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

MINOR RESEARCH PROJECT IN ENGLISH

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

SUBMITED TO UNIVERSITY GRANTS COMMISSION

WESTERN REGIONAL OFFICE

GANESHKHIND, - 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

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, 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 , , Namdeo, Muktabai, and . 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 . 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 . 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 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 21 st 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 – , A.K.Ramanujan, A.K. Mehrotra, R. Parthasarathy, Shiv K. Kumar, Keki N. Daruwalla, Give Patel, Arun Kolatkar, 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 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 . 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. Later, in the life that relationship grew into something very intimate and extricable which the poet expresses as: We climbed a tree, she said,

not very tall, but full of leaves like those of a fig tree, and we were very innocent about it. (Parthasarathy, 2002: 97) She now searches for such a situation in which she would like to go on a swing but in vain. It means that the past can not be brought back. An adult’s experience can not be substituted for the innocence of the child. Here the sense of nostalgia overwhelms the protagonist. Hence, the poet harks back to the past with the desire to recreate it in the present situations. The poem throws much light on child-psychology. The poem A River shows no blind reverence for old myths and traditions. He makes a daring attempt to penetrate beyond the veil of illusion and unfold the grim truth behind the nostalgia caused by the river as: One pregnant woman and a couple of cows named Gopi and Brinda, as usual. (Parthasarathy, 2002: 98) A. K. Ramanujan gives a different kind of treatment to the full river in A River. He describes what he sees as the villager’s real experience. The poet does not glorify river here. The river is beautiful in the summer. But when its flood causes suffering that is not all poetic. Ramanujan’s poetry has its origin in the past and it is deeply rooted in his memory. The poem tells us about the childhood recollection of youthful mother in the following words: From her ear-rings three diamonds splash a handful of needles, and I see my mother run back from rain to the crying cradles. (Parthasarathy, 2002: 99) The poem Small Scale Reflection of Great House stands for ‘Great House’. It stands for ‘Vasudhev Kutumbkam’ i.e. the entire earth is one family. It also stands for the undivided joint Hindu Family, which is now being broken into small single families. He tells us about the decline of joint Hindu family system. Ramanujan appears to have the upper hand for using poetic technique among all his contemporaries. The difficult condition arises, when he is mentally there and physically here. He lives in America but looks back to India, searching for themes. Through his poems he reveals himself as a great craftsman. A. K. Ramanujan’s poetry is characterized by nostalgia of the experiences in childhood. Arun Kolatkar too draws from the same mood. Ramanujan’s technical innovations have influenced Arun Kolatkar to a great extent, men and locations occupy centrally in the poetry of both poets. A. K. Ramanujan as a poet is strider between the two worlds – are of childhood, the oriental world and the other of adulthood, the occidental world. Arun Kolatkar too strides between the past and the present, the high and the low, the beauty of the elite society and the trash in the lives of the garbage pictures. 1.2.3. R. PARTHSARATHY: Rajagopal Parthasarathy is a poet in his arm right. He is a literary critic of great standing. His popularity as an anthologist is established by his editing of the remarkable anthology of Modern Indian English Poetry that introduced Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets . He has made a lot of efforts to popularize Indian English Poetry of his time. He has published only one book of his poems called Rough Passage. In Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets , Parthasarathy gives an introduction to his own work. The major themes of his poetry are mainly reflected in his Rough Passage. All the extracts in the various anthologies have been taken from it. It is the conflict between his intense desire to write his poems in the mother tongue (Tamil) and his irresistible desire to write his poems in English language. In Rough Passage he dwells upon the question language and identity. He dwells upon the inner conflict of opposite cultures i.e. western and his native Tamil. The poem Exile constitutes the first part of Rough Passage . Here, the contrast is between the western cultures and Indian, particularly Tamilian culture. He also talks about loss of identity of his culture. The third and the final parts of the poem Home Coming in the collection of his poems Rough Passage express the conflict between the past and present time. Another major theme of his poetry is love. The poem Trial in second part of Rough Passage , deals with the themes of love and sex. Again we trace the theme of damage done by imperialism and degenerated quality of modern Indian life. The most notable qualities of his poetry are imagery and use of metaphor. These two features are omnipresent and pervasive in his poetry. His poems illustrate both these qualities. Lyricism is another feature of his poetry. He is the best craftsman, who handled his poetry with great skill. Parthasarathy continued to struggle with the claims of Tamil and English. He preferred to write in English. Though, a contemporary of Arun Kolatkar, his struggle with the conflicting claims of the medium of writing poetry has resolved this dilemma for Arun Kolatkar. The choice of English as the poetic medium has enhanced the appeal of Jejuri to the international readership. Arun Kolatkar used both the languages as his writing medium as the poems in his collection The Boatride and Other Poems (English), Arun Kolatkarchya Kavita , Bhijki Vahi and Droan (Marathi) exemplify. 1.2.4. KAMALA DAS: Kamala Das (Madhvi Kutty) comes from a very orthodox and conservative family. It is significant as her poetry is mainly unorthodox and almost revolutionary. Another noteworthy thing about her is that she was married at the early age of fifteen and it proved an absolute failure. It was failure of her marriage that compelled her to enter into extra-marital sexual relationship in search of the kind of love which her husband had failed to give her. Generally, her poetry is called as confessional poetry because it is a record of her personal experiences about marriage and sex. She has published four volumes of poems such as Summer in Calcutta (1965), The Descendants (1967), The Old Play House and Other Poems (1973) and Stranger Time (1973). She has also written an autobiography titled as My Story (1975). She has also been recognized as a short story write in her mother tongue, Malayalam. For this ‘The Sahitya Academi’ honoured her in 1969. Failure in married life and the discontentment is loudly pronounced in The Old Play House . Here, she accuses her husband’s selfishness. She got married to know and learn herself. But her hopes are belied, as the husband was only interested in her body. Thus, she complains: You were pleased With my body’s response, its weather, its usual shallow Convulsion----you embalmed My poor lust with your sweet juices (Kamala Das in B. K. Das, 1993:12) One could not simply imagine this kind of poetry in the pre-independence era. It has a wider range and includes a few other aspects of her life too. The poem The Freaks is a negative poem in which love turns to lust. The woman in the poem complains bitterly against the attitude of her man, because there is no genuine love between the two. What keeps them together for a moment is the lust of blood. Thus the woman asks angrily: Desires …. Can’t this man with Nimble finger-tips unleash Nothing more alive than the Skin’s lazy hungers? (Parthasarathy, 2002: 23) The poem The Sunshine Cat expresses the agony of woman who is betrayed in love and physical exploitation. The poem describes the plight of a woman who has become a victim of the lust of many men. In the poem Invitation the beloved invites the sea to take her away to wipe out her bitter memory of being jilted in love. The poem Looking Glass is unusual poem in which the poet talks of love and sex freely employing unconventional words that raise many eye-brows. The poem is like a lesson in ‘Kama sutra’ with the instructions as to how to consummate love. The poem reaches its climax when the protagonist asks the woman to submit to her man, heart and soul. In a simple conversational language, the poet describes how the woman should satisfy her man: ---Gift him all, Gift him what makes you woman, the scent of Long hair, the musk of sweat between the breasts, The warm shock of menstrual blood, and all your Endless female hungers. (Parthasarathy, 2002: 27) The poems A Hot Noon In Malabar Hills and My Grandmother’s House express the agonies of childhood at Nalapat house. We find the nostalgic note here. She recalls the activities of the people in a hot afternoon in Grandmother’s House. The poems of Das have an autobiographical touch too. Kamala Das has a style of her own. Her language is simple but the tone is emphatic and full of assertion. She is frank, honest and forth right in describing different kind of experience. Her poetry has an appeal for the readers because it is readable and interesting. Several Indian poets in English are conscious of feelings of ‘Indianness’ and that helps to state their positions clearly. In An Introduction , Kamala Das states her case very aptly and emphatically: ---I am Indian, very brown, born in Malabar, I speak three languages, write in Two, dream in one (Kamala Das in B.K. Das, 1992: 10) The boldness of treatment and style embellish Kamala Das’ poetry. Her unconventionality is remarkable in the choice of her themes and the situations which highlight the themes. Arun Kolatkar too selects a situation such as his visits to Jejuri and then gives a bold and unconventional treatment to themes. 1.2.5. KEKI N. DARUWALLA: Keki Nasserwanji Daruwalla was born in Lahore in 1937. He is the third Indian English poet to have won ‘The Central Sahitya Academi Award’ for the book of verse called The Keeper of the Dead (1984). After obtaining a Master’s degree in English Literature, he joined the Police Department. Therefore, the strange and most surprising fact of his life is that while serving in the Police Department, he has written poetry in English which has really made him popular as a poet. He has published six volumes of poetry in the course of his literary career such as: Under Orion (1970), Apparition in April (1971), for which the Uttar Pradesh State Award was given in 1972, Crossing of Rivers (1976), Winter Poems (1980) The Keeper of the Dead (1982), Landscape (1986) and Sword and Abyss (1979) a collection of short stories. His poetry covers a wide range of themes such as deprivations, misery, diseases, death, corruption, dishonesty in business, evils of beggary and social sympathy. He has presented beautiful picture of the landscapes of northern India, hills, plains, rivers in many of his poems. His poetry has brought to life the world of riot, curfew, siren, warrants, and men nabbed at night, lathi blows on cowering bodies, the starch of khaki, soda bottles, acid bulbs waiting on the top of roofs and press. The poem The Epileptic describes a plight of a woman, who was going on a rickshaw with her two children and husband. When she got a fit of epilepsy her children jumped in panic and fled in different directions. Fortunately, the child in her womb remained safe. The poem is rich in imagery and irony is the hallmark of it. Does the poet say? Thank God, the burden in her belly Stayed where it was. (Parthasarathy, 2002: 13) Another poem called The Ghaghra in Spate depicts the destruction caused by the river in spate. Unlike the Romantics, Daruwalla depicts the harsh realities of nature. The flood of Ghaghra causes destruction to the life of the people. The people become anxious about the rising river and finally become its victims. The village is badly affected by the flood. Thus the poet gives a realistic picture of the flood in the following words: thatch and dung-cakes turn to river-scum, A buffalo floats over the rooftop where the men are stranded (Parthasarathy, 2002: 15) The poem Rumination presents the violence in the real life through the landscape. The violence would be caused by the mutual hatred between the two different groups of people. The poet goes in search of the places where this violence might break out. So the poet says: I can smell violence in the air Like the lash of coming rain – mass hatreds drifting grey across the moon. (Parthasarathy, 2002: 16) The poem Routine is a satire on the . We have mechanically inherited their system without considering its implications. The poet ironically says that we have blindly followed the British pattern and never thought of a new one in our situation. Thus he ironically observes: Beneath our khaki we are a roasted brown but unconvinced, they wish to burn our khaki skins. (Parthasarathy, 2002: 19) Each and every poem deals with some social or other evils in ironical and satirical manner. His poetry is poetry of social reforms. The language used by Daruwalla is as sharp as an axe. It has depth of feeling and originality of insight. In the poem Trial, Keki N. Daruwalla describes what he calls his first experience of sex in a poem called you were the first as: You were the first------It was from you I learnt That stroke want parallel to the body Not vertical Like a cross Hammered down On a grave. (Keki N. Daruwalla in B.K.Das, 1993: 9) Keki N. Daruwalla’s world of poetry is the real world of the external landscape. The realism, the irony and the reformist real characterize his poems. Arun Kolatkar and Keki N. Daruwalla as contemporaries share these common poetic features in their writings. 1.2.6. GIEVE PATEL: Gieve Patel, a medical practitioner by profession, is very familiar with pain, disease and death. He in one of the ‘Parsi quartet’ the other three are Keki N. Daruwalla, and K. D. Katrak. Gieve Patel has published two volumes of poems called, Poems (1966) and How Do You Withstand Body (1976). It is not surprising that he brings to his poetic art an uncanny sense of the anatomy of human experience. On Killing Tree is a remarkable poem written by Patel. At the surface level it describes an act of killing a tree. This killing tree has to be uprooted so that branches would not grow again from the root. To uproot a tree is not an easy job. Here the image of tree is given, which suggests that the proposed tree to be uprooted is ‘diseased tree’. Hence the title of the poem becomes symbolic and we get the word ‘killing’ instead of ‘felling’. If the operation is not successful then the disease will again develop. Being a doctor by profession, Gieve Patel is obsessed with the idea of disease and its eradication through successful operation. The clinical images like ‘knife’, ‘leprous’, ‘pain’, ‘unchecked’ state clearly the intention of performing a surgical operation to eradicate the disease. In the poem Servant the poet presents a clinical description of servant in our country. The poet states physical appearances as: Picks modulations on the skin; The dark around them Is brown, and links body to body, Or is dispelled, and the hard fingers

