More than a hundred years ago, The Hindu newspaper introduced a play thus – ‘We have much pleasure in introducing to the notice of the reading public an interesting little drama in Malayalam, composed recently by an educated Nair lady. The authoress, we understand, is a young lady who has already earned a name among the living poets of Malabar, and the work before us is an eloquent testimony to the capacity of a female mind.’ The reference was to Thottakkatt Ikkavamma’s ‘Subhadrarjunam’, the play which is considered by most literary historians as the first Malayalam play written by a woman.
‘Subhadrarjunam’ retells the love story of Subhadra and Arjuna. It reads as an aesthetically compelling piece even today. The language used is clear, evocative and simple. Like most conventional heroines, Ikkavamma’s Subhadra is beautiful but she is also a perceptive maiden who realises right away that the sage she was deputed to serve was no austere celibate but the very man whom she desired, in disguise. Besides, the play adheres so well to the conventions followed by the best Sanskrit plays of the period that Mana Vikrama Ettan Raja puts down in amazement in the preface to the play – “Not more than five in a hundred people will be good Sanskrit scholars, and even if we find a hundred Sanskrit scholars, not more than five among them will have the flair for poetry. This being the situation, it is astonishing that there could be among women who are generally thought to be ignorant, one who is a gifted poet as well as a profound scholar of Sanskrit.”
‘Subhadrarjunam’ does not merely retell an ancient story but Ikkavamma uses it to voice her personal opinions. When Balabhadra, Subhadra’s brother says that it is unnecessary to take into account the girl’s preference in the matter of her marriage, and that the elders’ choice has to be accepted unquestioningly, she makes Krishna remark that just because the elders are obeyed without demur, they must not impose themselves on the women. On the other hand, because they are implicitly obeyed, they must be doubly careful not to impair the wishes of their loved ones. At a time when to say that a play was written by a woman was to deny it an audience, Ikkavamma did not venture to write a new story, but cleverly made a well-accepted, old story serve her purpose.
Ikkavamma had another specific intention too in writing ‘Subhadrarjunam’. She wrote it as a vindication of the literary capabilities of women. The general feeling was that women were incapable of producing good literature. In the sthapana, a sort of prologue to the play, the Suthradhara makes the pronouncement that women are incapable of literature. In reply to this, the actress makes a proclamation, which is one of the earliest assertions of supreme confidence and self-worth by a woman writer in Malayalam.
Didn’t Bhama, the beauteous bride, fight the battle?
Didn’t Subhadra, when in danger, deftly fly the chariot?
Doesn’t Queen Victoria rule the world in glory today?
When women have proved themselves in such myriad ways
Why deem them unfit for poetry alone?
Vidyavinodini , a respected literary journal of the times, edited by C.P. Achutha Menon, wrote – ‘Among the many things done in the province of Kerala to kindle interest in education among women, nothing has been more successful than the act of Ikkavamma... ‘We are simply incapable of this’ is the reply women instinctively make as an excuse for not pursuing education. Such women consider poetry to be quite beyond their powers….Therefore, we believe, (Ikkavamma) merits the title of Thunchath Ezhuthacchan among women.”
O. Chandu Menon commented that he had not found any work as pleasing and as enjoyable as ‘Subhadrarjunam’. Kerala Varma Valiya Koyi Thampuran also remarked, “I have absolutely no reservation in stating that ‘Subhadrarjunam’ excels all other plays written in Malayalam till now in sheer simplicity and sweetness.”
Ikkavamma sent it to all the well-known litterateurs of the time, as well as to dailies and journals, for review. The play was published with the endorsements of eight important literary figures and six dailies and periodicals. The many words of appreciation cited in Ikkavamma’s book are in truth the desperate pleas she sent out to the world to judge her work for what it is worth.
(A fortnightly column on the many avatars of women in Malayalam literature. The author is Associate Professor of English in NSS College for Women, Neeramankara, Thiruvananthapuram)
