KALPETTA: Talk in everlasting words
And dedicate them all to me ...
It’s only words, and words are all I have
To take your heart away
— Bee Gees, Words (1968)
For nearly three decades, prominent tribal poet and farmer Kandamala Ramachandran has dedicated his life to documenting five of Kerala’s indigenous languages. Yet today, the culmination of that effort, a unique tribal dictionary, remains unpublished as the 53-year-old struggles to take his work to the public.
The dictionary compiles traditional words used by the Adiya, Paniya, Kuruma, Urali and Kattunayakar communities, whose languages have no written script and survive solely on the oral tradition. The work is the result of decades of field research during which Ramachandran, himself a Kuruma from Pulpally, near Sultan Bathery, travelled across tribal settlements, interacted with elders and painstakingly translated thousands of words into Malayalam.
The dictionary stands as a rare record of indigenous languages that are increasingly threatened by extinction. Despite its cultural and academic value, the manuscript has yet to find its way into print.
Ramachandran began the project in 1995 with a desire to create something meaningful in his life. An avid reader with dreams of becoming an actor, he moved to Chennai in 1993 while pursuing his pre-degree and spent nearly three years there trying to establish himself in cinema.
“I got a few minor roles, but had to return home after being affected by jaundice. The disappointment of not succeeding in cinema troubled me deeply,” he recalled. “At that time, writer O K Johny suggested that I document tribal languages and prepare a dictionary. That gave me a purpose. Over the years, I collected nearly 6,000 words and their meanings in five tribal languages.”
Drawing on his close association with different tribal communities, Ramachandran conducted extensive fieldwork to identify variations in vocabularies across tribes. For example, the Malayalam word for “wife” has distinct equivalents in different communities: the Kuruma community uses “kurumtti”, the Uralis “ounarkan”, the Kattunayakars “indr”, while the Paniya and Adiya communities use the related terms “uratti” and “ratti” respectively.
“Since these languages have no script, I recorded all the words using Malayalam script. Although these communities live in neighbouring areas, their languages are remarkably different. It took me decades to collect and verify five variations for thousands of Malayalam words,” he said.
Ramachandran completed the work in 2017 and subsequently approached several institutions to have it published. His efforts, however, met with repeated setbacks.
“I first approached Malayalam University, but the proposal was rejected. Later, I contacted the Bhasha Institute during the Covid period. They informed me that they lacked the manpower to undertake such a large publication. In 2022, the Kerala Sahitya Akademi accepted the manuscript and entered into an agreement to publish it. Since then, however, there has been very little communication,” he said.
According to Ramachandran, even the only original manuscript remains with the Akademi.
“They informed me in a letter that the dictionary would be published prior to March this year, but there has been no further update. I am worried because my only copy is with them,” he added.
Beyond challenges linked to publication, Ramachandran says he has faced scepticism regarding the importance of preserving tribal languages.
“Many people, including some linguists, questioned why such a dictionary was necessary because tribal communities are small in number. Even some members of my own community did not understand the purpose of this work,” he said.
He argues that the disappearance of indigenous languages would mean the loss of invaluable cultural knowledge accumulated over generations.
“Many tribal communities have gradually shifted to speaking Malayalam. Since these languages have no script, preserving them is extremely difficult. The younger generation is increasingly losing fluency in their mother tongues. If the elders who still possess this knowledge pass away, entire languages could disappear. Once a language becomes extinct, an important part of human history and culture is lost forever,” he said.
Despite the lack of institutional recognition, Ramachandran’s expertise continues to be sought by researchers. Scholars and linguists frequently approach him for guidance and clarification during their studies on tribal languages and culture.