Edappally Raghavan Pillai

Edappally Raghavan Pillai Biography

Edappally Raghavan Pillai was a romantic poet of Malayalam, who short lived just 27 years. He along with his close friend Changampuzha Krishna Pillai is regarded as the greatest romantic poets of Malayalam literature who gave new dimensions to this genre of literature. Both are regarded as Shelley and Keats of Malayalam poetry. The all-time greatest romantic work of Malayalam, which is still popular among the millions – Ramanan was written by Changampuzha Krishna Pillai, based on the real romantic story and suicide of his dearest friend, Edappally Raghavan Pillai. This immortal work was first published in 1937, one year after Pillai’s death and within 8 years, re-printed more than 15 times. In those days, due to scarcity of this book available in market, people used to write handwritten copies. Already 52 prints have been made, perhaps a record in romantic poetry works. Kesari Balakrishna Pillai compared him to Giacomo Leopardi of Italy.

Raghavan Pillai was born in 1909 at Paravur in Ernakulam district. He was born in a very poor family to Pandavath Neelakanda Pillai and Meenakshi amma. His father was a peon in Excise department and the family survived with the small amount of salary. Raghavan Pillai had a miserable childhood and his father was addicted to alcohol. After his mother’s death, his father remarried adding to his miseries. His grandmother was a maid at Edappally palace. Raghavan showed his writing talents at a younger age and seeing his bad family situation, he was encouraged and financially helped by his teacher, Edappally Palace. He also introduced him to a literary club which helped him to become a budding star.

Raghavan Pillai and Changampuzha Krishna Pillai belonged to Edapally, a suburban area of Ernakulam. Changampuzha was three years junior to him. Though earlier they fought and insulted each other through their literary works, they became close friends later. Adding to miseries, Raghavan taught tuition to a rich girl and very soon he fell in love with her. As he belonged to a poor family, girl’s parents were not at all happy with relationship and Raghavan was forced to leave the place. He stayed with an advocate in Kollam who got the marriage invitation of the girl, with whom Raghavan was in love with. When advocate left the place, he hanged to death on the wedding night leaving a poem, ‘'Nalathe prabhatham' to the press to publish the following day, through which he thanked all his friends. After the death it became a legacy.

He was only 27 when he died and Changampuzha’s Ramanan is based on his love story. He also compiled the works of his friend and published it, titled, Edappally Raghavan Pillayude Krithikal. Thushara Haaram (1935), Nava Saurabham (1936), Hridhaya Smitham (1936) and Maninaadham (1944) are a few selected works of Edapally.

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Updated: February 28, 2014