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MODERN MARATHI POETRY

To the editor ‘TRIVENI.’

SIR,

Prof. Patwardhan's article which was published in Triveni of July-August 1931 is likely to mislead the non-Marathi readers of the Journal and make them draw wrong conclusions about the development of modern Marathi poetry during the last decade. As an advertisement of the ‘Ravi-Kiran Mandal,’ of which Prof. Patwardhan is one of the foundation members, the article is excellent and can hardly be improved upon! Non-Marathi readers of Triveni hardly know the open secret that the poet ‘Madhav Julian’ whom Prof. Patwardhan has extolled to the skies in his article, is none other than Prof. Patwardhan himself. How "his very name is suggestive of his eccentricity, of his strong love of Hinduism coupled with a strange fascination for Western civilization" is not plain to the reader. For though ‘Julian’ may indicate a fascination for Western civilization, there is nothing in the name which would suggest a strong love for Hinduism.

The ‘Ravi-Kiran Mandal’ has certainly contributed its quota towards the development of modern Marathi poetry during the last decade, but Madhav Julian's share in the same is not as great as Prof. Patwardhan would wish the readers of Triveni to believe. Madhav Julian's poetry is of a hybrid Sanskrito-Persian type with the best elements of both the cultures sadly absent. His poems are mostly love-poems and the sentiments expressed are often morbid. Sensual love has its place in poetry if it is based on morality and has a religious and cultural ing. A passionate love-poem may appeal to the young but the adoration of sensual love not fructifying in marriage is morbid and would hardly adorn poetry in any language. Poems treating of pure and divine love, with the element of sensuality absent in them, can develop Modern poetry in the right direction. Morbid love-poems merely retard the development of modern poetry.

The only great poet of the ‘Ravi Kiran Mandal’ is ‘Yeshvant’ and not Madhav Julian. He is certainly the rising star of the present day. His songs are deeply passionate and his voice is very melodious and enchanting. The audience is spell-bound whenever he gives a recitation of his songs, as most of his popular songs have a touch of tragedy in them, andit is a well known fact that our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought." But his education is limited and consequently his outlook is narrow. There is no philosophy behind his writings and there are already evident signs that he will have to yield his throne to Prof. Mydev in the near future, as Mr. Tekade had to yield to him sometime, before. For no poet can ever expect to make a permanent landmark in poetry, if he has to depend largely on his singing faculties and his melodious voice for his popularity as, a great poet. The voice is sure to become less melodious with age and a better singer is sure to be born in the world and the memory of people is weak.

Messrs. Girish, Ghate and Madkholkar–all three members of the ‘Ravi-Kiran Mandal’ –are poetic stars of the second magnitude or probably even of a lower degree in the poetic horizon. But Prof. Patwardhan is partial towards the first two because they do not reside at a great distance from Kolhapur as Mr. Madkholkar does. Distance may add a charm of its own in Nature to the landscape in perspective, but it certainly diminishes affection in the practical world of men. For Prof. Patwardhan dismisses Mr. Madkholkar with a mere ‘poetic output,’ while a prosaic and puerile attempt of Mr. Shridhar Ranade–another member of the ‘Ravi-Kiran Mandal’ not much known as a poet to the public –is described as ‘a singularly remarkable poem.’ If Mr. Madkholkar cannot stand any comparison with Mr. Ranade, much less has he any chance of stepping into the charmed circle of Prof. Patwardhan's favourites–Messrs. Girish and Ghate.

