arun kolatkar's rational perspective on superstions: analysing some

63 Pages·2015·0.3 MB·English

“ARUN KOLATKAR’S RATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON
SUPERSTIONS: ANALYSING SOME POEMS FORM
JEJURI”

MINOR RESEARCH PROJECT
IN
ENGLISH

File No. 23 - 3106/11(WRO)
Date: 08/03/2012

SUBMITED TO
UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION
WESTERN REGIONAL OFFICE
GANESHKHIND, PUNE - 411007.

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
VISHWANATH MOTIRAM PATIL
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
P.G. DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
S.P.D.M. ARTS, S.B.B & S.H.D. COMM. AND S.M.A. SCIENCE COLLEGE,
SHIRPUR, DIST. DHULE (M. S.)
2014
CONTENTS

Sr. No. CHAPTERS PAGE NO.
1. HSTORY OF INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY 1 - 23
A BRIEF HISTORY OF INDIAN ENGLISH
1.1
POETRY
1.2 CONTEMPORARIES OF ARUN KOLATKAR
2. ARUN KOLATKAR : HIS LIFE AND WORKS 24 – 32
ARUN KOLATKAR : BIOGRAPHICAL
2.1
DETAILS IN BRIEF
ARUN KOLATKAR’S LITERARY WORKS IN
2.2
MARATHI
ARUN KOLATKAR’S LITERARY WORKS IN
2.3
ENGLISH
MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF ARUN
2.4
KOLATKAR’S POETRY
3. SOCIO-CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN JEJURI 33 – 57
A BRIEF NOTE ON THE HISTORY OF JEJURI
3.1
AND KHANDOBA
3.2 THEMATIC ANALYSIS
3.3 SOCIAL ELEMENTS
3.4 CULTURAL ELEMENTS
4. CONCUSIONS 58 – 63
BIBLIOGRAPHY 64 - 65
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

It’s my great pleasure to express sincere thanks to The Deputy Secretary, University
Grants Commission, Western Regional Office, Pune and the University Grants Commission,
New Delhi for giving me an opportunity to work on Minor Research Project. I am highly
obliged to Hon’ble. Tusharji Randhe, President, Kisan Vidya Prasarak Sanstha, Shirpur and
Dr. S. N. Patel, Principal, S.P.D.M. Arts, S. B. B. and S. H. D. Commerce and S. M. A. Science
College, Shirpur, Dist. Dhule for providing facilities and reliving me time to time to complete
this work. I am highly indebted to Ex- Principal Dr. A. N. Mali, Pratap College, Amalner, Dist-
Jalgaon for his inspiring and persistent guidance.
I would like to mention very special thanks to Shri. Rahul Zagade (clerk), Shri. Vitthal
Lange (Peon), Ravindra Khomane (Security In charge), Deepak Shenkar, Hanumant Bandalkar
and Sandip Rokade who are in the service of the Jejuri temple and god Khandoba. They have
provided valuable information regarding Jejuri Fort, Traditions, customs and routines of
worship of God Khandoba.
I am thankful to Librarians of S.P.D.M. College Shirpur, Jaikar Library Pune, Ka. S.
Wani Pragat Bhasha Adhayan Kendra Dhule, and Smt. H. R. Patel Mahila College Shirpur,
who have permitted me to use valuable libraries for my research project. I am also thankful to
Prof. S. C. Gorane and Shri A.N. Nagarale for their cooperation.
I am highly obligated to my parents Shri Motiram Zulal Patil and Sau. Jijabai Motiram
Patil for their kind blessings. I would like to be indebted of Sau. Nirmalabai & Shankarrao Patil
and Sau. Vimalbai & Prof. H. S. Patil (Torawane). I must mention here my special thanks to
my wife Neeta (Rewati), lovely sons Samarth and Tejas for their constant support and love.

Place: Shirpur
Date: / / Mr. Vishwanath Motiram Patil.
CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the work incorporated in the thesis of the Minor Research Project
entitled “Arun Kolatkar’s Rational Perspective on Superstations: Analyzing Some Poems
From Jejuri” is being submitted and carried out by Mr. Vishwanath Motiram Patil as per the
guidelines of the University Grand Commission, New-Delhi and the Western Regional Office,
Pune.

