1. Chapter - 1
“Women do not set themselves up as subject
and hence have erected to virile myth in which
their projects are reflected; they have no religion
or poetry of their own : they still through the dreams
of men”
writes Simone de Beauvoir in THE SECOND SEX as early as 1949 and since
then feminist criticism have taken several directions , but the need for the women writer to
express herself is for grounded by major critics. Only by writing an expression could the woman
writer succeed in breaking down existing social power structure and create a place for herself in
the world of masculine hierarchies: the women writer could thereby alter her existing
marginalized position and accept her rightful role as a significant part of society . by writing
about the self, the women writer could challenge the accepted notions of the female and
redraft general opinion of the feminine mystique . as the emphasis on demystifying the myth of
female and generating, a new role for the woman in society because popular and more women
writing began to appear in public . Indian English Literature has succeed to paint a picture of
feminine soul through the Indian English poetry .
women’s poetry in India has a distinct tradition of its own that seems to
began with the tribal songs of early inhabitants , the Pali songs of the Buddhist nuns of the 6 th
century B.C , the sangam poets of Tamil like Andal and Auvaiyar , the devotional poets of the
middle ages loke Mirabai, Ratnabai, Janabai, Autukri Molla and Akkamahadevi , Mudduppalani,
Bahinabai , Mahlaq Bai Chanda and Sanciya Hosannama of the 17 th and 18th centuries and
reaches up to Kamala Das’s mother Balamani Amma. Indian women poets writing in English to

2. whose ever grooving tribe Kamala Das belongs , from a little tradition of their own related in
various ways to this great tradition.
Among the Indian writers of English, there are not many to whom English is as natural a
medium of expression in both prose and poetry as it is to Kamala Das(1934-2009). The sixties of
the twentieth century saw a poet writing in English from India and in Indian English and writing
as a woman on the themes and issues that directly related to women. Bold, free, frank and
unconventional in expression and resentment and protest about how the male-world has
abused the female body and restricted its freedom of the soul , she made poetry the very
instrument with which much could be achieved .Poetry to her was a tool to work towards
freedom. . Not immediately, adequately, sympathetically evaluated and appreciated, this poet
being a woman herself made it her mission to expose the hypocrisy of the husband-wife
relationship in the Hindu society - almost a manipulative and coercive practice to keep woman
subjugated in all matters including the area of sex life. There is in her poetry an awareness of
human rights and her judicious views about how the world could be properly reset, readjusted
and reformed.. She wrote for women’s cause in most clear-cut language - appearing to most to
be quarrelling while writing.
Kamala Das , who has published only three slendes volumes of poetry SUMMER IN
CALCUTTA , THE DESCENDANTS , and THE OLD PLAYHOUSE AND OTHER POEMS , has
established her reputation as the ‘Female Fetal’ of Indian English poetry . her poetry expresses
the best expression of FEMININE SENSIBILITY . Being a woman and wife , she has a minute and
trough knowledge of feminine sensibility, its exploitations, its hurts , its anguishes and its
suppression in a male dominated society . Das as a poet of talent has achieved international
attention by virtue of her bold , uninhibited articulation of Feminine urges along with other
women poets like Guary Deshpade ,Mamta Kalia , De Souza and others . Kamala Das stands tall
among all of the creative writers who are so passionately involved in their craft that they do not
brook the idea of deviation or deception . Feminist consciousness and language find an
exponent of sensuality and spirituality in Kamala Das who unmindful of brickbats or accolades
carried o untiringly creating poems of abiding charm , enduring empathy and inconceivable

3. audacity . She is not an exhibitionist nor is a moralist . The pulpit was never her platform . She
represents essential woman and her ordinary desire most of the times and extraordinary fads
at others ……..
The Making of Kamala Das / Life of Kamala Das
Kamala Das whose maiden name was Madhavikutty , was born in March 31,
1934 at Punnayurulam, a village in Malabar, Southern Kerala. She was fortunate enough to take
birth in a family who were totally devoted to art and literature . Her father Mr. V.M.Nair had
been an employee in a British automobile firm in Calcutta , where he sold Rolls Royces ,
Hombres and Bentleys to the Indian princes and their relatives. Her mother Balamani Amma
was however , a poet of great distinction speaking of her parents’ unsuited alliance , Das writes
:
“ My mother did not fall in love with
My father . They were dissimilar and
Horribly mismatched” ( My Story- pg 5)
But her mother’s timidity created an illusion of domestic harmony and
produced some half a dozen children of swarthy skin and ordinary features .
As her autobiography MY STORY suggests Das first attended a European school
at her birth place, Punnayurkulam and then a boarding school run by the Roman catholic nuns.
However in each of these institutions , she stayed for a short while. At the boarding school , she
got ill and was removed to Calcutta where private tutors were engaged to teach her fine arts .
Apart from all these , the fact is Das received her education for the most part at her home. Thus
most of the knowledge of life , society and surroundings , she got from not school but from her
personal experiences in her childhood and her life and though she had a short experience of

