Introduction Poetry has been a cathartic means for me to purge myself of the various imperfections of life - Jayanta Mahapatra Poetry is primarily concerned with human experiences. Poems are made out of life; they belong to life, and exist for life. Poems are a kind of revelations in which the poet expresses his willingness to come to terms with himself as a human being and as a poet. Poems are records of experience to be shared. Poets see, do, think or feel and they pass along their recorded observations, actions, ideas and emotions to the readers. The prose writers also do this, but the poets do this in a special way. The poetic form calls forth emotional and intellectual responses in the fewest possible words. Poets say a lot in little space. Poetry has the ability to communicate the actual quality of experience with a subtlety and precision unapproachable by any other means. The experiences which a poet expresses must have more than a temporary or local interest; they must possess universality. Great poetry is concerned with those feelings and thoughts which are innate and unchanging in human nature. The poet has a keener eye and a keener sensibility. The poet awakens the reader‟s sensibility and also quickens, rouses and raises to dizzy heights of apprehension and leaves at last becalmed, fulfilled and serene.
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Introduction
Poetry has been a cathartic means for me to purge myself of the various
imperfections of life
- Jayanta Mahapatra
Poetry is primarily concerned with human experiences. Poems are
made out of life; they belong to life, and exist for life. Poems are a kind of
revelations in which the poet expresses his willingness to come to terms with
himself as a human being and as a poet. Poems are records of experience to be
shared. Poets see, do, think or feel and they pass along their recorded
observations, actions, ideas and emotions to the readers. The prose writers
also do this, but the poets do this in a special way. The poetic form calls forth
emotional and intellectual responses in the fewest possible words.
Poets say a lot in little space. Poetry has the ability to communicate the
actual quality of experience with a subtlety and precision unapproachable by
any other means. The experiences which a poet expresses must have more
than a temporary or local interest; they must possess universality. Great
poetry is concerned with those feelings and thoughts which are innate and
unchanging in human nature. The poet has a keener eye and a keener
sensibility. The poet awakens the reader‟s sensibility and also quickens,
rouses and raises to dizzy heights of apprehension and leaves at last
becalmed, fulfilled and serene.
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Mahapatra‟s writing is a prized heritage of the humanity. He has
transcended the limitations of birth and place. It is not the poet‟s
responsibility to keep the world informed and advised to face the great
disaster and explained in terms of natural laws and immoral social practices
and irresponsible political decisions world - wide. One should not expect the
poet to write about these atrocities though the poet does not want to see them
all. But the immoral social practices and political aberrations around turn into
traumas which he cannot escape and which become the subject of his poems.
Whenever there are wrong happenings, the poet‟s conscience compels him to
write about it. The present study titled Individual and Social Reality in the
Select Poems of Jayanta Mahapatra is undertaken in order to analyse and
affirm whether or not the twin aspects of poetry, the inner and the outer forces
have influenced the proposed writer in the making of his poetic composition.
As the poet is an Indian the significance of Indian poetry in English needs to
be stated.
The Indo-Anglian poetry, the name assigned for the literature in India
written in English slowly sprang up as early as 1839. The Indo-Anglian
poetry, thus bloomed was dominated by poets, who were very much
influenced by the westernized culture-vultures. The growth and development
of Indo-Anglian poetry is one of tradition and experiment, imitation and
innovation. A tradition must have a beginning somewhere and continues
without end. Originally a great deal of Indian poetry had been imitative. But
during the course of time a drastic change has been observed in the realm of
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poetry. Indian poetry in English during the Post-Independence period
acquired its original voice and idiom in the true sense of the term.
Henry Derozio, Kashiprasad Ghosh and his contemporaries were
writers of the early 19th
century who wrote with the inspiration derived from
the English poets. Their poetry reflected those of their English models but to a
certain extent remained within the framework of the tradition of English
poetry. Though their poetry was very much imitative, they made an earnest
attempt to express the personality of India. Derozio‟s patriotic verses,
Madhusudhan Dutt‟s English verses on the ancient legends of India, Sarojini
Naidu‟s romantic poems of Indian scenes and sounds corroborate this idea.
These poets laid the foundation of Indian English verse with their exceptional
poetic gifts and individual talents.
People profess different views about the achievement of Indian English
poetry before and after independence. Critics like K.R.S. Iyengar,
V.K.Gokak, C.D.Narasimhaiah and some others laud the poetry of Sri
Aurobindo and his contemporaries like Sarojini Naidu. According to
V.K.Gokak, there are two categories of Indian poets in English before
Independence. They are neo-symbolists and neo-modernists. The neo-
symbolists dive deep into mysticism and the neo-modernists express
humanism. C.D.Narasimhaiah speaks about Toru Dutt and Sarojini Naidu in
his book The swan and the eagle as pioneers in the field of Indian English
poetry. Narasimhaiah eloquently praises Sri Aurobindo that he has made the
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English language accommodate certain hitherto unknown (inconsistent) areas
of experience both through his prose work, Life Divine and through his epic
Savitri not to speak of the numerous translations from Sanskrit poetry and
drama as well as his other less known but important works. But
R.Parthasarathy has expressed a view that Indian verse in English “did not
seriously begin to exist till after the withdrawal of the British from India”(3)
Critics like P.Lal and Adil Jussawalla along with R.Parthasarathy denounced
the poetry of Sri Aurobindo and his contemporaries. K.R.S.Iyengar in his
article entitled Indian Poetry in English Yesterday - Today and Tomorrow
severely criticises R.Parthasarathy, Keki N Daruwalla and Adil Jussawalla for
criticising Sri Aurobindo and earlier poets in English for invalid reasons.
