Prof A Sreedhara Menon, one of the greatest writers on Kerala History, is no more. He joins the league of Kesari Balakrishna Pillai, K A Neelakanta Shastri, L K Anantha Krishna Iyer, and other Historians in having written exhaustively on Kerala History. The origin of the birth of the Malayalam year which is called ‘Kollavarsham’, the advent of Sankara advita philosophy and his journey from Kalady in Angamali, a remote village in Ernakulam district to the four corners of India to set up Sankara maths to devote exclusively to the advita philosophy, the Marumakkathayam, a unique martilinear of chronology, only practiced in Kerala, the important role of freedom fighter of Kerala and their inspiration on the younger ones, the Edakal Cave and its engravings which throw light on pre-historic Kerala, have been sketched beautifully by Sridhar Sir.
To those of the younger generation of History enthusiasts, the books on Kerala History penned by Shri Sridhara Menon were invaluable sources of information. Sangam literature and the works of Neelakanta Shastri etc dwelled more on Pandya and Chola, and Pallava dynasties and histories around them, while little was known of the Cheras. Even though Silapathikaram and padattipattu, and other immortal classical works do draw accurate description of the glory of the Chera dynasty, most of the historians of contemporary times dismiss them as fables of the potentates created by the Court poets who do not have any nose for history.
Shri Sridhara Menon has written many historical books, the first one in 1956 on Indian History. He was the Editor of Kerala Gazetteers and invaluable stamp of authority is visible in the pages of the Gazetteers. A Survey of Kerala History published in 1967 was adopted as an authentic history book for teaching Kerala history in the graduate courses. The Journal of Kerala History and the ‘Journal of the Kerala studies’ were his contributions. Sreedharan Master must have written around 25 books covering the various facets of Kerala History. A private publisher published his book, “History of the freedom movement in Kerala”, from which Thakazhi and Keshavdev have heavily borrowed characters for writing their novels on Kerala historical movement.
There may be many in Kerala, who underplay the contribution of Sir C P Ramaswamy Iyer’s contribution as last Diwan of Travancore to the growth of Travancore. Temple Entry proclamation, Radio Station, nomination of freedom fighters to the Assembly, Wellingdon Water supply, widow remarriage, Schools and Colleges, Music college, honouing of vidwans, Swati Thirunal Music College, popularizing Ravi Varma paintings, art gallery, are some of the greatest contributions of Sir C P. It is also worthy of emulation that he did not execute an agreement of lease to provide water to Tamilnadu from Mullaperiyar dam, which was done by an elected government in Kerala, after 30 years of his departure.
Kerala as a classical language and its excellence, Raja Ravi Varma’s contribution as Leonardo-de-Vinci of India, Swati Thirunals music compositions, Kath kali, a dance form unique to Kerala, the great philosophy of Sankara, that life and death is a cycle, as expressed through ‘Bhajagovindam’ song, and the first Jnanapeeda award was won by Poet Snakara Kurup, are some of the events that made great impact on Indian History. The Queen of the Arabian Sea, the Kochi Port itself is a great story of navigation. From early immortal times, Kerala’s ‘Muziris’ had commercial transactions the world over, and a fact forgotten is that Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, came to Muziris even when the world was unaware of these religions. Prof Sreedhara menon, has depicted these eras in his historical traetise about Kerala, rather wonderfully.
Some of his admirers like me, who were enriched by knowledge and wisdom imparted to us by the great Historians, bemoan his death as a great loss to humanity.
When anybody or everybody is conferred DLitt, it is a pity, the Universities in Kerala never thought of honouring a man, who devoted himself for developing the History department of Kerala University.
May his soul rest in eternal peace.
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