4. schooling , she made such a vital place among the Indian English Poets along with Nizzim
Ezekiel. K . Ayyappa Paniker has introduced her in the following words
“ Her formal education has not gone beyond
the portals of a high school but sheis perhaps
the most widely known of all Indian women
writers in English today. Her language has a
freshness and vitality lacking in writing of
the ‘over educated’ compatriots of hers. ”
Das’s parental home was influenced by the Indian national list movement led
by Mahatma Gandhi and his followers who used to wear ‘Khali’ clothes and even spin ‘Khadi’
yarn , especially her grandmother , to whom this girl was deeply attached in her early age and
whom she remembered so sweetly in her later life in such poems as ‘ A HOT NOOON IN
MALABAE ’ and ‘ MY DRANDMOTHER’S HOUSE.’
Das hails from a family of poets and writes. Her grand uncle Nalapat Narayana
Menon was a poet and philosopher while her mother Balamani Amma was a renewed poet in
Malayalam. Because of her grand uncle she got acquainted with the great writers in Malayalam
and English Literature at the tender age and had enough exposure due to her stay at Calcutta
and Kerala . The young Das red the Malayalam translation of Victor Hugo’s ‘ LES MISERABLE’ by
Nalapattu Narayana Menon at the age of eight. Das started writing poetry at the age of six and
her first poem was as we gather from MY STORY , about a doll that had lost its head and “ had
to remain headless for eternity.” (pg 8)
At the age of fifteen , she was married to Mr.K.Madhava Das , an officer in the
Reserve Bank of India , Bombay , where her life became miserable in the company of her lustful
husband. Her husband was much elder than Kamala Das . According to her , Mr. Das always
remained indifferent to her . he never tried to fulfill her desire of conversation companionship

5. and warmth. As Mr . Das was experienced in sex with his maidservants, his treatment of his
wife was usually cruel and brutal . he had no soothing words for her , no time to spare for her .
He was ever busy with his files and as a traditional wife, she was expected to discharge all her
domestic duties well and to look to the needs and comforts of her husband. Her marriage life
was totally full of lust and pain . she , through out her life searched for love in which she never
succeed and this search for love n pain of female sensibility later became the subject for her
poetry in which she became confessional and frank to her readers.
But When Das wished to begin writing, her husband supported her decision to augment the
family's income. Because Das was a woman, however, she could not use the morning-till-night
schedule enjoyed by her great uncle. She would wait until nightfall after her family had gone to
sleep and would write until morning: "There was only the kitchen table where I would cut
vegetables, and after all the plates and things were cleared, I would sit there and start typing"
(Warrior interview). This rigorous schedule took its toll upon Das' health, but she views her
illness optimistically. It gave her more time at home, and thus, more time to write.
As her career progressed, her greatest supporter was always her husband. Even when
controversy swirled around Das' sexually charged poetry and her unabashed autobiography, My
Story, Das' husband was "very proud" of her (Warrior interview). Though he was sick for 3 years
before he passed away, his presence brought her tremendous joy and comfort. She stated that
there "shall not be another person so proud of me and my achievements" (Warrior interview).
And Das' achievements extend well beyond her verses of poetry. Das says, "I wanted to fill my
life with as many experiences as I can manage to garner because I do not believe that one can
get born again" (Warrior interview). True to her word, Das has dabbled in painting, fiction
(Warrior interview), and even politics (Raveendran 53). Though Das failed to win a place in
Parliament in 1984, she has been much more successful of late as a syndicated columnist
(Raveendran 53). She has moved away from poetry because she claims that "poetry does not

6. sell in this country [India]," but fortunately her forthright columns do (Warrior interview). Das'
columns sound off on everything from women's issues and child care to politics.
Kamala Das is the inheritor of many traditions, the regional, cultural traditions of Kerala and
the Pan-Indian tradition: and within the regional tradition, she has a specifically matrilineal
back- ground provided by her caste and especially provincial background offered by Malabar,
where she spent her childhood . she is also heir to two poetic traditions, that of Malayalam
whose roots go back into the ancient Tamil sangam poets and medieval folklore , and that of
Indian English poetry beginning with Henri Derozio and Toru Dutt; she herself had two poets in
the family , Balamani Amma, her mother and Nalapatt Narayan Menon her maternal uncle.
As a child she felt tortured by ‘subtle sadism’ of her teachers who were old
maids turned sour with dejection and found refuge in her grandmother and company in the
female servants at home .
Das is a bilingual writers writing mostly stories and memories in Malayalam
and mostly poems in English. All these have directly or indirectly gone into the making of her
poems .
Kamala das’s contribution to the Indian English Literature.
Her Works In English:

