Paper 8

1. Biography of Akka Mahadevi Akka Mahadevi (

) or Mahadevi or Mahadeviyakkha, a brilliant medieval Kannada poet, rebel and

mystic, was a prominent figure of the Veerashaiva Bhakti movement of the 12th century Karnataka. Her Vachanas in Kannada, a form of didactic poetry are considered her greatest contribution to Kannada Bhakti literature. It is said that she was the first woman to write Vachanas in Kannada literature. In all she wrote about 430 Vachanas which is relatively fewer than that compared to some other saints of her time. Yet the term 'Akka' (elder Sister) which is an honorific given to her by great Veerashaiva saints like Basavanna, Chenna Basavanna, Kinnari Bommayya, Siddharama, Allamaprabhu and Dasimayya speaks volumes of her contribution to the movement that was underway. She is in hindsight seen as a great and inspirational woman for Kannada literature and the history of Karnataka. She is said to have accepted the god Shiva ('Chenna Mallikarjuna') as her husband, traditionally understood as the 'madhura bhava' or 'madhurya' form of devotion (similar to how centuries later Meera, a 16th century saint, considered herself married to Krishna). Early life Born in Udutadi (or Udugani) near the ancient city of Banavasi (in Shikaripura taluk Shimoga district). She lived in the 12th Century in the south of India. She worked for the welfare of women. Biography From an early age she was initiated into the worship of Shiva. She considered this initiation to be the most important moment of her life and she became a devoted worshipper of Shiva. The form of Shiva she worshipped was known as Chennamallikarjuna., which translates as " The Beautiful Lord, white as jasmine." Much of Mahadeviyakkha‘s poetry refers to her vivid descriptions of her beautiful Lord. And indeed she always signed her poems O Lord White as Jasmine. Legend says that the local Jain King of the area desired Mahadeviyakkha for she was a woman of un-surpassing beauty. Her family naturally agreed, and perhaps were a little fearful of incurring the King‘s displeasure should Mahadeviyakkha be uncooperative. The wedding is said to have taken place (although some scholars dispute this) however Mahadeviyakkha was unwilling to reciprocate the desire of the King. Mahadeviyakkha was immersed in devotion to her Lord and she could not accept a life of servitude to an atheistic King. Her family were highly critical of her ―unorthodox‖ behaviour and this led Mahadevi to renounce her worldly life. Mahadevi left her marriage and place of birth to live the life of a wandering mendicant. Mahadevi is said to have worn only long tresses. She felt clothes were a needless adornment for one seeking the Lord. Mahadeviyakkha is said to have then travelled to the region of Kalyana. Kalyana was a refuge for genuine Shiva bhakti, it stood out from the normal religious and social customs of the time. One of the leading saints Basavanna is said to be one of the first socialists because he spoke out against the inequities of the caste system. But primarily Basavanna and Allama were uniting those dedicated to Shiva worship However even the leaders of this community Basavanna and Allama had some trouble accepting Mahadevi, they were somewhat disturbed by her naked appearance. However Allama was eventually impressed by both her humility and genuine spirituality and Mahadevi was accepted into the community. Much of her poetry relates to the dialogues Mahadevi had with Allama as she was seeking to prove her spiritual intent. Her advice was to wholeheartedly yearn for the Divine without any inhibition. Mahadevi felt that outer rituals were mostly unimportant, what was important was the inner consecration the inner worship "The arrow that is shot should penetrate so deeply that even the feathers do not show. Hug the body of the Lord so tightly that the bones must be crushed to crumble. Weld to the divine until the very welding disappears. " - Mahadevi

Despite her years of great tapas Mahadevi still had not had the ultimate experience of merging into the infinite – into her Chennamallikarjuna. It is said that towards the end of her life she retreated to the cave where her last desire was fulfilled. Merging into the infinite she quietly left the earthly stage, leaving behind a legacy of illumining poetry. "In her intense devotion to Lord Shiva and single minded quest of Him she spurned the riches and comforts of a palace, cut asunder domestic bonds, and set out as a wandering devotee meeting with and overcoming many hardships on her journey to this final goal. In addition, she had the gift of imaginative expression. A few of the outpourings of her experience are preserved for posterity in the shape of Vachanas "sayings" in rhythmic Kanada prose.. Her vachanas are characterized by intense feeling and deep insight." -T.N. Sreekantaiya Ma on Akka Mahadevi The life of Mahadeviyakkha to some extent mirrors that of Mirabai. Both female saints had to renounce the comforts and expectations of a family life. Both suffered censure and displeasure from parts of society who didn't appreciate their devotion to spirituality. However despite the difficulties both faced, the intensity of their divine intoxication is startlingly revealed in their poetry. "Akka's poems are moving, haunting, unforgettable. For women, her work embodies a radical legitimacy as she struggles in her poetry to go beyond much of Virasaiva poetry to include the struggles of her body, struggles against the pettiness of roles she is forced into as a woman, struggles against a man who is also a prince and a Jain, and against the social expectations that restrain her. One of the monumental works that Basaveshwara did was the establishment of an institution named Anubhava Mantap. It was a spiritual as well as a social academy presided over by Allama Prabhu. That this rare but monumental institution in the cultural history of India was founded by Basaveshwara is corroborated by the sayings of his contemporaries. It was a nucleus around which gathered persons of all shades and all professions and of all ranks, ranging from the prince to the peasant, to take part in the deliberations of the Anubhava Mantap. It is gratifying to learn that amongst the assemblage of these persons numbering about 300, there were nearly 60 women mystics of whom Akka Mahadevi was the beaconlight. She could stand in comparison with any woman mystic either of India or of the rest of the world. She excelled all in point of her astounding asceticism and intense desire to realize God. Her sayings are characterized by the exuberance of emotion, the sublimation of elegance and the transfigration of grace. 2. KABIR Kabīr was a mystic poet and saint of India, whose writings have greatly influenced the Bhakti movement. The name Kabir comes from Arabic al-Kabīr which means 'The Great' – the 37th name of God in Islam. ... 3. Jibanananda Das Jibanananda Das (Bengali: জীবনানন্দ দাশ, /dʒɪbɒnʌnɒndɔː dʌʃ/) (17 February 1899 – 22 October 1954) was a Bengali poet, writer, novelist and essayist. Dimly recognised during his lifetime, today Das is acknowledged as ―the premier poet of the post-Tagore era inIndia"[1] and Bangladesh. One of his translators, Clinton B. Seely, is among those who consider Jibananda Das as "Bengal's greatest modern poet" and its "best loved poet" too. Author and literary critic Amit Chaudhuri concurs, describing Das's writing with admiration: "The poems are now part of the Bengali consciousness, on both sides of the border dividing India from what was Pakistan and is now Bangladesh; it's safe to claim that Das is the pre-eminent and best loved Bengali poet after Tagore." For the poets in the latter half of the twentieth century Das "has practically come to take place of Tagore".Das's oeuvre is eclectic and resists classification under any single heading or school. Das wrote ceaselessly, but as he was an introvert and the ―most alone of [Bengali] poets‖, he felt "compelled to suppress some of his most important writings or to locate them in a secret life".During his lifetime, only seven volumes of his poems were published. After his death, it was discovered that apart from poems Das wrote several novels and a large number of short stories. His unpublished works are still being published. Das died on 22 October 1954; eight days after he was hit by a tramcar. The witnesses said that though the tramcar whistled, he did not stop and got struck. Some deem the accident as an attempt at suicide.

“

Poetry and life are two different outpouring of the same thing; life as we usually conceive it contains what we normally accept as reality, but the spectacle of this incoherent and disorderly life can satisfy neither the poet'‘s talent nor the reader‘'s imagination ... poetry does not contain a complete reconstruction of what we call reality; we have entered a new world.

”

—Jibanananda Das[7] Early life Young Jibanananda Das Jibanananda Das was born in 1899 in a Vaidya-Brahmin family in the small district town of Barisal, located in the south of Bangladesh. His ancestors came from the Bikrampur region of Dhaka district, from a now-extinct village called Gaupara on the banks of the river Padma. Jibanananda's grandfather Sarbananda Dasgupta was the first to settle permanently in Barisal. He was an early exponent of the reformist Brahmo Samaj movement in Barisal and was highly regarded in town for his philanthropy. He erased the -gupta suffix from the family name, regarding it as a symbol of Vedic Brahmin excess, thus rendering the surname toDas. Jibanananda's father Satyananda Das (1863– 1942) was a schoolmaster, essayist, magazine publisher, and founder-editor ofBrôhmobadi, a journal of the Brahmo Samaj dedicated to the exploration of social issues. Jibanananda's mother Kusumkumari Das was a poet who wrote a famous poem called Adôrsho Chhele ("The Ideal Boy") whose refrain is well known to Bengalis to this day: Amader deshey hobey shei chhele kobey / Kothae na boro hoye kajey boro hobey.(The child who achieves not in words but in deeds, when will this land know such a one?) Jibanananda was the eldest son of his parents, and was called by the nickname Milu. A younger brother Ashokananda Das was born in 1908 and a sister called Shuchorita in 1915. Milu fell violently ill in his childhood, and his parents feared for his life. Fervently desiring to restore his health, Kusumkumari took her ailing child on pilgrimage to Lucknow, Agra and Giridih. They were accompanied on these journeys by their uncle Chandranath. In January 1908, Milu, by now eight years old, was admitted to the fifth grade in Brojomohon School. The delay was due to his father's opposition to admitting children into school at too early an age. Milu's childhood education was therefore limited to his mother's tutelage. His school life passed by relatively uneventfully. In 1915 he successfully completed his matriculation examination from Brojomohon, obtaining a first division in the process. He repeated the feat two years later when he passed the intermediate exams fromBrajamohan College. Evidently an accomplished student, he left his rural Barisal to join the University of Calcutta. Life in Calcutta: first phase Jibanananda enrolled in Presidency College, Kolkata, then as now a prestigious seat of learning. He studied English literature and graduated with a BA (Honours) degree in 1919. That same year, his first poem appeared in print in the Boishakh issue of Brahmobadi journal. Fittingly, the poem was called Borsho-abahon (Arrival of the New Year). This poem was published anonymously, with only the honorific Sri in the byline. However, the annual index in the year-end issue of the magazine revealed his full name: "Sri Jibanananda Das Gupta, BA".

