Poonthanam Namboodiri

Poonthanam was a Namboodiri Brahmin of the Poonthanam illam at Keezhattoor in the Malappuram country. He married young and for years had no child. When at last a son was born, the family held a feast for his first rice-eating, and the baby died on that very day. In his grief Poonthanam turned wholly to Guruvayurappan, Shri Krishna of Guruvayur, and found that the Lord himself would be his child. Out of that grief came the Jnanappana, the song of wisdom: some 360 lines in plain Malayalam on how short life is, how the mind runs after wealth and name, and how the name of Krishna is the only boat across.

He was a contemporary of Melpathur Narayana Bhattathiri, the great Sanskrit scholar who wrote the Narayaneeyam at Guruvayur. The Guruvayur tradition tells that Poonthanam brought his Malayalam verses to Melpathur for correction, and the scholar waved him away: the grammar was poor. That night the Lord let Melpathur know that Poonthanam's bhakti pleased him more than Melpathur's vibhakti, his grammatical endings. Melpathur went to Poonthanam and asked his forgiveness.

Poonthanam also wrote the Bhasha Karnamritam and the Kumaraharanam, also called the Santanagopalam. He walked to Guruvayur all his life. The tradition says that at the end a vehicle from Vaikuntha came for him and he went bodily to the Lord. The Jnanappana is sung in Kerala homes at dusk and is recited at Guruvayur.