7. Poetic works:
- The Sirens (1964)
- Summer in Calcutta (1965)
- The Descendents (1967)
- The old Playhouse and Other Poems (1973)
- Only the Soul Knows How to Sing (1996)
- Tonight , This Savage Rite (1979) ( a collection of Das and Pritish Nandy )
Autobiography:
My Story (1971)
Novels :
Alphabet of Lust (1977)
Daughter of Immortality (1985)
Short Stories;
A Doll for the Child Prostitute (1977)
Padmabati, the Harlot and Other Stories (1992)
Sandal Trees and Other Stories (1995)
Her Works in Malayalam :-
Short stories :
Pakshiyade Maranam (1964)

8. Naricheerukal parakkumbol (1966)
Thanappu (1968)
Chekkerunna Pakshikal (1996)
Nashtapettu Neelamban (1998)
Novels :
Palayam (1990)
Dayarikkurippukal (1992)
Neemathalam pooth kalam (1994)
Madhavikkuttiyude Ummakkadhokal (20005)
Vandikkalakal(2005)
Memorie :
Balyokala Smarankal (1987)
Besides her poetical and prose works , she had written extensively for various
popular magazine and periodicals , such as OPINION , THE ILLUSTRATED WEEKALY OF INDIA,
POETRY EAST AND WEST , DEBONAIR, EVE’s WEEKLY, FEMINA , IMPRINT , WEEKLY ROUND
TABLE , LOVE and FRIENDSHIP e.t.c. most of these writings are however, controversial in nature
. Such essays like I STUDIED ALL MEM, WHY NOT MORE THAN ONE HUSBANT? , WHAT WOMEN
EXPECT OUT OF MARRIEGE AND WHAT THAY GET , I HAVE LIVED BEAUTIFULLY tend to
consolidate her image in public as feminine yet straightforward , unconventional yet honest,
jovial yet insecure – an image also projected by her poems. Her other works like Only those
above 55, OBSESSED WITH SEX, IQBAL , SEX:MINDLESS surrender or humming FIESTA? ,
KALYANI, THE UNINVITED POETS, THE INVISIBLE POETS are also quite popular and raised much
debate.

9. Das is the only woman poet of Indian writing in English today who has
attended world wide recognition. She has been given prominent place in all the leading
anthologies of Indo-English Poetry . She was offered the P.E.N’s Asian Poetry Prize in 1969 for
THANUPPA ( meaning “cold” ) , a collection of stories in Malayalam . She was also awarded for
the Chaman Lal award for journalism in 1971, the Asian World Prize for Literature in 1985 and
Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra Award in 1988.
Moreover, Das had been a ‘ mover and shaker – not only as an author but as
a person also . Recently in `1999 she has converted herself to Islam and has become Surraya.
She said
“Two plain reasons lured me to Islam One is the
Purdah. Second is the security that Islam provides
to women. In fact, both these reasons are complementary.
Purdah is the most wonderful dress for women in the world.
And I have always loved to wear the Purdah. It gives women
a sense of security. Only Islam gives protection to women.
I have been lonely all through my life. At nights, I used to
sleep by embracing a pillow. But I am no longer a loner.
Islam is my company. Islam is the only religion in
the world that gives love and protection to women.
Therefore, I have converted.’’
The fact is Kamala Das loves to court controversy and sensationalism often
caused by her forceful assertion and dazzling frankness and it had always been a par of her intent
need a part and strategy to jolt a co placement patriarchy and orthodoxy . However , personal