In 1921, he completed the MA degree in English from University of Calcutta, obtaining a second class. He was also studying law. At this time, he lived in the Hardinge student quarters next to the university. Just before his exams, he fell ill with bacillary dysentery, which affected his preparation for the examinaiton. The following year, he started his teaching career. He joined the English department of City College, Calcutta as a tutor. By this time, he had left Hardinge and was boarding at Harrison Road. He gave up his law studies. It is thought that he also lived in a house in Bechu Chatterjee Street for some time with his brother Ashokanananda, who had come there from Barisal for his MSc studies. Travels and travails His literary career was starting to take off. When Deshbondhu Chittaranjan Das died in June 1925, Jibanananda wrote a poem called 'Deshbandhu'r Prayan'e' ("On the Death of the Friend of the nation") which was published in Bangabani magazine. This poem would later take its place in the collection called Jhara Palok (1927). On reading it, poet Kalidas Roysaid that he had thought the poem was the work of a mature, accomplished poet hiding behind a pseudonym. Jibanananda's earliest printed prose work was also published in 1925. This was an obituary entitled "Kalimohan Das'er Sraddha-bashorey," which appeared in serialised form in Brahmobadi magazine. His poetry began to be widely published in various literary journals and little magazines in Calcutta, Dhaka and elsewhere. These included Kallol, perhaps the most famous literary magazine of the era, Kalikalam (Pen and Ink),Progoti (Progress) (co-edited by Buddhadeb Bose) and others. At this time, he occasionally used the surname Dasgupta as opposed to Das. In 1927, Jhara Palok (Fallen Feathers), his first collection of poems, came out. A few months later, Jibanananda was fired from his job at the City College. The college had been struck by student unrest surrounding a religious festival, and enrolment seriously suffered as a consequence. Still in his late 20s, Jibanananda was the youngest member of the faculty and therefore regarded as the most dispensable. In the literary circle of Calcutta, he also came under serial attack. One of the most serious literary critics of that time, Sajanikanta Das, began to write aggressive critiques of his poetry in the review pages of Shanibarer Chithi (the Saturday Letter) magazine. With nothing to keep him in Calcutta, Jibanananda left for the small town of Bagerhat in the far south, there to resume his teaching career at Bagerhat P. C. College. But after about three months he returned to the big city, now in dire financial straits. To make ends meet, he gave private tuition to students while applying for full-time positions in academia. In December 1929, he moved to Delhi to take up a teaching post at Ramjosh College; again this lasted no more than a few months. Back in Barisal, his family had been making arrangements for his marriage. Once Jibanananda got to Barisal, he failed to go back to Delhi – and, consequently, lost the job. In May 1930, he married Labanya, a girl whose ancestors came from Khulna. At the subsequent reception in Dhaka's Ram Mohan Library, leading literary lights of the day such asAjit Kumar Dutta and Buddhadeb Bose were assembled. A daughter called Manjusree was born to the couple in February of the following year. Around this time, he wrote one of his most controversial poems. "Camp'e" (At the Camp) was printed in Sudhindranath Dutta's Parichay magazine and immediately caused a firestorm in the literary circle of Calcutta. The poem's ostensible subject is a deer hunt on a moonlit night. Many accused Jibanananda of promoting indecency and incest through this poem.More and more, he turned now, in secrecy, to fiction. He wrote a number of short novels and short stories during this period of unemployment, strife and frustration.

In 1934 he wrote the series of poems that would form the basis of the collection called Rupasi Bangla. These poems were not discovered during his lifetime, and were only published in 1957, three years after his death. Back in Barisal In 1935, Jibanananda, by now familiar with professional disappointment and poverty, returned to his alma mater Brajamohan College, which was then affiliated with the University of Calcutta. He joined as a lecturer in the English department. In Calcutta, Buddhadeb Bose, Premendra Mitra and Samar Sen were starting a brand new poetry magazine calledKobita. Jibanananda's work featured in the very first issue of the magazine, a poem called Mrittu'r Aagey (Before Death). Upon reading the magazine, Tagore wrote a lengthy letter to Bose and especially commended the Das poem: Jibanananda Das' vivid, colourful poem has given me great pleasure. It was in the second issue of Kobita (Poush 1342 issue, Dec 1934/Jan 1935) that Jibanananda published his now-legendary "Banalata Sen". Today, this 18-line poem is among the most famous poems in the language. The following year, his second volume of poetry Dhusar Pandulipi was published. Jibanananda was by now well settled in Barisal. A son Samarananda was born in November 1936. His impact in the world of Bengali literature continued to increase. In 1938, Tagore compiled a poetry anthology entitled Bangla Kabya Parichay (Introduction to Bengali Poetry) and included an abridged version of Mrityu'r Aagey, the same poem that had moved him three years ago. Another important anthology came out in 1939, edited by Abu Sayeed Ayub and Hirendranath Mukhopadhyay; Jibanananda was represented with four poems: Pakhira, Shakun, Banalata Sen, and Nagna Nirjan Haat. In 1942, the same year that his father died, his third volume of poetry Banalata Sen was published under the aegis of Kobita Bhavan and Buddhadeb Bose. A ground-breaking modernist poet in his own right, Bose was a steadfast champion of Jibanananda's poetry, providing him with numerous platforms for publication. 1944 saw the publication of Maha Prithibi. The Second World War had a profound impact on Jibanananda's poetic vision. The following year, Jibanananda provided his own translations of several of his poems for an English anthology to be published under the title Modern Bengali Poems. Oddly enough, the editor Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya considered these translations to be sub-standard, and instead commissioned Martin Kirkman to translate four of Jibanananda's poems for the book. Life in Calcutta: final phase The aftermath of the war saw heightened demands for Indian independence. Muslim politicians led by Jinnah wanted an independent homeland for the Muslims of the subcontinent. Bengal was uniquely vulnerable to partition: its western half was majority-Hindu, its eastern half majority-Muslim. Yet adherents of both religions spoke the same language, came from the same ethnic stock, and lived in close proximity to each other in town and village. Jibanananda had emphasized the need for communal harmony at an early stage. In his very first book Jhora Palok, he had included a poem called Hindu Musalman. In it he proclaimed: However, events in real life belied his beliefs. In the summer of 1946, he travelled to Calcutta from Barisal on three months' paid leave. He stayed at his brother Ashokananda's place through the bloody riots that swept the city. Violence broke out in Noakhali and Tippera districts later in the autumn, and he was unable to return to Barisal. Just before partition in August 1947, Jibanananda quit his job at Brajamohan College and said goodbye to his beloved Barisal. He and his family were among the X million refugees who took part in the largest cross-border migration in history. For a while he worked for a magazine called Swaraj as its Sunday editor. But he left the job after a few months.

In 1948, he completed two of his novels, Mallyaban and Shutirtho, neither of which were discovered during his life. Shaat'ti Tarar Timir was published in December 1948. The same month, his mother Kusumkumari Das died in Calcutta. By now, he was well established in the Calcutta literary world. He was appointed to the editorial board of yet another new literary magazine Dondo (Conflict). However, in a reprise of his early career, he was sacked from his job at Kharagpur College in February 1951. In 1952, Signet Press published Banalata Sen. The book received widespread acclaim and won the Book of the Year award from the All-Bengal Tagore Literary Conference. Later that year, the poet found another job at Borisha College (today known as Borisha Bibekanondo College). This job too he lost within a few months. He applied afresh to Diamond Harbour Fakirchand College, but eventually declined it, owing to travel difficulties. Instead he was obliged to take up a post at Howrah Girl's College (now known as Bijoy Krishna Girls‘ College), a constituent affiliated undergraduate college of the University of Calcutta. As the head of the English department, he was entitled to a 50-taka monthly bonus on top of his salary. By the last year of his life, Jibanananda was acclaimed as one of the best poets of the post-Tagore era. He was constantly in demand at literary conferences, poetry readings, radio recitals etc. In May 1954, he was published a volume titled 'Best Poems' (Sreshttho Kobita). His Best Poems won the Indian Sahitya Akademi Award in 1955. Love and marriage Young Jibanananda fell in love with Shovona, daughter of his uncle Atulchandra Das, who lived in the neighbourhood. He dedicated his first anthology of poems to Shovona without mentioning her name explicitly. He did not try to marry Shovona since marriage between cousins was not socially acceptable. But he never forgot Shovona who went by her nick Baby. She has been referred to as Y in his literary notes. Soon after wedding with Labanyaprabha Das (née Gupta) in 1930, personality clash erupted and Jibanananda Das gave up hope of a happy married life. The gap with his wife never narrowed. While Jibanananda was struggling with death after a tram accident on 14 October 1954, Labanyaprabha did not find time for more than once for visiting her husband on death bed. At that time she was busy in film-making in Tallyganj. Death “

One poet dead, killed near his fiftieth year . . . did introduce what for India would be ―the modern spirit‖: bitterness, self-doubt, sex, street diction, personal confession... —Allen Ginsberg

On 14 October 1954, he was carelessly crossing a road near Calcutta's Deshapriya Park when he was hit by a tram. Jibanananda was returning home after his routine evening walk. At that time, he used to reside in a rented apartment on the Lansdowne Road. Seriously injured, he was taken to Shambhunath Pundit Hospital. Poet-writer Sajanikanta Das who had been one of his fiercest critics was tireless in his efforts to secure the best treatment for the poet. He even persuaded Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy (then chief minister of West Bengal) to visit him in hospital. Nonetheless, the injury was too severe to redress. Jibanananda died in hospital on 22 October 1954 eight days later, at about midnight. He was then 55 and left behind his wife, Labanyaprabha Das, a son and a daughter, and the ever-growing band of readers. His body was cremated the following day at Keoratola crematorium. Following popular belief, it has been alleged in some biographical accounts that his accident was actually an attempt at suicide.[13] Although none of the Jibanananda biographers have indicated such, it appears from circumstantial evidence that it was an attempt to end his own life.

