Editing Malayalam literature (section)

==Middle Malayalam==
{{main|Middle Malayalam}}

===Manipravalam===
{{Main|Manipravalam}}
While the ''Pattu'' school flourished among certain sections of the society, the literature of the elite was composed in the curious mixture of [[Sanskrit]] and Malayalam which is referred to as ''[[Manipravalam]]'', ''mani'' meaning ruby (Malayalam) and ''pravalam'' meaning coral (Sanskrit).<ref>Ke Rāmacandr̲an Nāyar (1971). ''Early Manipravalam: a study.'' Anjali. Foreign Language Study. pp.78</ref> ''[[Lilathilakam]]'', a work on grammar and rhetoric, written in the last quarter of the 14th century discusses the relationship between ''Manipravalam'' and ''Pattu'' as poetic forms.<ref>{{cite book|last=Menon|first=T. K. Krishna|title=A Primer of Malayalam Literature|year=1990|publisher=Asian Educational Services|page=9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R9GbBVfrm4gC|isbn=978-81-206-0603-6}}</ref> It lays special emphasis on the types of words that blend harmoniously. It points out that the rules of Sanskrit prosody should be followed in ''Manipravalam'' poetry. This particular school of poetry was patronised by the upper classes, especially the [[Nambudiri]]s. Dramatic performances given in ''[[Koothambalam]]s'', known by the names of ''[[Koothu]]'' and ''[[Koodiyattom]]'', often used Sanskrit and Malayalam. In ''Koodiyattom'', the clown (''vidooshaka'') is allowed to use Malayalam while the hero recites ''slokas'' in Sanskrit. [[Tholan]], a legendary court poet in the period of the [[Chera dynasty|Kulasekhara]] kings, is believed to have started this practice.

The earliest of these works in the ''Manipravalam'' school is ''Vaisika Tantram'' written in the 13th century. It contains about 200 quatrains in Sanskrit metres and is in the form of professional advice given to a prostitute or courtesan by her mother. Each quatrain is composed with care and due weight is given to the rules of rhetoric. Several quatrains of this type are quoted in ''Lilathilakam'' by way of illustration for the several rules of grammar and rhetoric.

The most representative of the early ''Manipravalam'' works are the tales of courtesans (''[[Manipravala champu|Achi Charitams]]'') and the Message Poems (''[[Sandesa Kavya]]s''). ''Unniyachi Charitam, [[Unnichiruthevi Charitham|Unnichiruthevi Charitam]]'' and ''Unniyadi Charitam'' are examples of the former type which is known by the name ''[[Manipravala champu|champu]]''. The ''Padya'' (verse) portion is in Sanskrit metres and the ''Gadya'' (prose) portion is mostly in Dravidian metres. Authorship of ''Unniyachi Charitam'' and ''Unnichiruthevi Charitam'' is not known and only a portion of the works is now available. ''Unniyadi Charitam'', which also exists in a fragmented form, is supposed to be written by Damodara Chakkiar. The ''Sandesa Kavyas'' are an important poetic genre in Sanskrit, and on the model of [[Kalidasa]]'s ''[[Meghadūta]]'' and Lakshmidasa's ''Sukasandesa'', a number of message poems came to be written first in ''Manipravalam'' and later in pure Malayalam. The best known among these ''sandesas'' is perhaps ''[[Unnuneeli Sandesam]]'' written in the 14th century. The poem is written under the pen-name Amruthanilakshi, and some believe that it was written in 1362 CE. The exact identity of the author remains a mystery, but it is widely believed that one of the members of the [[Travancore]] Royal Family wrote it.

