Century-old poems in public domain

Ten children’s poems that are more than a century old can now be read by anyone across the world, courtesy the students of Government SNDP Upper Primary School here.

The students, as part of the Reading Week celebrations, have contributed the poems, compiled by poet and essayist Kerala Varma Valiya Koil Thampuram in 1910 as a textbook for primary school students of the erstwhile kingdom of Travancore, to the e-library of Wikipedia.

The textbook titled ‘Padya Padavali’ was also the first collection of Malayalam poems for children.

The students, who were guided by their teachers A. Gradison and S. Kannan, have completed the typing work. The poems will be formally launched into the e-library by writer Ezhumattoor Rajaraja Varma at a function to be held at the school on Monday evening.

The poems selected are ‘Prarthanakal’ by Kerala Varmma Valiya Koil Thampuran, ‘Koel’ by A.R. Raja Raja Varma, ‘Samayam’ and ‘Kali’ by Pandalam Kerala Varma, ‘Pusthakam’ by K.C. Keshava Pillai, ‘Thengu’ and ‘Vazha’ by Azhakathu Padmanabha Kurup, ‘Gurubhakthi’ by Naduvathur Achan Namboodiri, ‘Ente Amma’ by P. Padmanabha Pillai, and ‘Prabhatham’ by Oduvil Unnikrishnna Menon.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-kerala/article3567660.ece