Sooranad Kunjan Pillai – The first ever recipient of Ezhuthachan Puraskaram, the highest literary honour of Malayalam literature

Padma Shri Sooranad P. N. Kunjan Pillai (1911 – 1995) was well-known scholar, writer, historian and lexicographer from Sooranad, Kollam district of Kerala. Apart from being an educator and authoring more than 150 textbooks for high school classes, he compiled Malayalam dictionary Malayala Maha Nighantu and also Malayalam translation of Kathasaritsagara. Kerala Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 1976, Padma Shri in 1984, Vallathol Award in 1992 and first ever Ezhuthachan Puraskaram in 1993 are the major honours received by him. He was also known as a grammarian, literary critic, orator etc.

Sooranad Kunjan Pillai was born in Sooranad near Sasthamkotta in the district of Kollam. He completed his higher studies from University College, Thiruvananthapuram, and took master’s degrees, in Sanskrit in 1934 and in Malayalam in 1935. Later he taught at many schools and colleges till his retirement, along with his literary career. He began his teaching career as an English teacher in St. Joseph School, Thiruvananthapuram. He became the Chief Editor of Malayalam Lexicon, University of Kerala in 1953 and retired in this position in 1971.

He wrote books in Malayalam, English and Sanskrit, and was best known as a scholar of Malayalam language. He published his first work Smashanadeepam, a collection of poems in 1925 while he was a school kid. Amba Devi, Kalyana Sowdam and Pushpanjali are his published novels. Vathil Thurappathukal, Kuchelavrutham, Sabhapravesampan and Leelathilakam are among his published poetry collections. He has also authored biographies, essays, literary criticism, plays and short stories. He was married to C. Bhagavathi Amma and had three kids.

Sooranad Kunjan Pillai – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. He was a polyglot who knew Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi, English and Sanskrit languages.

2. Secretary of Text Book Committee, assistant secretary of education to the Government of Kerala, the honorary director of the Kerala University Manuscripts Library, member of Indian Historical Records Commission, member of University of Kerala Faculty of Oriental Studies, president of Sahithya Parishad etc are some of the major positions held by him.

3. He wrote more than 1000 forewords for the books authored by his contemporary writers.

4. Sooranad Kunjan Pillai Award has been instituted in his memory.