Iyyamcode Sreedharan

He was instrumental in establishing the P. Smaraka Kalakendram (P. Memorial Art Center) at Kollengode in In 1981, in memory of the poet P. Kunhiraman Nair. Iyyamcode has been the secretary of the art centre for the last forty years. In 1988, when he was the secretary of the Kerala Kalamandalam, he formed a Kathakali group named Kerala Kalabhavan and wrote three aattakkathas including 'Kinglier', and performed in many stages including in foreign countries.

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.

Sreedharan was born on September 4, 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.