Principal Investigator Principal
S.P. D. M. Arts, S.B.B. & S.H. D. Comm.
And S. M.A. Science College,
Place: - Shirpur, Dist- Dhule. Date: / /
CHAPTER – I
HISTORY OF INDIAN ENGLISH POETRY
INTRODUCTION:
Arun Kolatkar is a Maharashtrian poet writing both in English and Marathi. He is one
of the few bilingual poets who caught the attention of critics and readers at National and
International levels through his poetry. No single book of poetry has received such continuous
and serious critical appreciation and attention as Arun Kolatkar’s Jejuri right from the time it
was awarded Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1977 to this day. Arun Kolatkar was under
influence of the Marathi saint and poets like Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram, Namdeo, Muktabai, and
Janabai. He was influenced by modern Marathi poets like Bahinabai Chaudhari,
B.S.Mardhekar and P.S.Rege. He was well read in the works of international poets and authors
such as John Donne, G.M.Hopkins, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, D.H. Lawrence,
W.B.Yeats, Dylan Thomas, Robert Frost, Franz Kafka, Wand Wei, Li Po and Tu Fu.
The single strongest influence on Arun Kolatkar seems to be of the famous American
poet William Carlos Williams. Among the European poets he was influenced by the poets like
Rilke and Rimbaud. T.S.Eliot has influenced him to a considerable extent. He was
professionally international graphic artist. This gave him rare opportunity of getting the
company of National and International artists in Bombay. A German translation of Jejuri by
Giovanni Bandini was published by Verlag Wolf Mersch in 1984.
1.1. ABRIEF HISTORY OF INDIAN POETRY:
Many literary historians and scholars have agreed that Indian creative writing in English
had begun even before Macaulay’s Minute Indian Education (1835) that was accepted by Lord
William Bentinck, the Governor-General of India. Indian English Poetry began its journey
from the days of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio (1809-31) who considered being the first Indo-
Anglian poet. He published his poems The Fakeer of Jungheera (1827) and Metrical Tale and
Other Poems (1828). A noteworthy feature of his poetry is his burning nationalistic zeal. He is
also a pioneer in the use of Indian myths, legends, imagery and diction.
Kashiprasad Ghosh described himself as the first Hindoo who has published a volume
of English Poems –The Shair or Minstrel and Other Poems (1830). In the nineteenth and early
twentieth century many Indians followed Derozio and Kashiprasad Ghosh, using English as a
medium of poetic expression such as Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-73), Shoshi Chunder
Dutt (1865-65), Hur Dutt (1831-1909), Toru Dutt (1856-77), Aurbindo Ghosh (1872-!950),
Manmohan Ghosh (1879-1924) and Sarojini Naidu (1889-1949). They wrote poems because
they could write in English.
Michael Madhusudan Dutt (1824-73) began his career as an Indian English Poet. He
wrote two long poems in English. The Captive Lady (1849) narrates the story of the Rajput
King, Prithviraj. The poem Vision of the Past (1849) deals with the Christian theme of the
temptation, fall and redemption of Man, in Miltonic blank verse. His translations of The
Ramayana and The Mahabharata have brought the great Indian epic into English.
Toru Dutt, the delicate and charming earliest woman poet, was one of the Indian poets
who gained recognition, in spite of her short literary career. She was indeed a prodigy. She
belonged to the world of romance in literature in general. She was the first to place her county
on the international map. Her poetry evoked interest and respect in England and struck a new
note in the writing of English poetry by Indians. Her first collection of poems entitled A Sheaf
Gleaned in French Fields, which was well received in both in India and abroad. The themes of
her poetry were love for family, love for country and country fellows and Hindu religion and
Indian myths.
Sarojini Naidu was one of the outstanding women of her generation, a gifted poet,
indeed the ‘Nightingale of India’. She had the commendable metrical sill, an admirable
mastery of sonorous English, and lyrical gifts of a high order. Her poems on the national myths
and legends, folk songs, songs of great cities were connected with the Indian soil. Her poems
like Indian Weavers, Bangle- Sellers, Corn Grinders, Coromandel Fishers, and Snake
Charmer, are noted for their rhythmic flow and characteristic Indian imagery. The Indian
characters are vividly presented in their true colours poetically.
Rabindranath Tagore has rightly been called India’s poet laureate. He was a gifted
artist in many fields like music, drama, novel and painting and a poet with tender sensibilities.
He was awarded with the Noble Prize for literature in 1913, for his collection of poems entitled
Geetanjali. It forms a mighty piece of prayer and pleading exultation. The poems in Geetanjali
are mainly poems of devotion (bhakti) in the great Indian tradition. He wrote in both Bengali
and English languages with equal ease and beauty. His poetry exhibits a deep religious
sentiment, childlike innocence and love for nature. Rabindranath Tagore’s chief poetical
works include the Geetanjali, The Gardener, The Crescent Moon, Fruit Gathering, Lover’s
Gift, Crossing, and The Fugitive and Other Poems. The poem Where the Mind is Without Fear
