Sugathakumari

Sugathakumari was born in Aranmula on 22 January 1934in the modern day southern Indian state of Kerala (then in the Kingdom of Travancore). Her father Keshava Pillai, known as Bodheswaran, was a famous Gandhian thinker and writer, who was involved in the country's freedom struggle. V. K. Karthiyayini Amma, her mother, was a well-known scholar and teacher of Sanskrit.[2] Sugathakumari was the second of the three daughters of her parents, following an elder sister named Hridayakumari, and preceding a younger sister named Sujatha Devi, both of them who excelled in literary field. After graduating from the University College, Thiruvananthapuram, Sugathakumari completed her master's degree in philosophy in 1955, and spent three years researching on the topic of 'Comparative Study of the Concept of Moksha in Indian Schools of Philosophy', but did not complete the thesis.[3]

Sugathakumari during the Fokkana Award distribution ceremony, Thiruvananthapuram (1994)

O. N. V. Kurup and Sugathakumari in September 2013

Sugathakumari's first poem, which she published under a pseudonym in a weekly journal in 1957, attracted wide attention.[4] In 1968, Sugathakumari won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Poetry for her work Pathirappookal (Flowers of Midnight).[5] Raathrimazha (Night Rain) won the Kendra Sahitya Academy Award in 1978.[6] Her other collections include Paavam Manavahridayam, Muthuchippi, Manalezhuth, Irulchirakukal and Swapnabhoomi.[7][8] Sugathakumari's earlier poetry mostly dealt with the tragic quest for love and is considered more lyrical than her later works, in which the quiet, lyrical sensibility is replaced by increasingly feminist responses to social disorder and injustice.[9][10] Environmental issues and other contemporary problems are also sharply portrayed in her poetry.[11][12]

Sugathakumari has been described as among the most sensitive and most philosophical of contemporary Malayalam poets.[4] Her poetry drew on her sadness. In an interview, she said, "I have been inspired to write mostly through my emotional upheavals; few of my poems can be called joyous. But these days I feel I'm slowly walking away from it all, to a world that is futile or meaningless".[13] Sugathakumari's most famous works include Raathrimazha, Ambalamani (temple bell) and Manalezhuthu. Sugathakumari also wrote children's literature, receiving an Award for Lifetime Contribution to Children's Literature, instituted by the State Institute of Children's Literature, in 2008.[14] She also translated many pieces of work into Malayalam.[15][7]

She won numerous other awards for her literary works, including the Vayalar Award and Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literary honour from the Government of Kerala.[16] In 2004, she was given the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Fellowship.[17][18] She won the Saraswati Samman in 2012, being only the third Malayalam writer to do so. She also won the Pandit Karuppan Award.[3] She was the principal of Kerala State Jawahar Balabhavan, Thiruvananthapuram. She was the founding chief editor of Thaliru, a children's magazine published by Kerala State Institute of Children's Literature.[3]

Sugathakumari in 2017

A committed conservationist, Sugathakumari served as the secretary of the Society for Conservation of Nature, Thiruvananthapuram. In the late 1970s she led a successful nationwide movement, known as Save Silent Valley, to save some of the oldest natural forests in the country, the Silent Valley in Kerala, from submersion as a result of a planned hydroelectric project. Her poem Marathinu Stuthi (Ode to a Tree) became a symbol for the protest from the intellectual community and was the opening song of most of the Save Silent Valley campaign meetings.[19] She was the founding secretary of the Prakrithi Samrakshana Samithi, an organisation for the protection of nature. She was also actively involved with various women's movements of the 1970s and served as the chair of the Kerala State Women's Commission.[1]

Sugathakumari also founded Abhaya (refuge), an organisation that provides shelter to female mental patients, after being appalled at conditions in the government-run mental hospital in Thiruvananthapuram.[20][21][22][23]

Sugathakumari received the Bhattia Award for Social Science, the Sacred Soul International Award, the Lakshmi Award for social service, and the first Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra Award from the Government of India for her efforts in environmental conservation and afforestation.[4]

Sugathakumari's husband Dr. K. Velayudhan Nair (died 2003) was an educationist and writer who was an expert in educational psychology.[24] They had a daughter.[11] Sugathakumari's elder sister Hridayakumari was a literary critic, orator and educationist.[23][25] The Kerala government declared Sugathakumari's ancestral house, Vazhuvelil Tharavadu, as a protected monument on her 84th birthday.[26]

Sugathakumari died on 23 December 2020, due to complications of COVID-19, at the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram.[8][27][28]

Civilian honours

• 2006: Padma Shri[13]

Literary awards

Other awards

• 1986: Indira Priyadarshini Vriksha Mitra Award[15]
• 2006: Panampilly Prathibha Puraskaram[65]
• 2007: Streesakti Award[66]
• 2007: K. Kunhirama Kurup Award[67]
• 2009: M.T.Chandrasenan Award[68]

• M. Leelavathi (1980). Malayala kavita sahitya charitram (in Malayalam). Trichur: Kerala Sahitya Akademi.
• T. M. Chummar (1973). Padya sahitya charitram (in Malayalam). Kottayam.
• Mohan Lal (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: sasay to zorgot. 5. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. pp. 4111, 4112.
• K. V. Surendran (ed.). "5. Indian Women Poets: Mapping out New Terrains and 8. Man-Woman Relationship in Kamala Das and Sugathakumari". Indian English Poetry: New Perspectives. 5. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons. pp. 37–50, 62–70.
• Susie Tharu, K. Lalita, ed. (1993). Women Writing in India: The Twentieth century. 2. Feminist Press. pp. 398–401.
• "Sugathakumari". Kerala Tourism. 23 January 2019. Retrieved 23 January 2019.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sugathakumari.

• Abhaya
• Thaliru magazine
• Leading Lights – Smt. Sugathakumari
• Sugathakumari excerpts from an Interview