(Parthasarathy, 2002: 87) The servants have little freedom and performed their duties mechanically. They are compared with animals. Their physical uncleanliness is as deplorable as their economic condition. In this way they are dehumanized. The poem Nargol reflects the social tension. Here a beggar woman follows the protagonist everywhere in the open street. Patel is an outsider like Ezekiel and equally conscious of the fact, for example, the ambiguous fate of Patel being neither Muslim nor Hindu. In India, he is the member of the small Parsi community but this has not produced a feeling of rootlessness in his case. The poem Naryal is named after a Hindu festival held on the day of full monsoon during August-September. The sea-god ‘Varuna’ is pacified by offering coconuts to mark the end of monsoon. It is also called coconut day. The poem also presents the socio- economic condition of the country. The poem O My Very Own Cadaver depicts the situation in which the poet imagines what would happen to his body when breath is gone. He does not want to die and tries to cling to life as long as he can. His poems are mainly concerned with deprived section of the society. Though, Patel concentrates more on the social problems of today, but he has not given solutions to them. Gieve Patel’s poetry is clinically upright, surgically analytical, and knife-like sharp and absolutely like medical caution. 1.2.7. SHIV K. KUMAR: Shiv K.Kumar is the fifth Indian English Poet who has been honoured by ‘The Sahitya Academi Award’ for his fifth book of verse Trap Falls in the Sky (1986-87). His is multi-faced literary personality, who has written poetry, drama, novel, short stories and criticism. A senior professor of English and distinguished academician, Kumar is well known for his book Bergson and the Stream of Conscious . He has written five books of verse, two novels, a play and a number of short stories. The titles of the volumes of his poetry are Articulate Silences (1970), Cobwebs in the Sun (1974), Subterfuges (1976), Wood Peckers (1979) and Trap Falls in the Sky (1986-87). His poetry is rich in vocabulary. There are two strains in his poetry. Firstly, he writes poetry in the confessional mode in his poems which treat the themes of love and sex. Secondly, he writes poems about landscapes and national identity. The poem Indian Woman is written keeping the American audience in the mind. It is about rural Indian women, who have gone to the well to bring water. The description is very apt and it reminds us of the peculiar Indian situation. He successfully recreates the image of Indian women for the American audience. Thus he says: Patiently they sit like empty pitchers on the mouth of the village well pleating hope in each braid of their Mississippi-long hair looking deep into the water mirror for the moisture in their eyes. (Parthasarathy, 2002: 54) If love and sex become the nerve-center of Kumar’s poetry, landscape and social customs are widespread in his poetry. Traditional people in India believe in a holy communication with Nature. Therefore, they worship the Himalaya and the . Many of India’s religious rites and rituals are preformed on the bank of holy rivers after ceremonial bathing. Kumar could not share the blind beliefs of the masses but he wrote satirical poems on these rituals. The poem Pilgrimages is one of such poems, which describes a pilgrimage of different language groups and their participation. The pilgrimage began, but nobody knows which place do they belong and where they want to go. The tone of irony heightens the significance of the poems Kumar also talks about the cultural interaction in his poem called Days in New York . Here an expatriate Indian speaks to a native Indian. The speaker takes us from his apartment to the outside. Outside the door, we encounter ‘a black cat’, ‘a black maid’ and ‘the quart gallon of milk’. Then the scene shifts to India as a mode of contrast. Thus Kumar writes: They wouldn’t believe it here That Ganges water can work miracles: In spite of the cartloads Of dead men’s ashes and bones- daily offerings to the river. (Parthasarathy, 2002: 54) Here the protagonist looks at India through the eye of a foreigner. Kumar attacks on superstitious practices in our country through his poem Kali . Animal sacrifice made before gods and goddess is to satisfy the identity can be a form of superstitions. The attitude is sarcastic and ironic. He has not only dropped hints but ‘whispers’ as well. His imaginative world derives its power from the rich verbal imagery from many sources Not only superstitions and corruption but also contemporary society arrests the attention of the Indian English poets. Shiv K.Kumar reflects the contemporary society in a number of poems. In ‘Poet Laureate’ he exposes the hollowness of the readers. The readers, researchers and scholars read the poetry in the light of the private life of the poet laureate. So Kumar observes aptly: What shall I ask this Little exhibit of the muses Whose poems have been sucked Bored and flattened In the creative writing courses And whose sex – life has been laid bare By zealous psycho-analytic researchers? (Shiv K. Kumar in B.K.Das,1993: 6) Love, an eternal theme of all literatures of the world, is also a favourite theme of modern English poets. They are no longer prude in public and sex is no longer taboo in recent Indian poetry in English. We have come a long way in this direction since Ezekiel pronounced that ‘nakedness is good’ has taken no lead in this matter. Shiv K. Kumar closely followed with frankness and openness in the Indian context. Kamala Das expresses her need for love; she is too frank in dealing with the theme of love. Similarly, Shiv K. Kumar’s The Sun Temple of Konark , catches the spirit of Kama sutra in verse: Rhythm and Fire--- The riotous sea navels, breast And lips will break Into pre-verification For the perfect logos In the act of affirmation. (Shiv K. Kumar in B. K. Das, 1993:8) His poems like Indian Women, An Indian Mango vendor and A Hindu to His Cow give an astonishingly original treatment of Indian landscape and situation. Shiv K. Kumar’s intellectual tone and portrayal of landscape as poetic features have become the distinctive marks of his poetry. Arun Kolatkar shares these poetic features. 1.2.8. ARVIND MEHROTRA: Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is one of the well known and leading poets of 1969s. His book of poems Middle Earth has placed him among the front ranking Indian English poets of our time. In 1966 he founded the ‘Ezra – Fakir Press’ in Bombay, where he published his experimental works such as Bharatmata: A Prayer (1066), Woodcut on Paper (1967 ), Poems/ Poems/ Poems (1971), Nine Enclosures (1976), Distant in Statute Miles (1982) and Middle Earth (1984). His later works The Transfiguring Places (1998), The Oxford Indian Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets (1992) present a lively account of his canon for Indian Poetry in English. The poem The Sale begins with a conventional tone but soon the surrealistic situation is created. The reader is baffled. The poem is in the form of dramatic monologue. The protagonist is selling the earth with all its contents to an unknown buyer. The end of the poem is a surprising one, when the fisherman and king go away perhaps to set up a new world. Thus the poet says: This is Europe, that America, this scare bug Asia, that groin Africa an amputated Australia. These five. I don’t have more. May be another egg-laying island remain in the sea. (Parthasarathy, 2002: 66) In the poem Continuities the poet describes his activities as a boy of eight and remembers his grandfather who gave him a silver omega watch. The past is brought alive and ancestry is personalized. The poem A Letter to a Friend depicts the plight of a man whose love remains unconsummated. In a letter to his friend the protagonist describes all that has happened to him. An unsympathetic wife makes the life of her husband miserable. Here, Mehrotra recreates the characters in their situations. The protagonist sets up his house before marriage to please his newlywed wife. But he is disappointed. The protagonist depicts his wife’s mood and his plight in a plain language to his friend without trying to hide things. The lines depict the mood of wife as: I set up the house while she waited In another city, the day of our marriage Was still far. When she saw the rooms For the first time she said, ‘These Are worse than bathrooms.’ (Parthasarathy, 2002: 70) A. K. Mehrotra’s feature of poetic is too followed by Arun Kolatkar in his poetry. 1.2.9. JAYANT MAHAPATRA: Jayant Mahapatra, a lecturer of Physics, started writing poetry in English at the age of forty. But his late start produced ten volumes of poems during a period of fifteen years. His poems have appeared in foreign journals rather than India. He is the first Indian English poet to have won the first ever ‘Sahitya Academi Award’ for Relationship (1981). Mahapatra lived in Orissa all his life. Therefore, Orissa landscape, Puri and Konark have occupied first position in his poetry. It is not only the Orissa landscape, which stamps his poetry as Indian, but also the mental, moral and spiritual life depicted. Mahapatra published twelve volumes of poems such as: Close the Sky , Ten by Ten (1971), Svayamwara and Other Poems (1971), A Father’s Hours (1976), A Rain of Rites (1976), Waiting (1979), The False Start (1980), Relationship (1980), Burden of Waves and Fruits (1988), Temple (1989), Life Sings (1983), Dispossessed Nest (1986), Selected Poems (1987) and Witness of Bones (1992). Mahapatra’s poetry deals with the themes of sex, poverty, prostitution, psychology, philosophy, human relationships, Indian social problems, love, marriage, humanity and Nature. It is a remarkable feature of his poetry that continuous growth and development in themes and technique is observed in his poetry. Like Shiv. K.Kumar, Mahapatra writes many poems with specific Indian titles. For example, the poems like Indian Summer , Evening in an Orissa Village, The Orissa Poems, Three Indian Poems, The Indian Way, Dawn at Puri, The Temple Road and so on. The poem Indian Summer is a poem about Indian landscapes and seasons. The opening line of the poem has the tone of sadness. The heat of the summer is suggested by the crocodiles moving into deep water. In summer season we perform many rituals and ceremonies in our country. Hence the priest chants louder than ever. The poet ironically tells us that the opening mouth of the priest is like ‘the mouth of India opens’. In the poem A Missing Person the protagonist is a woman, who contemplates her love with introspection. The woman tries to see the reflection of her face in a mirror in a darkroom. She becomes disappointed. Another poem The Whorehouse in a Calcutta Street is a love poem. It deals with lust and sex in a dared manner. The poem reminds of two poems of Mahapatra Hunger and Man of his Nights . The poem begins with the instruction to the protagonist how to find out a whore house in Calcutta Street. It ends with the woman asking him to leave for new customer. The Logic another love poem describes consummations of love. The lady tells her lover to recline in his ‘upholstered chair’ and relax thinking of enjoyment in love. She hopes that he would not sleep with any other woman for the love between them has already been consumed. Another poem Total Solar Eclipse describes the effect of natural phenomenon of human beings and animals. A partial solar eclipse occurs occasionally but a total solar eclipse occurs at very long intervals. People are in the grip of superstitions. The entire living creature, human beings and animals such as the cobra, the hyena, the vulture, the sparrows and crocodiles were all feeling alarmed as if they were as if they were threatened with some danger. The priest in the temple interpreted it. His style has an admirable colloquial ease and punctuated by striking images. Mahapatra and Arun Kolatkar poetry of both deals with the themes of sex, poverty, prostitution, psychology, philosophy, human relationships, Indian social problems, love, marriage, humanity and Nature. 1.2.10. DILIP CHITRE: Dilip Chitre’s translations of Tukaram’s poems in his volume Says Tuka has pleaded Tukaram’s claim as a world class poet of humanity. Dilip Chitre, an artist and writer, was very close to Arun Kolatkar. Chitre like Kolatkar is a bilingual poet writing poems both in English and Marathi. 1.3. THE FORMAL FEATRURES: The formal features of the research work given by the researcher as: 1.3.1 NEED AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY: Arun Kolatkar is a Maharashtrian bilingual 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. Kolatkar is known to the world up to the time for his only work i.e. Jejuri . The need and significance of the study of Arun Kolatkar’s poetry is that his poetic talent and craftsmanship should be familiar and acquainted by the international readership, the research students and scholars at national and international level, in both the languages. He has translated some of the poems from his English but most of he wrote separately. His identity should be established as a poet writing separately in English and Marathi and not merely as a translator. 1.3.2. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: It is an attempt made to present Arun Kolatkar’s rational perspective on superstitions by analyzing some of the poems from the volume of poetry called Jejuri . 1.3.3. HYPOTHESIS: Arun Kolatkar’s poetic network displays multiple themes. Superstation among the devotees of Khandoba is one of the themes of his poetry. 1.3.4. SCOPE OF THE RESEARCH STUDY: The researcher has selected, Jejuri, the volume of poetry to study rational perspective in Arun Kolatkar’s poetry. 1.3.5. LIMITATIONS OF THE RESEARCH STUDY: The researcher has selected some of the poems for his research work to focus his attention very clearly on the research topic. 1.3.6. METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH WORK: The researcher has followed the library work, the descriptive and analytical methods for his research study. 1.3.7. RIVIEW OF LITERATURE AND DATA COLLECTION: The researcher has collected the information from the various reference books, periodicals, journals, from the libraries, and visited to Jejuri many times. PRIMARY SOURCE: 1. Kolatkar, Arun. Jejuri. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2006. 2. Kolatkar, Arun. Sarpa Satra. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2006. 3. Kolatkar, Arun. Kala Ghoda Poem. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2006. 4. Kolatkar, Arun. The Boatride and Other Poems. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2009. 5. Kolatkar, Arun. Arun Kolatkarchya Kavita. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2006. 6. Kolatkar, Arun. Arun Kolatkarchya Char Kavita. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2006. 7. Kolatkar, Arun. Bhijki Vahi. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2006. 8. Kolatkar, Arun. Chirimiri. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2003. 9. Kolatkar, Arun. Droan. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2004. SECONDARY SOURCES: 1. Raykar, Shubhangi Commentary and Critical Perspectives. Pune: Prachet Publication, 1995. 2. Parthasarathy, R. Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets. Delhi: OUP, 2002. 3. Khare, G. Hari. Maharashtrachi Char Daiwat . Pune: 1958. 4. Dhere, R.C. Dakshinecha Lokdev Shri Khandoba. Pune: Padmagandha Publication, 2007. 5. Sinha, Ajitkumar. Principles of Sociology. Agra: Narayan Agarwal Publication, 1963. PRINT MEDIA: The researcher has read the material as criticism, interviews of Kolatkar by scholars, contemporaries, and articles related to Indian English Poetry and Jejuri in news papers. NON-PRINT MEDIA: Audio - visual material from internet and electronic media has used by the researcher. 1.3.8. CHAPTER SCHEME: The researcher has given the chapter scheme of the research work with the help of his guide as: The first chapter deals with the History of Indian English Poetry as 1.1. Here, the researcher has introduced the poet and his National and International Status. 1.2. The researcher has focused on contemporaries of Arun Kolatkar.1.3. The formal features of the research work have given by the researcher. The second chapter provides information about the poet, Arun Kolatkar: His Life and Works. 2.1. Here the researched has talked about Kolatkar’s biographical details in brief. 2.2. and 2.3. The researcher has discussed the literary works of Kolatkar in Marathi and English. 2.4. It has focused light on the major characteristics of Arun Kolatkar’s poetry. The third chapter is about the social and cultural elements in Jejuri. 3.1. Here the researcher has given the significance of the history of Jejuri and Khandoba. 3.2. It deals with the thematic analysis of the poems. 3.3. It is about the social elements in the poems and finally 3.4. It deals with the cultural elements in the poems. The fourth chapter deals with concluding remarks as 4.1. Themes, 4.2. Social Elements, 4. 3. Cultural Elements, 4. 4. Linguistic Elements and outcomes of the Minor Research Project.