The next work to be mentioned is ''Ramakathapattu'', as it is popularly known, though the author calls it ''Ramayanakavyam''. The author is Ayyappilli Asan who lived sometime about 1400 CE at Auvatutura near [[Kovalam]] and whom P. K. Narayana Pillai, who discovered the full text of the book in 1965, calls "the [[Homer]] of Malayalam." ''Ramakathapattu'' contains 3163 songs in 279 ''Vrittas'' or parts.<ref name="Datta">{{cite book |title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature |author=Amaresh Datta |publisher=Sahitya Akademi |page=50 }}</ref>

===Niranam poets===
{{main|Niranam poets}}
While the Manipravala poetry flourished as a diversion from the mainstream, the tradition set up by Cheeraman of ''Ramacharitam''and the more enlightened among the anonymous folk poets was resumed and replenished by three writers commonly referred to as [[Niranam poets]], being [[Niranam Poets|Madhava Panikkar]], [[Sankara Panikkar]] and [[Rama Panikkar]]. They were influenced by the [[Bhakti movement]]. The ''Bhakti'' school was thus revived, and in the place of the excessive sensuality and eroticism of the ''Manipravalam'' poets, the seriousness of the poetic vocation was reasserted by them. It is believed that they all belonged to the same Kannassa family and that Madhava Panikkar and Sankara Panikkar were the uncles of Rama Panikkar, the youngest of the three. Their most important work is ''Kannasa Ramayanam'' which is an important link between ''Ramacharitam'', ''Ramakathapattu'' and [[Thunchaththu Ezhuthachan|Ezhuthachan]]'s ''[[Adhyathmaramayanam]]''. [[Ulloor S. Parameswara Iyer|Ulloor]] has said that Rama Panikkar holds the same position in Malayalam literature that [[Edmund Spenser]] has in English literature.<ref name="Panicker"/>

===Later Champus and Krishnagatha===
The 15th century CE saw two paralleled movements in Malayalam literature: one spearheaded by the ''Manipravalam'' works, especially the ''[[Manipravala champu|Champus]]'', and the other emanating from the ''Pattu'' school and adumbrated in [[Cherusseri Namboothiri|Cherusseri]]'s magnum opus, ''Krishnagatha'' (Song of Krishna). The language of the later ''Champus'' reads more like modern Malayalam than that of the earlier ''Champus'' and ''[[Sandesa Kavya]]s''. ''Champus'' were mostly works of satire and [[hyperbole]] was a regular feature of it. The greatest ''Champus'' of the 15th century is Punam Nambudiri's ''Ramayanam'' which uses Puranic themes and episodes unlike the 14th century ''Champus'' which were tales of the courtesans. Punam was a court poet of the [[Zamorin]] of [[Calicut]]. Punam also wrote a ''[[Mahabharata|Bharatam]] Champoo''. There are also many others, the authorship of which is ascribed to him. The later ''Champus'' came to be used for dramatic oral narration by performing artists in their ''[[Koothu]]'' and ''Patakam''. Mahishamangalam (or Mazhamangalam) Narayanan Nambudiri who lived in the 16th century is the author of some of the best ''Champus'' of all time. The most widely known of these is ''Naishadham'' followed by ''Rajaratnavaliyam'' and ''Kodia Viraham''. ''Chandrotsavam'', whose authorship is unknown, is a long narrative poem written in ''Manipravalam''.

The elitist ''Manipravala'' ''Champu'' school disappeared by the end of the 16th century. The average readers without much grounding in Sanskrit had their favourite poems and poets in the so-called ''Pattu'' school. With the writing of ''Krishnagatha'' by [[Cherusseri Namboothiri|Cherusseri]], the validity of the use of spoken Malayalam for literary purposes received its ultimate justification. Unlike the language of ''Ramacharitam'' and the works of the [[Niranam poets]], the language of ''Krishnagatha'' marks the culmination of a stage of evolution. There is some dispute about the author's name and his identity. Some scholars are of opinion that he was the same as the Punam Nambudiri of the ''Champus''. It is widely believed that Cherusseri lived in the 15th century CE and was the court poet of Udayavarma of [[Kolathunadu]].