is relevant to the situation prevailing in the 21st century.
Aurbindo is a versatile genius and an intellectual giant. His outstanding achievement
in prose, poetry and drama ranked him as the greatest figure of Indo-Anglian literature. He is
perhaps the greatest seer and prophet among the Indian poets writing kin English. He is better
known for the integral philosophy which he has exposed through his writings like The Life
Divine and The Human Cycle. The long epic ‘Savitri’ is rich in variety and impressive in its
quality and quantity. The poem symbolically presents the true wife’s unflinching devotion and
power to overcome even the greatest of evils –death. The dilemma of life and death is presented
through Savitri’s ordeal and her success in the most philosophical terms. Aurbindo’s concept
of Universal Religion is portrayed in his characteristic form and style.
The political and economic uncertainty of the 1930s and 1940s created a note of protest
against the existing order in literature all over the world. The poets were disillusioned. They
turned away from romance to satire and idealism to cynicism. The new movement came in to
rise with new style. Sahid Suhrawardy’s long poem The Indian Tragedy, Manjeri Iswaran’s
Saffron and Gold (1932), Altar of Flowers (1934), Catgut (1940), Brief Orisons(1941),
Penumbra(1942), Rhapsody in Red(1953) are some of the important works of the transitional
period.
The new Indian English poetry is remarkable for productivity, experimentation and
vivid presentation of contemporary reality and situation. The traumatic political situation,
partition of country, disintegration of village community, problems of cultural identity, and the
noticeable change in social, cultural, economical and political values attracted the attention of
writers and poets during this period.
The post independence poets have changed from an exclusive to an extensive range of
creative experience. They have been raised from a conservative to a cosmopolitan culture.
Modern English poets preferred originality and experiment in word craft. They preferred
intensity and strength of feeling, clarity in thought, structure and sense of actuality. The body
of Indian English Poetry has certainly been greater during this period than in the past. The new
poetry is charged with a new note. It shows that there is no escape from traditions. Traditions
penetrate deeper into the poet’s consciousness and influence his observation of living present.
Modern Indian English Poets deal with the concrete experiences of men living in the
modern world. The concreteness of experience influenced the aroma of life of the experiencing
self. Modern English Poetry is remarkable for the use of ironic mode. The Indian poets have
evolved distinct idioms to express their voice. They have presented typical Indian situations
through it.
Kamala Das and Shiv K. Kumar use a new kind of unconventional vocabulary in their
love poetry. A.K.Ramanujan has abundantly drawn upon folklores to express his ‘inner forms,
images and symbols’. He speaks in new voices, although he retains some of the themes,
consciously, of the earlier poets. His idioms, style, syntax speak of his freedom in handling the
themes.
1960s and 1970s witnessed the birth and the development of new poetry in India. It has
obtained its own substance from life around; it is no more an echo but a voice worth listening.
It has emerged as a distinct reality and has acquired an identity of its own. It has given a new
direction to the writing of poetry in English.
Indian English Poetry has proved increasingly robust, varied, responsive to times and
enjoyable. It has acquired a distinct character and discovered its own distinct voice. This voice
is discovered by the poet’s genius for intimately registering the idiom of his own world.
Luckily, there appeared a group of talented poets on the Indian poetic scene. Their
response to experiences has been refreshingly directed and produced enjoyable material. They
have made Indian English acceptable to a larger public in India and abroad. The names of some
of the notable Indian English poets are – Nissim Ezekiel, A.K.Ramanujan, A.K. Mehrotra, R.
Parthasarathy, Shiv K. Kumar, Keki N. Daruwalla, Give Patel, Arun Kolatkar, Dilip Chitre and
Jayant Mahapatra. These poets have made use of multi-faced themes in their poetry such as-
Indian situations, folk-beliefs, rituals, faith, disbeliefs, superstitions, corruption in socio-
cultural and socio-political life, eternal themes of love and death etc. Recent Indian Poetry in
English tries hard and succeeds in setting the roots and developing its artistic credo. It has
successfully developed in the hands of new Indian poets and acquired new idioms of its own
in the literature of the world as a whole.
In Indian English Poetry the new poets not only said new things but said those in
different manners than their predecessors. These poets have brought innovations in form,
imagery, style, structure and diction. The diction is akin to colloquial language and rhythm.
The use of language by the post 1960’s poets is quite remarkable and appropriate to their new
techniques. Kamala Das’ elliptical style, the sonorous style of O.P. Bhatnagar, Parthasarathy
and Ramanujan’s, the vigorous and deeply engaging style of Ezekiel, Mahapatra, and
