Malayalam language

:Note: Malayalam is not the Malay language, which is spoken in Malaysia.

Development of literature

The earliest written record of Malayalam is the vazhappalli inscription (ca. 830 AD). The early literature of Malayalam comprised three types of composition:

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• Classical songs known as /Pattu/ of the Tamil tradition
• Manipravalam/ of the Sanskrit tradition, which permitted a generous interspersing of Sanskrit with Malayalam
• The folk song rich in native elements

Malayalam poetry to the late twentieth century betrays varying degrees of the fusion of the three different strands. The oldest examples of /paTTu/ and maniprvAlam respectively are /rAmacharitam/ and /vaishikatantram/, both of the twelveth century.

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The earliest extant prose work in the language is a commentary in simple Malayalam, Bhashakautaliyam (12th century) on Chanakya's Arthasastra. Malayalam prose of different periods exhibit various levels of influence from different languages such as Tamil, Sanskrit, Prakrit, Pali, Hebrew, Hindi, Urdu, Arabic, Persian, Syriac, Portuguese, Dutch, French and English. Modern literature is rich in poetry, fiction, drama, biography, and literary criticism.

Related Topics:
Tamil - Sanskrit - Prakrit - Pali - Hebrew - Hindi - Urdu - Arabic - Persian - Syriac - Portuguese - Dutch - French - English

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