”

The literary circle deeply mourned his death. Almost all the newspapers published obituaries which contained sincere appreciations of the poetry of Jibanananda. Poet Sanjay Bhattacharya wrote the death news and sent to different newspapers. On 1 November 1954, The Times of India wrote : The premature death after an accident of Mr. Jibanananda Das removes from the field of Bengali literature a poet, who, though never in the limelight of publicity and prosperity, made a significant contribution to modern Bengali poetry by his prose-poems and free-verse. ... A poet of nature with a serious awareness of the life around him Jibanananda Das was known not so much for the social content of his poetry as for his bold imagination and the concreteness of his image. To a literary world dazzled by Tagore's glory, Das showed how to remain true to the poet's vocation without basking in its reflection.‖ In his obituary in the Shanibarer Chithi, Sajanikanta Das quoted from the poet : When one day I‘ll leave this body once for all − Shall I never return to this world any more? Let me come back On a winter night To the bedside of any dying acquaintance With a cold pale lump of orange in hand. Jibanananda and Bengali poetry Influence of Tagore As of 2009, Bengali is the mother tongue of more than 300 million people living mainly in Bangladesh and India. Bengali poetry of the modern age flourished on the elaborate foundation laid by Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824– 1873) and Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941). Tagore ruled over the domain of Bengali poetry and literature for almost half a century, inescapably influencing contemporary poets. Bengali literature caught the attention of the international literary world when Tagore was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature for Gitanjali, an anthology of poems rendered into English by the poet himself with the title Song Offering. Since then Bengali poetry has travelled a long way. It has evolved around its own tradition; it has responded to the poetry movements around the world; it has assumed various dimensions in different tones, colours and essence. Contemporaries of Jibananda In Bengal, efforts to break out of the Tagorian worldview and stylistics started in the early days of the 20th century. Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899–1976) popularised himself on a wide scale with patriotic themes and musical tone and tenor. However, a number of new -ration poets consciously attempted to align Bengali poetry with the essence of worldwide emergent modernism, starting towards the end of the 19th century and attributeable to contemporary European and American trends. Five poets who are particularly acclaimed for their contribution in creating a postTagorian poetic paradigm and infusing modernism in Bengali poetry are Sudhindranath Dutta (1901– 1960), Buddhadeb Bose (1908–1974), Amiya Chakravarty (1901–1986), Jibanananda Das (1899–1954) and Bishnu Dey (1909–1982). The contour of modernism in 20th-century Bengali poetry was drawn by these five pioneers and some of their contemporaries. However, not all of them have survived the test of time. Of them, poet Jibanananda Das was little understood during his lifetime. In fact, he received scanty attention and some considered him incomprehensible. Readers, including his contemporary literary critics, also alleged faults in his style and diction. On occasions, he faced merciless criticism

from leading literary personalities of his time. Even Tagore made unkind remarks on his diction, although he praised his poetic capability. Nevertheless, destiny reserved a crown for him. Growth of popularity During the later half of the twentieth century, Jibanananda Das emerged as the most popular poet of modern Bengali literature. Popularity apart, Jibanananda Das had distinguished himself as an extraordinary poet presenting a paradigm hitherto unknown. Whilst his unfamiliar poetic diction, choice of words and thematic preferences took time to reach the hearts of readers, by the end of the 20th century the poetry of Jibanananda had become a defining essence of modernism in 20th-century Bengali poetry. Whilst his early poems bear the undoubted influence of Kazi Nazrul Islam and other poets like Satyendranath Dutta, before long Jibananda had thoroughly overcame these influences and created a new poetic diction. Buddhadeb Bose was among the first to recognise his style and thematic novelty. However, as his style and diction matured, his message appeared obscured. Readers, including critics, started to complain about readability and question his sensibility. Only after his accidental death in 1954 did a readership emerge that not only was comfortable with Jibanananda's style and diction but also enjoyed his poetry. Questions about the obscurity of his poetic message were no longer raised. By the time his birth centenary was celebrated in 1999, Jibanananda Das was the most popular and well-read poet of Bengali literature. Even when the last quarter of the 20th century ushered in the post-modern era, Jibanananda Das continued to be relevant to the new taste and fervour. This was possible because his poetry underwent many cycles of change, and later poems contain post-modern elements. Poetics Jibanananda Das started writing and publishing in his early 20s. During his lifetime he published only 269 poems in different journals and magazines, of which 162 were collected in seven anthologies, from Jhara Palak to Bela Obela Kalbela. Many of his poems have been published posthumously at the initiative of his brother Asokananda Das, sister Sucharita Das and nephew Amitananda Das, and the efforts of Dr. Bhumendra Guha, who over the decades copied them from scattered manuscripts. By 2008, the total count of Jibananda's known poems stood at almost 800. In addition, numerous novels and short stories were discovered and published about the same time. Jibanananda scholar Clinton B. Seely has termed Jibanananda Das as "Bengal's most cherished poet since Rabindranath Tagore".On the other hand, to many, reading the poetry of Jibanananda Das is like stumbling upon a labyrinth of the mind similar to what one imagines Camus's 'absurd' man toiling through. Indeed, Jibanananda Das's poetry is sometimes an outcome of profound feeling painted in imagery of a type not readily understandable. Sometimes the connection between the sequential lines is not obvious. In fact, Jibanananda Das broke the traditional circular structure of poetry (introduction-middle-end) and the pattern of logical sequence of words, lines and stanzas. Consequently, the thematic connotation is often hidden under a rhythmic narrative that requires careful reading between the lines. The following excerpt will bear the point out: Lepers open the hydrant and lap some water. Or maybe that hydrant was already broken. Now at midnight they descend upon the city in droves, Scattering sloshing petrol. Though ever careful, Someone seems to have taken a serious spill in the water.

Three rickshaws trot off, fading into the last gaslight. I turn off, leave Phear Lane, defiantly Walk for miles, stop beside a wall On Bentinck Street, at Territti Bazar, There in the air dry as roasted peanuts. (Night – a poem on night in Calcutta, translated by Clinton B. Seely) Though Jibananda Das was variously branded at times and was popularly known as a modernist of the YeatsianPoundian-Eliotesque school, Annadashankar Roy called him thetruest poet. Jibanananda Das conceived a poem and moulded it up in the way most natural for him. When a theme occurred to him, he shaped it with words, metaphors and imagery that distinguished him from all others. Jibanananda Das's poetry is to be felt, rather than merely read or heard. Writing about Jibanananda Das' poetry, Joe Winter remarked: It is a natural process, though perhaps the rarest one. Jibanananda Das's style reminds us of this, seeming to come unbidden. It is full of sentences that scarcely pause for breath, of word-combinations that seem altogether unlikely but work, of switches in register from sophisticated usage to a village-dialect word, that jar and in the same instant settle in the mind, full of friction – in short, that almost becomes a part of the consciousness ticking.[18] A few lines are quoted below in support of Winter's remarks: Nevertheless, the owl stays wide awake; The rotten, still frog begs two more moments in the hope of another dawn in conceivable warmth. We feel in the deep tracelessness of flocking darkness the unforgiving enmity of the mosquito-net all around; The mosquito loves the stream of life, awake in its monastery of darkness. (One day eight years ago, translated by Faizul Latif Chowdhury) Or elsewhere: ... how the wheel of justice is set in motion by a smidgen of wind or if someone dies and someone else gives him a bottle of medicine, free – then who has the profit? over all of this the four have a mighty word-battle. For the land they will go to now is called the soaring river where a wretched bone-picker and his bone come and discover their faces in water – till looking at faces is over. (Idle Moment, translated by Joe Winter) Also noteworthy are his sonnets, the most famous being seven untitled pieces collected in the publication Shaat-ti Tarar Timir ("The Blackness of Seven Stars), where he describes, on one hand, his attachment to his motherland, and on the other, his views about life and death in general. They are noteworthy not only because of the picturesque

description of nature that was a regular feature of most of his work but also for the use of metaphors and allegories. For example, a lone owl flying about in the night sky is taken as an omen of death, while the anklets on the feet of a swan symbolises the vivacity of life. Jibanananda successfully integrated Bengali poetry with the slightly older Eurocentric international modernist movement of the early 20th century. In this regard he possibly owes as much to his exotic exposure as to his innate poetic talent. Although hardly appreciated during his lifetime, many critics believe that his modernism, evoking almost all the suggested elements of the phenomenon, remains untranscended to date, despite the emergence of many notable poets during the last 50 years. His success as a modern Bengali poet may be attributed to the facts that Jibanananda Das in his poetry not only discovered the tract of the slowly evolving 20th-century modern mind, sensitive and reactive, full of anxiety and tension, bu that he invented his own diction, rhythm and vocabulary, with an unmistakably indigenous rooting, and that he maintained a self-styled lyricism and imagism mixed with an extraordinary existentialist sensuousness, perfectly suited to the modern temperament in the Indian context, whereby he also averted fatal dehumanisation that could have alienated him from the people. He was at once a classicist and a romantic and created an appealing world hitherto unknown: For thousands of years I roamed the paths of this earth, From waters round Ceylon in dead of night to Malayan seas. Much have I wandered. I was there in the grey world of Asoka And Bimbisara, pressed on through darkness to the city of Vidarbha. I am a weary heart surrounded by life's frothy ocean. To me she gave a moment's peace – Banalata Sen from Natore. (Banalata Sen) While reading Jibanananda Das, one often encounters references to olden times and places, events and personalities. A sense of time and history is an unmistakable element that has shaped Jibanananda Das's poetic world to a great extent. However, he lost sight of nothing surrounding him. Unlike many of his peers who blindly imitated the renowned western poets in a bid to create a new poetic domain and generated spurious poetry, Jibanananda Das remained anchored in his own soil and time, successfully assimilating experiences real and virtual and producing hundreds of unforgettable lines. His intellectual vision was thoroughly embedded in Bengal's nature and beauty: Amidst a vast meadow the last time when I met her I said: 'Come again a time like this if one day you so wish twenty-five years later.' This been said, I came back home. After that, many a time, the moon and the stars from field to field have died, the owls and the rats searching grains in paddy fields on a moonlit night fluttered and crept! – shut eyed many times left and right

have slept several souls! – awake kept I all alone – the stars on the sky travel fast faster still, time speeds by. Yet it seems Twenty-five years will forever last. (After Twenty-five Years, translated by Luna Rushdi) Thematically, Jibanananda Das is amazed by the continued existence of humankind in the backdrop of eternal flux of time, wherein individual presence is insignificant and meteoric albeit inescapable. He feels that we are closed in, fouled by the numbness of this concentration cell (Meditations). To him, the world is weird and olden, and as a race, mankind has been a persistent "wanderer of this world" (Banalata Sen) that, according to him, has existed too long to know anything more (Before death, Walking alone) or experience anything fresh. The justification of further mechanical existence like Mahin's horses (The Horses) is apparently absent: "So (he) had slept by the Dhanshiri river on a cold December night, and had never thought of waking again" (Darkness). As an individual, tired of life and yearning for sleep (One day eight years ago), Jibanananda Das is certain that peace can be found nowhere and that it is useless to move to a distant land, since there is no way of freedom from sorrows fixed by life (Land, Time and Offspring). Nevertheless, he suggests: "O sailor, you press on, keep pace with the sun!" (Sailor). Why did Jibanananda task himself to forge a new poetic speech, while others in his time preferred to tread the usual path? The answer is simple. In his endeavours to shape a world of his own, he was gradual and steady. He was an inward-looking person and was not in a hurry. I do not want to go anywhere so fast. Whatever my life wants I have time to reach there walking (Of 1934 – a poem on the motor car, translated by Golam Mustafa) Under this sky, these stars beneath -One day will have to sleep inside tiredness -Like snow-filled white ocean of North Pole! – This night – this day – O this light as bright as it may! -These designs for a life – will forget all -Under such a silent, fathomless sky! – Had felt the fragrance of a body one day, -By washing my body inside sea water -Felt our heart so deep by falling in love! -This vigor of life had seen one day awaken – Light stoking the edge of darkness -Have heard the passionate whispers of a night – always for a day! –

This visit! This conscious vigil that I see, I feel -Yet will end one day -Time only remains for us to ripe like a harvest in green soil -Once so ripen, then the hands of death will be likeable – Will hold us in his chest, one by one -Like a sleeplorn -Fugitive lovelorn -Inside tender whispers! – When that time will prosper to an end and he will come -That savor will be ... the most relishing. Much literary evaluation of his poetry has been produced since Jibanananda Das's untimely death, beginning with the ten-page Introduction of Naked Lonely Hand, an anthology of 50 of the poet's poems rendered into English.[20] Winter appears to have caught the essence of the poet, who appeared to be subtle, mysterious and bizarre even to native readers and critics of his time. He was also known as a surrealist poet for his spontaneous, frenzied overflow of subconscious mind in poetry and especially in diction. Prose style During his lifetime Jibanananda remained solely a poet who occasionally wrote literary articles, mostly on request. Only after his death were a huge number of novels and short stories discovered. Thematically, Jibanananda's storylines are largely autobiographical. His own time constitutes the perspective. While in poetry he subdued his own life, he allowed it to be brought into his fiction. Structurally his fictional works are based more on dialogues than description by the author. However, his prose shows a unique style of compound sentences, use of non-colloquial words and a typical pattern of punctuation. His essays evidence a heavy prose style, which although complex, is capable of expressing complicated analytical statements. As a result his prose was very compact, containing profound messages in a relatively short space.