===Arabi Malayalam===
{{Main|Arabi Malayalam}}
[[File:ArabiMalayalam_alphabet.png|thumb|right|[[Arabi Malayalam]] alphabet with Malayalam alphabet correspondences]]
The [[Arabi Malayalam]] (also called Mappila Malayalam<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kottaparamban|first=Musadhique|date=1 October 2019|title=Sea, community and language: a study on the origin and development of Arabi- Malayalam language of mappila muslims of Malabar|url=https://mjsshonline.com/index.php/journal/article/view/97|journal=Muallim Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities|language=en|pages=406–416|doi=10.33306/mjssh/31|issn=2590-3691|doi-access=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Kuzhiyan |first=Muneer Aram |title=Poetics of Piety Devoting and Self Fashioning in the Mappila Literary Culture of South India |type=PhD |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10603/213506 |publisher=The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad |hdl=10603/213506}}</ref> and Moplah Malayalam) was the traditional [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian language]]<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kottaparamban|first=Musadhique|title=Sea, Community and Language: A Study on the Origin and Development of Arabi- Malayalam Language of Mappila Muslims of Malabar|date=2 October 2019|url=https://mjsshonline.com/index.php/journal/article/view/97|journal=Muallim Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities|language=en|pages=406–416|doi=10.33306/mjssh/31|issn=2590-3691|doi-access=}}</ref> of the [[Mappila|Mappila Muslim community]] in [[Malabar Coast]]. The poets like [[Moyinkutty Vaidyar]] and [[Pulikkottil Hyder]] have made notable contributions to the [[Mappila songs]], which is a genre of the [[Arabi Malayalam]] literature.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.hindu.com/2007/03/31/stories/2007033110250500.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121108104937/http://www.hindu.com/2007/03/31/stories/2007033110250500.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=8 November 2012|title=Mappila songs cultural fountains of a bygone age, says MT|date=31 March 2007|access-date=15 August 2009|work=[[The Hindu]]|location=Chennai, India}}</ref><ref>Pg 167, Mappila Muslims: a study on society and anti colonial struggles By Husain Raṇdathaṇi, Other Books, Kozhikode 2007</ref> The [[Arabi Malayalam script]], otherwise known as the [[Ponnani]] script,<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Kunnath |first=Ammad |date=15 September 2015 |title=The rise and growth of Ponnani from 1498 AD To 1792 AD |type=PhD |url=http://hdl.handle.net/10603/49524 |publisher=Department of History |hdl=10603/49524}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Panakkal|first=Abbas|url=http://myto.upm.edu.my/find/Record/iium.u537621|title=Islam in Malabar (1460-1600) : a socio-cultural study /|date=2016|publisher=Kulliyyah Islamic Revealed Knowledge and Human Sciences, International Islamic University Malaysia|access-date=27 May 2021|archive-date=27 May 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527064123/http://myto.upm.edu.my/find/Record/iium.u537621|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kallen|first=hussain Randathani|title=Trade and Culture: Indian Ocean Interaction on the Coast of Malabar in Medieval Period|url=https://www.academia.edu/22105661|language=en |website=Academia.edu}}</ref> is a writing system - a variant form of the [[Arabic script]] with special [[orthography|orthographic]] features - which was developed during the early medieval period and used to write [[Arabi Malayalam]] until the early 20th century CE.<ref name="Miller">Miller, Roland. E., "Mappila" in "The Encyclopedia of Islam". Volume VI. E. J. Brill, Leiden. 1987. pp. 458-56.</ref><ref>[https://archive.today/20120912185758/http://www.malayalamresourcecentre.org/Mrc/literature/contribution.html Malayalam Resource Centre]</ref> Though the script originated and developed in [[Kerala]], today it is predominantly used in [[Malaysia]] and [[Singapore]] by the migrant [[Muslim]] community.<ref name=":0">Menon. T. Madhava. "A Handbook of Kerala, Volume 2", International School of Dravidian Linguistics, 2002. pp. 491-493.</ref><ref name="Arabic script for malayalam">[http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/april/Malayalam.html#writ National Virtual Translation Center - Arabic script for malayalam]</ref>