Daruwalla, the emotive style of Gauri Deshpande, Gauri Pant, Lila Ray and Monika Verma,
the impressionistic style of Shiv. Kumar and colloquial style of Arun Kolatkar are the
distinctive features of their individual poetic techniques.
1.2. CONTEMORARIES OF ARUN KOLATKAR:
Contemporaries of Arun Kolatkar have played a dominant role in the development of
Modern Indian English Poetry. The major contemporaries of Arun Kolatkar are:
1.2. 1. NISSIM EZEKIEL:
Modern Indian Poetry could not have been what it is today without Nissim Ezekiel. He
has not only given ‘a local habitation and name’ to it but taught other Indian poets, including
Dom Moraes, how to write poetry in English. He was born in Bombay in 1942. Though a Jew
by birth, he made India his home and wrote poems on Indian situations. He is one of the
foremost Indian poets writing in English and attracted considerable critical attention of scholars
from both in India and abroad. His first book of poems A Time to Change was published in
London (1952). His other volumes of poetry include Sixty Poems (1953), The Third (1959),
The Unfinished Man (1960), The Exact Name (1956), Latter Days Psalms (1982) and Collected
Poems (1952-88/89).
His poetry was strengthen by his use of a number of themes such as love, sex, clash of
opposites, city life, ordinary common relations, religion, philosophy, superstitions, Indianness
and alienation. Poetry and philosophy are integral part of Ezekiel’s life in the formative stage
of his poetic career. In the poem ‘Philosophy’ he brings out the inscrutability of both poetry
and philosophy. The poet feels that philosophy draws man closer to God.
The parody of Indian English has become a mode of modern poetry. Goodbye Party
For Miss Pushpa T.S., is a good example. He tries to create a character in its own situation.
The occasion of the poem is a farewell party launched in honour of Miss. Pushpa T.S. She is
leaving for a new country. The protagonist is one of the speakers in that meeting. The poem is
typically Indian in its content and form. The mode of the poem is very interesting. The typical
English used by little educated Indians is shown in the poem in the consummate skill.
Indian situations form the base of the new poetry. The folk-beliefs and superstitions
that exist in Indian society are favorite themes of new poets. Nissim Ezekiel and Arun Kolatkar
have such themes with superb irony and subdued mockery in their poems. Night of the Scorpion
is the best example, where the mother is stung by the scorpion. The rationalist and skeptic
father tries to tame the poison with mixture of medicines while the holy man with mantras.
Ezekiel is the only Indian poet, who is competent to handle both metrical verse and free verse.
His poetry has wide range of subjects. Night of the Scorpion evokes superstitious practices.
The poem blends a typical family situation. At the end, the poet presents a picture of orthodox
Indian mother who, forgetting her own agony, thanks God for sparing her children from the
scorpion. So the mother says:
Thank God the scorpion picked on me
and spared my children
(Parthasarathy, 2002: 32)
Ezekiel’s poetry reveals technical skill of a high order. He has always written verse which is
extremely tightly constructed. His mastery of the use of the colloquial idioms and rhyme are
also remarkable features of his poetry. In Ezekiel’s cycle of sonnets entitled Nudes sex moves
centripetally rather than centrifugally. The circle is an ever narrowing and the participation
remains only physical. What the woman says to the speaker is revealing:
Did you enjoy it? You have
To love the other person, then
You do.
Never mind you love my
Breasts, thighs,
Buttocks, don’t you? Of course
You do
(Parthasarathy, 2002: 9)
Nissin Ezekiel’s impact on Arun Kolatkar is both implicit and explicit on his art and poetry.
Nissim Ezekiel was the father figure in the group of Bombay artist who moved around the
environs of the fame of Kala Ghoda in the Fort area of Bombay. The impact is noticed in the
description of locations in Bombay found in the poetry of both the poets. Moreover, the images
used and the characters from low life too here close similarity in the poetry of both Nissim
Ezekiel and Arun Kolatkar.
1.2.2. A.K.RAMANUJAN:
Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan lived at the University of Chicago, where he worked
as a Professor of Dravidian Studies and Linguistics since 1962. He had never forgotten the
country of his birth and youth-India, as his poems portrait. A.K.Ramanujan, an expatriate
Indian English poet, oscillated between the two worlds- ‘the country of his birth’ and ‘the
country of his choice’. It is rightly said that one may take a person out of his country but one
can not take the country out of his mind. Even when one voluntarily leaves his country for
another, his mind still harks back to the past.
His four volumes of poems are The Striders, Relations, Selected Poems, and The Second
Sight. The center of his poetry is family and its members. He writes about parents, wife,
husband and children with insight and dedication. Indian landscape and culture attracted him,
so he has written on various aspects of Indian landscape with insight. His poems are impressive
and communicate very easily to the readers. The poem Looking for a Cousin on a Swing,
describes the memory of childhood experience of a girl searching for a cousin on a swing.