Changampuzha Krishna Pillai (11 October 1911 – 17 June 1948) was a celebrated Malayalam poet from Kerala, India, known for his romantic elegy Ramanan which was written in 1936 and sold over 100,000 copies. It is a long pastoral elegy, a play written in the form of verse, allegedly based on the life of Changampuzha's friend Edappally Raghavan Pillai. This has also been converted into a movie in 1967. He is credited with bringing poetry to the masses with his simple romantic style. He died of Tuberculosis at a young age of 36. His style influenced the next few generations of Malayalam poetry, notable among them was Vayalar Ramavarma, famous Malayalam lyricist.
A movie based on the life history of Changampuzha is in the planning stage.Born on 11 October 1911 at Edappally, presently part of Kochi City, coming under the Ernakulam District of Kerala State, Changampuzha Krishna Pillai had his elementary education there itself. He completed his school education at Aluva and Ernakulam. College education was from Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram. Later, after working as a clerk in Military Accountant's Office at Pune and at Kochi, he went to Chennai for studying Law, which he could not complete due to financial problems. He later worked in a press at Thrissur. It was during this time he wrote many of his works, though he had started writing even when he was a student. He had to study his own poem at the B.A. Honors class, a rare experience, indeed.
Even though he had only about 25 years of creative period in his life, he became an epic poet, without writing any epic poem following the conventional norms. His legendary pastoral elegy, Ramanan was sold more than 100,000 copies, a record that still stands firm in Malayalam. Famous Malayalam critique Prof. Joseph Mundassery who was the first Education Minister of Kerala State and also the first Vice-Chancellor of Cochin University, was highly impressed reading 'Ramanan', and wrote his own introductory remarks for its 15th reprint praising the elegy.
Changampuzha's other famous works include Vazhakkula, Divyageetham, Yavanika, Bashpanjali, Manaswini, Sankalpakanthi, Devageetha, Spandikkunna Asthimatam, Udyana lakshmi, Patunna Pisachu, novel Kalithozhi and others. He was a close friend of Edappally Raghavan Pillai, another great poet of his time. 'Samastha Kerala Sahitya Parishath', an organisation of Malayalam literary workers had its first convention at Edappally. Changampuzha worked hard for its success.
Changampuzha started a career as a clerk in Port trust. He could not continue there due to health and personal reasons. He took up another assignment at a Printing Press (Mangalodayam) at Thrissur. He got married and became a father of three children. Later, he started suffering from tuberculosis and became bed ridden. Finally in 1948 he died at the age of thirty six and nine months. His body was cremated in the compound of his house at Edappally. An appropriate monument has been erected there, which is visited by the lovers of Malayalam language.
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