POEMS: Before Death (Mrityu-r Agey) jibananandas was a true nature lover.in his poem before dying he explored the world,world which is full of colours as according to him death does not mark the end of ones journey its just that we leave our physical existance and rather moves on to another joureny in another world .the explicit usage of diffrent colours of blue,red and green gives the poem sense of beauty as well as shows his passion for greenry .poem travels through the due course of on life wrapping all the sufferings,loneliness and happy moments of joy and satisfaction .presence of nostalgia is felt by the reader depicting clearly the passion and love of the poet for the bengal and environment he spend his childhood .he has briliantly explored the seasons of "winter","summer","autumn"and thereby has displayed is analogus love for nature useage of non coloquial words has given th epoen its sense of uniqueness .by diving through the kake of different smells of"owl","rice",child's "breath" he has given the poem a strong and sensational feel.variety of sounds included in the poem by the "thatch" beating the roof,wings of birds "gliding" and "bulbuls" playing on the hijal branches gave the poem a musical element. darkness has been interviewed by the poet in many transverse forms. rivers,night,mornings and evenings,skyies,moon,sun and other such creats a world which is full of life happiness and beauty.das's facination for certain unique and very unpoetic birds,bushes,shurbs,such as jackal,owl,vultures,ducks,rat,firefly and cricket gave him his very own style of poetry.

The Song of Life Lying upon the stretcher perhaps fog clogs your eyes Don't worry, death is not another unjust light; How come then so many people embrace death, craving a torch like flying ants? Why would then men compose so many slokas to make a ladder to the heaven? Death today; but did not the matador die in Spain? He fought like a hero in the sunlight thinking himself undefeatable Suddenly he plunged into an eternal night. Yet a Haryal Verily a Bengal bird accepts death as the row of bullets appears like a horizon. Yet we embrace day-light like an alcohol dealer Fill in the goblet; It seems compass, seas, sunlight Life in effect wiser than death. They are dead; crumpled between layers of the earth. Still life gobbles up sun spots - privately like a sun. [Translated by Faizul Latif Chowdhury] Jibanananda Das 4. B. S. Mardhekar One of the foremost proponents of new age poetry in Marathi literature Birth: 01 Dec 1909 After Keshavsut, B. S. Mardhekar has the honour of being an epoch maker of new age Marathi poetry. Bal Sitaram Mardhekar was a capable poet and literary scholar, who was responsible for breaking out of traditions in literature and venturing on new paths, influencing the contemporary period, and showing a new direction to authors of previous generations. Along with poetry, Mardhekar also made important contributions to the fields of literary contemplation, critic, novels and plays. Mardhekar was born in Faizpur, Khandesh (district Jalgaon). After acquiring his Bachelors in Arts degree from Fergusson College, Pune, he worked for a while as the assistant editor of the Times of India, an English newspaper. Later, he worked as a professor of English for some period of time. In 1938, he worked as an Officer in a branch of Akashwani (All India Radio network). Shishiraagam (1939), Kahi Kavita (Some poems) (1947), and Aankhi Kahi Kavita (Some more poems) (1951) are three popular collections of his poems. Though approximately a little more than 125 poems, the contribution to Marathi literature of these poems were so valuable, that they are considered epoch making. These high quality poems of profound essence were capable of breaking the picket fences of Marathi literature. His earlier collection Shishiraagam was a product of typical poetry: sentimental, lyrical and conventional. But his later avant-garde collection brought about a storm in Marathi literary world. Similar to what Baudelaire did for the French poetry, he did for Marathi poetry by bringing in the decadent urban ethos. He was influenced by Marathi bhakti poetry and the poetry of T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden.

He was also an influential critic and an experimental novelist. His novels are attempts to bring in the stream of consciousness technique into Marathi. Mardhekar intensely illustrated in his poems the impermanency in life and consciousness of sadness and distress. His poems that were of new age consciousness, experimental, thought provoking and at times poignant, were a matter of discussion even during his time. There was even an accusation of indecency in court against his poems, but he was declared innocent. His poems were also experimental and revolutionary in terms of essence, expression and creativity, which rejected the accepted style of writing, for e.g. Pipaat Mele Olya Undir (Rats Died in the wet barrel) is a unique composition of words. He used new models for illustrating the dissatisfaction and suffocation of mankind in the new machine age, using modern day English phrases like routine, punching, logging, etc. E.g. the following verse is based on a popular psalm Punctureli jari ratra divyanni, tari pumpato kuni kalokh, sarve jantu routinah : | Sarve jantu nirashayah: | sarve chidrani punchantu | ya kashchitta dukha log bharate || (Though the night is punctured by lights, yet someone pumps in the darkness All beings are stuck in routine, all beings are discouraged, all persons are punching, all are logging sadness) While implementing this new style of poetry he readily accepted the challenge of being incomprehensible and difficult to understand. But he remained honest to his own experiences. He wrote some pleasant, beautiful poems too along with his usual discouraging, morose poems. He entrenched the concept of newness in critical appreciation. Vaangmayin Mahatmata (1941) and Soundarya aani Sahitya (1955) are excellent examples of his critical appreciation. He wrotePaani (water), Tambdi Maati (red earth) and Ratricha Divas (A day of night). Through these three novels along with one play and four operas, he competently handled these forms of literature too. This poet, who nurtured newness in essence and expression till the end, passed away on 20th March 1956 in Delhi. Death: 20 March 1956 "Mice Died in the Wet Barrel Inside the waterlogged drum, the mice are dead, Their necks hang, wrung by nobody. The necks hang, and lips meet lips Without desire. Poor bastards lived in holes, And, with a hiccup, died in the drum. Day spilled into gray eyes,

rinsed their limbs and genitals. Living is obligatory; so, too, is dying. Melancholy has disquieting eyes; they are glass ones, though. Even the honeycomb brimming on their lips is merely foam rubber! Lips nuzzling lips: O the mice are douched in the drum! the mice are douched!"

5. Premchand Munshi Premchand (Urdu: ‫منشی پریم چند‬, Hindi: मुंशी प्रेमचुंद, pronounced [m nʃi preːm tʃ nd] (

listen)) (31 July

1880 – 8 October 1936) was an Indian writer famous for his modern Hindustani literature. He is one of the most celebrated writers of the Indian subcontinent,and is regarded as one of the foremost Hindustani writers of the early twentieth century. Born Dhanpat Rai Srivastav, he began writing under the pen name "Nawab Rai", but subsequently switched to "Premchand", while he is also known as "Munshi Premchand",Munshi being an honorary prefix. A novel writer, story writer and dramatist, he has been referred to as the "Upanyas Samrat" ("Emperor among Novelists") by some Hindi writers. His works include more than a dozen novels, around 250 short stories, several essays and translations of a number of foreign literary works into Hindi. Early life Premchand was born on 31 July 1880 in Lamahi, a village located near Varanasi (Benares). His ancestors came from a large family, which owned six bighas of land. His grandfather Gur Sahai Lal was a patwari (village accountant), and his father Ajaib Lal was a post office clerk. His mother was Anandi Devi of Karauni village, who could have been the inspiration for the character Anandi in his Bade Ghar Ki Beti. Premchand was the fourth child of Ajaib Lal and Anandi; the first two were girls who died as infants, and the third one was a girl named Suggi. His parents named him Dhanpat Rai ("the master of wealth"), while his uncle, Mahabir, a rich landowner, nicknamed him "Nawab" ("Prince"). "Nawab Rai" was the first pen name chosen by Premchand. When he was 7 years old, Premchand began his education at a madarsa in Lalpur, located around 2½ km from Lamahi. Premchand learnt Urdu and Persian from a maulvi in the madarsa. When he was 8, his mother died after a long illness. His grandmother, who took the responsibility of raising him, died soon after. Premchand felt isolated, as his elder sister had already been married, and his father was always busy with work. His father, who was now posted

at Gorakhpur, re-married, but Premchand received little affection from his step-mother. The step-mother later became a recurring theme in Premchand's works. After his mother's death, Premchand sought solace in fiction, and developed a fascination for books. He heard the stories from the Persian-language fantasy epic Tilism-e-Hoshrubaat a tobacconist's shop. He took the job of selling books for a book wholesaler, thus getting the opportunity to read a lot of books. He learnt English at a missionary school, and studied several works of fiction including George W. M. Reynolds's eight-volume The Mysteries of the Court of London. He composed his first literary work at Gorakhpur, which was never published and is now lost. It was a farce on a bachelor, who falls in love with a low-caste woman. The character was based on Premchand's uncle, who used to scold him for being obsessed with reading fiction; the farce was probably written as a revenge for this. After his father was posted to Jamniya in the mid-1890s, Premchand enrolled at the Queen's College at Benaras as a day scholar. In 1895, he was married at the age of 15, while still studying in the 9th grade. The match was arranged by his maternal step-grandfather. The girl was from a rich landlord family and was older than Premchand, who found her quarrelsome and not good-looking. Premchand's father died in 1897 after a long illness. He managed to pass the matriculation exam with second division. However, only the students with first division were given fee concession at the Queen's College. Premchand then sought admission at the Central Hindu College, but was unsuccessful due to his poor arithmetic skills. Thus, he had to discontinue his studies. Premchand then obtained an assignment to coach an advocate's son in Benares at a monthly salary of five rupees. He used to live reside in a mud-cell over the advocate's stables, and used to send 60% of his salary back home. Premchand read a lot during these days. After racking up several debts, in 1899, he once went to a book shop to sell one of his collected books. There, he met the headmaster of a missionary school at Chunar, who offered him a job as a teacher, at a monthly salary of

18. He also took up the job of tutoring a student at a monthly fees of

5.

