Antharjanam: Memoirs of a Namboodiri Woman

What was it like to be a Namboodiri woman 80 years ago?

Ending the silence of centuries comes this startling murmur: the first full-length account of a Namboodiri woman’s life describing a world long gone. Told without a trace of self-pity, Devaki Nilayamgode’s work is a remarkable achievement in the domain of personal and social history.

In the enormous Pakavoor Illam, their hours filled with sombre ritual baths and plain clothes, denied flowers or jewellery, left to the care of maids and deprived of parental love, young Namboodiri girls grew up unseen and unheard by the rest of the household. Only the rare visits of traders or physicians enlivened an otherwise cheerless life. The memoirs unfold a variety of experiences that range from changing agricultural practices and esoteric medical ones like indigenous systems of anti-snake-venom treatment to the gradual erosion of the community’s wealth and unquestioned social power. With time, the winds of change brought radical ideas into these dim interiors.

While J. Devika’s detailed Introduction contextualizes the great changes the author describes, the many evocative illustrations by one of Kerala’s most famous artists transport us into the Namboodiri woman’s world.