A.K. Ramanujan

Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan (March 16, 1929 - July 13, 1993), an Indian poet and scholar in Indian literature and linguistics. He was also a Professor of linguistics at the University of Chicago

Ramanujan was a playwright, scholar, philologist, folklorist, linguist, philologist, poet, and academic. English, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, and Sanskrit made up the majority of his scholarly research. He wrote articles about both the ancient and contemporary versions of this literature and fervently supported the idea of giving credit where credit is due for regional, non-standard dialects. Ramanujan wrote widely and across various genres, but his poetry is best known for its cryptic quality, startling originality, and moving craftsmanship. After his passing in 1999, The Collected Poems received the Sahitya Akademi Award.

Biography

• Childhood:
  In Mysore City, on March 16, 1929, Ramanujan was born. His father, Attipat Asuri Krishnaswami, was well-known for his interest in English, Kannada, and Sanskrit. He was also a Maths professor at Mysore University. Ramanujan's mother was a homemaker.
  
• Education:
  In Mysore, Ramanujan attended Maharaja College and Marimallappa's High School. Ramanujan initially planned to major in physics when he entered college, but after consulting with his father, he decided to switch to English. Ramanujan went on to become a Fulbright Scholar at Indiana University from 1959 to 1962 and a Fellow of Deccan College, Pune, from 1958 to 1959. He attended the University of Mysore for his English education, and Indiana University awarded him a PhD in linguistics.

Creative Writing and Poetry

In addition to being a scholar and academic, Ramanujan was a talented poet and writer. His poetry covers a broad spectrum of subjects, demonstrating his intense devotion to Indian traditions, his inquiry into who he is, and his singular viewpoint on modernity.

His poetry frequently explores the nuances of cross-cultural interactions and the intersections of languages and identities. He celebrated India's diverse linguistic and cultural terrain as a source of beauty and strength via his poems, embracing it as such.

His two major pieces are "The Striders" and "The Black Hen." These poems highlight his command of the English language and his aptitude for using verse to express complex concepts and emotions.

Career

After serving as an English lecturer in Quilon and Belgaum, Ramanujan spent the next eight years as an instructor at The Maharaja Sayajirao University in Baroda. He began working as an assistant professor in 1962 at the University of Chicago. Throughout his career, he maintained a connection to the institution and taught in many fields. He has held academic positions at several other U.S. institutions, including Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Michigan, the University of California at Berkeley, and Carleton College. Ramanujan greatly influenced the South Asian Studies program at the University of Chicago. In addition to working with the Committee on Social Thought, he was employed by the South Asian Languages and Civilizations and Linguistics departments.

The Indian government gave him the Padma Shri in 1976, and the MacArthur Prize Fellowship was presented to him in 1983 (Shulman, 1994). At the University of Chicago, he was designated the William E. Colvin Professor for the Committee on Social Thought, the Department of Linguistics, and the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations. He got a MacArthur Fellowship. Ramanujan, an Indo-American author, had exposure to both domestic and international cultures. His writings on the cultures and traditions of the East and West can be seen in poems like "Conventions of Despair" and other works.

On July 13, 1993, A. K. Ramanujan passed away in Chicago as a result of a bad anesthetic reaction while getting ready for surgery.

Indian Studies Contributions

The theoretical and artistic contributions made by A. K. Ramanujan are diverse and cross-disciplinary. He discusses cultural beliefs and their behavioral expressions in his cultural essays, such as "Is There an Indian Way of Thinking?" (1990); he refers to "context-sensitive" thinking as an Indian psychology. Ramanujan emphasizes the intertextuality of the Indian oral and written literary heritage in his work on folklore studies. The Interior Landscape: Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology (1967) and Folktales from India, Oral Tales from Twenty Indian Languages (1991) are two books that serve as good examples of his work in Indian folklore studies. His essay "Where Mirrors Are Windows: Towards an Anthology of Reflections" from 1989 and his commentaries in both of those books are also noteworthy.

Controversy Regarding His Essay

His 1991 essay "Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation" sparked debate after being included in the University of Delhi's B.A. in History course syllabus in 2006. As opposed to the widely accepted versions of the Ramayana, such as those by Valmiki and Tulsidas, he mentioned the existence of several Ramayana variants as well as a handful that depicted Rama and Sita as siblings.

A K Ramanujan's words were deemed to be offensive by some Hindus, and some of them decided to file a lawsuit to have the passage removed from the Delhi University curriculum. Its inclusion in the curriculum was challenged by the nationalist student party ABVP because they felt it offended the emotions of the majority of Hindus, who saw Rama and Sita as gods themselves and as husband and wife. They insisted it be taken off the course syllabus. Delhi University was ordered to form a committee in 2008 by the Delhi High Court to decide whether to include the article. A four-member committee later returned a 3-1 decision in favor of its inclusion in the curriculum.

The committee's proposal was disregarded by the Academic Council, which decided to remove the essay from the curriculum in October 2011. This sparked objections from a large number of historians and intellectuals who charged Delhi University with caving into the dictates of non-historians.

Conclusion

In conclusion, A.K. Ramanujan was an outstanding Indian scholar, poet, linguist, & and folklorist who made an immeasurable contribution to literature and academics. His life's journey, which began when he was born in Mysore in 1929, served as a tribute to the strength of intellectual curiosity & and the appreciation of cultural diversity. His contributions to linguistics, folklore, and literature were revolutionary. In his important work "Three Hundred Ramayanas," he questioned conventional narratives and highlighted the depth of India's oral storytelling traditions. Ramanujan's poems highlighted linguistic and cultural diversity and reflected his viewpoint on modernity. His translation work, notably of classical Tamil poetry, enhanced literary awareness throughout the world. He was well-recognized for his friendliness and humility, in addition to his academic accomplishments. The legacy of A.K. Ramanujan continues to encourage people to overcome cultural barriers, value linguistic diversity, and delve into the profound beauty of language and culture, reinforcing the ongoing influence of curiosity and understanding in our interconnected world.