal — were composed in
Tamil.
However, the colloquial languages of the commoners differed
considerably from the written Tamil. Let us call it early Malayalam.
There are some old ballads written in the early Malayalam. These
songs are called pattu, which means ballad. Tamil letters were used
in their composition as the Malayalam alphabet was of a later origin
(The Malayalam alphabet was evolved in the 17th century A.D. Only).
These are songs on the gaiety of Onam festival, songs propitiating
the divine serpents, war songs, harvest songs etc. which are very
simple, lucid and melodious. But the aristocrats and scholars spoke
Sanskrit and Tamil, and composed literary works in these languages.
KERALA'S CONTRIBUTION TO SANSKRIT
Kerala was a centre of Sanskrit study from ancient days. Sanskrit
was the spoken language of the Nambu-diris. (Malayalee Brahmins) for
centuries. By the end of the 7th century A.D., Kerala became a
flourishing field of Sanskrit literature. Dandin, the famous
Sanskrit author of the 8th cen-tnry A.D., in his work
Avanlisun-ftreekatha refers to the great scholars of Kerala like
Mathrudatta and Bav-arth. It is believed that the reputed Sanskrit
scholars of astronomy like Vararuchi, Bhaskera, etc. belonged to
Kerala.
Prabhakara was a great Mimamsaka philosopher from Kerala.
Sankara-charya's contribution to Philosophy and Sanskrit literature,
such as his commentaries on Brahmasutra, Bhagavatgida, and the
Upanishads as also his philosophical poems like Vivekachuda-mani,
Upadesasaphasri, Mo-hamudgara etc. are well known. The aesthetic
beauty and devotional fervour of his Sivanadalahari and Soundarya
lahari are unsurpassed. King Kulasekhara Alwar (9th century A.D.)
was the author of the famous Sanskrit devotional poem Mukundamala,
which was very popular throughout India and in countries where
Indian culture spread. A verse from it was discovered in a
thirteenth century inscription at Pagam in Burma. Krishnakar-namrita
by Vilumangalam is another famous contribution of Kerala to Sanskrit
literature. During the second half of the sixteenth century,
Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri composed Nar-ayaneeyam, one of the
best devotional lyrics in Sanskrit. It is in the form of an address
to Lord Vishnu of Guruayoor temple.
DIALECTS AND SCRIPTS
Near about 96% of the Kerala people speak Malayalam. There are 4%
Tamil and Kannada speaking peoples in Kerala. Tulu is also spoken
one lakh people. Tamil, Kannada and Tulu speaking peoples are known
as the linguistic minorities.
It is revealing to note that Malayalam shows dialectical variations
on the basis of three factors, namely regional, communal, and
occupational.
Regional dialects
Regionwise Kerala has been divided into the southern, middle and
northern dialects. While the southern dialect shows the Tamil
influence, the northern dialect reflects Kannada -Tulu influence.
This is quite natural on account of intimate interestate contact
among Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. The middle dialect displays
profound Sanskrit influence. At the same time it is significant to
indicate that Malayalam a cosmpolitan character which has made it a
unique language in the whole of the country.
Communal dialects
Another striking feature of Malayalam language is the variations
noted in the dialects of the several communal group, such as
Brahmin, Nair, Ezhava, Harijan, Christian and Muslim. Each has its
own peculiarities as identified by intense lingustic study. These
dialectical variations are chiefly noted in phonetics, phonology,
grammar and vocubulary. The Brahmin and Nair communities
representing the major educated classes among the Hindus represented
dialect with maximum of Sanskrit influence. The Christian dialect on
the other hand has a predominant influence of English Syriac, Latin
and Portuguese words. Arabic and Urdu tint is particularly
predominant in the Muslim diablect.
Occupational Variation
Since Kerala was cut up into rigid caste divisions, occupations
tended to remain concentrated in the hands of occupational groups,
this helped in a big way to invest Malayalam with lot of
occupational variations.
Scripts
Early Malayalam had Vattezhuthu as its script. This remained in
force with fluctuating fortunes until the 18th century when it was
replaced by Kolezhuthu. The term Vattezhuthu is derived from the
circular shape of its character. It is possible that early
phoe-nicians might have 'introduced Vattezhuthu into south India.
Through a process of continuous evolution and change in shape of the
script from round to oblong, Kolezhuthu smoothly took the place of
the earlier script.
The Grandha script was brought into South India by Brahmins and
Kerala was overtaken by this influence. Later, this script was
popularised by Thunchath Ezhuthachan. The modern Malayalam script is
adopted from the Grandha Script.
Malayalam is a very strange language with the complex galaxy of 500
types which is not easy to negotiate for type writing and printing.
Therefore, an attempt was made to reform the Malayalam script with
relatively fewer types. Without introducing any change in their
shape the, Malayalam script was reformed so as to limit the types to
ninety. This new script is being gradually introduced in the state
of Kerala.
