'Mali' - A Tribute

Well before I turned ten (and long before I could read English with any comfort), I was quite intimately familiar with the following:

- Norse sagas of Odin, Thor etc. and legends of Beowulf and Grendel, Siegfried and so on.
- Celtic legends of Finn, Cu Chulainn, the Druids etc...
- Egyptian myths surrounding Osiris, Seth ...
- The Olympian Gods and their (mis)adventures
- The labours of Hercules, the wrath of Achilles ...
- The 'Matter of France' - Charlemaigne and his knights, Roland, Oliver, Roger and Angelica,...
- King Arthur and his Round Table - and the quest for the Holy Grail
- Aztec legends surrounding the ceremonial ball game of Tlachtli
- The Peruvian Deluge Myth - in which a llama saves the world.

Incredible though it may seem, all the above (and a hell of a lot more) were gathered from the very same source - 'Balakathamalika' ('A Garland of Children's Tales'), a single volume condensation of world mythology in (very simple) Malayalam. The compiler was late Madhavan Nair, better known by his pen-name, 'Mali'. '-Malika' was first published in the late 1970's and reissued nearly a generation later under a new title 'Aitihyalokam' ('The World of Legends').

While talking about '-Malika', I am also reminded of Kottarathil Sankunni's 'Aitihyamala', a great compendium of Keralan myths and legends. This much earlier work (1920's) continues to enjoy immense popularity in Kerala and every year a new edition comes out. Of course, it must be mentioned here that Sankunni was not writing for children (and I would say some portions of 'Aitihyamala' had better not be read by primary schoolers). On the other hand, Mali was almost exclusively a (very prolific) children's writer. He neatly retold the Ramayana and Mahabharata (and much else) and also wrote several original stories and novellas for children (including adventures of a desi superhero 'Sarvajit'); for a few years in the late 1970's, he also ran a children's magazine, 'Malika'.

Mali's Indian Mythology retellings continue to be (deservedly) popular and his original stories for children, albeit not of the highest quality, still have their readers. However, 'Balakathamalika', by far his most unique achievement (and arguably his single greatest contribution), has languished in near obscurity. Indeed, the change of its name to 'Aitihyalokam' appears to have been a rather sad attempt to attract attention, perhaps 'reflecting' the popularity of Sankunni's masterpiece.

To give a telling instance of the impact Mali had: I remember remarking, when I first read the story of Rip Van Winkle in English (sometime in high school): "Hey, this story is rather like that of Visu (which I had read in a retelling by Mali)!". I must be among a real handful of Indians who heard of the Japanese Visu before the American Rip!

Note: For non-Mallu children, Mali wrote the script (in English) of the Amar Chitra Katha Volume on Valmiki. He also wrote 'adult' works on Classical Music and also a Kathakali script (Aattakkatha) 'Karnashapatham'.