Niranam poets

Niranam is a small village in southern Kerala, India, near to the town of Thiruvalla. In the 14th century, it was the birthplace of three generations of poets from the same family who became known as the Niranam or Kannassan poets, being Madhava Panikkar, Sankara Panikkar and Rama Panikkar. They were influenced by the Bhakti movement. As Panikkars, they were probably akin to members of the Nayar caste, which makes their claim to mastery of Sanskrit a significant feature because they would have been classed as Shudra in the Brahmanical system of ritual ranking known as varna. Shudras were not supposed to be familiar with that priestly language.[1] They lived between AD 1350 and 1450.

References

  1. ↑ Freeman, Rich (2003). "Literary Culture of Pre-Modern Kerala". In Pollock, Sheldon I. Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia. University of California Press. pp. 465–468. ISBN 9780520228214.