AK Ramanujan

AK Ramanujan [ raːˈmaːnudʒən ] ( Attipat Krishnaswami Ramanujan , born March 16, 1929 in Mysore , died July 13, 1993 in Chicago ) was an Indian - American Indologist , poet and translator . Ramanujan lived most of his life in the United States and taught at the University of Chicago from 1962 until his death . As a scientist, he was primarily concerned with the regional and folk traditions in Indian culture. In addition, Ramanujan was active as a poet in both English and Kannada . He is considered one of the main representatives of modern English-language poetry from India and was posthumously awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1999. In addition to poems, he also wrote short stories and novellas on Kannada. Ramanujan also published a number of highly regarded translations of classical literary works in Tamil and Kannada, including poems from ancient Tamil sangam literature and from medieval religious poetry in Kannada and Tamil.

Life

In India

AK Ramanujan was born on March 16, 1929 in the city of Mysore in what is now the Indian state of Karnataka . He came from a family of Tamil Brahmins from the Iyengar (Ayyangar) caste . Both parents had immigrated to Mysore from what is now the state of Tamil Nadu : his father came from Triplicane , a district of Madras (Chennai), and his mother from Srirangam . The father AA Krishnaswami Ayyangar (1892-1953) was a mathematician and professor at the University of Mysore . Ramanujan was named after the famous mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan (1887–1920), a specialist of his father, whom he greatly admired.

In his childhood, AK Ramanujan grew up in a multilingual environment: the family language was Tamil , the everyday language of the area was Kannada . Ramanujan received his education mainly in English . He also came into contact with Sanskrit through the Brahmin traditions of his family . Ramanujan himself referred to Tamil and Kannada as his " mother tongues " and English and Sanskrit as his " father tongues ". Ramanujan's multilingual background was to shape his later work. On the other hand, he later distanced himself significantly from his Orthodox-Brahmin family tradition, for example by removing his sacred cord as a sign of rejection of the caste system in 1946 . After the death of his father in 1953, he even refused to perform the last rites for him.

Ramanujan attended various English language schools in Mysore during his childhood and youth. In his school days he was interested in both literature and the natural sciences. In 1944 he began studying science at Maharaja's College at the University of Mysore. In 1946 he changed his subject to English studies . During his college years, he wrote his first poems and short stories on Kannada which appeared in local magazines, as well as several radio plays on Kannada which were broadcast on All India Radio . His first drafts of poems in English also date from this period. In 1950 Ramanujan graduated with a Masters in English Literature. After graduating, he worked as a college lecturer in English in various locations in India: Quilon (1950–51), Madurai (1951–52), Belgaum (1952–57) and Baroda (1957–58). He also continued his work as a radio play author on Kannada. From 1958 to 1959 he conducted research in Pune in the field of linguistics .

In the United States

In 1959, Ramanujan came to the United States on a Fulbright Fellowship to do a PhD in Linguistics from Indiana University Bloomington . For his dissertation on the generative grammar of Kannada, he received the Ph.D. in 1963. -Degree. In 1962 he took up a position as Assistant Professor of Linguistics and Dravidistics at the University of Chicago . This university was to remain his place of activity until the end of his life. Also in 1962, Ramanujan married Molly Daniels (1932–2015), a Thomas Christian from India whom he had met a year earlier in the United States. The marriage was divorced in 1971; In 1976, the couple remarried, but divorced again in 1988. The marriage resulted in a daughter (born in 1963) and a son (born in 1965).

In 1966 Ramanujan was promoted to associate professor . In the same year his first collection of poems appeared, and a year later his first translation volume. In 1968 Ramanujan was finally appointed Full Professor of Dravid Studies and Linguistics at the University of Chicago. He kept this position until the end of his life. He has taught at both the Department of South Asian Languages ​​and Cultures and the Department of Linguistics. He was also a member of the interdisciplinary Committee on Social Thought . In addition to his academic work, he continued his literary activity and published two more volumes of poetry in English, three volumes of poetry in Kannada and three other volumes of translation. Ramanujan received several awards during his lifetime, including the Padma Shri Order of the Indian government in 1976 . He has been criticized by some other intellectuals for accepting the award because it was awarded during the time of the state of emergency under Indira Gandhi . In 1983, Ramanujan received the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship , awarded to deserving residents of the United States. In 1990 he was accepted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

On July 13, 1993, AK Ramanujan died unexpectedly at the age of 64 in Chicago from cardiac arrest that he suffered during routine surgery.