CHAPTER – II ARUN KOLATKAR: HIS LIFE AND WORKS

2.1. ARUN KOLATKAR’S BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS IN BRIEF: Arun Balkrishna Kolatkar was born on 1 st Nov. 1931 in , the eldest child of Balkrishna (1901-1979) and Sitadevi (1910-1995). His father was an educationist. He himself, though, always gave 1932 as his year of birth. The discrepancy, according to the family sources, arose because the wrong year was entered in the school record at the time of admission. He completed his high school in Kolhapur at Modern High School, whose name is changed to Rajaram High school in 1941. He encouraged his classmates to boycott school and participate in the Quit India Movement. First time his poems and stories were published in a handwritten magazine ‘Jaltarang’ with Baburao Sadwelkar 1945-45. He completed his Matriculation from Bombay University in 1947. He was admitted to J.J. School of Art, in 1949. He worked as a graphic artist in Bombay. He was a brilliant bilingual poet, who wrote independently in both in English and Marathi. He married with Darshan Chhabda on 18 th March 1954 and Soonoo Katrak on 5 th May 1970. It was his first visit to England for reading from Jejuri at the Commonwealth Institute in1978. He participated in ‘Struga Poetry Evenings’, Yugoslavia in 1979. He participated in the ‘World Poetry Festival’ at Bhopal in 1989. He was conferred the ‘Kusumagraj Award’ in 1994, the ‘Bahinabai Chaudhari Kavya Puraskar’ in1995, the ‘Bank of India Excellence Award for Literature’ in 1999. He received the ‘Keshavrao Kothvale Paritoshik’ for Bhijki Vahi in 2004. He died on 25 th September 2004 in Pune. 2.2. ARUN KOLATKAR: HIS LITERARY WORKS IN MARATHI: Arun Kolatkar wrote both in Marathi as well as in English. 2.2.1. ARUN KOLATKARCHYA KAVITA (1976): The volume called Arun Kolatkarchya Kavita has been written by Kolatkar in his native language, Marathi. The small volume of four poems called Arun Kolatkarchya Char Kavita is a part of the volume called Arun Kolatkarchya Kavita He had spent his adult life in Bombay entirely except for a few foreign trips and sojourns abroad. Being a commercial artist he had visited several countries. We got these references in his Marathi poems. Even some of the titles of his poems are Jerusalem, Paris, Persia, and Iran which bear an international stamp. The Marathi poems of Kolatkar present a picture of ‘ultra-modern’ and ‘global society’. The poems describe different aspects of day-today human life. The poet presents how this ultra society has been changing from time to time in all these poems. The poems present the themes such as loss of self, loss of values, loss of culture and tradition. Again the poems depict themes as search for identity, selfishness, unfaithfulness, treachery, hypocrisy, ferocity, overflow of passions of sex, hedonism. The poems throw light on sabotage, damage of cultural and historical heritage, benumbed society, corruption in public sectors, cornucopia, belied- disbelief, rational-irrational superstitions, religion, tradition and customs. Movies, animations, fashion, extra-marital relationship, suppression of desires are also themes of his poems. We find more themes as fractured psychology, yoga, medicines, diseases, hospitals, crime and gangsters. 2.2.2. CHIRIMIRI (2003): Chirimiri is another volume of Marathi poems by Kolatkar. He has given the title to this collection as Chirimiri because of ultra-modern society, which is the back-bone of his poetry. The meaning of this Marathi word ‘Chirimiri’ means a ‘small bribe’. Today’s ultra- modern society is nourished on this Chirimiri. Ironically, he presents a realistic picture of the society. The so called ultra modern society is having a number of problems. To solve any problem people have to provide this Chirimiri means bribing the bureaucrats from top to bottom. The themes of this collection of poems are such as superficial worship of God, hypocrisy of priests, cultural-degeneration, loss of faith, selfishness of people, corruption in public life, and superstition prostitution. In 1974, through his pakhawaj teacher Arjun Shejwal, Kolatkar came into contact with Balwantbua, an eighty-four year old bhajan (religious song) singer and raconteur. They met regularly after that, about once a week, until Balwantbua’s death in 1991. On this occasion, Balwantbua would do most of the talking and many of the poems in Chirimiri are based on the stories about his extraordinary life that he told Kolatkar. ( The Boatride and Other Poems , 2009:247)

2.2.3. BHIJKI VAHI (2003): Arun Kolatkar’s Bhijki Vahi has been acknowledged as the best book by Sahitya Academi in 2005. The Marathi title Bhijki Vahi means a stained notebook . It is one of the most remarkable collections of poems in Marathi. The volumes contains twenty five poems and each poem contains three to eight subsections or cluster of 3/8 poems. In this anthology the poet deals with the themes such as pollution of human being at all the stages and levels, religious touches as Christianity, Hinduism, references to the regional, national and international myths, legends and folk-tales, famous love stories, ancient and modern wars and their consequences and finally of the Mahabharata. The volume throws light on the troubles and sorrows of the world renowned women of the world. These are related with Laila, Apala, Iasis, Natyajadya, Kasanda, Muktayakka, Rabia, Hypatia, Helen, Kannagi, Maimoon, Hadmma, Pochui, Rajani, Dora, Kim, Suzan, and Sarpa Satra. All the above things show hedonism, selfishness, revenge, terrorism, superstitions and different layers f human minds. Thus, Arun Kolatkar talks about all the aspects of human life in his poetry. His poems also show that he had visited several foreign places and countries like Rome, France, Egypt, Russia, U.K., U.S.A., Japan, Iraq, Iran and Arabian Countries and still he has tried to present a realistic picture of the social, cultural, religious, political, economic conditions of the Indian society. Arun Kolatkar has used free verse style in his Marathi poems. He has also used ironic and satiric mode while presenting the ‘ultra-modern’ society. He has used very boldly the taboo words in his Marathi poems. 2.2.4. DROAN (2004): Droan is a volume of Marathi poems into five sections by Arun Kolatkar. The Marathi word ‘droan’ means a ‘bowl’ made from tree leaves. The poem is like an epic in miniature. It is based on the Ramayana. Though, the Ramayana is a mythological story, it has relevance to the happenings of the present time. Today also we find the same type of characters, their nature and disposition, events, situations, thoughts, passions, emotions and feelings take place in each home and house, region and country. Thus Droan is a story of such people, their behaviors their tendencies and inclinations as we have in the Ramayana. The volume of poems Droan ends with the remark that it is better to live as a beast than a human being in this artificial and selfish world. This man is a statue of loath and will be responsible for the doom of the earth. It throws light on the evils of man and degradation of the society. The beasts (monkeys) will protect this earth. The poet presents it by using the images from the ancient epic called the Ramayana. 2.3. ARUN KOLATKAR: HIS LITERARY WORKS IN ENGLISH: 2.3.1. JEJURI (1976): The volume of poems Jejuri , which arrived on the literary scene in early 1070’s and proved to be a significant land mark in Indian English poetry. It is not because it was awarded ‘Commonwealth Poetry Prize’ in 1977, but it is because one of the very few long and sustained poems on a meaningful experience. It has a beginning, middle and an end. Thematically it is a noteworthy poem because it is about a significant encounter between two cultures: the urbanized, western educated, secular culture on the one hand and rural, traditional, religious culture on the other. Jejuri is a long poem consisting of thirty one sections. Each section is a poem itself having a separate title. It is certainly an important literary document containing profoundly ‘Socio-Cultural’ elements. Actually, Jejuri is a small town situated at a distance of 30 miles from Pune. It is a pilgrim place of Khandoba and other gods carved out of stones and cast in bronze. Maharashtrians have deep faith in the miraculous powers of Khandoba. Most of the poems are base on the legends and myths of Khandoba and other deities. Kolatkar has not written the poem ‘Jejuri’ to celebrate Khandoba or to pay his personal tribute to him. In fact, he himself does not whole-heartedly believe in the idol-worship or worship of god. He criticizes ironically and satirically the superstitions and blind faith of devotees. According to him every legend and myth strongly holds upon the minds of the devotees with the passing of time. The poems, like a successful work of art, raise many questions when we read it. All the thirty one sections contain a number of problems raised by the poet himself. It is a conflict between the rational, western, educated narrator and irrational, uneducated, superstitious pilgrims. The volume is the poet’s quest for spiritual truth, an examination and investigation of the past legends and myths. In fact, the collection may be a serious attempt by Kolatkar to review his ancient heritage. In this collection of poems, Kolatkar deals with various themes like – tradition and customs, hypocrisy at the various institutions, spiritual hollowness in India, zeal for information, poverty and superstitions among Indians, corruption and commercialization at religious places, cultural decadence and a journey as a mode of knowledge. It also depicts the struggle between gods and demons, science and superstations, traditions and modernity, the past and the present, belief and disbelief, meaningful and meaningless life. 2.3.2. SARPA SATRA (2004): The poem Sarpa Satra is just like an epic in miniature. It is based on the famous story of the Mahabharata. It is also written in his mother tongue i.e. Marathi by Kolatkar. According to the Mahabharata, a sacrifice (yajnya) was performed by Janamejaya the great-grandson of Arjuna. The object of the sacrifice was annihilating the Nagas or the snake people. The poem deals with theme of revenge. This is a long poem consisting three sections as: 1. Janamejaya 2. Jaratkaru Speaks to Her Son Aastika 3. The Ritual Bath. The poem Sarpa Satra is a revenge story of Janamejaya. As a result, the destruction of Khandav Forest takes place. Once upon Khandav van Forest had great culture and famous for its own typical things like ‘Khandavi language’, ‘Khandavi folk songs and stories’ and ‘Khandavi Music’. Khandavi music had the power to cure diseases. Burning of Khandav van means doom of Khandavi culture and environment. So he had taken an oath as: But I’m going to avenge his death By killing Every single snake that lives; (Kolatkar, 2004:27) Arjuna was granted a boon of divine weapons. He had no equal in archery. First he performed his heroism and burnt down one of the largest rainforests Khandav van. He turned it into an ash. Even Krishna helped him with his Sudarshana. They burnt different kinds of butterflies, golden squirrels, medical plants of thousands of years, old trees, birds, animals, children of the forest living happily generations to generations. The Khandavi people have lost their language, the magic of the special flutes made of the hollow wing bones of read-crested cranes to cure the diseases and the great sanctuary so dear to . All the above things show hedonism, selfishness, revenge, terrorism, superstitions and different layers of human minds unfold in these three sections. 2.3.3. KALA GHODA POEMS (2004): Kala Ghoda Poems is another volume of poems in English by Arun Kolatkar. The poems in the volumes are the reflections of Kolatkar’s stay in Mumbai and his minute observations of the life of people in Mumbai and their life style. It is one of the famous areas in South Bombay, where every year ‘Kala Ghoda Festival’ takes place. The tourists and artists from all over the world and the corners of the country participate in it with the regional colours and flavours of arts, crafts and skills. Most of the time of his life, he spent in Mumbai. The poems reflect what he had seen, smelt, experienced and observed in Bombay as a graphic artist. 2.3.4. THE BOATRIDE AND OTHER POEMS (2009): The volume of poems called The Boatride and Other Poems is a long and curious poem, which does not have any specific theme. ‘The Boatride and Other Poems’ is the latest volume of Arun Kolatkar, published posthumously. The poems in the volume reflect the scattered mysterious journey of Kolatkar through out of his life. The volume contains scattered and uncollected poems, which had appeared only in magazines and the anthologies before, with a long notable poem ‘the boatride’. Most of the poems from this volume are published posthumously in English. This is uncollected and scattered material collected by A.K.Mehrotra and Ashok Shahane and his other friends. The volume is divided in to six parts: i. Poems in English , which were originally written in English, ii. Poems in Marathi, which were written originally in Marathi and he himself translated in English, iii. Words For Music , all the songs were written in the late 1960s or early 1970s. iv. Translations , the translations of the Abhangas (religious songs) of Namdeo, Janabai, Muktabai, Eknath and Tukaram, the famous saints of , v. The Boatride , the small poem which was written in 1968, and vi. ‘Appendices’ . 2.4. THE MAJOR CHARACTERISTICS OF ARUN KOLATKAR’S POETRY: Kolatkar is a post-modern poet like Jayant Mahapatra, Keki N. Daruwalla and a bilingual poet Dilip Chitre. Post seems to be full of a variety of new devices of poetry including parody, pastiche, collage and inter-texuality. Kolatkar has used all post- modern techniques in his poetry. The salient features of his poetry are: 2.4.1. SURREALISM: Kolatkar has followed ‘Surrealist Manifesto’ by Andre Breton in 1924. Surrealism is a revolutionary movement in painting, sculpture as well in literature. Arun Kolatkar has followed the surrealism in his poetry writing. 2.4.2. SATIRE: Another important feature of his poetry is that it has made use of the element of satire. He has used the element in order to satirize the superstitious nature of Indian devotees, their blind beliefs and their evil customs and traditions. The Indian devotees of God are willing to do anything to satisfy their God here called Khandoba so as to make their life contented and peaceful. 2.4.3. IRONY: Irony is one of the most striking features of Kolatkar’s poetry. He has used the element of irony in all his poems. Jejuri a bunch of short poems is full of irony. From the very first poem The Bus to the last poem The Railway Station Kolatkar has given the ample scope to irony. 2.4.4. DICTION: The diction employed by Kolatkar in his poems is highly satisfactory and even praiseworthy. The peculiar choice of words and phrases in his poems is one of the remarkable features of his poetry. His diction is quite simple, clear and appropriate. This kind of use of diction gives a slap to those snobs, who have studied at Oxford, Cambridge or even Chicago Universities. The snobs assert that Indians could not write poetry in the English language. But Kolatkar’s command over English clearly shows that Indians can not only write their poetry in English competently but can do so excellently and admirably. He has proved himself to be the true master of English language. 2.4.5. BREVITY: Brevity is one of the significant features of his poetry. He writes in a natural manner and an economical style using minimum words. 2.4.6. LUCIDITY: Another merit of Kolatkar’s style of writing is lucidity. We hardly come across any obscurity in his poems. His poetry is marked by the simplicity of language and clarity in thought. The language of each and every poem is simple, clear and lucid. The irony and mockery in the poems can be enjoyed. There are no complications of syntax in Kolatkar’s poems because of a complete absence of punctuation marks. Kolatkar surpasses most other Indian English Poets so far his poetry is characterized by the quality of lucidity. The poems entitled The Heart of Ruin, An Old Woman , A Scratch , and Setting Sun are examples of his lucid style. His choice of his words is quite relevant and appropriate to situations or characters presented in the poems. 2.4.7. THE COLLOQUIAL STYLE: Kolatkar has done a constant experimentation with a style and structure. It reveals his complex, modern, metropolitan sensibility i.e. sense of bewildering surroundings. In all his volumes such as Jejuri , Kala Ghoda Poems , Sarpa Satra , The Boatride and Other Poems , he has adopted a colloquial style. 2.4.8. IMAGE: Kolatkar has also contributed some excellent imagery to Indo-Anglian poetry. Most of the poems from the volumes having a number of images, deal with Indian life, legends, myths and religion. The numbers of images are used by the poet in all the sections to present the journey of the poet. 2.4.9. THE USE OF SIMILES: A number of similes have been employed by Kolatkar in his all the volumes of poetry. 2.4.10. USE OF ALLITERATION: There are a number of alliterative phrases used by Kolatkar in his all the volumes of poetry. He has used these not only appropriately but also in highly commendable manners. 2.4.11. USE OF INDIAN ENGLISH IDIOMS: Like other Indian English poets Kolatkar has employed Indian English Idioms in his poems. In ‘Jejuri’, ‘Sarpa Satra’, ‘Kala Ghoda Poems’, and ‘The Boatride and Other Poems’, a number of Indian English Idioms or phraseology has been used by poet. 2.4.12. USE OF PUNCTUATION MARKS: It is a significant feature of his poetry that Kolatkar has never borrowed themes from others and made a mess of English language. He has certainly played havoc with the punctuation marks. According to the rule of English language, the beginning letters of all letters of all line should be capital. But he has deliberately violated this rule for peculiar poetic effects. Similarly he has not made use of any punctuation marks in his poetry. 2.4.13. GRAPHIC DESIGDN: Kolatkar, being a graphic artist, has used a new technique of graphic poem. It is also known as ‘altar poem’ by ‘the metaphysics’. It is also called pattern poetry, a poem in which the lines are arranged so that they form a design resembling the shape of the subject of the poem. The poem Between Jejuri and the Railway Station is its best example. The text of the poem is arranged so as to make its impact on the readers by its physical appearance. If we look at the graphic shape of the poem, we feel that we are watching at one of the ‘Rosharch Test’ (Raykar Shubhangi, 1995:48). The words ‘up’ and ‘down’, ‘up’ and ‘down’ suggest the movements and dance of the cocks and hens.

CHAPTER – III SOCIO- CULTURAL ELEMENTS IN JEJURI INTRODUCTION: In this chapter the researcher has selected socio- cultural elements to present the rational perspective on the superstitions; some poems form the volume Jejuri . According to Oxford Dictionary, superstition means the belief that certain events cannot be explained by reason or science or that they bring a good or a bad luck (Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English , Oxford, 1996: p- 1199). The violation of the norms is considered as a social problem by an educated mind. The narrator is of modern perspective of scientific temperament. Therefore it is an attempt to present Arun Kolatkar’s rational perspective on superstations as mentioned in his volume of poems Jejuri . Jejuri first appeared in the Opinion Literary Quarterly in 1974, but the researcher has referred the edition of 2006 for the references in the present research work. The researcher has selected some of the poems form the volume of poems called Jejuri . 3.1. A NOTE ON THE HISTORY OF KHANDOBA: The history of the holy pilgrimage to Jejuri and the folk-god Khandoba forms the background of the poem ‘Jejuri’ by Arun Kolatkar. Jejuri is a village situated about 48 kms from the city of Pune, in the state of Maharashtra. At Jejuri there is holy shrine of Khandoba to which millions of pilgrims from all sections of community, particularly from Maharashtra and north visit throughout the year. The god that is worshipped here is ‘Khandoba’. Khandoba is the god of nomadic and pastoral tribes. It is gradually evolved from his status of a folk hero and has been accepted as family god (Kul-daiwat or protector) by as well as non-Brahmins in Maharashtra since long. Khandoba is worshipped in Maharashtra and also in Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamilnadu. Khandoba is accepted as a protector god. It is believed that Khandoba can bestow wealth, health and children on his devotees. Like all protector gods Khandoba must be pleased by suitable offerings to him in his shrine at Jejuri. Throughout the year devotees from all over Maharashtra visit Jejuri. At least about thousands of devotees are found to be making their offering to Khandoba. The nomadic origin of Khandoba is seen from the fact that the offerings are goats and fowls that are sacrificed near the shrine. The vegetarian devotees offer sweets made of lentil and jaggery (‘Puran Poli’ mentioned in the poem The Priest ). Just as it is believed that Khandoba protects his devotees and grants their demands for wealth, health and children, he can also be angry with them, if the devotees fail to propitiate him or worship according to an age old code of worship. If they fail to visit Jejuri or are unable to make sacrifice after an important event like marriage or the birth of a child in the family, it is believed that they have to face the wrath of their beloved deity. This pleasure-displeasure trait has much to do with the pastoral set-up from which the deity has sprung up. In the Indian tradition this mode of worship is called ‘sakam bhakti’ (devotion to god with expectations as regards the fulfillment of the worldly demands). Some scholars have traced the origin of Khandoba to the southern states of India such as Karnataka or Tamilnadu could well have formed a cultural region with strikingly similar folk deities and the modes of worship. Khandoba is emergence as a folk deity can be traced back to 18 th century A.D. There are a number of Khandoba shrines or temples in Maharashtra and Karnataka. This deity is worshipped in a number of places out of which eleven are from Karnataka and Maharashtra. These are 1) Kade- Karhe Pathar, Jejuri 2) Nimgaon, , 3) Shengud, Ahmednagar 4)Satare, Aurangabad 5) Naldurg Dharashive, Osmanabad 6) Pali-Pembur, NorthSatara 7) Mangsuli, Belgaon 8) Dharwad 9) Mailar- Dewargadh, Dharwad 10 )Mailar or Man-Mailar, Ballari 11) Milapur, Bidar (Khare Ganesh Hari: 1958: Maharashtrachi Char Daiwat, p-80). This deity is known by a variety of names. His and his wife’s names show that they are derived from words, but almost all the technical words in the sectarian rites are of non Sanskrit origin No other deity as this one has so many proverbial sayings about him in Marathi and Dravidian languages. Some of his names have become personal names and Maharashtrian surnames. His names also point out that he is the combination of , Bhairav and . Three types of his images and vehicles (vahanas) namely a formless stone, a linga, a four handed icon with the attributes, a sword, trident, a damaru and a drinking bowl as well as a horse and a bull as vehicles corroborate the above inference. Thought not much worshipped in the North; in the South he has incredibly many followers right from Brahmins to untouchables. As and Hegadi, belonging to the pastoral shepherd castes like or Kurubar are looked upon as his mistress and minister respectively. The or Kurubars have a special devotion for this deity. Of course, Jejuri is the holiest and one of the important shrines of Khandoba for his devotees. There are two shrines at Jejuri, one located on a hill some four miles South-West of Jejuri village is called ‘Kade-Karhe Pathar’. It is regarded as the oldest and the more ‘potent’ place for the devotees. This shrine faces east, in it there is linga representing Khandoba and also a man-made idol of Khandoba. In the Indian tradition the idol in the shrine may be ‘swayambhu’ (self formed). These usually are stones or rocks in the shape of phallus. These are believed to have ‘emerged’ where the god made his descent on the earth. They may be man- made. At Karhe Pathar, there are some other temples of deities connected with Khandoba or deities such as Maruti, Ram associated with a holy place (Raykar Shubhangi, 1995: 03).

The other shrine of Khandoba at Jejuri is situated on another spur of the same hill, popularly known as Jejuri God (Jejuri Fort). It is much lower in the height than Karhe Pathar. This shrine also faces east. In the sanctum there are swayambhu lingas representing Khandoba and his consort Mhalasa. There are in addition silver and gold idols of Khandoba and Mhalasa. The area around the temple is well protected by erecting an impressive rampart around it. A little lower down there is a shrine dedicated to Banai, the daughter of a nomad chieftain. Banai’s parents were living in the village, Chandanpuri in Malegaon Tehasil and Nasik District (Dhere, R.C.2007: 55). Today also Banai at Chandanpuri is worshipped as family goddess (Kul- Daiwat) by many people. According to the popular legend Khandoba was in love with Banai and married her. Khandoba was the folk god of nomadic tribes, regarded by lower castes among the . However gradually many other sections of the society came to accept Khandoba as their family or clan god (Kul-Daiwat). However many of the practices to propitiate Khandoba continued by the devotees to be somewhat repulsive to people of finer sensibility. One of the more repulsive practices is to offer one’s own child, male or female to the god. This has led to the rise of a new class of devotees namely ‘Vaghyas’ and ‘Murlies’. The female child dedicated to Khandoba turns to be a Devdasi, a female servant to God or the keepers of the temple. ‘Vaghya’ leads his whole life in the service of Khandoba. Khandoba’s career as a deity has passed through various stages. Initially he was a folk hero, protector of cattle and sheep. He was then raised to the status of protector god. He was being worshipped in the form of linga. Thus Khandoba is a living presence for a very large section of Maharashtrians and the place Jejuri reverberates throughout the year and particularly on certain auspicious days with ecstatic loud cries of his devotees-- ‘Yelkot Yelkot ’, ‘Sadanandacha Yelkot ---’ with yellow turmeric power i.e. ‘bhandara (Raykar Shubhangi,1995: 5& 6). 3.2. THEMATIC ANAYLYSIS: The volume of poetry Jejuri contains thirty-one poems having separate titles. Thematically Jejuri the volume of poetry starts its journey from the The Bus and ends with The Railway Station . The poem is the poet’s quest for spiritual truth and an examination and investigation of past legends and myths. In fact, the volume may be a serious attempt by Kolatkar to review his ancient heritage. In this collection of poems, Kolatkar deals with various themes as – tradition and custom, hypocrisy at the various institutions, spiritual hollowness in India, zeal for information, poverty and superstitions among Indians, corruption and commercialization at religious places, cultural decadence and journey as a mode of knowledge. It also depicts the struggle between gods and demons, superstitions and science, tradition and modernity, the past and the present, belief and disbelief, meaning and meaningless. It presents the study of human being and their relationships. 3.2.1. THE PRIEST: It is the second No. poem in the volume. Thematically the poem presents a portrait of a temple priest, waiting for the arrival of the pilgrims at Jejuri. Hypocrisy and commercialization at the religious places is the dominant theme of the poem. The poem presents the theme of skepticism and rationality of the poet; therefore, he asks the questions about the temple and Khandoba to the priest. But he is unable to answer the poet. He is a mercenary kind of priest as at the religious places like Pandharpur, Shirdi, Jejuri, Tirupati and Varanashi. Actually the priest is interested in the collection and offerings by the pilgrims rather than spiritual rituals. The priest is waiting for the bus and worried, whether it has been delayed form some reason. He is the greedy agent who exploits the devotees for his personal and material gain. So the poet says: Is the bus a little late? The priest wonders. Will there be puran poli in his plate? (Kolatkar, 2006: 14) ‘Puran Poli’ (sweet dish, stuffing of jaggery and lentil) is the popular dish offered to deities in Maharashtra, but consumed by the priests as – ‘Prasad’. All the offerings are of the priest as a matter of right because he is the chief worshipper of the deity and a custodian of the temple. The priest is presented as if he were a lizard, who changes colours very fast to suits its interest. 3.2. 2. HEART OF RUIN: It is the third No. poem in the volume. The poem shows the decadence of cultural structures or heritage. Most of the cultural, historical and religious centers are in a ruined condition in India. The poet gives us a detailed description of the dilapidated temple of Maruti at Karhe-Pathar. The roof of this ancient temple has collapsed exactly over the head of Maruti. Therefore the poet says: The roof comes down on Maruti’s head. Nobody seems to mind. (Kolatkar, 2006: 16) The god, Maruti, himself did not react adversely to this accident though he is very powerful. Probably he likes the temple in collapsed state. 3.2.3. THE DOORSTEP: It is the fourth No. poem in the volume. The poem underlines the theme of ruinous state of the temple. The poem expresses the blind faith of the devotees, who show their reverence by touching the doorsteps with their foreheads. This short poem of four lines shows us contrast between the spiritual and traditional level of the devotees and rational level of the protagonist. 3.2.4. CHAITANYA: It is the seventh No. poem in the volume. The poem is the first ‘Chaitanya’ poems in the sequence of ‘Jejuri’. The title is the reference to the visit of the great bhakti poet from Bengal, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu; to Jejuri in 1510 A.D. it deals with the theme of the meaninglessness of the deep faith of the priest and the devotees in god. He inserted the direct communication between the devotees and god. There is no need of any agent or middleman between the devotee and god, considering the fact the modern western educated Indian is very much influenced by this protestant world.

3.2.5. A LOW TEMPLE: It is the eighth No. poem in the volume. It is the fine example of skepticism and rationality of the poet and superstitious nature and irrationality of the priest. Here the priest tells the pilgrims that the goddess has eight arms, but the narrator, who is rational, counts the arms of the goddess and tells the priest that the goddesses has eighteen arms. The pilgrims believe in the information very blindly and easily and never check the actual number of the arms. The poet is puzzled and comes out to the temple and smokes ‘Charminar’ cigarette. It is the blind faith of the devotees who do not want to be debate with the priest as the poet does. Here we find skepticism of the poet and superstitious nature of the priest and devotees. So the concluding lines of the poem present this scene very clearly: You come out in the sun and light a Charminar. Children play on the back of the twenty foot tortoise (Kolatkar, 2006:21) The poem presents the frustrated and dubious mind of the protagonist. 3.2.6. THE HORSEDSHOE SHRINE: It is the tenth No. poem in the volume. It is deals with the deep faith of the priest and devotees in Khandoba, who is source of livelihood for him. The poem is based on the fantastic legend of Khandoba and his horse. As per the legend, Khandoba carried Banai from her father’s home. The devotees believe in the mark of horseshoe on one of the rocks the hill. So the poet says: That nick in the rock is really a kick in the side of the hill. Its where a hoof Struck (Kolatkar, 2006: 23) 3.2.7. AN OLD WOMAN: It is the twelfth No. poem in the volume. The poem offers an old woman on the hills very realistically and convincingly. The poem presents the miserable plight and helplessness of an old woman. It deals with the theme of poverty, starvation and presents poor conditions of beggars in our country at such religious places. At Jejuri, an old woman catches a pilgrim in order to extract money from him. She is very poor and old. She earns her living by begging money from pilgrims. Her demand is very modest. She asks only for fifty paise coin. But when the pilgrim shows unwillingness to give her money, she says that in return, she would take him to show the horseshoe shrine. As an old woman says: She wants a fifty paise coin. She says she will take you to the horseshoe shrine. (Kolatkar, 2006:25) The whole situation appears ridiculous and farcical to the narrator. 3.2.8. HILLS: It is the fourteenth No. poem in the volume. The poem presents belief of the devotees in the legends related to Khandoba, thinking them as if real. The poet presents ‘hills’ of different size and shape. The hills look like cactus ribs, cactus fang and vertebrate animal. The poet’s scientific observations are like a student of geography. Everything at Jejuri seems to exist on two levels: the literal or physical level and of spiritual or mythological level. The poem presents a conflict between profane and sacred out look at hills. The boy narrates the legend of Khandoba sincerely. The demons were killed by Khandoba and transformed into hills in the fit of anger. Thus, the narrator’s westernized sensibility rebels here. The single line at the poem powerfully expresses the confusion in the mind of the narrator. 3.2.9. THE PRIEST’S SON: It is the fifteenth No. poem in the volume. This is an ironical poem which presents the themes of spiritual hollowness of the legends relation to god Khandoba. The priest’s young son is often deputed by his father to take the tourists to the different parts of the temple. Actually, the whole story of Khandoba is fabrication from the rationalist’s point of view like the protagonist. So he has used his own method or device to express his skepticism and disbelief. In fact the young fellow, being a student of geography, himself does not believe in the authenticity of the stories. The narrator is rational and having scientific approach towards the hills. So the poet expresses his doubt as: He doesn’t reply But merely looks uncomfortable Shrugs and looks away (Kolatkar: 2006: p-30) Again here we come across the tussle between skepticism or rationalism and spiritualism or superstition.

3.2.10. THE BUTTERFLY: It is the sixteenth No. poem in the volume. This is a short and lovely lyric. It depicts superstitious belief of the devotees. It deals with a real joy or happiness or freedom in the objects of nature as contrasted to sorrow, unhappiness or slavery of traditions found in the human life. Probably the poet’s purpose in writing this poem was to give us a moment’s pause or wanted to divert our attention from Jejuri and its temple to living creatures. His purpose might have been to bring before us the contrast between the lifeless statues of stone or bronze and a lovely, dynamic creature butterfly. It also presents the contrast between the permanent existence of Jejuri and momentary existence of the butterfly. It has no past and no future but only the present. The poem is free from all kinds of tradition, myths and legends. 3.2.11. A SCRATCH: It is the seventeenth No. poem in the volume. In the poem the poet presents the blind belief of the pilgrims about Khandoba and its surrounding area. The poet shows us how the devotees see god in every small or big stone at Jejuri. The narrator is greatly surprised by the sheer madness of the pilgrims and admits his bewilderment. The poet ridicules the blind belief of people as: 1. there is no crop other than god and god is harvested here around the year (Kolatkar, 2006: 32)

2. Scratch a rock and legend springs (Kolatkar, 2006: 32) The poem is based on one f the legends. It is very difficult to decide at Jejuri – ‘what is god and what is stone’. Because ever stone may turn out to be god. The pilgrims find god in every object at Jejuri. In this dirty, loose and barren land there is only one kind of crop and harvest i.e. of god. Here the poet ridicules the blind faith of pilgrims. 3.2.12. AJAMIL AND THE TIGER: It is the eighteenth No. poem in the volume. The poem is based on the legend from ‘Jayadri Mahatmya’ (Raykar Shubhangi: 1995:127). Ajamil is one of the devotees of Khandoba who takes sheep into jungle to graze. Ajamil stands for weakness and tiger stands for strength. The poem is full with American underworld slang. The poem is an attempt to survive for existence. It also reflects the bond of friendship between Ajamil and tigers and bond of friendship for the existence, free from starvation and exploitation. It gives the message that all creatures should get enough to eat and live as friends. 3.2.13. A SONG FOR AVAGHYA: It is the nineteenth No. poem in the volume. In this poem, the poet once again deals with the theme of the pilgrim’s faith and belief in the legend of Vaghya. The devotees offer their small children in the service of Khandoba out of fear. If they can not keep their promise, Khandoba would be angry with them and curse them. If He becomes angry with them, they will face many problems in their lives. In order to ends these miseries, they offer their children to Him. By doing this Khandoba grants boon to them. The poem reflects that the Vaghyas are the victims of the tradition. They have to beg oil form door to door for their torch. The poet describes their miserable conditions in the following words: It’s my job to carry This can of oil. ------But if can beg I’ll have to steal.

Is that a deal? (Kolatkar, 2006: 37) The poem depicts the opposite ideas as belief and disbelief. 3.2.14. A SONG FOR A MURLI: It is the twentieth No. poem in the volume. The poem presents the realistic picture of the society. The poet has dealt with the theme of poverty and prostitution. The poverty and prostitution are two serious social evils existing in the society since last so many years. They are the stigma on the society. The poor small girls are offered to Khandoba due to poverty r because they are orphanage. It is the superstitious belief of the devotees that if they offer their children to god Khandoba, they will be free from all kinds of curses. The lifelong sacrifice of the boys and girls to offer is king of worship. The poem highlights poverty and prostitution which have become burning issues in the contemporary society very powerfully since many years due to the wrong but superstitions of the life-long offerings of boys and girls. The poet presents the picture as: keep your hands off Khandoba’s woman you old lecher let’s see the colours of your money first (Kolatkar,2006: 39) 3.2.15. A LITTLE PILE OF STONES: It is the twenty-second No. poem in the volume. The poem is blind belief and superstitious practices of the devotees. The newly married bride has to make a pile of stone. If she is successful in making the pile of stones, she will be blessed with every kind of happiness by god Khandoba. The poet is detached and rational observer who narrates the superstitious practices. 3.2.16. MAKARAND: It is the twenty-third No. poem in the volume. It presents the poet’s skepticism of towards the superstitious belief of the devotees. It is the tradition to take off a shirt before entering the sanctum of the temple of Lord Shiva. The narrator refuses to take off his shirt and refuses to enter the temple. Instead he prefers to smoke ‘Charminar’ in the courtyard. To the narrator these are meaningless and empty rituals. The pilgrims follow these rituals blindly. So the poet says:

1 Take my shirt off And go in there to do pooja? No thanks (Kolatkar, 2006: 43)

2 I will be out in the courtyard Where no one will mind If I smoke. (Kolatkar, 2006:43)

3.2.17. THE TEMPLE RAT: It is the twenty-fourth No. poem in the volume. The poem is quite humorous. Humorously the poet presents how the rat walks on god and wanders freely in the temple. The poet quotes: Stops on the mighty shoulder of the warrior god (Kolatkar, 2006:44) It is very funny that the rat is on the mighty shoulders of the warrior god but the god is calm and quite. So the poet thinks that the mighty Khandoba is nothing but an image of stone. The poet tells how the pilgrims have lost their reasoning capacity due to the strong influence of blind belief and deep faith in god. They neglected those factors which are not concerned with their belief. This shows their ‘deadness’. The poet presents the situation with minute details which produces comic effect on the readers. 3.2.18. A KIND OF CROSS: It is the twenty-fifth No. poem in the volume. This poem is a brilliant example of Kolatkar’s craftsmanship. The poem presents a fine picture of blind belief of devotees. The poem begins with the description of horrified ‘’. He is very dear and near to Lord Shiva and it is his vehicle. But he is also afraid of the cross which is in front of him. 3.2.19. YESHWANT RAO: It is the twenty-seventh No. poem in the volume. In this poem, the poet has expressed his skepticism bitterly. When the narrator comes near to the outside wall by the main temple he meets the ‘second class god’ called Yeshwant Rao. The poem is based on the legends. The poem throws light on many religious traditions existing among the devotees of Khandoba. It shows us their superstitious nature. They blindly followed the religious traditions as going on since long back without verifying. Yeshwant Rao possesses a special power for spiritual demands of the devotees such as to give child to a childless couple, murder of enemy, doubled money, triple land, joining of various parts of body etc. thus the poet gently ridicules the belief of the devotees in Yeshwant Rao. Thus:

