Beginning of the Malayalam Period

During the first half of the thirteenth century, there appeared a narrative poem known as Vaisika Tantram. The diction was far away from the spoken variety. This work on poetics was an elaborate appraisal of the poetry which was highly influenced by Sanskrit .

At this time due to the great influence of Sanskrit, Sanskrit cases and verbal inflections were added to Malayalam, thus forming a new poetic language called Manipravaalam. Mani is 'ruby' and Pravalam is 'coral'. Ruby and coral are of the same color, and when a garland is made out of them they appear indistinguishable. Similarly the blend of the Malayalam 'Mani' and the Sanskrit 'coral' resulted in a perfect blend of the two languages, Malayalam and Sanskrit.

3. Manipravaalam Literature

One of the most famous works of this time was 'Lilatilakam'. Lilathilakam is a work on the grammar and rhetorics of Malayalam. Lilathilakam states that the colloquial language of Kerala was known as Tamil. A literary language higher than the colloquial, existed. Lilathilakam explicitly defines the Manipravaalam style of poetry. Sanskrit elements that were assimilated by Malayalam, were governed by Malayalam grammatical rules.

Although Lilathilakam, was a very popular work of the time, the name of the author is unknown. Historical evidences suggest that it was a product of the last quarter of the 14th century A.D.