How the Jnanpith Award-winning Akilan filled Kalki’s shoes

CHENNAI: ANCIENT Tamil was a poetic language and most of its creations were in verse. With the European influence, storylines and formats changed. And the onset of the printing press speeded up the transformation.

The first Tamil novel was published in 1879- Prathapa Mudaliar Sarithiram, and this opened up the tide gates and prose overtook poetry in print.

It was the golden period of Tamil prose when Kalki wielded his pen. In a way, it was a boon. But there were a few cons as well. Kalki’s great reach happened because he had a magazine under his control and with no editor above. He had the freedom so much that any writer would give his right hand for. Obviously, there were very few successful Tamil novelists during Kalki’s time, but with his untimely death, a host of them rose to fill the vacuum and Akilan was one.

Pudukottai, the only princely State within the Tamil speaking lands, was a creativity hub. Superstars from silent movies, to dancers like Rukmini Devi, were from the land. Ironically, freedom of speech was restricted in the State. There were only murmurs of freedom talk in the restrictive royal realm. Even Bharathi’s poetry was banned.

It was at that time Akilan was born. There was a stark contrast in his childhood lifestyles. Akilan’s mother was from Karur, which was a hotspot of the freedom movement. Akilan, on his visits there observed nationalism in its peak with theatre on erstwhile rebellious kings like Kattabomman, frequently held in every nook and corner of the town. His maternal uncles were frequently in and out of jail for sedition. It was also the time of Gandhian influence. This is how we find Gandhian influence in many of his writings. Towards the end of his life, charmed by the soviet’s, Akilan would later change his childhood stance and even say in contrast that Gandhian philosophy failed the nation. As a student, he would participate in the picketing of toddy shops, and protests against the use of imported garments.

Akilan lived alternately in two diverse political areas, which molded his creativity. One of his friends, who braved the ban on Bharathi books, got him a smuggled copy. Akilan would later recall that it changed his life. Many of his novels are fictionalised accounts of the sufferings of freedom fighters.

Akilandam aka Akilan, was born to a village Munsif in Pudukottai, into a family of relative affluence. The family was rich and socially important. Akilan’s first day to school was celebrated on the scale of a wedding. But soon his father lost his job and poverty encircled them. He finished school with his mother selling papads on the streets to support him. Obviously, family circumstances did not help him proceed further. By then he had learnt English, and read most of the European classics. His first short story was published in his school magazine when he was in class 10. His teacher, at first, refused to believe a school boy could have formed such an organised storyline.

After getting his short stories published in some magazines, one of his stories was accepted by the legendary Kalki magazine. He was paid a fee, but his story was edited to fit the page space. A furious Akilan would refuse to write for Kalki thereafter. It was ironical that his legendary books came as serials in the same magazine later.

For sustenance, Akilan would join the postal department as a letter sorter with the railway mail service. He would board the night trains and sort letters by address before dawn and the destination. In 1945, Kalaimagal magazine announced a competition for Tamil novels. Akilan, traveling sleeplessly on the railway mail service, managed to write one novel which was clearly the best. Encouraged by his success, he quit his postal job and struggled economically for seven years. Finally, unable to sustain he joined the All India Radio.

The radio station brought out his best. Akilan penned historical novels to plays, travelogues, short stories, and even children’s books, and was noted for his realistic writing style. However, critics would say most of his stories, whether historic or contemporary, were woven around a love triangle.

He had written about 45 titles, most of which have been translated not only in many Indian languages, but even English, German, Czech, Russian, Polish, Chinese, and Malay.

Several of his novels were made into movies. Shivaji Ganesan acted in Pavai Vizhakku. For his last movie, MGR would choose Akilan’s story on Pandiyan resurgence- Kayalvizhi, and picturise it as Madurai Meetta Sundara Pandiyan.

Akilan’s Chithirapaavai received the first Jnanpith to be awarded to a Tamil writer. His Vengaiyin Mainthan on Rajendra Chola had earlier got the Sahitya Akademi award.

Though his pen name was not a drastic difference from his given name, it meant “one of the earth” which was very true with his realistic writing. Akilan always believed the writer’s life experiences contribute to success in the literary field. He would say the writer gives back to society by writing what society gave him as experiences in the first place.

In addition, the Jnanpith citation would mention his ethical fervor and symmetry of artistic design in writing.

— The writer is a historian and an author