Gods who put a child inside your wife. Or a knife inside your enemy. (Kolatkar, 2006: 49) 3.2.20. THE BLUE HORSE: It is the twenty-eight No. poem in the volume. Thematically the poem is similar to ‘The Lower Temple’. Here is another encounter between the rationalist narrator and tradition bound priest. The poem is about ‘Gondhal-’ (the night-long musical and dramatic recitation). The people believed in this ritual to be performed immediately after a marriage in order to get the blessings of Khandoba. This poem also depicts the priest who has little knowledge of our traditions. The songs are mostly invocations to Khandoba and other gods and relate legends about Khandoba. The singers are professionals, but do not always have a good musical singing voice. The music which they produce is harsh and unpleasant. The importance of the participation in a ‘gondhal’ is to seek blessing of god Khandoba. 3.3. SOCIAL ELEMENTS: Socially heritage is passed on to individuals through social groups. A society puts its impressions on its members. It has a tendency of controlling and guiding behavior of its members. It is usually expected in a society that the behavioral pattern of individuals must be according to the social norms. The elderly members of a society usually punish those individuals, who have not followed the social norms (Dr. Sinha Ajitkumar,1963: 184). The researcher has tried to explain the social elements in the selected poems from the volume of poems ‘Jejuri’. 3.3.1. THE PRIEST: The pries at Jejuri is hypocrite and the chief custodian of the temple. The devotees visit Jejuri with deep faith in Khandoba, but this faithfulness of the devotees has been exploited by the priest’s commercial attitude and greedy nature. His lively hood does not only depend upon the offerings by pilgrims but also would like to enjoy luxuries of life. So the poet compares him with demon as: A catgrin on its face and a live, ready to eat pilgrim held between its teeth. (Kolatkar, 2006: 15) The devotees of Khandoba believe that if they offer ‘puran poli’ to Khandoba, they will be blessed by Him. 3.3.2. HEART OF RUIN: The narrator notices that it is not a place of worship any longer. The people believed that it is a temple of god because god’s creature lives there happily. The poet describes it as: A mongrel bitch has found a place For herself and her puppies (Kolatkar, 2006: 15) It is also dwelling place of the ‘mongrel bitch’ and her puppies. 3.3. 3. THE DOORSTEP: The pillar of the temple has fallen down on Maruti’s head. It reflects the ruined state of temple. Thus, nobody is bothered about the destructive condition of the temple in Jejuri. Generally the doorsteps in a temple are highly regarded by the devotees as holy and divine objects. They with a special reverence touch doorstep with their forehead. Whatever appears to be doorstep is actually the pillar that has fallen down. It shows the faithful nature of the devotees. 3.3. 4. CHAITANYA: The poem reflects superstitious belief of the devotees. The devotee paint the stone with red colour and start worshipping that painted stone. The red coloured stone is rerated as god. The narrator thinks what is wrong with being just plain stone. 3.3. 5. A LOW TEMPLE: The poem reflects the architect of the time. The religious temples in the ancient time have low ceilings. The purpose behind it might be deferent. Much of sunlight could not enter the temple. In such darkness the pilgrims can not see very clearly the god and goodness. They can not take the glimpses of the god and goddess properly and it would be beneficial for the priest. Therefore, the poet expresses as: A low temple keeps its gods in the dark. (Kolatkar, 2006: 15) They have to depend on the priest for getting more information about gods. Thus the devotees deeply believe in the priest and have to accept the information without inquiry, because the matter relates with their feelings and emotions. They do not have the rights to discriminate what is right and wrong. 3.3.6. THE HORSEDSHOE SHRINE: In this poem, the poet describes the love story of god Khandoba and Banai. It is based on one of the legends of Khandoba. Khandoba carried Banai from her father’s house on a blue horse. The horse jumped across the hill and hit it so hard that the mark of the horseshoe dug in to the side of the hill. The poet expresses it as: like thunderbolt when Khandoba with the bride sidesaddle behind him on the blue horse (Kolatkar, 2006:23) The people, having faith in Khandoba, worshipped the horseshoe shrine. The priest earns his livelihood by narrating such stores to the pilgrims. 3.3.7. AN OLD WOMAN: The poem An Old Woman presents another superstitious practice of the devotees. From generations the devotees have been offering their children in the service of god Khandoba from their childhood. The devotees vowed to Khandoba for their various demands. The demands have been fulfilled by Khandoba. Out of fear of Khandoba and on the expression of their gratitude they offered their children to Him. If they do not follow the age old superstitious traditions, they believe that He will be angry with them. Moreover, in the fit of anger He will curse them. The old woman has already become a victim of this practice and has become ‘Devdasi’ a female devotee who has to serve God or God’s agents lifelong. She has been starving and is stricken by poverty because of the superstitions all around Jejuri. She is compared with cracked hill of Jejuri. The poet describes her as: And the hills crack. And the temples crack. And the sky falls. (Kolatkar, 2006: 26) 3.3.8. HILLS: The devotees have accepted the legends and believed that god Khandoba killed the demons and turned them into hills. The hills are sacred for the devotees and they worship the hills. But the poet does not believe it. The devotees believe in it out of faith and accept the sorties as true. 3.3.9. THE PRIEST’S SON: The poem is based on the legend, related to god Khandoba. The devotees believe in the stories told either by the priest or his son. They can not suspend the belief and worship the hills. The priest’s son tells the story as: These five hills Are the five demons That Khandoba killed (Kolatkar, 2006: 30) As told by priest’s son, the devotees believed that these five hills are the five demons killed by Khandoba. 3.3.10. THE BUTTERFLY: The butterfly is a small creature f yellow colour. Yellow colour is a symbol of ‘bhandara’ i.e. turmeric powder. The devotees of Khandoba smear bhandara on the forehead and give loud cries -‘Yelkot- Yelkot Jai Malhar’,’ Sadanandacha Yelkot---’. Thus Khandoba is living presence for a large number f people of Maharashtra. It suggests that the devotees should be free from the ancient religious traditions and should not be bound by them. 3.3.11. A SCRATCH: In this poem the poet presents the blind belief of the pilgrims about Khandoba and its surrounding area. At Jejuri it is very difficult to divide, ‘what is god / and what is stone’ (Kolatkar: 2006: p-32) out of religious faith. The poet shows us the madness of the pilgrims that they see god in every small or big stone at Jejuri. The poet ridicules the blind belief of the devotees. 3.3.12. AJAMIL AND THE TIGER: The poem is a story in verse of the Tigers, the Tiger king; Ajamil and his dog. These are religious characters in the legend. They are worshipped by the devotees as the incarnations of god Khandoba. 3.3.13. A SONG FOR AVAGHYA: The poem deals with the legend of Vaghya. The poet refers to the legends and explains h9ow the small children are offered to god Khandoba and become Vaghya. The devotees believe that the Vaghyas are the servants of Khandoba so they worship them with deep faith by offering them money, food or sweets. It reflects superstitious belief of the devotees. They offer theirs small children in the service of god out of fear of Khandoba. If they can not keep their promises, the god Khandoba would be angry with them and curse them. If Khandoba becomes angry, they will face many problems in their lives. In order to end the miseries in their lives, they offer their children t god Khandoba. By doing this Khandoba grants boon to them. 3.3. 14. A SONG FOR A MURLI: Here the poet presents an evil picture of the society. The poor small girls are offered to Khandoba may be being an orphan or poverty of the parents. Later on nobody helps them, therefore they suffer from starvation. In order to feed themselves, they turn to prostitution and earn money. But it is surprising that the pilgrims believe in them and worship them as another form of god. So the poet says: Look That’s his name Tattooed just below the left collar bone (Kolatkar, 2006: 30) Out of superstitious belief of devotees, the small girls are offered to god Khandoba and it becomes a part of worship and they become the victims of the society. They have been also called ‘devdasis’. Out of religiosity, offering small girls to Khandoba is an evil social custom. 3.3.15. A LITTLE PILE OF STONES: In this poem the poet tells us about the religious faith of the devotees. Thousands of devotees visit Jejuri every year. They perform various rituals and rites to please god Khandoba. It is the faith of the devotees that the newly married couple should visit Jejuri and take darshan of Khandoba for getting his blessings. As a result their married life will be full of happiness and prosperity. The newly bride has to compile a pile of stones under the observation and guidance of her in-laws. After performing the rituals all of them go to their home together. Probably, it is a traditional training to the newly married brides, to live very happily in the joint families. 3.3.16. MAKARAND: Makarand the word means ‘honey’ or ‘sweet dish’. The devotees offer various sweet dishes to god Khandoba and worship Him. The narrator refuses to take off his shirt while to enter the temple. To him the religious ritual are empty and meaningless. The pilgrims do it out of their religious belief. 3.3.17. THE TEMPLE RAT: The title of the poem itself suggests many things. The devotees worship god and goddess in the temple, but also worship the vehicles of god and goddess. A rat is a vehicle of Lord . The devotees have deep faith in Lord Ganesha, so they worship the live rat in the temple because of religious impact. Actually animals are not allowed in the temple campus, but the devotees neglect this out of their faith in god. The rat roams on the body of the warrior god but the god is calm and quiet. 3.3.18. A KIND OF CROSS: In this poem he talks about the blind belief of the devotees regarding the vehicles and instrument of god and goddess. The devotees not only worship god but also their vehicles and instruments, cross is a kind of instrument of Lord Shiva. With this instrument he killed many demons. So the devotees worship the instrument i.e. cross. The devotees also worship the vehicle of Lord Shiva i.e. ‘nandi’.

3.3.19. YESHWANT RAO: In this poem the poet presents deep faith of the devotees in Yeshwant Rao. Though he is armless, headless and feetless, the devotees worship him in order to fulfill their desires such as getting child, killing the enemy, doubling money and joining the broken parts of the body. He has a special power for the spiritual upliftment of the devotees. If a childless couple goes to him and asks for a child then he fulfils their desire. He stabs your enemy, if you walk on the burning bed of coal. Thus the poet gently ridicules the belief of the devotees: Gods who put a child inside of your wife. Or a knife inside your enemy. God who tell you how to live your life, double your money Or triple your land holdings. (Kolatkar, 2006: 49) If you offer sufficient offerings to him, he would join fractured parts of your body. Thus the poet mocks: If you’re short of a limb, Yeshwant Rao will lend you a hand And get you back on your feet . (Kolatkar, 2006: 50) 3.3.20. THE BLUE HORSE: The devotees of Khandoba believed in the rituals to be performed immediately before and after marriage in order to get the blessings of Khandoba. Before the marriage the ritual takes place is ‘Gondhal- Jagran’ (the night-long musical and dramatic recitation). The singers perform the songs to invoke god Khandoba. On the occasion, the scape-goat is sacrificed (killed) and devotees enjoy the meat of it. It is an evil social custom to kill innocent animals for the fulfillment of one’s own desire in life. 3.4. CULTURAL ELEMENTS: Culture means the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief and behavior. Thus, culture consists of language, ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos, codes, institution, tools, techniques, work of art, rituals, ceremonies and other related components. The development of culture depends upon the capacity of human beings to learn and transmit knowledge to succeeding generation ( The Encyclopedia Britanica : 2006: P: 784-85, Vol.-III). According to Sorokin and MacIver, culture stands for the moral, spiritual and intellectual attainments of man. Taylor defines culture as complex while which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, customs and any other capacities and habits acquired by man as a member of society (Vatsyayan: 1974-75: p-46). The cultural elements include legends and myths. Legend is a story or group of stories told about a particular person or place. Formerly, the term legend meant a tale about a saint. Legends resemble folktales in content; they may include supernatural beings, elements of mythology, or explanations of natural phenomenon. But they are associated with a particular locality or person and are told as matter of history. Myth means a story, usually unknown origin and at least partially traditionally that relates actual events to explain some practice, belief, institution or natural phenomenon and that is essentially associated with religious rites and beliefs. The word mythology denotes both the study f myths and the total corpus of myths in a particular culture or religious tradition ( The Encyclopedia Britannica : 2006: P: 470, Vol.-III). The researcher has tried to find out the legends and myths as cultural elements in the selected poems form the volume Jejuri .