10. idiosyncrasies never outweighed the public concerns of her art , which assumes greater
significant through its rich- sub- texts.
Kamala Das has been ill for a greater part of her life, mentally and physically .
she has suffered from heart problem depressions and various other illness but she has railed back
each time and continues creating poetry , short stories , novels , paintings . she never gave in or
ley herself be cowed down by such factors . her mother Balamani Amma noticed this spark in
her and wrote,
“ your mind may grow restless with
Sad thoughts.
Your body may be weary of household task’
But about You . I hold no fear ‘
Your power of turning worms into butterflies,
Comforts me.’’
On 30 May. 2009 , aged 75 , she passed away at the hospital in Pune . Her
body was flown to her home state Kerala . She has working on two books in her last day; FROM
MALBAR to MANTREAL , a collaborative work on women’s empowerment and a book on
Islam for Harper Collins . They may still be incomplete but the task she completed during her
life , are enough to guarantee her place among the most prominent women writers of our time , a
model especially for evary honest women writer with a story to tell, “a song to sing or a shackle
to break.’’
Themes of expectations of Love , Lust and Sexuality
Kamala Das is one of the best-known contemporary Indian women writers, albeit
largely for the controversy that her candid, confessional writing has sparked in the relatively
traditional context of Indian academia. Since the publication of her first collection of poetry,
Summer in Calcutta (1965), Das has been considered an important voice of her generation.
Her provocative poems are known for their unflinchingly honest explorations of the self and
female sexuality, urban life, and women’s roles in traditional Indian society. Critics have
expressed a range of opinions on her work: some laud her boldness, compelling sincerity and

11. striking originality, while others dismiss her work as sensationalist, limited in scope and
unsophisticated.
Das’s first volume of poems SUMMER IN CALCUTTA contains fifty poems
and with a few exceptions the theme of all of them is love or failure in love . this volume really
sets the tone for her entire poetic out put . here she has described a world which is harsh , sun-
scorched, tropical world , heavy with the smell of rotting garbage and death, where even men
have limbs like ‘carnivorous plants’. The volume opens with the poem THE DANCE OF THE
EUNUCHS, which objectifies through an external, familiar situation, the poet’s strangled desire
within . it is highly symbolic poems which reveals her emotional sterility and sharp sense of
aguish hidden under the whirling movement and extended frenzy of the dancing eunuchs:
“ Beneath the fiery gulmohur, with,
Long braids flying, dark eyes flashing, they danced and,
They danced , oh they danced till they bled …”
Moreover, most of the poems in this volume are dominated by a tone of
betrayal and present the poet as a prisoner of her own loneliness and complex moods.
Her second poetic work THE DESCENDENTS has twenty nine poems in all ,a
and most of these poems are further variations on her favorite theme, sexuality and love . this
collection is bitterly death- conscious, also perhaps death obsessed. JAISURYA one of the finest
lyric of this volume, explores both , the maternal love and the feminine sensibility to its most
excellent form , the poem combines the narrative and the meditative and nicely details the
whole gamut of feelings preceding and following the birth of a child . in fact the themes of
sexuality and love , here receives a grater relevance from the glory of creation;
“ They raised him
To me then, proud Jaisurya , my son
Separated from darkness that was mine

12. And in me .”
Das suffered in childbirth but this suffering is seen as a common
feminine experience. In fact , here Das , the woman and Das the artist become one and the
personal experience is universalized.
Her third volume is of poems , THE OLD PLAY HOUSE AND PTHER
POEMS contains 33 poems in all of these ,fourteen were published earlier in SUMMER IN
CALCUTTA and six were in THE DESCENDANTS . the title piece THE OLD PLAYHOUSE tells us that
love is perhaps no more than a way of learning about one’s self or the competition of one’s
own personality . it addresses presumably to her husband and is largely personal. It lodges a
protest against the constraint of the married life ; the fever of domesticity, the routine of lust ,
artificial comfort and male domination:
“ You called me wife …..
Kamala Das’s poetry as well as prose too , articulates the restless of a
sensitivity , woman moving in the male dominated society . in most of her poems , she raises
her forceful voice against the gender discrimination in a patriarchal society . in them , she really
comes out as an ardent spokesman or spokeswoman of woman’s Lib movement. Thus she
expresses the secret desire of womanhood to be free from the monotony and tiresomeness of
a hollow married life .

13. Quotation
Das is a poet of love and sex . And as an honest poet of love, she always looks very frank
and naïve without the intellectual pride of being a poet . but she writes about the power of love
and the appeal of body against the background of the conservative and orthodox Indian society
. She says mainly about the pathos of a Woman , emerging from passive role to the point of
discovering and asserting her individual liberty and identity . hence , her love poems usually
breathe an air of unconventionality and urgency .
“ Kamala Das is a pre-eminently a poet of
Love and pain . One stalking the other
Through a near neurotic world . There
Is an all pervasive sense of hurt throughout .
Love, the lazy animal hungers for the
flesh, hurt and humiliation are the warp
and woof of her poetic fabric . She seldom
Ventures outside the personal world .”
- K.N.Daruvalla
Most of her poems reveals her personal experiences and her poems
also deal with the bold subjects of love , sexuality, quest for self, her passion for freedom, lust,
gender discrimination , rebel against male dominated society, sensuality , politics of conversion,
feminine sensibility e.t.c