Poetry of the Post-Independence era also never escaped the attacks of
certain skeptic critics. Beginning with Nissim Ezekiel, even the best of Post-
Independence poetry was criticised as poor imitations of Keats, Tennyson,
Hardy and Eiot. Bijay Kumar Das believes that serious Indian English poetry
came to be written not immediately after Independence but in the nineteen
sixties and after. He evaluates that Post Independence Indian English poetry
has proved increasingly robust, varied, responsive to the times and enjoyable.
It is now very rarely either consciously indebted or consciously hostile to
Anglo American novels. It has acquired a distinct character and has
discovered its own voice. The voice is discovered by the poet‟s genius for
intimately registering the idiom of his own world.
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Modernity influenced the recent Indian English poetry which marked a
break with the past. This has displayed itself in three identifiable
manifestations: the first is a past-oriented vision which is associated with a
sense of loss and hopelessness which is a sort of cultural pessimism, the
second-a future-oriented vision, that arouses a desire to transform the world,
the third is the attitude towards the present times, ahistorical, amoral, neutral,
stoic, ironic, ambivalent, absurdist. This type of expression falls under two
kinds. The first mode of expression is subjective in which the poet looks
inward, the second mode of expression is objective, where the poet looks
around, observing the reality that prevails around him. These may be termed
as “voyage within” and “voyage without” respectively. In the hands of Nissim
Ezekiel, Jayanta Mahapatra, AK Ramanujan R.Parthasarathy, Arun Kolatkar
and Kamala Das the Indian English poetry is acquiring new dimensions.
They have acclimatised the English language to an indigenous tradition
and have written effective poetry. Indian English poetry of the Post
Independence period is sincerely and profoundly felt and is addressed to the
whole community. The poems are records of the objective and thought -
provoking observations of reality around us. The Indian English poetry has
risen above the Victorian taboos and Indian poets have broken new ground.
There is a pervasive presence of a conscious Indianness which is different
from the imitative mediocrity of poetry in the Pre Independence period.
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Much of modern poetry speaks about contemporary life and society.
Poems of today are short and compact. They deal with various aspects of
common life. Delicate feelings and personal notes are handled deftly. Creative
work in poetry is a discovery of oneself at a particular moment which just
happens and it does not follow a particular programme. Poetry is discovered,
not invented. It is a free and natural blooming that takes place in a language
rather than a planed composition meant to be accommodated in a framework.
already existing. The poet creates a new form which helps him know himself,
see himself, and analyse himself. It is like self-creation and self-realisation,
which reveal the beauty of poetry that flows from the heart of the poet.
Poets like Jayanta Mahapatra, Pritish Nandy, Arvind Krishna Mehroka,
Keki Daruwalla picture the live and vital nature of earth and society and the
themes of their poems bring forth and present the important places of Orissa,
Rajasthan, West Bengal, Kashmir, and Uthar Pradesh and embody the value
of survival, self-reliance and renewal. Their poems seem to emphasise the
need for an immediate order that stands in contrast to the disorder and pain of
human existence. On the other hand poets like Kamala Das and Shiv
K.Kumar focus on a world which is personal and social.
English Poetry in India, today makes the English language more
malleable to change with ease and naturalness. The poets draw their themes,
with conscious efforts, out of the glorious ancient Indian culture. The collage
of concrete images derived from the multi-dimensional learning of science,
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economy, geography, philosophy, psychology, ethics, scriptures and so on
vindicates the realistic trends that pervade modern poetry. It is in this context,
the researcher feels that a study has to be undertaken on Jayanta Mahapatra
who has carved a niche for himself in Indian poetry in English by merging the
inward and outward modes of expression.
Jayanta Mahapatra was born on 22nd
October, 1928 in Cuttack, Orissa.
His father, Lamuel, was a sub-inspector of primary schools. He belongs to a
middle class Christian family. His grandfather, Chintamani, adopted
Christianity during the devastating famine in 1866 that shook Orissa which
drove him to the verge of death. He finally staggered into a mercy camp run
by the white missionaries in Cuttack. He was provided with food and shelter,
in return for which he was persuaded to adopt Christianity, to which
Chintamani yielded. Thus Jayanta Mahapatra was a Christian by inheritance
and upbringing though he imbibed much of Hindu culture.