3.4.1. THE PRIEST: It is the tradition and culture of Maharashtra to offer sweet dishes to gods and goddesses on several occasions. Particularly, the devotees offer ‘puran poli’ to please Khandoba. 3.4.2. HEAR OF RUIN: It is assumed in our culture that the pilgrims do not pay attention to the wandering animals and the dirt all around the temples and religious places. But still these are the sacred places for the devotees. It is their deep faith in god. So they accept everything as a part of god, even at Jejuri. Similar conditions are found in other religious places all over India. 3.4.3. THE DOORSTEP: Every pilgrim consciously or unconsciously touches the doorstep of the temple with his/her forehead. It is done out of superstitious belief or blind faith among the devotees. Each and every devotee at Jejuri touches the door step of the temple of Khandoba as well as all other temple at Jejuri. It is in the Hindu culture out of superstitions or reverence of the devotees for god. 3.4.4. CHAITANYA: The poem reflects the tradition in the Hindu culture of worshipping of god by offering flowers, sweets, fruits, kumkum, sandal paste, turmeric power, rice grain and saffron. The ‘zendu flowers’, (marigold) are commonly used to worship Khandoba and other gods at Jejuri. So the poet says: You like the flowers of zendu (Kolatkar, 2006: 15)

3.4.5. A LOW TEMPLE: In this poem the priest tells the pilgrims the goddess has eight arms, unlike the devotees the narrator counts the arms of goddesses. It is the blind faith of the devotees who do not want to debate with the priest as the poet does. Inquiry against the opinion of the priest about god or goddesses means committing sin in Hindu culture. 3.4.6. THE HORSESHOE SHRINE: The poem is based on a legend. According to the popular legend Khandoba was in love with Banai, the daughter of a nomad chieftain. He carried Banai from her father’s house on a blue horse. The horse, in a big leap, jumped across the hill. The horse hit the hill so hard that the mark of the horseshoe imprinted on the side of the hill. The reference is to the Banai temple on the other side of the hill. The poet describes it as: To a home that waited on the other side of the hill like a hay stack: (Kolatkar, 2006: 15) The actual reference to the legendary story is that Khandoba used to meet Banai in a haystack in her father’s house. Khandoba married Banai, so in this respect he is like many other folk gods with two wives. 3.4.7. AN OLD WOMAN: The poem presents the culture of Vaghya, Murli and Devdasi. When the devotees offer their female child to Khandoba, the same female child will be turned to prostitution. The Vaghyas have to beg oil from door to door for their torch.

3.4.8. HILLS: Culturally the legend is that Khandoba had killed five demons and transformed them into rocks. The narrator, who has scientific and westernized outlook, looks at the hills as hills, rocks and not as demons. But the priest tells him that they are really demons transformed by Khandoba. This make the narrator confused and he strongly opposed the priest’s outlook. The narrator’s comparison has been skillfully expressed by the pair of words ‘hills/demons’ and ‘demon/hills’. The last line of the poem strongly expresses the confusion in the mind of the narrator. The legends of the hills narrated by the priest’s son gives birth to the poem called The Priest’s Son, who is guide of the narrator. 3.4.9. THE PRIEST’S SON: According to the priest’s son the five hills situated close to one another are the figures of five demons, whom Khandoba had killed. According to the legend the god Khandoba was merciful to demo ns and transformed them into hill. He made them his habitants in order to honour the devotion of the demons. The devotees have been continuously worshipping the hills years and years together. 3.4.10. THE BUTTERFLY: The myth of the butterfly has been used to co relate the things related to Khandoba. The devotees have a superstitious belief that if they smear bhandara on their forehead, they will be blessed by Khandoba and He will end their miseries in life. 3.4.11. A SCRATCH: The title is intended to convey the idea merely by scratching a stone at Jejuri; pilgrims would discover a legend which proves sanctify of the temple of god Khandoba. It is difficult to decide at Jejuri, the dividing line between what is god / and what is stone (Kolatkar, 2006: 32) to determine because every stone may prove to be a holy stone personifying some god. So a holy legend is connected with every stone and every rock at Jejuri. There is one huge portion of a rock, of the size of bedroom. This portion of the rock is known as Khandoba’s wife, who had been turned into a stone figure by Khandoba. He is believed to be an incarnation of god Shiva. He had in a fit of anger; put his wife to death with a stroke of his sword. The crack, which is on the rock, is the mark of the wound which the wife has received from her husband’s sword. Thus the Maharashtrian pilgrims fine that it was very important event in the life of Khandoba and his wife. The life of his wife is imprinted on the rock. The rock bears witness of the murder of his wife in a fit of anger by Khandoba. 3.4.12. AJAMIL AND THE TIGER: The poem Ajamil And Tigers is the longest poem in Jejuri . The poem is a poetic rendering of folk tale. The story of Ajamil and His Dogs appears in Jayadri Mahatmya . The first chapter of the seventh Book of ‘ Bhagvata Puran’ too contains the same story. Dharmaraj asked Shankar, “How is it that the sheep offered by a shepherd without any ritual was accepted by the god and eaten?” Shankar said, “I will tell you the story in brief. There was a shepherd devotee of Martand called Ajamil. He always remembered god. He grazed his sheep in a forest which had many tigers in it. So he prayed to god, “O God, you are my only protector. I am a small, sinful man. Please protect my sheep from the tigers.” The people know that Ajamil’s sheep were safe. So many people would give their sheep to Ajamil for grazing. One day the tigers roamed from wood to wood to eat sheep. This went on for fifteen days but they did not get a single sheep. So they went to their king and said, “What shall we do now?” All the people have asked Ajamil to look after their sheep. Ajamil, who sits under the sandalwood tree, has a fearful dog. The tiger king said, “Come on, let’s all go there”. So they went near the sandal tree where all the sheep had gathered. It was midday, when the tiger king saw the huge dog, he said, “This is very strange, actually, dogs are our food but today we are afraid of them” When Ajamil saw the tigers, he saluted them reverentially. The tiger king said, ‘Oh! This shepherd is scared for us. That is why he is saluting us. Now I will prove my power by killing all the sheep along with Ajamil. Thus, he proceeded further to attack a sheep. The dog attacked the tiger king. The tiger king was so frightened that he dropped the sheep and ran away. The dog defeated all the tigers. He tied them to a rope and took them to Naldurg (to the temple of Bhairav). Bhairav was angry with the tigers. Then the tiger king ventured “Now I have seen you (taken your darshan). I remember who I was in my previous birth? I was the king of Champanager and the tigers were my companions. We used to usurp the poor and weak. We imprisoned them without giving anything. This went on for many years till a more powerful king killed me in a war. Because of the previous deeds we are the tigers in this birth. All our sins have been now washed away. Please, tell us “What we should do in order to be born in good Yoni (next birth)”. After listening to this, Martand Bhairav said, “Now listen. You will always stay at my feet and your sins of killing sheep will be washed away in this very birth. You need not be afraid of dogs any more. Take this turmeric power (bhandara) and sprinkle on the bodies of all”. As soon as the tiger king did it, they were transformed in to human beings. They all worshipped Martand Bhairav. Bhairav asked them. Make a pouch of tiger’s skin and always tie it round your neck by string. Put some bhandara in it and apply it to your body from time to time. You will be known as Vaghya (Raykar Shubhangi, 1995 : 127) 3.4.13. A SONG FOR AVAGHYA: The poem A Song For Vaghya , is related with the legend of Ajamil And The Tigers . It has the similar source from mythology. According to the mythological story, Vaghya must kill a tiger, his mother, to make a pouch in which he has to carry turmeric powder i.e. ‘bhandara’. So the poet says: killed my mother For her skin (Kolatkar, 2006:37) The Vaghyas beg oil from door to door for their torch. Vaghyas demand for oil is considered to be a form of begging. It is in fact a part of religious practice peculiar in Khandoba cult. The torch that Vaghya carries in his hand must always be kept burning. The oil for the torch is to be obtained from the devotees only. The Vaghya is offered in sacrifice by parents to become a life-long male devotee of Khandoba. 3.4. 14. A SONG FOR A MURLI: Like Vaghyas Murlis also have relation with god Khandoba. If the Vaghya is associated with the day and the sun, Murli is rightly a nocturnal creature and associate with moonlight. The moon that touches the top of the hills is transformed in to Khandoba’s blue horse. The horse grazes on the hill for many years before the time was ripe for Khandoba to kill the demons Mani and Malla. Another legend is that anyone who has the temptation to ride the blue horse or wishing to lay hand on it would be suitably punished. The poet describes it as:

you dare not ride off with it, don’t you see khandoba’s brand on its flank you horse thief (Kolatkar, 2006: 37) The horse ears Khandoba’s brand. Just as the horse is branded, so is the Murli. Khandoba’s name is tattooed on the collar bone. The legend is related to the place called ‘Ghode Uddan’- the flight of the horse. 3.4.15. A LITTLE PILE OF STONES: It is customary that after marriage the newly couple goes to Jejuri to seek blessings of god Khandoba for their newly married life. Khandoba grants the devotee’s wish whatever they wished for. One of the propitiating rites is undertaken by the bride for happy life. After spiritual blessing they start their domestic and physical life. 3.4.16. MAKARAND: According to the Hindu culture, in the Lord Shiva’s temple the devotees have to enter without shirts. They have to take off the shirts to seek the blessing of Lord Shiva. Khandoba is an incarnation of Lord Shiva. 3.4.17. THE TEMPLE RAT: Traditionally the newly married young bride has to crush bananas on the top of the stone linga. She has to do this probably it is a fertility ritual. It shows an extraordinary ability of Kolatkar to present the accurate word picture as: Bangles massed in the hands of the teen age bride on her knees, crushing bananas on the top of the stone linga. (Kolatkar, 2006:30) The poem reflects the evil tradition of child-marriage, because the narrator refers the word such as – ‘teen age bride’. It shows the child- marriage tradition in Maharashtra. 3.4.18. A KIND OF CROSS: In this poem, the poet gives us a description of the nandi. In the traditional mythology, the nandi is the vehicle of Lord Shiva. It occupies a significant place in front of the temple of Shiva. Here the poet presents the myth of ‘nandi’ and ‘cross’. Then he gives a detailed the picture of the cross (hook) the self torture instrument. It is known by various names in the other regions and languages. The devotees are ready to undergo various trials and examinations to please Khandoba. They spear it in the limbs of their bodies. To the poet all these things are fatal and in human. 3.4.19. YESHWANT RAO: The poem contains many legends. According to the legend Yeshwant Rao was a member of the ‘untouchables’ i.e. ‘Mang’ (matang) caste who sacrificed his life for the foundation of the fortress in Jejuri. This is interpreted as act of bhakti. By his sacrifice he wanted to persuade Lord Shiva to stay forever on the earth. The Mang became the guardian temple god having his shrine near the main gate of the outer temple wall. His name is Yeshwant Rao and he became a havildar (officer of fort), (Raykar Shubhangi: 1995: p-145). The poet describes it as: Of course he’s only a second class god. and his place is just outside the main temple (Kolatkar,2006: 30) The man was deitified posthumously and was called ‘Yeshwant Rao’. He is a miraculous and magician god of Jejuri. 3.4.20. BLUE HORSE: The poem presents the legend of ‘Gondhal-Jagran’. A gondhal is performed on the occasion when a marriage takes place or a birth of a child. The songs are mostly invocation to Khandoba and other gods. The singers, though professionals, do not have good musical signing voice. Thus the poet describes it as:

The toothless singer opens her mouth. Shorts the circuits in her haywire throat. (Kolatkar, 2006: 51) ‘God’s won children’- is probably a reference to the refrain ‘aamhi devache gondhali’, or reference to Vaghya and Murli, who are performing a Jagran. That is why the singer says: God’s won children Making music (Kolatkar, 2006: 51) According to the believers the ceremony brings god’s blessings to the newly married couple. The moon was ordered to become a horse for Khandoba at the time of his war with the demons- Mani and Malla. The moon arrived on the hills and grazed there in the form of ‘a blue horse’ till the time was ripe for the attack. ‘Ghode- Uddan’ (the flight of the horse) is a place on Jejuri fort. The horse that Khandoba, normally, used was ‘white’ but fighting with demons Mani and Malla and for kidnapping Banai (second wife of Khandoba) he used ‘blue’ horse. This is how in most of the poems of his volume Jejuri , the poet, Arun Kolatkar, has criticized the blind faith and superstitious beliefs of the pilgrims very bitterly and has commented on their hollowness ironically.

