Tagore in Sindhi

Tagore in Sindhi Vasdev Mohi Greatness creates new watermarks for itself when it gets attached to some names. It strives to equate itself in status with those names. It is a rare phenomenon and occurs in centuries. We can say this about our great poet Shah Abdul Latif (1689 - 1752). Centuries have passed by; greatness hasn’t got such a chance to stand on its toes to increase its stature . Same phenomenon applies to Rabindranath Tagore. Rabindranath Tagore placed Indian Literature on an honourable seat in world literature after acknowledged Sanskrit Literature. Nobel Prize on English translation of Tagore’s ‘Gitanjali’ in 1913 drew world’s attention to eminence of Indian literature. Not only in poetry , Tagore proved multiplicity of his creative talent - as a novelist, storywriter, playwright, composer, artist, educationist, too, and the list does not stop here. His apparently spellbinding persona, long flowing locks, one piece garb from the neck to the toes, created a prophet like aura in the western , North America as well as in the East Asian countries when he visited more than 30 countries between the years 1878 and 1932. His spiritual bent elevated the effect of that aura. His literary works are widely acclaimed for their lyrical impulse , rhythmic and lucid style. Sindh’s relation with Bengal is very old. Since 16 th century, Sadhus, Jogis and Bairagis , the devotees of Shakti from Bengal passed through Karachi (Port city of Sindh) for pilgrimage of Hinglaj based on the Hingol Mountain in Balochistan. Sindh was greatly influenced socially and religiously by Arya Samaj and Brahmo Samaj. Staunch supporter of Brahmo Samaj Sadhu Nav alrai Advani (1848 - 1893), in 1875 invited Rabindranath’s elder brother Satyendranath Tagore, who was Sessions Judge in Hyderabad, Sindh at that time, to lay foundation stone of Brahmo Temple. Sadhu Hiranand Advani, younger brother of Sadhu Navalrai, also h ad affinity with Bengal, as he graduated from Calcutta and enjoyed companionship of Keshab Chandrasen, Vivekanand, Ramkrishna Paramhans and Rabindranath Tagore and learnt a lot from them. Besides, the East India Company, based in Calcutta had a branch in T hatta, the southern city of Sindh, thereby establishing trade relation of Bengal with Sindh. And in the last decades of 19 th century, Bengal’s literary relations with Sindh started with the release of booklets on biographies of Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Keshab Chandrasen and Rabindranath’s father Maharishi Debendranath Tagore, all connected with Brahmo Samaj. After the announcement of Nobel Prize, not only in Sindh, but in the whole country and in many countries of the world, creative talent of Rabindranath was viewed with reverence. In Sindh, many writers translated Rabindranath’s books into Sindhi, and thus widened literary relation of Sindh with Bengal. But before translations appeared on the literary scene, Khanchand Daryani (1898 - 1965), the promoter of solem n and sober Sindhi theatre, with Mangharam Malkani 1 (1896 - 1980) , who later was conferred Fellow ship of Sahitya Akademi, Jethmal Parsram (1885 - 1948), Lalchand Amardinomal (1885 - 1954) and with other literary figures of the time, established Rabindranath Literary & Dramatic Club in 1923 in Hyderabad , Sindh and invited Rabindranath to inaugurate it. Rabindranath re adily obliged and visited Sindh . He stayed at ‘Narain Mahal’, the abode of Narain Dialdas, brother of Bhai Pratap, the founder of Gandhidham, Ku tch in Gujarat , from 19 th to 31 st March, 1923 . At the time of inauguration, some scenes from his play ‘ Chitra ’ were staged in front of Rabindranath. Mangharam himself acted in the role of Arjan. Rabindranath lavishly appreciated the presentation. Like in other languages, in Sindhi also Gitanjali is translated by more than one writer. The first one to come on the literary scene was Jogi Shikarpuri’s in 1925 (only one copy is available in Aziz Library, Ulhasnagar , Maharashtra ) . It came into Sindhi through Urdu translation of Gitanjali. It was in free verse. The second one was Dilip Singh Mankani’s (192 7 ) which also was in vers libre. But in 1942, Gitanjali was translated into met rical form by Mangharam Malkani. No doubt, it mus t have been a strenuous job, but the translator seems to have enjoyed the great creative process he might have undergone . The reader can relish it even today. He could translate songs of Gitanjali in perfect Pingal Chhandas and in Urooz - the Perso - Arabic metrical forms - with rhyme and soothing rhythm. He has innovatively employed different forms of poetry, maintaining the flavour of Sindhi and also keeping the nuance of the original work . Looking at the forms employed for the translation, Ghazal form deser ves special mention. Ghazal is an exacting form for its strict metrical requirements and also for its structural restrictions. Mangharam Malkani translated Gitanjali from Rabindranath’s free verse English translation; o ne can imagine the marathon creativit y that might have been put into for the job. In many songs, Mangharam Malkani also used a combination of Dohas and Sorthas which our great 18 th century poet Shah Abdul Latif used for his Baits (a Sindhi form of poetry). It’s known to litterateurs that poetry of every language has its own distinct lingual and cultural attribute . Those who are lucky to read Tagore in Bengali will not stop talking of metrical skill, rhythmic beauty , powerful idiom and unusual reflection of Tagore’s poetry. And this fact also is equally known to litterateurs that in translation of any poetry, those finer poetic traits are almost lost. In this context, Mangharam Malkani’s translation can be viewed with veneration that it could create some aura of Tagore’s poetry through his metrical skill in the translation. The second edition of Mangharam’s Gitanjali translation came in 1956. After twenty years, in 1976, Gobindram Salamatrai Raisinghani ‘Sayal’ brought out Giatanjali’s translation in free verse. He freely took help of his Bengali friends who were mainly lawyers and judges. And his sincere efforts can easily be seen in the appealing translation. After Partition, Hindu Sindhis migrated to India and settled in different cities. Muslim Si ndhis remained in Sindh. It is naturally possible to think that t ranslations of Gitanjali must have been carried out in Sindh after Partition, too, but due to difficulty in exchange of books between India and Pakistan, I could lay my hands on only one tran slation of Gitanjali , which is done by Dr Gul in 1995. 2 The translation of Gitanjali by Sindhi writers must have been a journey to the ir own medieval literature since 15 th century, right from Qazi Qadan (1463 - 1551) to Shah Abdul Latif (1689 - 1752) which is fraught with spirituality and yearning for the Supreme Soul. Sindhi writers did not restrict themselves to various translations of Gitanjali only. They turned to ‘ Gardener ’ , ‘ Crescent Moon ’ , ‘ Fruit Gathering ’ , too. ‘ Gardener ’ was translated by Mangharam Malkani in the name of ‘Preet Jaa Geet’ which was brought out by Ratan Sahitya Mandal, Karachi in 1940. In the Preface Mangharam has written that he translated ‘ Gardener ’ in 1921, but the book could see the light of the day aft er about 20 years. ‘ Gardener ’ was translated by Lalchand Amardinomal , too . Though the year of publication is not mentioned in the book, but it was included in the college curriculum in Sindh before Partition. Influenced by Tagore’s poetry, Lalchand himself wrote a few poems toeing the line and included those in ‘Sada a Gulab’, the title that he assigned to the Sindhi translation of ‘ Gardener ’ . Tagore’s ‘Crescent Moon ’, based on psychology of the young minds , was translated into Sindhi by Arjan Issrani and w as published by Ratan Sahitya Mandal, Karachi in October 1940. ‘Fal Choonda’ by Hariram Maariwala is the translation of Tagore’s ‘Fruit Gathering’ which was brought out by Hindustan Kitab Ghar in 1956. In his preface to the book Hariram writes that he translated these poems while serving jail term in Karachi District jail in 1944 for taking part in ‘Quit India’ movement. He further says in the preface that in prison he translated Tagore’s ‘Post Master’, ‘Chitra’, ‘Stray Birds’, ‘Lover’s Gift & Crossing’ , too. Yet another translation of Tagore’s poems ‘Geet Ganga’ by Fatan Purswani appeared in 1995 and in it poems are grouped according to their subjects and themes. In a way, one can notice that Tagore has maintained his presence in the Si ndhi poetry through out the last century. During the long years of the century, it’s but natural that some traits of T agore’s poetry may be traced here and there in the poetry of some Sindhi poe t s. One can see a few poems of Kishinchand ‘Bewas ’(1885 - 1947), or of Krishin Khatwani (1927 - 2008), who was educated at Santiniketan, or of Mangharam Malkani or of Nirmal Jivtani ( who died at the age of 23 in 1944 and who followed some of the t opics of Tagore rather earnestly and who according to A. J. Ut tam’ in ‘Tagore Hika Jhalak’ , read from ‘Gitanjali ’ everyday when Jivtani was with him in jail after taking part in ‘Quit India’ moveme n t ) , where in some traces of Tagorean poetry may be found, but it will be a misstatement if someone calls it an influence on Sindhi poetry . In the last two centuries, Ghazal has been the dominating form of expression in the Sindhi poetry as it is in many other languages like Urdu, Gujarati, Kashmiri, Hindi etc. And Ghazal has a totally different temperament; so far the conte nt and expression are concerned. Its wavelength is at variance from that of Tagore ’s poetry. But Tagore is close to Sindhi poetry on a different plane.

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