Act

As a poet

AK Ramanujan was literary in both English and Kannada . While he published only poetry in English, his work on Kannada also includes prose . Much of Ramanujan's work was created during his time in the United States. Nonetheless, his poetry was received mainly in India, while in America he was perceived more as a translator and essayist. Ramanujan is considered to be one of the main exponents of English-language poetry from India. Along with Nissim Ezekiel (1924–2004) and Dom Moraes (1938–2004), he is one of the pioneers of modernism among English-speaking poets from India. Most anthologies of English-language poetry from India published since the 1960s contain poems by AK Ramanujan. Ramanujan received a number of literary prizes for his poetry , including the posthumous Sahitya Akademi Award in the English category in 1999 .

Ramanujan published three English-language poetry collections during his lifetime: The Striders (1966), Relations (1971) and Second Sight (1986). A fourth collection of poems, The Black Hen, appeared posthumously as part of an edition of Ramanujan's Collected Poems (1995). A number of other uncollected poems were also published posthumously in 2001. The 2004 complete edition contains all four collections of poetry, the uncollected poems and the four volumes of Ramanujan's translations. Some poems from Ramanujan's early work that originally appeared in Indian or American literary magazines and anthologies are not part of the complete edition.

AK Ramanujan published three poetry collections on Kannada: Hokkulalli Hoovilla ("No Lotus in the Navel", 1969), Mattu Itara Padyagalu ("More Poems", 1977) and Kuntobille ("Hopping Around", 1990). He also wrote a novella on Kannada , Matthobhana Atmacharitre ("The Autobiography of Another", 1978) and four short stories . A complete edition of AK Ramanujan's works on Kannada was published in 2011. The Kannada poetry collections and the novella are also available in English translation (2006).

As translator

AK Ramanujan has published a number of highly regarded translations of classical literary works in Tamil and Kannada into English. This includes his translations of poems from Old Tamil Sangam literature . These texts, which probably originated in the first centuries AD, were largely unknown in the West before Ramanujan. Ramanujan himself came into contact with the Sangam works by chance when he came across them in 1962 in the library of the University of Chicago. Ramanujan was very impressed by the aesthetics of sangam literature. In 1967 he published his first translation volume, The Interior Landscape. This contained a selection of 86 poems from the Kurundogai , an anthology of short poems from the genre of love poetry. Another translation volume followed in 1985, Poems of Love and War, which contained selected poems from a wider spectrum of sangam texts and also included the genre of heroic poetry.

In addition to the poems of Sangam literature, Ramanujan also translated works of medieval Bhakti literature (religious poetry) from Kannada and Tamil. In his translation volume Speaking of Śiva (1973) Ramanujan translated a selection of vachanas ( prose poems ) by the Kannada poet saints Basavanna , Dasimayya , Mahadevi Akka and Allama Prabhu . These poets lived in the 12th century and belonged to the Virashaiva movement, a radical current of Shaivism which, among other things, rejected the caste system and Brahmanic ritualism. Ramanujan had already come into contact with the Vachana poems during his college days in Mysore and felt drawn to their radical message, since at the same time he himself revolted against his Orthodox-Brahmanic family tradition. The free form of the Vachanas also appealed to Ramanujan because of its apparent modernity. In addition to the Vachana poems, Ramanujan also translated Bhakti poems by the Tamil poet saint Nammalvar (9th / 10th centuries), the most important of the twelve Alvars (poet saints) of Tamil Vishnuism . This appeared in 1981 in the translation volume Hymns for the Drowning.

Ramanujan's translations have received much attention and are widely regarded as groundbreaking, even if they have been criticized from a post-colonial point of view. You have made a significant contribution to making classical Tamil and Kannada poetry accessible to academic and literary circles abroad. Dealing with the works he translated also influenced Ramanujan's own poetry. The influence of the Sangam poems is particularly evident in his second volume of poems, Relations . In his scientific work, Ramanujan adopted the concept of "inner" and "outer" ( Agam and Puram ) formulated by ancient Tamil poetics , which in the case of Sangam literature describes the two complementary genres of love and hero poetry, as an analytical category.

In addition to his translations of classical literary works, Ramanujan also translated a contemporary kanada-language novel, namely the work Samskara (1966) by the renowned writer UR Ananthamurthy , into English. The translation was published in 1976 under the title Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man.