In 1900, Premchand secured a job as an assistant teacher at the Government District School, Bahraich, at a monthly salary of 20. Three months later, he was transferred to the District School in Pratapgarh, where he stayed in an administrator's bungalow and tutored his son. Dhanpat Rai first wrote under the pseudonym "Nawab Rai". His first short novel was Asrar e Ma'abid (Devasthan Rahasya in Hindi, "The Mystery of God's Abode"), which explores corruption among the temple priests and their sexual exploitation of poor women. The novel was published in a series in the Benares-based Urdu weekly Awaz-eKhalk from 8 October 1903 to February 1905. Siegfried Schulz states that "his inexperience is quite evident in his first novel", which is not well-organized, lacks a good plot and features stereotyped characters.Prakash Chandra Gupta calls it an "immature work", which shows a tendency to "see life only white or black". Stay at Kanpur From Pratapgarh, Dhanpat Rai was relocated to Allahabad for training, and subsequently posted at Kanpur in 1905. Premchand stayed in Kanpur for around four years, from May 1905 to June 1909. There he met Daya Narain Nigam, the editor of the magazine Zamana, in which he later published several articles and stories. Premchand visited his village Lamahi during the summer vacation, but did not find the stay enjoyable due to a number of reasons. He did not find the weather of the atmosphere conducive for writing. Plus, he faced domestic trouble due to quarrels between his wife and his step-mother. Premchand angrily scolded his wife, after she unsuccessfully tried to commit suicide by hanging. Dismayed, she went to her father's house, and Premchand

displayed no interest in bringing her back. In 1906, Premchand married a child widow, Shivarani Devi, who was the daughter of a landlord from a village near Fatehpur. The step was considered to be revolutionary at that time, and Premchand faced a lot of social opposition. After his death, Shivarani Devi wrote a book on him, titled Premchand Ghar Mein ("Premchand in House"). In 1905, inspired by the nationalist activism, Premchand published an article on the Indian National Congress leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale in Zamana. He criticised Gokhale's methods for achieving political freedom, and instead recommended adoption of more extremist measures adopted by Bal Gangadhar Tilak.Premchand's first published story wasDuniya Ka Sabse Anmol Ratan ("The Most Precious Jewel in the World"), which appeared in Zamana in 1907. According to this story, the most precious 'jewel' was the last drop of blood necessary to attain independence. Many of Premchand's early short stories had patriotic overtones, influenced by the Indian independence movement. Premchand's second short novel Hamkhurma-o-Hamsavab (Prema in Hindi), published in 1907, was penned under the name "Babu Nawab Rai Banarsi". It explores the issue ofwidow remarriage in the contemporary conservative society: the protagonist Amrit Rai overcomes social opposition to marry the young widow Poorna, giving up his rich and beautiful fiance Prema. According to Prakash Chandra Gupta, "while containing seeds of his future greatness in many ways, the novel is still youthful and lacks the discipline which full maturity brings". In 1907, another of Premchand's short novels, Kishna was published by the Medical Hall Press of Benares. This 142page work, which satirises women's fondness for jewellery, is now lost. Literary critic Nobat Rai criticised the work in Zamana, saying that it is a mockery of the women's conditions. During April–August 1907, Premchand's story Roothi Rani was published in serial form in Zamana. Also in 1907, the publishers of Zamana published Premchand's first short story collection, titled Soz-e-Watan. The collection, which was later banned, contained four stories which sought to inspire the Indians in their struggle for political freedom. Adoption of the name Premchand In 1909, Premchand was transferred to Mahoba, and later posted to Hamirpur as the Sub-deputy Inspector of Schools. Around this time, Soz-e-Watan was noticed by the British Government officials, who banned it as a seditious work. The British collector of the Hamirpur District ordered a raid on Premchand's house, where around five hundred copies ofSoz-e-Watan were burnt. Subsequently, Dhanpat Rai had to change his pseudonym from "Nawab Rai" to "Premchand". In 1914, Premchand started writing in Hindi (Hindi and Urdu are considered different registers of a single language Hindustani, with Hindi drawing much of its vocabulary from Sanskrit and Urdu being more influenced by Persian). By this time, he was already reputed as a fiction writer in Urdu. His first Hindi story Saut was published in the magazineSaraswati in December 1915, and his first short story collection Sapta Saroj was published in June 1917. Gorakhpur A plaque commemorating Premchand at the hut where he resided in Gorakhpur from 1916 to 1921. In August 1916, Premchand was transferred to Gorakhpur on a promotion. He became the Assistant Master at the Normal High School, Gorakhpur.

At Gorakhpur, he developed a friendship with the bookseller Buddhi Lal, who allowed him to borrow novels for reading, in exchange for selling exam cram books at the school. Premchand was an enthusiastic reader of classics in other languages, and translated several of these works in Hindi. By 1919, Premchand had published four novellas, of about a hundred pages each. In 1919, Premchand's first major novel Seva Sadanwas published in Hindi. The novel was originally written in Urdu under the title Bazaar-e-Husn, but was published in Hindi first by aCalcutta-based publisher, who offered Premchand 450 for his work. The Urdu Publisher of Lahore published the novel later in 1924, paying Premchand 250.The novel tells the story of an unhappy housewife, who first becomes a courtesan, and then manages an orphanage for the young daughters of the courtesans. It was well received by the critics, and helped Premchand gain wider recognition. In 1919, Premchand obtained a BA degree from Allahabad.By 1921, he had been promoted to Deputy Inspectors of Schools. On 8 February 1921, he attended a meeting in Gorakhpur, where Mahatma Gandhi asked people to resign from government jobs as part of the non-cooperation movement. Premchand, although physically unwell and with two kids and a pregnant wife to support, thought about it for 5 days and decided, with the consent of his wife, to resign from his government job. Back to Benares After quitting his job, Premchand left Gorakhpur for Benares on 18 March 1921, and decided to focus on his literary career. Till his death in 1936, he faced severe financial difficulties and chronic ill health. In 1923, he established a printing press and publishing house in Benares, christened "Saraswati Press".The year 1924 saw the publication of Premchand's Rangabhumi, which has a blind beggar called Surdas as its tragic hero. Schulz mentions that in Rangabhumi, Premchand comes across as a "superb social chronicler", and although the novel contains some "structural flaws" and "too many authorial explanations", it shows a "marked progress" in Premchand's writing style.According to Schulz, it was in Nirmala (1925) and Pratigya (1927) that Premchand found his way to "a balanced, realistic level" that surpasses his earlier works and manages to "hold his readers in tutelage". Nirmala, a novel dealing with the dowry system in India, was first serialised in the magazine Chand, before being published as a novel. Pratigya("The Vow") dealt with the subject of widow remarriage. In 1928, Premchand's novel Gaban ("Embezzlement"), focusing on the middle class' greed, was published. In March 1930, Premchand launched a literary-political weekly magazine titled Hans, aimed at inspiring the Indians to mobilise against the British rule. The magazine, noted for its politically provocative views, failed to make a profit. Premchand then took over and edited another magazine called Jagaran, which too ran at a loss. In 1931, Premchand moved to Kanpur as a teacher in the Marwari College, but had to leave because of difference with the college administration. He then returned to Benares, and became the editor of the Maryada magazine. In 1932, he published another novel titled Karmabhumi. He briefly served as the headmaster of the Kashi Vidyapeeth, a local school. After the school's closure, he became the editor of the Madhuri magazine in Lucknow. Mumbai Premchand arrived in Mumbai on 31 May 1934 to try his luck in the Hindi film industry. He had accepted a script writing job for the production house Ajanta Cinetone, hoping that the yearly salary of 8000 would help him overcome his financial troubles. He stayed in Dadar, and wrote the script for the film Mazdoor ("The Labourer"). The film, directed by Mohan Bhawnani, depicted the poor conditions on the labour class. Premchand himself did a cameo as the leader of labourers in the film. Some influential businessmen managed to get a stay on its release in

Mumbai. The film was released in Lahore and Delhi, but was banned again after it inspired the mill workers to stand up against the owners. Ironically, the film inspired the workers of his own loss-making press in Benares to launch a strike, after they were not paid their salaries.By 1934–35, Premchand's Saraswati Press was under a heavy debt of 4000, and Premchand was forced to discontinue the publication of Jagaran. Meanwhile, Premchand was beginning to dislike the non-literary commercial environment of the Mumbai film industry, and wanted to return to Benares. However, he had signed a one-year contract with the production house. He ultimately left Mumbai on 4 April 1935, before the completion of one year.Himanshu Roy, the founder of Mumbai Talkies, tried to convince Premchand to stay back, but did not succeed. Last days After leaving Bombay, Premchand wanted to settle in Allahabad, where his sons Sripat Rai and Amrit Rai were studying. He also planned to publish Hans from there. However, owing to his financial situation and ill-health, he had to hand over Hans to the Indian Literary Counsel and move to Benares. Premchand was elected as the first President of the Progressive Writers' Association in Lucknow, in 1936. He died on 8 October 1936, after several days of sickness. Godaan (The Gift of a Cow, 1936), Premchand's last completed work, is generally accepted as his best novel, and is considered as one of the finest Hindi novels.The protagonist, Hori, a poor peasant, desperately longs for a cow, a symbol of wealth and prestige in rural India. According to Schulz, "Godan is a well-structured and well-balanced novel which amply fulfills the literary requirements postulated by the Western literary standards." Unlike other contemporary renowned authors such as Rabindranath Tagore, Premchand was not appreciated much outside India. Siegfried Schulz believes that the reason for this was absence of good translations of his work. Also, unlike Tagore and Iqbal, Premchand never travelled outside India, studied abroad or mingled with the renowned foreign literary figures. In 1936, Premchand also published Kafan ("Shroud"), in which a poor man collects money for the funeral rites of his dead wife, but spends it on food and drink. Premchand's last published story was Cricket Match, which appeared in Zamana in 1937, after his death. Style and influences Premchand is considered the first Hindi author whose writings prominently featured realism.His novels describe the problems of the poor and the urban middle-class. His works depict a rationalistic outlook, which views religious values as something that allows the powerful hypocrites to exploit the weak. He used literature for the purpose of arousing public awareness about national and social issues and often wrote about topics related to corruption, child widowhood, prostitution, feudal system, poverty, colonialism and on the India's freedom movement. Premchand started taking an interest in political affairs while at Kanpur during the late 1900s, and this is reflected in his early works, which have patriotic overtones. His political thoughts were initially influenced by the moderate Indian National Congress leader Gopal Krishna Gokhale, but later, he moved towards the more extremist Bal Gangadhar Tilak. He considered the Minto-Morley Reforms and the Montagu–Chelmsford Reforms as inadequate, and supported greater political freedom. Several of his early works, such as A Little Trick and A Moral Victory, satirised the Indians who cooperated with the British Government. He did not specifically mention the British in his

some of his stories, due to strong government censorship, but disguised his opposition in settings from the medieval era and the foreign history. He was also influenced by the teachings of Swami Vivekananda. In the 1920s, he was influenced by Mahatma Gandhi's non-co-operation movement and the accompanying struggle for social reform. During this period, his works dealt with the social issues such as poverty, zamindari exploitation (Premashram, 1922), dowry system (Nirmala, 1925), educational reform and political oppression (Karmabhumi, 1931).Premchand was focused on the economic liberalisation of the peasantry and the working class, and was opposed to the rapid industrialisation, which he felt would hurt the interests of the peasants and oppression of the workers. This can be seen in works like Rangabhumi (1924). In his last days, he focused on village life as a stage for complex drama, as seen in the novel Godan (1936) and the short-story collection Kafan (1936). Premchand believed thatsocial realism was the way for Hindi literature, as opposed to the "feminine quality", tenderness and emotion of the contemporary Bengali literature. List of works Premchand wrote over three hundred short stories and fourteen novels, many essays and letters, plays and translations. Many of Premchand's works were translated into English and Russian after his death.

