Iyyamcode Sreedharan

Iyyamcode Sreedharan (also spelled as Iyyamkode or Iyyamkodu) is a Malayalam language writer from Kerala, India. He is well known in various fields of literature such as travelogue writer, Aattakkatha writer, playwright, poet and biographer. He received several awards including Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for Overall Contributions, Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award for travelogue, Kerala Kalamandalam Mukundaraja Award and Kerala Kalamandalam Award for outstanding contribution in the field of literature. Sreedharan was born on 4 September 1941, in Puthiya veettil House in Iyyamcode near Nadapuram in present-day Kozhikode district of Kerala. His father M. Narayana Kurup was a teacher, poet, painter and sculptor. His mother, M. P. Karthayani Amma, is the sister of M. P. Narayanan Nambiar, a prominent leader of the Karshaka Sangham, a long-time farmers' movement in Kerala. He had his primary education at Nadapuram C.C. UP School. After passing tenth class from Kadathanad Rajas High School in Kozhikode District, he studied Kathakali chamayam (makeup of Kathakali artists) for three years at the Kerala Kalamandalam in Cheruthuruthy. In 1961, he joined Kollankode Rajas High School in Palakkad district as a teacher in Kathakali chamayam and later became a descendant of poet P. Kunhiraman Nair, who was a colleague there. Sreedharan started writing poems at the age of fifteen. In 1962, he won the first prize in the Mathrubhumi Weekly poetry competition for students. Subsequently, in 1964, he was awarded the Kerala Sahitya Samithi Poetry Award. He brought together theatre artists from Kollengode and the surrounding areas, and formed a theater troupe in 1975 and performed plays all over Kerala.