A.K. Ramanujan


 *  For the mathematician, see Srinivasa Ramanujan

Attipate Krishnaswami  Ramanujan (March 16, 1929 – July 13, 1993) also known as A. K. Ramanujan was a scholar of Indian literature who wrote in both English and Kannada. Ramanujan was an Indian poet, scholar and author, a philologist, folklorist, translator, poet and playwright. His academic research ranged across five languages: Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Sanskrit, and English. He published works on both classical and modern variants of these literature and also argued strongly for giving local, non-standard dialects their due.

Childhood
He was born in Mysore City on 16 March 1929. His father, Attipat Asuri Krishnaswami, a professor of mathematics at Mysore University and an astronomer, had a study crammed with books in English, Kannada and Sanskrit. His mother was a housewife. He also has a brother, a writer and great mathematician AK Srinivasan.

Education
He was educated at Marimallappa's High School and Maharaja College of Mysore. In college, Ramanujan majored in science in his first year, but his father, who thought him 'not mathematically minded', literally took him by the hand to the Registrar's office and changed his major from science to English. He was a Fellow of Deccan College, Pune in 1958 - 59 and Fulbright Scholar at Indiana University in 1959 - 62. He was educated in English at the Mysore University and received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from Indiana University

Career
Having been a lecturer in English at Quilon and Belgaum, he taught at The Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda for about eight years. In 1962, he joined the University of Chicago as an assistant professor, where he was affiliated throughout the rest of his career, teaching in several departments. However, he did teach at several other U.S. universities at times, including Harvard, University of Wisconsin, University of Michigan, University of California at Berkeley, and Carleton College. At the University of Chicago, Ramanujan was instrumental in shaping the South Asian Studies program. He worked in the departments of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, Linguistics, and with the Committee on Social Thought.

In 1976, the government of India awarded him the honorific title Padma Shri, and in 1983, he was given the MacArthur Prize Fellowship (Shulman, 1994). In 1983, he was appointed the William E. Colvin Professor in the Departments of South Asian Languages and Civilizations, of Linguistics, and in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago, and, the same year, he received a MacArthur Fellowship.

As an Indo-American writer Ramanujan had the experience of the native milieu as well as of the foreign milieu. His poems like the "Conventions of Despair" reflected his views on the cultures and conventions of the east and the west.

A. K. Ramanujan died in Chicago, on July 13, 1993 as result of adverse reaction to anesthesia during preparation for surgery.

Contributions to South Asian studies
A. K. Ramanujan's theoretical and aesthetic contributions span several disciplinary areas. In his cultural essays such as "Is There an Indian Way of Thinking?" (1990) he explains cultural ideologies and behavioral manifestations thereof in terms of an Indian psychology he calls "context-sensitive" thinking. In his work in folklore studies, Ramanujan highlights the intertextuality of the Indian oral and written literary tradition. His essay "Where Mirrors Are Windows: Toward an Anthology of Reflections" (1989), and his commentaries in The Interior Landscape: Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology (1967) and Folktales from India, Oral Tales from Twenty Indian Languages (1991) are good examples of his work in Indian folklore studies.

Controversy regarding his essay
His 1991 essay "Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five Examples and Three Thoughts on Translations" courted controversy over its inclusion in B.A. in History syllabus of Delhi University in 2006. In this essay, he wrote of the existence of many versions of Ramayana and a few versions portrayed Rama and Sita as siblings, which contradicts the popular versions of the Ramayana, such as those by Valmiki and Tulsidas

ABVP a student wing of the BJP opposed its inclusion in the syllabus, saying it hurt the majority Hindus' sentiments, who viewed Rama and Sita as Gods who were husband and wife. They demanded the essay be removed from the syllabus. In 2008 Delhi High Court directed Delhi University to convene a committee to decide on the essay's inclusion. A 4-member committee was formed, which subsequently gave its verdict 3-1 in favour of inclusion in the syllabus.

The academic council however, ignored the committee's recommendation and voted to scrap the essay from its syllabus in Oct 2011. This led to protests by many historians and intellectuals, accusing Delhi University of succumbing to the diktat of non-historians.

Selected publications
His works include translations from Classical Tamil and Medieval Kannada, such as:


 * Translations and studies of literature
 * The Interior Landscape: Love Poems from a Classical Tamil Anthology, 1967
 * Speaking of Siva, Penguin. 1973. ISBN 9780140442700.
 * The Literatures of India. Edited with Edwin Gerow. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1974
 * Hymns for the Drowning, 1981
 * Poems of Love and War. New York: Columbia University Press, 1985
 * Folktales from India, Oral Tales from Twenty Indian Languages, 1991
 * "Is There an Indian Way of Thinking?" in India Through Hindu Categories, edited by McKim Marriot, 1990
 * When God Is a Customer: Telugu Courtesan Songs by Ksetrayya and Others (with Velcheru Narayana Rao and David Shulman), 1994
 * A Flowering Tree and Other Oral Tales from India, 1997


 * Poetry, fiction and drama
 * The Striders. London: Oxford University Press, 1966
 * Hokkulalli Huvilla, No Lotus in the Navel. Dharwar, 1969
 * Relations. London, New York: Oxford University Press, 1971
 * Selected Poems. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1976
 * Samskara. (translation of U R Ananthamurthy's novel) Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1976
 * Mattu Itara Padyagalu and Other Poems. Dharwar, 1977
 * Second Sight. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986

A.K. Ramanujan's three books of Kannada Poetry, and a novella have been translated into English, and published by Oxford University Press. Poems And A Novella: Translated From Kannada(Hardcover - 2006-03-09)by A. K. Ramanujan (Author), Tonse N. K. Raju (Translator), Shouri Daniels-ramanujan (Translator). This collection has his poetry collections: 1) Hokkulalli Hoovilla (No Lotus in the Navel); 2) Mattu itara kategalU (And Other Poems); and 3) Kuntobille (Hopscotch). The novella in Kannada is titled "Mattobbana Atma Charitre" ((Yet) Another Man's Autobiography).