The Association for Asian Studies announced that Gabbilam: A Dalit Epic, written by Gurram Jashuva (1875-1971) in 1941 and translated recently from the Telugu by Chinnaiah Jangam, is the winner of its 2024 AK Ramanujan Book Prize for Translation. The translator will be awarded a cash prize of $1000 on March 16 at the award ceremony in Seattle, US.
In Gabbilam, published by Yoda Press in India, Jashuva challenges the dominant Sanskrit and Telugu literary sphere by choosing the bat, known as Gabbilam in Telugu and believed to be a bad omen – as it is considered neither a bird nor an animal – to reflect the existential status of untouchables. He subverts the classic Meghaduta, and instead of using swans, parrots, peacocks, and clouds as messengers like Savarnas, he uses the stigmatised bat, which hangs upside down in temple towers, to send his message of suffering to the god Shiva.
Gabbilam presents a Dalit man as the hero and protagonist, perhaps for the first time in…