NOVEL: The second wife (Nirmala) by Munshi Premchand The novel is centered about a young girl Nirmala who is forced to marry a man of her father's age.He already had three sons from his first marriage.His eldest son was of the same age as Nirmala. It takes a lots of patience and time for her to accept them as her own sons.But at last she starts to treat them as her own sons.But she was not happy with her husband because he was almost 20 years older than her.She respects him but don't love him like her husband.He tries in many different ways to keep her happy but he was unable to do this. She was trying to adjust herself with the children and she was very happy with them.Her husband thinks that Nirmala was having affair with his eldest son,Mansharam.But there was nothing between them.Her husband wants to keep away Nirmala from Mansharam.Mansharam was very disappointed after knowing that and he leaves the house and starts to live in the school.He becomes ill and his father admitted him in a hospital.Nirmala don't go there to see him for many days because of her husband but at last she can't resist herself to see her son and she goes to hospital.Her husband becomes angry on her and his son dies to prove his father wrong. Her husband was very disappointed due to his son's death because of himself.After some days his second son steals something from his own house and he runs away from the house and dies.After some days his third son also runs away from the house.They lose all wealth and property. Some other deaths also occur.He lost all of his sons due to second marriage. Nirmala's first marriage was not happened due to dowry reasons so she was forced to marry a old man. This novel emphasizes on the problem of dowry and after that a girl is forced to marry a wrong person and her whole life becomes wastage.The novel is very interesting for the readers because it is written in simple language and story is very good. Nirmala as the protagonist and as the victim conveys some sensitive issues which leave readers choked under the burden of the tragedy.It documents a change that was occuring in the earlier part of the 1900's and is an introduction of the women's rights and the status of women in Indian culture.

It is a readerly text than writerly. His comparisons, similes and idioms usage is well timed and well thought and piercing. The themes of his novel are the social ills and how despite being common that they are, have the potential to wreck whole families. SHORT STORY: January Night (Poos ki Raat) Halku came in and said to his wife, ―The Landlord‘s come! Get the rupees you set aside, I‘ll give him the money. Munni had been sweeping. She turned around and said, 'But there's only three rupees. If you give them to him where's the blanket going to come from? How are you going to get through these January nights in the fields! Tell him we'll pay him after the harvest, not right now. For a moment Halku stood hesitating. January was on top of them. Without a blanket he couldn't possibly sleep in the fields at night. But the landlord wouldn't be put off, he'd threaten and insult him. Trying to coax her Halku said, 'Come on, give it to me. I‘ll figure out some other plan.' Munni was angry. She said, ''You've already tried. Some other plan". You just tell me what other plan can be found. Is somebody going to give you a blanket! What I say is, give up this tenant farming! The work's killing you, whatever you harvest goes to pay up the arrears. Were we born just to keep paying off debts! Earn some money for your own belly, give up that kind of farming. I won't give you the money, I won't!, Sadly Halku said, 'Then I'll have to put up with his abuse.' Losing her temper, Munni said, 'Why should he abuse you--is this his kingdom?' But as she said it her brews relaxed from the frown. The bitter truth in Halku's words came charging at her like a wild beast. She went to the niche in the wall, took out the rupees and handed them over to Halku. Halku took the money and went outside looking as though he were tearing his heart out and giving it away. He'd saved the rupees from his work, pice by pice, for his blanket. Today he was going to throw it away. With every step his head sank lower under the burden of his poverty.A dark January night. In the sky even the stars seemed to be shivering. At the edge of his field, underneath a shelter of cane leaves, Halku lay on a bamboo cot wrapped up in his old burlap shawl, shivering. Underneath the cot his friend, Jabra the dog, was whimpering with his muzzle pressed into his belly. Neither one of them was able to sleep. Halku curled up drawing his knees close against his chin and said, 'Cold, Jabra! Didn't I tell you, in the house you could lie in the paddy straw! So why did you come out here!, Now you'll have to bear the cold, there's nothing I can do. You thought I was coming out here to eat puris and sweets and you came running on ahead of me. Now you can moan all you want.' Jabra wagged his tail without getting up.Halku reached out his hand and patted Jabra's cold back. He got up, took some embers hem the pit and filled his pipe. Jabra got up too. Smoking, Halku said, 'If you smoke the cold's just as bad, but at least you feel a little betters' Jabra looked at him with eyes overgrowing with love. 'You have to put up with just one more cold night. Tomorrow I'll spread some straw. When you bed down in that you won't feel the cold.' Jabra put his paws on Halku's knees and brought his muzzle close. Halku felt his warm breath. After he finished smoking Halku lay down and made up his mind that however things were he would sleep now. But in only one minute his he began to pound. He turned from side to side, but like some kind of witch the cold weather continued to torment him.When he could no longer bear it he gently picked Jabra up and, patting his he; got him to fall asleep in his lap. The dog's body gave off some kind of stink but Halku, hugging him tight, experienced a happiness he hadn't felt for months. Jabra probably thought he was in heaven, and in Halku‘s innocent heart there no resentment of his smell. He embraced him with the very same affection he would have felt for a brother or a friend. Suddenly Jabra picked up the noise of some animal. This special intimacy had produced a new alertness in him that disdained the onslaught of the wind. Springing up, he ran out of the shelter and began to bark. Halku whistled and called him

several times. But Jabra would not come back to him. He went on barking while he ran around through the furrows of the field. He would come back for a moment, then dash off again at once. Another hour passed. The night fanned up the cold with the wind. Halku sat up and bringing both knees tight against his chest hid his face between them, but the cold was just as biting. It seemed is though all his blood had frozen, that ice rather than blood filled his veins. He leaned back to look at the skies. How much of the night was still left! Only a stone's throw from Halku's field there was a mango grove. Halku thought, 'If I go and get a pile of leaves I can make a tire of them and keep warm. If anybody sees me gathering the leaves in the dead of night they'll think it's a ghost. Of course there's a chance some animal's hidden in my field waiting, but I can't stand sitting here any longer.' He ripped up some stalks from a nearby field, made a broom out of them and picking up a lighted cow dung cake went toward the grove. Jabra watched him coming and ran to him wagging his tail. Halku said, 'I couldn't stand it any more, Jabra. Come along, let's go into the orchard and gather leaves to warm up with. When we're toasted we'll come back and sleep. The night's still far from over.' Jabra barked his agreement and trotted on toward the orchard. Suddenly a gust carried the scene of henna blossoms to him. 'Where's that sweet smell coming from, Jabra?' Jabra had found a bone lying somewhere and he was chewing on it. Halku set his fire down on the ground and began to gather the leaves. In a little while he had a great heap. His hands were frozen, his bare feet numb. In a little while the fire was burning merrily. The dames leapt upward licking at the overhanging branches. In the flickering light the immense trees of the grove looked as though they were carrying the vast darkness on their heads. In the blissful sea of darkness the firelight seemed to pitch and toss like a boat. Halku sat before the fire and let it warm him. After a while he took off his shawl and tucked it behind him, then he spread out both feet as though challenging the cold to do its worst. Victorious over the immense power of the winter, he could not repress his pride in his triumph. He said to Jabra, 'Well, Jabra, you're not cold now, are you!' Jabra barked as though to say, 'How could I feel cold now!' The leaves were all burned up. Darkness covered the orchard again. Under the ashes a few embers smouldered. Halku wrapped himself up in his shawl again and sat by the warm ashes humming a tune. The fire had warmed him , through but as the cold began to spread he felt drowsy. Jabra gave a loud bark and ran toward the field. Halku realized chat this meant a pack of wild animals had probably broken into the field. They might be nilgai. He distinctly heard the noise of their moving around. Then it seemed to him they must be grazing; he began to hear the sound of nibbling. He thought, ‗No, with Jabra around no animal can get into the field, he'd rip it to shreds. I must have been mistaken. Now there's no sound at all. How could I have been mistaken!' He shouted, ‗Jabra! Jabra!' Jabra went on barking and did not come to him. Then again there was the sound of munching and crunching in the field. He could not have been mistaken this time. It really hurt to think about getting up from where he was. It was so comfortable there that it seemed intolerable to go to the field in this cold and chase after animals. He didn't stir. He shouted at the top of his lungs, 'Hillo! Hillo! Hillo!' Jabra started barking again. There were animals eating his held just when the crop was ready. What a fine crop it was! And these cursed animals were destroying it. With a firm resolve he got up and took a few steps. But suddenly a blast of wind pierced him with a sting like a scorpion's so that he went back and sat again by the extinguished ~re and stirred up the ashes to warm his chilled body. Jabra was barking his lungs out, the nilgai were devastating his field and Halku went on sitting peacefully near the warm ashes. His drowsiness held him motionless as though with ropes. Wrapped in his shawl he fell asleep on the warmed ground near the ashes. When he woke in the morning the sun was high and Munni was saying,‗Do you think you‘re going to sleep all day! You came out here and had a fine time while the whole field was being flattened!' Halku got up and said, ‗Then you've just come from the field!' 'Yes, it's all ruined. And you could sleep like that! Why did you bother to put up the shelter anyway?' Halku sought an excuse. 'I nearly died and just managed to get through the

night and you worry about your crop. I had such a pain in my belly I can't describe it.' Then the two of them walked to the edge of their land. He looked: the whole field had been trampled and Jabra was stretched out underneath the shelter as though he were dead. They continued to stare at the ruined field. Munni's face was shadowed with grief but Halku was content. Munni said, ‗Now you'll have to hire yourself out to earn some money to pay off the rent and taxes.' With a contented smile Halku said, ‗But I won't have to sleep nights out here in the cold.'

