Perumal Murugan (born 1966) is an Indian writer and scholar who writes novels, short stories and poems in Tamil. His fiction is set among the farmers and villages of the Kongu region of western Tamil Nadu and deals with caste, land and family. He became known across the world in 2015 when protests against his novel Madhorubhagan (One Part Woman) led him to announce that the writer in him was dead. The Madras High Court upheld his right to write in 2016, and he has since published several more books. His novel Pyre was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Perumal Murugan |
| Born | 1966, near Tiruchengode, Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu, India |
| Occupation | Novelist, poet, scholar, teacher |
| Language | Tamil |
| Education | Ph.D. in Tamil literature, University of Madras |
| Career | Professor of Tamil in government colleges |
| Spouse | Ezhilarasi |
| Children | 2 |
| Known for | One Part Woman, Seasons of the Palm, Pyre, Poonachi |
Early Life
Murugan was born into a family of small farmers near the temple town of Tiruchengode. His father also ran a soda shop at a cinema. He wrote songs for children’s radio programmes as a boy. He studied Tamil literature in Erode and Coimbatore and took a doctorate from the University of Madras, writing on the novelist R. Shanmugasundaram, who had also written about the Kongu region. He taught Tamil at the government college in Namakkal for many years.
Career
His first novel, Eru Veyyil (“Rising Heat”), appeared in 1991. Koolamadari (2000), translated as Seasons of the Palm, about a Dalit boy bonded to work for a landowner, was shortlisted for the Kiriyama Prize. He also compiled a dictionary of the Kongu dialect and edited older Tamil texts.
Madhorubhagan (2010) tells of a loving but childless couple under pressure from their families, and of a chariot festival at the Tiruchengode temple at which, in the novel’s telling, a childless woman could once sleep with a stranger to conceive. After the English translation, One Part Woman, appeared, local caste and Hindu groups protested in late 2014, burning copies and demanding a ban. At a “peace meeting” called by district officials in January 2015 Murugan was made to apologise and agree to withdraw the book. He then wrote on Facebook: “Perumal Murugan the writer is dead… He has no faith in rebirth.”
In July 2016 the Madras High Court dismissed the case against him, declared the settlement not binding and wrote, “Let the author be resurrected to what he is best at. Write.” Murugan returned with a book of poems and then Poonachi (2016), a fable about a black goat. Pookuzhi (Pyre), about a couple who marry across caste, was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2023, the first Tamil novel to be so recognised. His novel Aalandapatchi, translated as Fire Bird, won the JCB Prize for Literature in 2023.
Personal Life
Murugan is married to Ezhilarasi, also a Tamil teacher and poet, and they have a son and a daughter. After the protests he was transferred from Namakkal to colleges in Chennai and later Attur.
Selected Works
Awards and Honours
Frequently Asked Questions
When was Perumal Murugan born?
Perumal Murugan was born in 1966, near Tiruchengode, Namakkal district, Tamil Nadu, India.
What is Perumal Murugan known for?
Known for: One Part Woman, Seasons of the Palm, Pyre, Poonachi.
Featured image: Perumal Murugan at the Kerala Literature Festival, Kozhikode, February 2018. Photo by Sreejithkoiloth, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
