Unnuneeli Sandesam
Uli Sandamis among the oldest works inMalayalamlanguage.[1]It is asandesa kavyam(message poem), a message written in poetry, on the lines of the famousMeghadūtaofKalidasa.In the case of this work, it is a message written by a lover to his lady-love staying at a far-off place. The message is therefore written as if it is sent through a messenger. The work was written in the 14th century AD, when transport and communications were very limited inKerala.The messenger in the poem is, therefore, acarrier pigeon.Apart from the message proper, the poem gives detailed instructions to the messenger pigeon, including the route to be taken and the landmarks in route.
Besides the literary value of the work, it throws light on the geography of Kerala of that period. It, therefore, reads in part like atraveloguetoo.[2]The journey starts inThiruvananthapuram,the capital of theVenad(Travancore) Kingdom of that day, and ends atKaduthuruthy,a pod bodies mentioned in the poem are not to be seen now.
The poem is written under the pen-nameAmruthanilakshi,and some[who?]believe that it was written in 1362 AD. The exact identity of the author remains a mystery, but it is widely believed[by whom?]that one of the members of theVadakkumkurroyal family.wrote it. An annotated version was published byDC Books.[3]
Notes
[edit]- ^"History of Malayalam Literature".Archived fromthe originalon 4 July 2013.Retrieved19 March2014.
- ^Rahman, Razi."Kalakeralam.com" The Rhythm of Arts "".www.Kalakeralam.com.Retrieved13 July2017.
- ^"Malayalam Books Online".www.puzha.com.Archived fromthe originalon 17 January 2005.
References
[edit]- Unnuneeli Sandesam - Thembattu Sankaran Nair; Published by DC Books, Kottayam; 132 pages.