6. NAGAMANDALA Nagamandala Rani is a young bride who is neglected by her indifferent and unfaithful husband, Appanna. Appanna spends most of his time with his concubine and comes home only for lunch. Rani is one of those typical wives who want to win her husband‘s affection at any cost. In an attempt to do so, she decides to drug her husband with a love root, which she mixes in the curry. That curry is spilled on the nearby anthill and Naga, the King Cobra drinks it. Naga, who can take the form of a human being, is enchanted with her and begins to visit her every night in the form of her husband. This changes Rani‘s life completely as she starts to experience the good things in life though she never knows that the person with her is not her husband but the Naga. One of these days, she gets pregnant and breaks the news to Appanna. He immediately accuses her for adultery and says that he has not fathered the child. The issue is referred to the village Panchayat. She is then asked to prove her fidelity by putting her hand in the snake burrow and taking a vow that she has not committed adultery. It is a popular belief that if any person lies holding the snake in their hand, they will be instantly killed by the snake God. She does place her hand in the snake burrow and vows that she has never touched any male other than her husband and the Naga in the burrow. She is declared chaste by the village Panchayat. However, her husband is not ready to accept that she is pregnant with his child and decides to find out the truth by spying on the house at night. Appanna is shocked to see the Naga visiting Rani in his form, spending time with her and then leaving the house. Appanna gets furious with the Naga and indulges in a fight with him. Both of them fight vigorously and at one point of time, the Naga takes the form of the snake and escapes into the burrow. The villagers see the snake escaping into the burrow and kill it. Before dying the snake comes to Rani and reveals the truth to her. However, after this incident Appanna realizes his mistake and he accepts Rani along with the child she is carrying. 7. Bhavni Bhavai - Ketan Mehta Bhavai is the popular theater form prevalent in Gujarat, which is said to have roots in the fourteenth century. Associated this art form to Asait Thakore, a brahmin from Siddpur, He was excommunicated from the caste after an incident involving lower caste member, he married from that community and targlas , born out of this union of two castes, became famous for these traditional performance of Bhavai folk theater. Asait Thakore,himself supposed to have written more that 360 plays.Inspired by this tradition of story telling Ketan Mehta, directed a film in 1980 ( in Gujarati) called Bhavni Bhavai ( A tale of Life), which went on to win many awards and accolades. The celebrated movie screen play was later reconstructed and translated to English by Shampa Banerjee. The familiar theme of caste struggle, the system of untouchables , one which made Asait Thakore an outcast continue to be the point of discussion here. The story is being told by a old man, in a travelling 'low class' group of people, to his grandson, as they rest during the journey. A folk tale, concerning the king and the well is planning to dig.

According to the astrologer, a human sacrifice is needed, and only a person with the 32 qualities to see water in the well. The man is found in a lower class family , who as we all know, is the son of the king himself, who was a victim of a clever palace power game between the old and young queens. The old queen is blessed with a son after many prayers and offers, but the clever treachery by the young queen made sure that the infant is taken out of the palace and be killed. The soldiers entrusted with the task felt pity for the infant prince , and instead sent him floating in a basket in the nearby river. The turn of the events saw that the boy was rescued by a low class family and after many many years, the prince, now a young boy was again fallen as the victim of the clever plots of the young queen and the minister. Classical absurdist theater with a clear influence of Brecht's ( the movie is dedicated to him ) , Ketan Mehta build a very visual representation ( even in these words) of the socio-political issue of caste and religion. As is the tradition with folkish theater, this is filled with classical humour, often silly and comical. While we are discussing the book here and not the movie, one is to observe the clinical precision of the scenes including the physical presence of both people and objects. As one can see, the movie is noted for its structural brilliance, and the treatment of the taboo subject of untouchability, with the nice mix of current day socio-political aspect, being told through the folktale. The translation is impeccable and never once one felt the issues related to the idioms, expressions or the anglicized use of Indian words.

7. Chemmeen Chemmeen (Translation: The Prawn) is a 1965 Malayalam romantic drama film Produced by Babu Ismail Sait, based on the highly acclaimed novel of the same name by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai and directed by Ramu Kariat from a screenplay by S. L. Puram Sadanandan. The film tells the story of a pre-marital and later extra marital relationship between Karuthamma, the daughter of an ambitious Hindu fisherman, and Pareekutty, the son of a Muslim trader. The theme of the film is based around the popular belief among the fishermen communities along the coastal Kerala State in southern India regarding chastity. If a married fisher woman was faithless when her husband was out in the sea, the Sea Goddess (Kadalamma literally meaning Mother Sea) would consume him. The film's cast includes Sheela as Karuthamma, Madhu as Pareekutty, Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair as Chembankunju, and Sathyan as Palani. Produced by Babu Ismail Sait under the banner of Kanmani Films, it features cinematography by Marcus Bartley, and editing byHrishikesh Mukherjee and K. D. George. Songs are set to music by Salil Chowdhury, with lyrics by Vayalar, and featuring the voices of K. J. Yesudas, P. Leela, Manna Dey and Santha P. Nair. The film released on 19 August 1965. It received strongly positive critical reviews and was recognized as a technically and artistically brilliant film. It is usually cited as the first notable creative film in South India.[1] It was also the first South Indian film to win the Indian President's Gold Medal for the Best Film, which it did so in 1965. It was screened at various international film festivals and won prestigious awards at the Cannes and Chicago festivals. The film was included in the list of 100 greatest Indian films by IBN Live. Chemmeen was dubbed and released in Hindi as Chemmeen Lahren and in English as The Anger of the Sea. PLOT: Karuthamma (Sheela) is the daughter of an ambitious Hindu fisherman, Chembankunju(Kottarakkara Sreedharan Nair). She is in love with a young Muslim fish trader, Pareekutty (Madhu). Chembankunju's only aim in life is to own a boat and net. Pareekutty finances Chembankunju to realise this dream. This is on a condition that the haul by the

boat will be sold only to him. Karuthamma's mother Chakki (Adoor Bhavani) comes to know about the love affair of her daughter with Pareekutty, and reminds her daughter about the life they lead within the boundaries of strict social tradition and warns her to keep away from such a relationship. The fisherfolks believe that a fisherwoman has to lead a life within the boundaries of strict social traditions and an affair or marriage with a person of another religion will subject the entire community to the wrath of the sea. Karuthamma sacrifices her love for Pareekutty and marries Palani (Sathyan), an orphan discovered by Chembankunju in the course of one of his fishing expeditions. Following the marriage, Karuthamma accompanies her husband to his village, despite her mother's sudden illness and her father's requests to stay. In his fury, Chembankunju disowns her. On acquiring a boat and a net and subsequently adding one more, Chembankunju becomes more greedy and heartless. With his dishonesty, he drives Pareekutty to bankruptcy. After the death of his wife, Chembankunju marries Pappikunju (C. R. Rajakumari), the widow of the man from whom he had bought his first boat. Panchami (Lata), Chembankunju's younger daughter, leaves home to join Karuthama, on arrival of her step mother. Chembankunju's savings is manipulated by his second wife. The setbacks in life turns Chembankunju mad. Meanwhile, Karuthamma has endeavoured to be a good wife and mother, but scandal about her old love for Pareekutty spreads in the village. Palani's friends ostracize him and refuse to take him fishing with them. By a stroke of fate, Karuthamma and Pareekutty meet one night and their old love is awakened. Palani, at sea alone and baiting a shark, is caught in a huge whirlpool and is swallowed by the sea. Next morning, Karuthamma and Parekutty, are also found dead hand in hand, washed ashore. At a distance, there lies a baited dead shark and Palani.

8. Kirwant

- Premanand Gajvi

My play ''Kirwant'', which was well appreciated on the Marathi stage has been translated into Telugu by Jagannathan and into English by Professor M.D. Hathkangalekar. But neither versions have been performed on stage as yet. However, I recently saw the Kannada adaptation at Bangalore''s Rangshankara and all three translations came to my mind at once. As a result, I write this article. The story revolves around Siddeshwarshastri Joshi- ''Kirwant'' (person performing the last rights at the crematorium), his wife Revathi, their child Madhu and Siddeshwarshastri''s brother Vasudev. All the people in the village look down upon them since they belong to the ''Kirwant'' community. Vasudev opposes such discrimination and is supported by Revathy. Owing to such bias, Revathy feels that their child should get educated, take up a job and give up this life of a ''Kirwant''. Meanwhile Madhu has already been studying in a school. There is a Brahmin group in the village called ''Goraksha Seva sangh'' led by Digambar Shastri and his assistants Dhabushastri and Vedantshastri to protect the rights of the Hindus. Another set - ''Sarva Hindu Eksangha'' led by Keshav Abhyankar believes that all Hindu castes including the Brahmins are equals. These two groups never get along with each other. The fourth group is of the Bahujan Maratha Samaj, which like the other two is a traditional Hindu group. As the play progresses the narrative begins to flow with the wordsJanm ethe gheta Maran atal Nako hal hal

Jeevalagi (Since we have taken birth, death is inevitable Then why struggle meaninglessly.) The Kannada translation of this Marathi abhang is aptly supported by the sound of the Mrudung and the Nagada along with five young girls singing in the chorus. Led by Kirwant, the journey to the crematorium has begun. Behind him is Devrao with the flaming pot in his hand. Behind them are four men carrying the dead body. But the corpse''s legs are folded over his knees. This was new to me. The Hindi play had the corpse laying with its legs stretching straight ahead. But the slogan ''shri ram jay ram'' was chanted in both versions. Obviously, the outcome of death is the same everywhere.... grief! But this outcome wasn''t seen in the performance of the Marathi play. Dr. Shriram Lagoo , the director of the play had eliminated this scene from the performance. According to him, it was not required in the play. The Marathi play would directly start with the second scene where Madhu is reading a passage with reference to the ''Gnyaneshwari''. In that scene Dhabushastri tells Madhu that reading the ''Gnyaneshwari'' won''t help him earn a living but reading the ''Garudpuran'' would. In the Kannada performance, the cremation took place in the centre of the stage with the help of different levels, while in the Hindi play it took place in the wings. The illusion of a burning corpse which is created by the light designer was more effective in the Hindi play. The Kannad show was lit by Arun Murti Raghvendra Aras. Such comparisons could sometimes be unjust. At times a certain technical aspect of the play may lack force in a particular show, but may be the most effective in the very next show. I watched two successive shows of the Kannada production. The first show did not create the desired impact. I spoke about this to D.S. Chaughule who has translated the script into Kannada and later also to the director of the play- B. Suresh. It was then that I realised that the first show lacked the necessary energy. However, in the second show the energy was appropriate. Essentially, all the which came together to create such energy that brought about the desired result. At this time I was reminded of Dr. Lagoo. The Marathi production had Dr. Lagoo playing the character of Siddeshwarrao. According to Dr. Lagoo, 'in every show, the movements, the dialogue, every minute detail that the director has blocked should be performed exactly the same way. The audience should get the same experience in the 100th show as they got in the 1st.' Ideally what Dr. Lagoo has said might be true but since there are human beings performing on stage, I doubt its implementation. But I have seen Dr. Lagoo portraying different characters with equal effectiveness in several shows and his own attempt to give the ''same'' performance in each show cannot be argued with. I experienced the same with Nana Patekar during ''Tanmazori''. Probably, it is a trait seen amongst such seasoned actors. Dr. Lagoo''s production of ''Kirwant'' was made for the professional Marathi stage. He was aptly supported by Suhas Joshi in the character of Revathy. The scene where Revathy hands over the ''Garudpuran'' to her son was performed with such intensity by Suhas Joshi that every time I saw it, it would bring tears to my eyes. The same scene in the other two productions (Hindi and Kannada) did not make me cry but it left me stunned. Barring Dr. Lagoo and Suhas Joshi, all other actors in the Marathi production were part-time theatre actors. But its wasn''t the same with the Kannada production. Unlike other amateur theatre groups, ''Natna'' is a Theatre group from Mysore which keeps producing plays at regular intervals. The group is headed by Mandya Ramesh , an out and out theatre person. He has