As a scientist

Ramanujan was a versatile scientist and dealt in an often interdisciplinary manner with subjects as diverse as English and American literature , Dravidian and general linguistics , ethnology , semiotics , poetry and creative writing , Indian literatures (both written and oral ), Indian mythology , comparative Literary studies and literary theory as well as psychology . His methodology was mainly shaped by structuralism . Ramanujan's scientific output consisted of articles and essays . Then there are the widely acclaimed introductions and afterwords to his translation volumes. He never published a scientific monograph .

Ramanujan, who had taught English literature in India and Indian literatures in America, saw himself as a mediator between Indian and American culture. He jokingly referred to himself as the "hyphen in 'Indian-American'". He saw it as the purpose of his scientific work to bring Indian culture closer to a western audience. In contrast to traditional Indology , which usually privileged Sanskrit and the all-Indian Brahmanic high tradition, Ramanujan was more interested in regional and popular traditions. This can already be seen in his translation work, which concentrated on the classical literatures of the South Indian languages ​​Tamil and Kannada and which contained a radically heterodox tradition with the Vachana poems. The Folklore played an important role in his scientific work and culminated in 1991 in the publication of Folk Tales From India, a collection of folk tales from different Indian languages in English translation.

His views on Indian culture sometimes make Ramanujan a controversial figure. In 2011, a controversy arose at the University of Delhi when, under pressure from Hindu nationalist student groups, Ramanujan's 1991 essay Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation from the reading list of its history course. In his essay Ramanujan discusses the plurality of the numerous versions in at least 22 languages ​​in which the ancient Indian Ramayana epic has been transmitted. From the point of view of the Hindu nationalist activists, the doubts expressed there about the canonicity of the Sanskrit version of Valmiki were "blasphemous" and insulted "the faith of millions of Hindus". Large parts of the academic world, however, reacted with incomprehension to the decision to withdraw the essay.

List of works

Books of poetry in English

• The Striders. London: Oxford University Press, 1966.
• Relations. London / New York: Oxford University Press, 1971.
• Second sight. New Delhi / New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.
• The Black Hen. In: Vinay Dharwadker (Ed.): The Collected Poems of AK Ramanujan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995. [Published posthumously.]

Books of poetry on Kannada

• Hokkulalli Hoovilla. Dharward: Manohar Granthamala, 1969. [English: No Lotus in the Navel. In: AK Ramanujan: Poems and a Novella. Translated by Tonse NK Raju and Shouri Daniels-Ramanujan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006.]
• Mattu Itara Padyagalu. Dharward: Manohar Granthamala, 1977. [English: And Other Poems. In: AK Ramanujan: Poems and a Novella. Translated by Tonse NK Raju and Shouri Daniels-Ramanujan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006.]
• Kuntobille. Dharward: Manohar Granthamala, 1990. [English: Hopscotch. In: AK Ramanujan: Poems and a Novella. Translated by Tonse NK Raju and Shouri Daniels-Ramanujan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006.]

Prose in Kannada

• Maduraiyalli Ondu Thale (short story). In: Kirthinatha Kurthukoti (ed.): Nadedu Banda Dari. Dharwad: Manohar Granthamala, 1965.
• Annayanna Manava Sastra (short story). In: GB Joshi (ed.): Innastu Hosa Kathegalu: Hannondu Kathegala Sangra. Dharwad: Manohar Granthamala, 1972. [English: Annayya's Anthropology. Translated by Narayan Hegde. In: Ramachandra Sharma (Ed.): From Cauvery to Godavan: Modern Kannada Short Stories. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1992.]
• Mattobhana Atmacharitre (novella). Dharwad: Manohar Granthamala, 1978. [English: Someone Else's Autobiography. In: AK Ramanujan: Poems and a Novella. Translated by Tonse NK Raju and Shouri Daniels-Ramanujan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006.]
• Ondu Dinachariya Kelavu Dinagalu (short story). In: Ramakant Joshi and S. Divakar (eds.): AK Ramanujan Samagra. Dharwad: Manohar Granthamala, 2011.
• Ellara Moogina Kathe (short story). In: Ramakant Joshi and S. Divakar (eds.): AK Ramanujan Samagra. Dharwad: Manohar Granthamala, 2011.

Translations

• The Interior Landscape. Love Poems from Classical Tamil. Bloomingtom: Indiana University Press, 1967.
• Speaking of Siva. New Delhi: Penguin Books, 1973.
• UR Ananthamurthy: Samskara: A Rite for a Dead Man. New Delhi: Oxford University, Press, 1976.
• Hymns for the Drowning: Poems for Visnu by Nammalvar. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.
• Poems of Love and War: From the Eight Anthologies and the Ten Long Poems of Classical Tamil. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985.

Collections

• Selected Poems. New Delhi / New York: Oxford University Press, 1976.
• The Collected Poems of AK Ramanujan. Edited by Vinay Dharwadker. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995. [Complete edition of the four English-language volumes of Ramanujan's poetry.]
• The Collected Essays of AK Ramanujan. Edited by Vinay Dharwadker. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1999.
• Uncollected Poems and Prose: AK Ramanujan. Edited by Molly Daniels-Ramanujan and Keith Harrison. London / New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001.
• The Oxford India Ramanujan. Edited by Molly A. Daniels-Ramanujan. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004. [Complete edition of all English-language poems and translations by Ramanujan.]
• AK Ramanujan Samagra. Edited by Ramakant Joshi and S. Divakar. Dharwad: Manohar Granthamala, 2011. [Complete edition of Ramanujan's works on Kannada.]

Secondary literature

• Santanu Banerjee: AK Ramanujan's Poetic Theory and Practice. New Delhi: Sunrise Publications, 2009.
• Saranga Dhar Baral: The Verse and Vision of AK Ramanujan. New Delhi: Sarup and Sons, 2008.
• MK Bhatnagar (Ed.): The Poetry of AK Ramanujan. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 2002.
• AN Dwiwedi: The Poetic Art of AK Ramanujan. New Delhi: BR Publications, 1995.
• Sumana Ghosh: AK Ramanujan as a Poet. Jaipur: Book Enclave, 2004.
• Akshaya Kumar: AK Ramanujan: In Profile and Fragment. Jaipur / New Delhi: Rawat Publications, 2004.
• Rama Nair: 'Of Variegates Hues': The Poetry and Translations of AK Ramanujan. New Delhi: Prestige Books, 2002.
• Surya Nath Pandey (Ed.): Millennium Perspectives on AK Ramanujan. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers, 2001.
• Aniruddh Rawat: Episteme of Desire: The Poetry of AK Ramanujan. New Delhi: Adhyayan Publishers and Distributors, 2012.
• Guillermo Rodríguez: When Mirrors are Windows. A View of AK Ramanujan's Poetics. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016.
• Kirpal Singh: AK Ramanujan: The Poet. New Delhi: Vrinda Publications, 1999.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The name of the family's hometown, Attipat , and the name of the father, Krishnaswami , are abbreviated in front, as is customary in South India. Ramanujan is the nickname. Family names are not common in South India.
2. ↑ Guillermo Rodríguez: When Mirrors are Windows. A View of AK Ramanujan's Poetics, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2016, p. 74.
3. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, p. 83.
4. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, p. 74.
5. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, p. 33.
6. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, p. 87.
7. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, pp. 80–86.
8. ^ Obituary for Molly Daniels, Ithaca Journal, November 30, 2015.
9. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, pp. 90–91.
10. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, 97.
11. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, p. 459.
12. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, p. 460.
13. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, p. 461.
14. ^ MacArthur Foundation website: AK Ramanujan .
15. ^ American Academy of Arts and Sciences: Members of the American Academy. Listed by election year, 1950-1999. (PDF, 226 kB).
16. ^ Obituary to AK Ramanujan, The New York Times, July 16, 1993.
17. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, pp. 1–2.
18. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, p. 8.
19. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, p. 465.
20. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, pp. 406–412.
21. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, pp. 493–496.
22. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, p. 305.
23. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, pp. 294–296.
24. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, pp. 364–366.
25. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, p. 350.
26. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, pp. 39–43.
27. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, pp. 383–386.
28. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, p. 91.
29. ↑ Rodríguez 2016, pp. 192–194.
30. ↑ Ajoy Ashirwad Mahaprashasta: “ The Rule of Unreason ”, in Fronline 28.23 (November 5-18, 2011); Soutik Biswas: " Ramayana: An 'epic' controversy ", bbc.com, November 19, 2011.