O.V.Vijayan

Ootupulackal Velukkuty Vijayan (July 2, 1930-March 30, 2005) was an Indian author and cartoonist, an important figure in modern Malayalam language literature.

Born in the Palakkad district of Kerala, India, he graduated from Victoria College in Palakkad and got his masters degree in English literature from Presidency College in Madras. As a child, he was largely home-schooled.

Vijayan brought about a sea-change in Malayalam literature: so much so that it can be divided into pre-Khasak and post-Khasak eras, named after Vijayan's pioneering first novel. The former era was romantic and formal; the latter is modernist, post-modernist and post-post-modernist, with tremendous experimentation in style and content. In a way, Vijayan released Malayalam fiction writing from the shackles of tradition.

Vijayan wrote his first short story, "Tell Father Gonsalves", in 1953. He went on to write five novels and translated most of his own work into English. His first and most famous novel, Khasakinte Itihasam (The Legends of Khasak, 1969) tells the story of a teacher named Ravi dispatched to a newly created school in remote Khasak. He wrote many other novels, short stories, essays and satire. He was also a cartoonist. The famous malayalam poet OV Usha is his sister.

O V Vijayan was almost certainly India's foremost fabulist in the recent past. An extraordinary writer with enormous range, he wrote everything from a semi-fictional history of his feudal-landlord family, 'Generations' to the scatological 'The Saga of Dharmapuri'. The sweep of his writing is evocative of such giants as William Faulkner and Gabriel Garcia Marquez. See an interview with him at http://us.rediff.com/news/2005/mar/31intera.htm

While Khasak continues to be his best-known work as an angry young man, his later works, The Eternity of Grace, The Path of the Prophet and Generations bespeak a mature transcendentalist.

While he lived outside Kerala for most of his adult life, spending time in Delhi and in Hyderabad (where his wife Teresa was from), he never forgot his beloved Palakkad, where the 'wind whistles through the passes and the clattering black palms'. He created a magical Malabar in his works, one where the mundane and the inspired lived side-by-side. His Vijayan-land, a state of mind, is portrayed vividly in his work.

O V Vijayan was unlucky not to win India's principal literary prize, the Jnanpith, possibly because he did not endear himself to the political powers-that-be through his trenchant cartoons. Vijayan's fans were also perennially hopeful that the Nobel Prize would finally recognize him.

Vijayan struggled with Parkinson's Disease for many years -- an irony for a gifted cartoonist -- and died from organ failure in a Hyderabad hospital at age 75.

Novels

• Khasakinte Itihasam (The Legends of Khasak)- 1969

The first novel of Vijayan, appeared in 1969, took twelve years’ writing and rewriting to to reach its present form. It set off a great literary revolution and cleaved the history of Malayalam fiction into pre Khasak and post Khasak. It appeared serialised first and in book form later. The novel is on Ravi, a teacher in an informal education centre in Khasak and his existential crises. The central character is a great visionary in Astrophysics who completed his post graduate programme in Physics from the famous college at Thambaram. The novel ends when Ravi provokes a to snake to bite on his feet and gradually begins his journey to some other realms of existence.

• Dharmapuranam (The Saga of Dharmapuri)- 1985

Dharmapuranam( The Saga of Dharmapuri) is outwardly a great political satire where the author knows no restraint in lampooning political establishments. The language, the setting, and the characters are intended to create as great as possible abhorence towards the tools and means of governanace.The central character is Sidhartha, modelled after the illustrious predecessor of the same name, who lends a supernatural enlightenment to those who are attracted by his enchanting personality. Beyond the apparent level of political meaning the novel keeps in store spiritual and environmental levels of meaning also.

• Gurusagaram (Eternity of Grace)- 1987

The third novel differs in language, vision and characterisation from the earlier works. It is on the immanence of Guru in the life of the seeker. Guru is everywhere and is manifested in everybody. The seeker partakes of the grace of the Guru as he happens for him unawares and unconditional.The central character is a journalist from Kerala, working in Delhi, going on an assignment to report the Indo-Pak war of 1971. He undergoes an excruciating experience both spiritually and physically to learn how to annihilate all forms of ego.

• Madhuram Gayathi - 1990

This novel has been termed as "a fantastic allegory fusing mythology, spirituality and ecology".

• Pravachakante Vazhi (The Path of the Prophet)- 1992

This novel emphasises the vision that intuition is perennial and it is one and the same always. This oneness of the revelation makes the ways of all prophets the same. This great education in spirituality is got in those barbarous days of Delhi when the Sikhs were maniacally hunted after and mercilessly butchered following the murder of Indira Gandhi.

• Thalamurakal (Generations)- 1997. See a review at

[1] Vijayan’s recently completed novel Thalamurakal is autobiographic to a great extent. It is historic to a still greater extent. Beyond autobiography and history the novel is a journey down the collective experiences of a family in search of an awareness about oneself and his clan.This search is of great importance when the collective experiences of the subculture are very bitter and the individual sense of the clan identity is very superior. The novel is a narration of four generations in Ponmudi family in Palakkad, Kerala.

Other Creations

He has written many volumes of short stories, the first volume of which was published in 1957 - Three Wars. He has also written many essays, and also published one book of cartoons - Ithiri neramboke, Ithiri Darshanam (A Little Pastime, A little Vision)- 1990.

O V Vijayan's best known collection in English is 'After the Hanging and other stories' which contains several jewel-like masterpieces, in particular the title story about a poor, semi-literate peasant going to the jail to receive the body of his son who has been hanged; 'The Wart' and 'The Foetus' about the trauma of the fascist Emergency; the transcendental 'The Aiport', 'The Little Ones', and several others.

An incisive writer in English as well, Vijayan translated most of his own works from Malayalam to English. His 'Selected Fiction' has been published as an omnibus volume by Viking Penguin India.

Short Stories

Short Stories of Vijayan(1978) Oru Neenda Rathriyude Ormakkayi(1979) Asanthi(1985) Balabodhini(1985) Kadaltheerathu(1988) Kattu Paranja Katha(1989) Poothaprabandham and Other Stories(1993) Kure Kathabeejangal (1995) O V Vijayante Kathakal (2000) Novel

Collection of Essays

Khoshayathrayil Thaniye(1987) Oru Sindoora Pottinte Orma(1987) Sandehiyude Samvadam(1988) Vargasamaram Swathwam(1988) Kurippukal(1988) Ithihasathinte Ithihasam(1989) Haindavanum Athihaindavanum(1998) Andhanum Akalangal Kaanunnavanum(2001) Satire Ente Charithranewshana Pareekshakal(1987)

Cartoons

Ithiri Neramboke, Ithiri Darsanam(1990)

Translations into English

After the Hanging and other stories The Saga of Dharmapuri The Legends of Khasak Infinity of Grace O. V. Vijayan:Selected fiction

Awards

• 1970- Odakkuzhal Award, for Khasakinte Itihasam
• 1990-State and Central Academy awards of Gurusagaram
• 1991-Vayalar Award for Gurusagaram
• 1992-Muttathu Varkey Award for Khasakinte Itihasam
• 2001-Vijayan gets Ezhuthachan Award

External links

• Vijayan interview
• BBC obituary
• DC Books
• A memoir
• Excerpt from the Legends of Khasak