Mapping the Nation

An Anthology of Indian Poetry in English,

1870-1920

Edited and with a Critical Introduction by Sheshalatha Reddy

ANTHEMA PRESS LONDON • NEW YORK • DELHI Contents

Acknowledgments xv Note on Transcription and Transliteration xvii Note on Abbreviations xvii Critical Introduction xix

EAST 1. Shoshee Chunder Dutt i A Vision of Swneru, and Other Poems (Calcutta: 1878) 2 — Address to the Ganges 2 — My Native Land 6 — Sonnets—India 9

2. Greece Chunder Dutt 10 Cherry Stones (Calcutta: 1879) 10 — XXVII. Sonnet (The Nepali Peasant) 10 — XXX. Sonnet (Near Goa) 11 — XLVII. Sonnet (1 858) 12 — LIV. Sonnet (Sacoontala) 12

3. Joteendro Mohun Tagore 13 Flights of Fancy in Prose and Verse (Calcutta: 1881) 13 — The Rajpootnee's Song 13 — Sonnet to the Kokil 14 — Song 15 — The Dewallee, or The Feast of Light 16 — Moonlight on the River 17 — Sonnet to India 17 — The Hindu Widow s Lament 18

4. Avadh Behari Lall 19 The Irish Home Rule Bill, a poetical pamphlet (Calcutta: 1893) 19 — The Irish Home Rule Bill, a poetical pamphlet 19 Behar, and other poems (Calcutta: 1898) 24 — An Epistle to the Right Hon'ble Alfred Lord Tennyson, Poet-Laureate, England 24

5. Romesh Chunder Dutt 26 Reminiscences of a Workman's Life (Calcutta: 1896) 27 — The Exile 27 — Home 28 — Lines on India 29 — Lines on Ireland 30 — Autumn-Night in a Bengal Rice-Field 32 vi Mapping the Nation

6. Lala Prasanna Kumar Dey 39 Indian Bouquet (Calcutta: 1906) 39 — War 39 — SvamiVivekananda at Chicago 40

7. A. S. H. Hussain 41 Loyal Leaves (Calcutta: 1911) 42 — Ode for her Imperial Majesty Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee 42 The Voice of Islam and other poems (Calcutta: 1914) 47 — The Voice of Islam 47

8. Charu Chandra Bose 60 A Voice from Bengal: Welcome Address to Their Majesties Landed in India (Calcutta: 1912) 61 — Welcome Address to Their Majesties landed in India 61

9. NanikramVasanmalThadani 62 The Triumph of Delhi and Other Poems (Calcutta: 1916) 62 — The Triumph of Delhi 62

10. Ram Sharma 74 The Poetical Works of Ram Sharma (Calcutta: 1919) 75 — Song of the Indian Conservative 75 — An Old Indian Melody 76 — The Song of the Tirhoot Planters 77 — The Anglo-Indian War-Cry, or Bluster in Excelsis 78 — India's Vindication of Lord Ripon and her Farewell 80 — Ode on the Meeting of the Congress at Allahabad on the 26th December 1888 85 — India to Britain 89 — To Indian Patriots 89 — Bande Mataram 90

WEST 1. Behramji Merwanji Malabari 93 The Indian Muse in English Garb (Bombay: 1876) 94 — "The dream of my youth" H. R. H. the Prince of Wales 94 — The Stages of a Hindu Female Life 95 — To the Missionaries of Faith 98 — Time of Famine 100 — The British Character 101 • — A Protest 102

2. Cowasji NowrosjiVesuvala 104 Courting the Muse: being a Collection of Poems (Bombay: 1879) 105 — True Indian Opinion, or Native Croakers 105 — Sonnet: Bombay Harbour 130 Contents vii

3. Aurobindo Ghose 130 Songs to Myrtilla and other poems (Baroda: 1895) 131 — O Coil, Coil 131 — Charles Stewart Parnell 132 — Lines on Ireland 132 — Saraswati with the Lotus 136

4. S. D. Saklatvala 136 An Appeal for Peace, some verses (Bombay: 1910) 137 — [Excerpts]

5. C. R. Doraswami Naidu 141 Heart Buds, poems (Ahmedabad: 1914) 142 — Foreword 142 — To the Motherland 144 — The Taj Mahal — Agra " 148 — To K.V M.,AVision -Young India 148

6. Jamasp Phiroze Dastur 150 The Temple of Justice [a poem in praise of justice] (Bombay: 1916) 150 — The Temple of Justice 150

7. Rustam B. Paymaster 153 Navroziana, or The Dawn of a New Era: Being Poems on Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji and Other Friends of India, with "The Voice of the East on the Great War" (Bombay: 1917) 153 — Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, An Ode ofWelcome 153 — Mr. Dadabhai Naoroji, On His 79th Birthday 155 — Dadabhai Naoroji 158 — The Late Hon. Mr. G. K. Gokhale, C. I. E. 159 — Lord Hardinge 160 — The Secret of a Successful Rule 165 — The Parsi New Year's Day 166

NORTH 1. Babu S. C. Dutt [Shoshee Chunder Dutt] 167 Last Moments of Pratapa (Lahore: 1893) 168 — Last Moments of Pratapa 168

2. Bipin Bihari Bose 172 Congress Songs and Ballads (Lucknow: 1899) 173 — "Mother and Mother-Country are more estimable than Heaven itself" 173 — The Congress-man's Confession 175 viii Mapping the Nation

3. Sir Mian Muhammad Shafi 180 Poems (Lahore: 1907) 181 — To a Chinar-Tree 181 — The Sirinagar Flood and the Dal Lake 182 — On Entering the Kashmere Valley 185 — On the Occasion of Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee 185 — To Delhi 186 — The Rise and Fall of Islam 187 — To India! 191 — "To my mother" 191

4. Tej Shankar Kochak [a "Georgian Brahmin"] 192 Oriental Welcome to Their Most Gracious Majesties the King-Emperor and the Queen-Empress (Cawnpore: 1911) 193 — [Excerpts]

5. Sushila Harkishen Lai 196 Stray Thoughts (Lahore: 1918) 196 — Dreams 196

SOUTH 1. R. Sivasankara Pandiya 199 The Empress of India and Other Poems (Madras: 1888) 200 — Empress of India and Indian Poets 200 — The University of Madras 202

2. Krupabai Satthianadhan 203 Miscellaneous Writings of Krupabai Satthianadhan (Madras: 1896) 203 — Recollections of Childhood 203 — Social Intercourse between Europeans and Natives 205

3. M.V. Venkatasubba Aiyar 206 Ventures in Verse (Madras: 1899) 206 — To the Land of My Birth 206 — Sonnets, I. Faith 207 — Ravana's Doom 207

4. M. Dinakara 212 A Ballad of the Boer War...in Celebration of the Prowess of the British Army (Ramnad: 1902) 2 r 3 — The Gathering 213 ' — How Great Britain was Regenerated and Became 'Greater Britain' 214 — A Tribute to the Gallant Boers, Who Fought, and Fell, for their Country 217 ix

Chilkur C. S. Narsimha Row 217 The Poetical Works of Chilkur C. S. Nar Simha Row (Ellore: 1911) 218 — The Greatest Need of India 218 — Madras or Rome, where's thy home? 220 — Vande Mataram 221 — The grand old man of India 222 — India 225

C. Lakshminarayana Aiyer 233 Poems (Tinnevelly: 1914) 233 — To the Lord Bhupalaswami, Srivaikuntam 233 — To His Gracious Majesty George V Emperor of India 233 — Coronation Song 234 — The New Year, 1912 234

P. Seshadri 236 Bilhana: An Indian Romance, Adapted from Sanskrit (Madras: 1914) 237 — Bilhana 237 Sonnets (Madras: 1914) 255 — Toru Dutt 255 — The Marquis of Ripon 255 — Victoria 256 — Romesh Chunder Dutt 256 Champak Leaves (Madras: 1919, originally published 1915) 257 — The Sacrifice 2S7 — Jahangir and the Little Children 257 — Widowed 258 — Queen Tissarakshita s Jealousy 258 — Lali and Majnun 259 — Indumathi's Death 260 — A Sister's Wail 260 — The Exile 261 — The Rani of Ganore 262 — Anakarli 262

Ardeshir Framji Khabardar 263 The Silken Tassel (Madras: 1918) 264 — An Indian Funeral Song 264 — To India 264 — The Patriot 265

Rabindranath Tagore 266 The Gift of the Poet Laureate of India to National Education Week, igi8 (Adyar: 1918) 266 x Mapping the Nation

10. Harindranath Chattopadhyay 267 The Feast of Youth (Madras: 1918) 268 — The Hour of Rest 268 — Sufi Worship 269 The Coloured Garden (Madras: 1919) 269 — The Coloured Country 269 — Pride 270 — A Sad Thing 271

11. Aurobindo Chose 271 Baji Prabhou, a poem (Pondicherry: 1922, originally published 1909) 272 — Baji Prabhou 272

12. Nizamatjung 284 Poems (Hyderabad: 1954) 285 — Ode, The Awakening of the East 285 — The Imperial Coronation at Delhi 287 — India to England, 1914 291 — On the admission of Indians to the British Army 292 — In Memoriam 293

ABROAD 1. Covin Chunder Dutt, et al. 295 The Dutt Family Album (London: 1870) 296 — Home 296 — Lines (Written while on a Visit to Kalighat) 297 — Vizagapatam 299 — Madras 300

2. Toru Dutt 302 Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (London: 1882) 302 — Savitri 302 — Sita 328

3. HamidAliKhan 329 A Farewell to London:The Story of the Slave and the Nose-Ring (London: 1885, 2nd ed.) 329 — A Farewell to London 329 — The Slave and the Nose-Ring 332

4. Dejen L.Roy 339 The Lyrics of Ind (London: 1886) 340 — The Land of the Sun 340 — The Island 341 xi

Greece Chunder Dutt 342 Cherry Blossoms (London: 1887) 342 — The Soonderbuns 342 — The NeemTree 345 — In the Bush 346 — The Taj Mahal 348 — On the Day of Lord Ripon's Departure from Calcutta 349 — Sita 350

T. (Pillai) Ramakrishna 35i Tales of Ind, and Other Poems (London: 1896, 2nd ed.) 352 — Lord Tennyson 352 — Seeta and Rama, A Tale of the Indian Famine 352

Manmohan Ghose 357 Love Songs and Elegies (London: 1898) 357 — The Exile 357 Songs of Love and Death (Oxford: 1926) 362 — London 362 — Home-Thoughts 362 — Song of Britannia 363 — On the Centenary of the Presidency College 366

Romesh Chunder Dutt 368 Ramayana: the Epic of Rama, Prince of India, Condensed into English Verse, trans. (London: 1899) 369 — Recital of the Ramayana 369

Hary Sing Gour 371 Stepping Westward and Other Poems (London: 1890) 371 — Stepping Westward, or Emigrants to the West 371

Sarojini Naidu 377 The Golden Threshold (London: 1905) 377 — To India 377 — Nightfall in the City of Hyderabad 378 — Ode to H. H.The Nizam of Hyderabad 378 The Broken Wing: Songs of Love, