Remembering the past in the text aithihyamala: A negotiating space of vernacular literary culture in Kerala
Author(s): Anu Balachandran
Abstract: This article is an attempt to explore a twentieth century vernacular text, produced in the Kerala, engages with its past through the recounting of folktales, fables and legends. With the popularization of Print in the nineteenth century, and the resultant distribution across people and regions, the text, being printed widely, has become a part of the popular culture of Kerala. The text, I would take up for analysis, Aithihyamala, though the stories of the text explicitly represent the existing social hierarchy and caste structure of the pre-colonial era, questions the notion of caste, gender and conventions of the society, and creates a parallel universe in the Vernacular printed literary culture of the twentieth century Colonial Kerala.
Anu Balachandran. Remembering the past in the text aithihyamala: A negotiating space of vernacular literary culture in Kerala. Int J Hist 2025;7(9):106-109. DOI: 10.22271/27069109.2025.v7.i9b.525