CHAPTER – I V CONCUSIONS INTRODUCTION: This is an attempt to study ‘Arun Kolatkar’s Rational Perspective on Superstations: Analyzing Some Poems Form Jejuri’. The researcher has taken twenty poems out of thirty poems. Jejuri is certainly one of the significant collections of poetry in English. He is a bilingual and regional poet. Jejuri offers a number of difficulties because Kolatkar has made use of regional (Maharashtra) legends and myths related to god Khandoba, which are not even known to majority of people at regional, national and international levels. The researcher has made an attempt to give an analyzing of themes, the social and cultural elements used in all these selected poems in the relevant chapters. 4.1. THEMES: Thematically Jejuri is a noteworthy poem because it is about the significant encounters between the two cultures: the urban, western educated secular culture on the one hand and rural, traditional, religious on the other. The volume of the poems offers a number of themes such as ancient religious traditions and evil social customs, commercialization of the religious places, cultural decay, hypocrisy at the religious places, quest for spiritual truth, spiritual hollowness, poverty and starvation at religious places, superstitions among Indians, deep faith in god, corruption at religious places and journey as a mode of knowledge. Traditions and customs are part and parcel of each culture. In the same way, we find ancient religious traditions and evil social customs of Maharashtra, particularly of the devotees of Khandoba, in these poems from the volume Jejuri . The ancient religious tradition and evil social customs are major significant themes used by Kolatkar in the volume of poems called Jejuri . These major themes are contrasted with the rational and optimistic outlook of the narrator-poet in order to expose their meaninglessness in the lives of the devotees. i. The poem The Priest offers tradition of Maharashtra to offer ‘Puran Poli’ as a sweet dish to Khandoba. They have deep faith in Khandoba. The poem The Doorstep presents the traditions in the Hindu religion. The devotees touch the door or doorsteps of the temple with their forehead before they enter it. The poem Chaitanya presents the tradition of worship of god Khandoba by offering sweets, fruits and coconut, bhandara and zendu flowers. The poem A Little Pile of Stones reflected the ancient religious tradition of the devotees. The newly married bride makes a pile of stones under the observation of her in-laws for happiness and unity of her family. ii. Another theme in the volume of poetry called Jejuri is hypocrisy and commercialization at the religious places. The priest is waiting for the arrival of the devotees for his personal and material gains. The devotees offer many things to god Khandoba but the narrator finds that the priest is a greedy agent between god and the devotees. The priest’s son narrates the stories about Khandoba and the devotees accept them without any inquiry. The narrator objects to the stories and asks several questions. iii. Spiritual hollowness is also another important theme used in the poems from the volume Jejuri . The poems, Chaitanya, The Reservoir, The Temple Rat, and Heart of Ruin present the spiritual hollowness of the devotees at such religious palaces. The devotees worship the broken objects and pay respect but do not take care of them. iv. Cultural decay is one of the dominant themes of the poems in Jejuri . The poem Heart of Ruin presents the picture of cultural decay in Maharashtra. The ‘mongrel bitch’ and ‘dung beetles’ seek their shelter in the charity box. The narrator criticizes that even the paces is not proper for living of the animals but god likes the place and lives there. The poems The Door and The Door Steps present the broken condition of the condition of the door. But the devotees worship it without bothering the ruined state of it. The poem Manohar presents destruction of the structures at Jejuri. The pilgrims worship every temple without any discrimination. But the poet objects and says that the pilgrims do not know which is temple or house or cow shed. The poem The Cupboard reflects the decayed condition of the gods in the cupboard. It shows the decay of culture. v. Superstation is one of the major themes of Jejuri . Most of the poems dealt with the superstation of the devotees. The poems, Hear of Ruin, A Low Temple, The Priest’s Son, and Yeshwant Rao are the examples of the superstitions found among the devotees. vi. Poverty and starvation is also one of the important themes of the poems like An Old Woman, A Song For A Vaghya, A Song For A Murli. The small children become the victims of the evil social custom and superstitious belief.

4.2. SOCIAL ELEMENTS: Like Vitthal of Pandharpur, Khandoba is one of the most popular gods at Jejuri. Khandoba is the folk deity. The devotees from rural area have deep faith in Khandoba who ends the miseries in their lives and brings happiness and prosperity to them. There are number f Khandoba temples in Maharashtra and Karnataka. Jejuri is the holiest of the temples of Khandoba for the devotees. Therefore Jejuri is a socially significant place for the devotees of Khandoba. In the volumes of poems called Jejuri , Kolatkar has tried to present the religion if the forms of faith, superstations and traditions in the terms of evil social customs. While presenting these social elements in these poems, the narrator has humorously and directly ridiculed these meaningless practices, going on among the people since ancient time. i. The poem Heart of Ruin reflects again deep faith of the pilgrims. They worship the collapsed pillars over the head of Maruti. The poems The Door and The Doorsteps are the examples of the faith of the pilgrims. The door and the steps are in ruined state. They have a special reverence for the door and the doorsteps and touch them with their foreheads. The narrator thinks that it is meaningless. The poem A Low Temple presents the conflict between rationality and irrationality. The devotees look at everything with spiritual attitude, where as the narrator and his friends with scientific outlook. The poem ‘The Horseshoe Shrine’, deals with the legend of Khandoba and his wife Banai. ii. The devotees of Khandoba are from villages. They are not educated. Because of illiteracy, they are not able to verify the things and the stories told by the priest or the guide. Therefore, the only way is to believe in them and thus continued generation to generation. The narrator has mentioned many superstitions existing in the devotees of Khandoba. The priest or the guide has taken advantages of these superstitious natures of the devotees for the personal gain and has exploited them for fulfilling their selfish motives. The poems reflect the superstitious belief of the devotees. The poem The Priest presents the superstitious feelings of the devotees. The devotees offer many this to Khandoba to please and get their demands granted from him. But for the narrator all these offerings are meaningless and useless. In the name of god the priests are exploiting them for their benefits. The devotees offer ‘Puran Poli’ to Khandoba but the priests consume it as prasad. The poem Chaitanya offers another picture of superstitions existing among the devotees. The devotees worship every object at Jejuri including stones. The devotees paint every stone with red colour and worship it. The poem A Low Temple presents the frustrating experience of the narrator. In the darkness the priest tells the pilgrims that the goddess has eight arms. By lightening the matchstick the rational narrator counts the arms of the goddess and tells the priest that the goddess has eighteen arms. The narrator is skeptic and would not like to accept the priest’s words as the devotees do. The poems A Song For Vaghya and A Song For Murli are good examples of the superstitions of the devotees. They offer their small children (male or female) in the service of god Khandoba out of superstitious belief to fulfill their desires. If they do not do so, Khandoba would be angry with them and would punish them. Being educated the narrator does not believe in such superstitions. The poem A Kind of Cross present the superstitions observed by the devotees. The devotees undertake the self tortured instruments i.e. a ‘cross’ or ‘hook’ or ‘bagad’. They pierce these instruments in the various parts of body to please Khandoba. But for the poet these are inhuman experiences of the devotees undertaken out f superstitions. The poem Yeshwant Rao is also one of the best examples which express the blind belief of the devotees. The devotees walk on the bed of coal to fulfill their desires. If they do so Khandoba would help them to kill their enemy, to double money, to triple the land and to put a child into the womb of wife. The poem The Temple Rat presents the superstitions found among the devotees. The newly married girl crushes bananas on the stone linga for her fertility. But the poet looks at these events rationally. iii. Generally each and every society, in all religions, is tradition bound. The people of the respective society follow the social customs blindly and nobody dares to revolts against them. These evil social customs are major obstacles in the development of the society. In the present poem the poet, Kolatkar, has tried to point out how these evil social customs are meaningless and useless. iv. The poem An Old Woman reflects the problem of poverty and starvation of the beggars. In the poems like A Song For Vaghya and A Song For Murli , the poet presents evil social custom of offering male and female child to Khandoba. The devotees offer their children to Khandoba before or after fulfilling their desires. If Khandoba fulfills their desires, they will offer small children as ‘Vaghya’ or ‘Murli’ in his service. Again here we find scathing attack of the narrator on this evil social tradition. The same children become beggar and prostitutes. The poem The Temple Rat , presents the evil traditions of child-marriage. The narrator noticed that the bride is teenaged who crushes bananas the stone linga. The priest enjoys this tradition and smiles when the bride performs it. It shows the licentious of the priest. 4.3.3. CULTURAL ELEMENTS: Jejuri is culturally significant place in Maharashtra. Khandoba is folk god and a protector god of the shepherds (Dhangar). The cultural elements contain the legends and myths. The legends and the myths are related with god Khandoba and other deities at Jejuri. The legends and myths express the culture of Maharashtra and significance of god Khandoba in the loves of the devotees. The legends are in the form of folk songs or folk tales which are in oral form. i. The poem The Horseshoe Shrine deals with the legend of Khandoba and Banai. Khandoba carried Banai from her father’s house on a blue horse. When the horse jumped the marked of the horseshoe carved on the hills. The devotees worship these marks. The priest narrates the legends to the devotees. But the narrator does not believe in the legend told by the priest. The other poem A Scratch itself is a source of legends. So we can say that this poem is a legend of legends. The poem A Song For Vaghya and A Song For Murli are referred to the legends form Jayadri Mahatmya , that the moon is transformed into a blue horse and grazed on the hills till Khandoba orders him. The narrator finds contradiction regarding the horses used by Khandoba. The poem Yeshwant Rao deals with the legend of the medieval times. The poem Chaitanya , deals with the legends imagined as herds of sheep on the hills of Jejuri. The poem The Blue Horse deals with the legends of a tradition of Gondhal- Jagran (a night wake for song cum dramatic narration of religious legends of the deity of Khandoba). It presents evil social custom of killing sheep and goats on the occasion of gondhal and the devotees enjoy it. These legends are told in the form of folk songs and folk tales orally. They have been coming down the ages. The people can not verify the facts of information convey through these legends. So the devotees have to believe and accept them in total. But the narrator who is westernized and educated does not believe in these legends. ii. Myths also constitute the themes of the poems. Legends and myths both are very important aspects of the study the culture of Maharashtra as reflected in the poems. The poem, Ajamil and the Tigers is taken form Jayadri Mahatmya . It reflects the story of the birth of Vaghyas, the servant or attendant of god Khandoba. The poem A Song For Vaghya also deals with the myths of birth of Vaghya and how they follow the order of their master Khandoba. The poem A Kind of Cross reflects the myths of ‘nandi’ in front of Shiva. As per the myths nandi is the best vehicle of Lord Shiva. The poem A Little Pile Of the Stones also reflects myths. According to the myths the newly bride should make a pile of stones under the observation of her in-laws at Jejuri, which brings happiness in her life. 4. 4. LINGUSTIC ELEMENTS: Arun Kolatkar is bilingual poet, writing in English as well as Marathi. If any reader of reads his English poems would feel as if he is reading Marathi poems. It is because of the simplicity of language used by Kolatkar. i. Irony and humour are the most striking features of his poems. He has used irony and humour in his poems to mock at the superstitions, the evil social customs, and the ignorance of the devotees. He has also used the element of satire. He has gently satires all the false, meaningless traditions and the customs of the devotees. ii. He has used free-verse in his poems and it is a strikingly significance feature of the poems. He has used few words (one word line) to express the message or the meaning he wants to convey. He is in favour of free verse style as he used it even in his Marathi poems. The most important feature of his poems is that he does not bother about the punctuation marks. He has made use of simple sentences and prosaic style. Arun Kolatkar has tried to depict a realistic picture of the devotees of Khandoba at Jejuri from social and cultural point of view. The researcher has made a humble attempt to make an analysis of rational perspective on superstitions in some of the poems from the volume Jejuri .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PRIMARY SOURCES:

1. Kolatkar, Arun. Jejuri. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2006.

SECONDARY SOURCES:

1. Kolatkar, Arun. Sarpa Satra. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2004.

2. Kolatkar, Arun. Kala Ghoda Poems. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2006.

3. Kolatkar, Arun. The Boatride and Other Poems. Pune: Pras Prakashan,2009.

4. Kolatkar, Arun. Arun Kolatkarchya Kavita. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2006.

5. Kolatkar, Arun. Arun Kolatkarchya Char Kavita. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2006.

6. Kolatkar, Arun. Chirimiri. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2003.

7. Kolatkar, Arun. Bhijki Vahi. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2006.

8. Kolatkar, Arun. Droan. Pune: Pras Prakashan, 2004.

9. Abrams, M.H. A Glossary of Literary Terms. New-Delhi: Macmillan India Limited,

2001.

10 . Bruce, King. Modern Indian Poetry in English. New-Delhi: OPU, 1987.

11 . Dhere, R. C. Dakshinecha Lokdev Shri Khandoba. Pune: Padmagandha, Prakashan,

2007.

12 . Jaydayal, Goyandaka. Sankshipta Mahabharata, Pratham Khand. Gorakhpur: Geeta

Press, 1977.

13 . Joshi, P. S. Bharatiya Sanskriti Kosh. Pune: Bharatiya Kosh Mandal, 1985.

14 . Khare, Ganesh Hari. Maharashtra Chi Char Daiwat. Pune: Shri G.H. Khare,

1958.

15 . Parthasarathy, R. Edt. Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets. New Delhi: OUP,

2002. 16 . Raykar, Shubhangi. A Commentary and Critical Perspectives. Pune: Prachet

Publication, 1995.

17. Das, Bijaykumar. Contemporary Indo- English Poetry. Bareilly: Prakash

Book Depot.

18 . Das, Bijaykumar. Modern English Poetry. Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot.

19 . Das, B.K. R. Parthasarathy’s Ten Twentieth Century Indian Poets.

Bareilly: Prakash Book Depot.1993.

20 . ‘Loksatta’: (Daily Newspaper) dated 15 th Dec. 2007.

21 . Pudhari’: (Daily Newspaper) dated 10 th Feb.2012.

22 . ‘Lokmat’: (Daily Newspaper) dated 03 rd Dec.2013.