RAMANUJAN A.K., 1929-1993
Attipat Krishnaswami
Ramanujan, (attipaT kriSNaswami
rAmAnujan)
(ಅತ್ತಿಪಟ್ ಕೃಷ್ಣಸ್ವಾಮಿ
ರಾಮಾನುಜನ್) was a creative writer
and a scholar with many achievements to his credit. This note does not pay much
attention to his creative output in Kannada as well as English. He has authored
three collections of poems, a novel, two stories and a play in Kannada. All of them
have contributed handsomely to their respective genre. He has published three collections
of poems in English and they have received many accolades.
Ramanujan was born in
The contribution
of Ramanujan cannot be measured on the basis of his
publications in Kannada. He has given new directions to the study of folklore, medieval
Kannada literature and culture studies by his pioneering work in those fields. His
knowledge of many Dravidian languages helped him in his comparative studies. He
could look at things in a Dravidian perspective. The distinction that he made between
the ‘The Great Tradition’ and ‘Little Tradition’ has helped many a scholar in placing
marginalized texts in their proper positions. His method of teaching and his scholarship
as elucidated by a student is illuminating: In the classroom and in his scholarly
articles, formal lectures, and conference papers, he ranged with effortless expertise
over linguistics, anthropology, the history of religions, folklore, and literary
studies, usually covering several South Asian, British, American, and European discursive
traditions. His inter
disciplinary critical and interpretive engagements resulted in a number of influential
articles in the last ten years alone, including "The Indian Oedipus" (
1983 ), "Telling Tales" ( 1989 ), "Where Mirrors Are Windows"
( 1989 ), "Toward a Counter-System: Women's Tales" ( 1991 ), and "Three
Hundred Ramayanas" ( 1991 ).” (Vinay
Dharwadkar, 1994)
He wrote a short monograph ‘Gadegalu’
(gAdegaLu= Proverbs) in 1955. This was a model because
it laid an emphasis on scientific analysis rather than mere collection.
‘A Generative Grammar of Kannada’ published in 1962
by the
Translation was
the forte of Ramanujan. His admirable talent for communicating
in English and his thorough knowledge of Kannada and Tamil facilitated this activity.
“He focused his attention on verse as well as
prose, rendering epic and classical poetry from the ancient period (chiefly works
composed between about 500 B.C. and 500 A.D.), early and late poetic texts from
the middle period (from the eighth to the eighteenth centuries), and poems, short
stories, novelistic fiction, and numerous folk tales from the modern period (the
nineteenth and
twentieth centuries).” (Vinay Dharwadkar,
1994)
A judicious use
of the ideas and applied works of this scholar will go a long way in charting new
grounds in Kannada Studies. A list of his important Works is provided here.
1.
The Interior Landscape: Love Poems from a Classical Tamil
Anthology,
1967
2.
Speaking of Siva, 1973
3.
The Literatures of India. Edited with Edwin Gerow. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 1974
4.
Hymns for the Drowning, 1981
5.
A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India
6.
Poems of Love and War. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985
7.
Folktales from India, Oral Tales from Twenty Indian Languages, 1991
8.
"Is There an Indian Way of Thinking?" in India Through
Hindu Categories, edited by McKim Marriot, 1990
9.
"Where
Mirrors Are Windows",
1989
10.
"Toward
a Counter-System: Women's Tales",
1991
11.
"Three
Hundred Ramayanas",
1991