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