As he was growing Mahapatra experienced the pull of both these
religions. He says in his autobiography:
As children we grew up between two worlds. The first was
home where we were subjected to a rigid Christian upbringing,
with rules my mother sternly imposed, the other was the vast
and dominant Hindu amphitheatre outside with preponderance
of rites and festivals which represented the way of life of our
own people. Two worlds then; and thinking I was at the centre
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of it all trying to communicate with both, and probably
becoming myself incommunicable as a result through the years.
(142)
Although Christian by birth, Mahapatra‟s creative self is primarily Hindu in
terms of myth, symbols, folklore and idiom. Though his grandfather became a
Christian he was totally a Hindu. Christianity is something Mahapatra learnt
at his mother‟s footsteps. There were evening prayers at home. He learnt to
revere Christ. But Hinduism is a part of him too. That is his inner self and his
inner self is totally Hindu.
Throughout his youth Mahapatra felt neglected and humiliated living
in a Hindu dominated society. Talking about his childhood in an interview,
Mahapatra says that he was the youngest in the class. His classmates being
physically stronger, he felt a sense of intimidation all the time. He used to sit
reading a book when they were playing around. He was subjected to much
bullying and ill-treatment while at school. Even today he says he would like
to remain in a corner and does not like to mingle with crowds and that is what
has made him sensitive to poetry. As a student at Patna University, Bihar, he
was afraid of being humiliated by his fellow students.
A sense of loneliness haunted Mahapatra always. He felt utterly lonely
on those first days at Patna. Besides the differences, he experienced a huge
cultural gap, he also realised painfully that he would have been subjected to
unnecessary ridicule from other students in those lodgings had they known
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that he was a Christian. This feeling of loneliness and sense of rejection
influence his poetry to a great extent.
Mahapatra felt a sense of insecurity during his childhood. He speaks
about his childhood, his house and his mother which were the causes of the
fear. His relationship with his mother was not so happy. He says, in his
autobiography
I have never been able to feel that affinity with mother
(Sudnasubala by name) as I have with my father. She was
erratic in her ways, and as I grew up, my conflict with her
increased… I was flushed with a constant tension. I didn‟t know
what was important to me anymore… I slipped into dream. I
kept more and more to myself. Mother did not appear to have
any trust in me. (139-40)
But Mahapatra‟s relationship with his father was a friendly and lasting one.
Mahapatra was appointed a lecturer in physics in Ravenshaw College,
Cuttack. Jayanta Mahapatra was a trained physicist. He was interested in
photography and short fiction and finally started writing poetry. Mahapatra
wrote poems in English, not in his mother tongue Oriya. Mahapatra expresses
the reasons,
I am in love with English. And then, my schooling was in
English - and I learnt my language from British school masters
and mainly from English novels; H. Rider Haggard and Edgar
Rice Burroughs and Ballantyne from whom I caught the first
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delight of words graphic with meaning. Further I feel I can
express myself better in English than in Oriya
(qtd in Raghavan, 59)
Mahapatra started writing poetry after he became forty years old. He
brought out his first volume of poems at the age of forty three. He started
writing and using English rather late in life and all those years had been spent
reading books in the English language, mostly fiction. His first poem
appeared in his fortieth year after he had developed a considerable feeling for
the language. We come to know by his poems that Mahapatra has proved his
excellence in the genre of poetry while his autobiography shows him as a
profuse prose writer. The poet has successfully published many volumes of
poetry from the year 1971 till now. His first book of verse, Close the Sky, Ten
by Ten was published in 1971 after his forties. But his other volumes followed
in quick succession. It includes Svayamvara and Other Poems in 1971. It
deals with the theme of love and the magnificence it renders to the lovers. The
poems celebrate not only passion, but consistently evoke a melancholic
atmosphere rent with absences, fears and sufferings.
The next volume of verse is A Fathers Hours (1976). In the same year,
yet another volume appeared, A Rain of Rites (1976). There had been a
succession of several volumes rapidly. They include Waiting (1979), The
False Start (1980) and Relationship (1980). The long narrative poem,
Relationship is set in Orissa and it embodies the myth and the history of the
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land. Mahapatra published series of verse collection in succession. Life Signs
(1982), Dispossessed Nests (1988), Temple (1989) and A Whiteness of Bone
(1992) were published to the delight of poetry loving public. Mahapatra
published his first collection of short stories The Green Gardener in 1995. He
has considerable reputation as a short story writer and the stories in this
collection have been published in various journals previously. It is discerned
that his training as a scientist has enabled him to use the language vividly and
precisely in prose and verse creations. Succeeding this there came out two
volumes of verses namely Shadow Space (1997) and Bare Face (2001). The
more recent volume of his poetry Random Descent appeared in the year 2005,
which is a distinct testimony of poetic vision, impassioned by its depth of
feeling and poignancy of expression. In 2013 Mahapatra has brought out a