Kunchan Nambiar was a prominent Malayalam poet of the 18th century (1705-1770). Apart from being a prolific poet, Nambiar is also famous as the originator of the dance art form of Thullall, most of his works were written for use in Thullal performances. Social criticism wrapped in humour is the hallmark of his works. Nambiar is one of the foremost comedians in Malayalam, and he belongs to the Ambalavasi community. Kalakkathu Veedu at Killikkurussimangalam in Palakkad district of the south Indian state of Kerala;. He spent his early childhood at Killikkurussimangalam, his boyhood at Kudamaloor and youth at Ambalappuzha, and learnt Kalaripayattu and Sanskrit from such masters as Mathoor Panickar, Dronaballi Naicker and Nannikod Unni Ravi Kurup (Nanthikattu Balaravi kurupp) at Kandankary, before moving to the court of Marthanda Varma of Travancore in 1748; later, he served at the court of his successor Dharma Raja. By the time he reached the royal court, he had already established himself as a poet. The later part of his life, it is believed that Nambiar returned to Ambalapuzha where he died in 1770, at the age of 65, reportedly due to rabies
Career
thumb|right|Mizhavu used by Kunchan Nambiar at Ambalappuzha Sri Krishna temple
Kunchan Nambiar is considered by many as the master of Malayalam satirist poetry and is credited with the popularisation of a performing art known as Ottan Thullal. The word, thullal, means 'dance/jumping', but under this name Nambiar developed a new style of verse narration, interspersed with occasional background music and dance-like swaying movements. Popular belief is that Nambiar devised this art form for avenging the ridicule he had to suffer from a Chakyar Koothu performer who chastised Nambiar when he dozed off while accompanying the koothu performance on Mizhavu. He used pure Malayalam as opposed to the stylised and Sanskritized Malayalam language of Chakyar Koothu, and adopted many elements from Padayani and Kolam Tullal as well as some of the other local folk arts. There are three kinds of Tullal distinguished on the basis of the performer's costume and the style of rendering, viz., Ottan, Seethankan and Parayan. Dravidian metres are used throughout although there is a quatrain in a Sanskrit metre. Kunchan Nambiar is known to have written 64 thullal stories. He also developed new metres (for example; Vaytari metres) based on the vocal notation for various talas. The language is predominantly Malayalam with a large admixture of colloquial and dialectal forms.
Honours
The Government of Kerala observes Nambiar's birthday, 5 May, as Kunchan Day. A society, Kunjan Nambiar Memorial Society, has been established by the government overseas the management of various memorials which include Kunchan Nambiar Smarakam, Nambiar's house in Killikkurussimangalam, Kunchan Memorial Library, Kunchan Memorial Arts Society, and Kunchan Memorial Society.