The other poets who unfortunately do not belong to that poetic sanctuary, deserve certainly no mention in Prof. Patwardhan's article. The reason, in Prof. Patwardhan's words, is self-evident, and is quoted here in full for the enlightenment of the readers. "During these three or four eventful years, those poets whose poems had been appearing in the foremost popular monthly, the Manoranjan, and who therefore thought themselves to be in the front rank, were gradually receding into the ground." What an audacity for them to suppose that they were in the front rank of poets because their poems appeared ‘in the foremost monthly’ and are appearing even today! Prof. Patwardhan has rightly punished them for their presumption by making no mention of their names in his article. They are certainly doomed to oblivion. Mr. N. S. Rahalkar of Indore, Mr. Gadre (Kavya-Vihari) Mr. Barve (Ananda), Mr. Shinde (Aravinda), and Mr. Dattatraya Bhimaji Randive and the writer of this article belong to this group. They are certainly greater poets than the members of the ‘Ravi-Kiran Mandal’ though Prof. Patwardhan would condemn them to oblivion. The writer of this article published his first volume of poems known as the ‘Necklace of Pearls.’ The poems are prescribed for study both for the Intermediate and the M. A. examination of the Nagpur University. His book of songs for children running into the third edition at present, but Prof. Patwardhan would doom him to oblivion because his poems appeared and still appear in the foremost popular monthly–the Manoranjan’ in a prominent place, often in the front page. Other poets of this Manoranjan group would similarly be able to speak about themselves. One of the Manoranjan poets ‘Keshav kumar’, an exceedingly clever man, hit upon the idea of punishing the members of the ‘Ravi-Kiran Mandal’ by holding them up to ridicule. ‘Keshav Kumar’ certainly deserves praise for administering a dose of ridicule against the disease commonly known as ‘vanity’ and which has certainly affected some members of the ‘Ravi-Kiran Mandal’, if not all.

Prof. Patwardhan also makes not the slightest mention of the two great patriotic poets of Maharashtra–one living and the other recently dead. Barrister Vinayakarao Savarkar has enriched modern Marathi poetry by his ballads and songs. ‘Gomantaka’ is a long poem composed by Barrister Savarkar in the Andamans and memorized by him during his long period of transportation as he had no paper and pencil to write it out in the period of his imprisonment. On release, he reproduced it from memory and published it in book form. The publishing of this romantic and exquisite poem with its equally romantic history of production is an unparalleled event in the history of modern Marathi Literature, and no honest and impartial chronicler of the development of modern Marathi poetry can forget to mention this event without a sense of joy and pride. The other great patriotic poet whom Prof.

Patwardhan did not even allude to in his article is the great poet ‘Govinda’ of Nasik. The production of his melodious, beautiful and patriotic songs in book form is an important landmark in the history of modern Marathi poetry in the last decade. His great soul was imprisoned in crippled body and always longed for liberty and action. Though his body was crippled his free spirit soared high in the pure regions of love and sacrifice along with his friends. Prof. Patwardhan may forget him and other lovers of morbid sensuous poetry may not assign any place to him in the history of modern Marathi poetry; but a handful of such men do not constitute Maharashtra.

Prof. Patwardhan is equally unfair to the Marathi poets residing in Central Provinces and Berar. Poona and the neighbourhood of Poona, nor the boundaries of Bombay Presidency, can define and enclose the great Maharashtra. Half the Marathi-speaking population of India live outside the man-made artificial geographical limits of Bombay Presidency. Nearly 50 lakhs of Marathas live in the Central Provinces and Berar, and an equal number lives in the Nizam's Dominions and other Central India States. In fact Berar was the first home of Marathi and it was from there that it spread to the South, West and East. Mr. Jayakrishna Upadhye of Nagpur ought to be mentioned with ‘Keshav Kumar’ as a good parody writer. Kavibhushan Anna Saheb Khaparde of Amraoti now a professor of Marathi in the Benares Hindu University, is certainly as great a poet if not greater than either Mr. Girish or Mr. Ghate. The Deshpande of Berar, Messrs. A. R. Deshpande (Anil) P. Y.Deshpande, G. H. Deshpande and Mrs. Vimalabai Deshpande M. A., the talented wife of Mr. P. Y. Deshpande, have certainly contributed to the development of modern Marathi poetry to a far greater extent than Mr. Nishigandha of Nasik during the last decade, and along with Mr. Y. M. Pathak must be mentioned the names of the rising poets of Nagpur–Prof. Kolte of Amraoti college, Mr. Shahane of the Servants of India Society (Hemant) and the two Pandit cousins V. N. and B. S. respectively. Almost all the C. P. and Berar poets mentioned above are double graduates with a genuine love for Art in general and Poetry in particular.

This letter does not claim to give a history of the development of modern Marathi poetry during the last decade. It is written with the specific intention of removing the misunderstanding of non-Marathi-knowing readers of Triveni due to Prof. Patwardhan's article which is in the nature of a garbled yet dignified advertisement of himself and the ‘Ravi Kiran Mandal’ of Poona, and so the readers are requested to treat this letter as a supplement to Prof. Patwardhan's article. The two together will give the readers a correct perspective of modern Marathi poetry during the last decade.

The Patwardhan N. K. BEHERE,

High School, Nagpur. M. A., B. Sc.