three to four plays running at the same time. ''Gandhi Ambedkar'', ''Charandas Chor'', ''Ratnapakshi'', ''Kirwant'' ! The writers, directors, technicians are also paid nominally for their contribution. In this play, the lead role of Siddeshwarshastri is performed by Nagraj Dixit . Ramu Natna (Vasudev), Akshat Pandavpur (Revathy), Shishir Baikadi (Madhu), Raghavendra Raje Aras (Digambarshastri), Vasudev Murti (Vedantshastri), Narayanswami (Dhabushastri), Chetan (Keshav Abhyankar), Vitthal Kamat (Ganu), Ulhas (Tatya), Shashank Kilar (Raghu), Raghavendra (Shinde), Siddu (Devrav), Aalok Bharadwaj (Khemrav) have all contributed substantially to bring about Kirwant''s predicament. In recent times, the words ''text'' and ''subtext'' are used considerably while putting up a play. Text is the play written by the writer while the subtext is the form selected by the Director to present the play. These days, none of the well known directors block the play as written by the writer but structure the play as per their own interpretations. The use of music in the Kannada production is an excellent example of the Director''s subtext. Essentially, the music is not of chief importance to the plot of ''Kirwant'' but its use in the Kannad production helps to intensify Kirwant''s anguish and pain. The music has been composed by Pravin D. Rao and gives a unique experience which was absent both in the Hindi and Marathi productions. Probably, the Hindi and Marathi productions lacked the support of the Director''s subtext. In order to give an absolute and fulfilling experience to the audience, it is necessary to change the set in complete darkness. When the set is changed in dim light it breaks the flow and the audience loses interest. Such set changes hampered the course of the Kannada Production. However, the set designed by Narayanswamy was suggestive and effective. Shriram Centre''s production of ''Kirwant''( Mahabrahman) was successfully performed at the National School of Drama''s (NSD) Theatre Festival. Delhi''s Shriram Centre is as esteemed and well-renowned institute. It has a huge theatre and also a repertoire. Along with Drama studies, several other activities take place at this institute. The cast of Shriram centre''s production of ''Kirwant'' includes Nandkishore Pant (Siddeshwarshastri), Vishnu Prasad (Vasudev), Rachna Joshi (Revathy), Manish Gupta (Madhu), Shubash Chandra (Digambar Shastri), Jitendrasingh (Vedantshastri), Vinod Narhadi (Dhabushastri), Umesh Pandey (Keshav Abhyankar), Naresh Darbal (Tatya), Rajesh Singh (Dayaram) and Pallavi Singhal, Poonam Khandare, Chitra Pandey. The female characters which are not originally in the play were used by the director to create the hysteria of death while the corpse is carried to the crematorium. Amongst the three productions, I had some trouble comprehending the Hindi and Kannada productions, in particular Kannada. Any translation requires good knowledge of both languages and Professor D.S. Chaughule possesses such knowledge without doubt. Otherwise Siddeshwarshastri''s line 'tumhi vha pudhe, mi aaloch'( you go ahead, I will come.) would not have evoked a similar audience response when it was translated in Kannad ' neu mundagani, na bandni'. I don''t feel the need to write anything about the Hindi translation. Vasant Dev''s name speaks for itself. The original Marathi play has been seen by many, and Dr. Shriram Lagoo and Suhas Joshi''s performances have immortalized it in the minds of several Marathi people. The Marathi Theatre producers, theatre friends and audiences have always loved my plays. Premanand Gajvi isn''t a writer who writes to fetch a few pennies for the producers, yet Suyog''s Sudhir Bhatt and Gopal Algeri produced my play ''Kirwant''. Shree Chintamani''s Lata Narvekar produced a socio political play like ''Gandhi Ambedkar'' while

Bhartiya Rangbhoomi''s Salunkhe Brothers produced ''Shuddh Bejapoti'' with Dr. Girish Oak playing the lead. Ajit Bhure through his ''Aseem Entertainment'' stages a play like ''Damn it Anu Gore'' while a superior artist like Nana Patekar offers his services through a play like ''Tanmazori''. This is what I have earned through the medium of theatre. Owing to this, my journey as a playwright on the Indian stage is still going on, and friends like Kashmir''s Mushtaq Kak, NSD''s Suresh Sharma, Belgaon''s Prof. D.S. Chaughule, Mysore''s Mandya Ramesh, and wonderful directors like Basvalinga and B. Suresh are turning out be the wings of impetus to my flight in the theatre. *The above article was first published in the Loksatta in November 2010. Premanand Gajvi is an eminent Marathi Theatre playwright. The article has been translated from Marathi into English for this website by Sudeep Modak. Sudeep Modak is a young theatre person with interests in other media. He has worked with Ramu Ramanathan, Chandan Roy Sanyal and has done production work for THE PROPHET by Naseeruddin Shah''s theatre group Motley, amongst other things. He is currently acting in Suyog''s revived production of SAKHE SHEJARI, written and directed by Sai Paranjpe. In the late 1970s, when Marathi playwright Premanand Gajvee wrote Ghotbhar Pani (A Sip of Water) — the first of his plays to receive recognition — the milieu was conducive to experimental theatre. The one-act play that borrows from the folk as well as absurdist was, in his own words, written ―when the amateur stage was awash with the Ghashiram Kotwal wave.‖ Now, nearly four decades since, Gajvee‘s A Sip of Water, together with his later plays, Kirwant andGandhiAmbedkar, have been translated from the Marathi by Shanta Gokhale and M.D. Hatkanangalekar, and are collectively titled The Strength of Our Wrists in English. Representative of Gajvee‘s social concerns and caste preoccupations, the three plays are a scathing indictment of the inequalities that continue to prevail within the Hindu religion and Indian society. In the book ‗Playwright at the Centre: Marathi Drama from 1843 to the Present‘ authored by Gokhale herself, she reproduces an interview with Gajvee where he divides his plays into three groups: ―Those that deal with relationships between individuals, those that deal with relationships between the individual and society, and those that deal with relationships between societies.‖ The three plays selected for the publication are, perhaps, representative of each of these categories. In A Sip of Water, two actors play multiple roles on a Spartan set, enacting the absurdity of thecaste system that denies the Dalit even a sip of water. A system so dehumanising that ―Shambuka is beheaded for learning the Vedas; but a four-legged buffalo becomes a revolutionary for doing the same.‖ While A Sip of Water may be representative of the third group that Gajvee refers to — relationships between societies — Kirwantclearly outlines the relationship between the individual and society. The playwright‘s note raises questions: ―How is it that in the 700-year-old tradition of Marathi literature, no attention has been directed to the kirwants who perform cremation rites? Has no death taken place in their homes?‖ For Kirwant is the fascinating story of the ‗untouchable‘ or low-caste Brahmin shunned by high-caste Brahmins and whose relationship with them is limited to death. Simultaneously cognisant of the dependency of the kirwant upon the Brahmin community at large as it is of the rigidity of such a system that can only destroy the individual who seeks to evade it, Kirwant is as much the story of the conformist Siddheshwar as it is of his questioning, reformist brother Vasudeo, the renegade Brahmin responsible for bringing the family to ruin. The third play, Gandhi-Ambedkar, deals with the relationship between two great individuals — indeed, the greatest political figures of our times. Its central figures are the very embodiment of the caste conflict that epitomises Gajvee‘s work.

The play throws up complex questions that peel away the garb of politics to reveal uncomfortable questions of a deeply personal and religious nature. It brings down the two personalities from their pedestals and confronts them as flawed human beings. Interestingly, Gajvee employs the technique of the vidushak or clown to examine the men behind their larger-than-life images — as sparring politicians and quarrelling husbands. The clown has a pivotal role, as Ambedkar himself points out in the play, in the folk traditions of jalse and khele. Here too, he provokes the two into discussion, acts as their inner voice, asks probing questions and eventually emerges as the voice of reason, concluding with the lines, ―Your history is yours. Your country is yours. And the problem of what to do with them is also yours.‖ The translation honours the strength of Gajvee‘s wrist and this book of three powerful plays is an excellent way to acquaint (or reacquaint) oneself with one of the most significant playwrights of contemporary Marathi theatre. The Strength of Our Wrists: 3 Plays; Premanand Gajvee, translated by Shanta Gokhale and M.D. Hatkanagalekar, Navayana, Rs.250. Keywords: The Strength of our wrists, Premanand Gajvee, Shanta Gokhale Unfounded doubts Gajvee first drew the attention of theatre lovers and critics with his one-act play "Ghotbhar Pani"(A Sip of Water), a grim look at the caste hierarchies and political manipulations in Maharashtra's villages that forces dalits to beg for drinking water. This satire was performed in villages and small towns all over Maharashtra, chalking up more than a thousand shows in a few years. "Devnavari" (Bride of God), about the sexual exploitation of devdasis and "Tanmajori" (The Body's Arrogance), focusing attention on the continued practice of bonded labour, also dealt with human oppression. "Kirwant" did not seem to fit into this body of work. How could brahmins, however discriminated against, be seen as either exploited or oppressed? Had Premanand Gajvee sold out at last to the upper-caste, middleclass mainstream in which the play was staged? But such doubts proved to be unfounded. The play shockingly revealed the extent to which the Kirwants were treated like untouchables in their own community. They were socially shunned by other brahmins. They were seen as impure and inauspicious. They were not invited to marriages, births, naming and thread ceremonies. Other brahmins would not eat or drink with them, nor would they give them their daughters in marriage. Worst of all, they were not allowed to escape from their "dharma". They were forced to do what they were born to do and be prepared to suffer the social consequences. No escape Dr. Ambedkar liberated his people from this peculiarly Hindu caste trap by exhorting them to convert to Buddhism and so free themselves from performing their traditional village duties. There is no such escape for Siddheshwar. He subscribes too completely and uncomplainingly to the idea of "dharma" to be able to throw off his caste duties. And so "Kirwant" moves inexorably from a grey beginning to a black end, marked "No Exit". Surprisingly, for those postRath Yatra times, not a murmur of protest was heard from the brahmin orthodoxy against the play. "Kirwant", translated into English by the well-known Marathi literary critic M.D. Hatkanangalekar, reads very well, though the register slips occasionally in phrases like "Fie on this miserable existence", "hie away" and "Yea, oh yes." The editing and proofreading is just a little bit careless. But with "Kirwant" Seagull has made another significant addition to their growing list of New Indian Playwrights, for which they must be thanked.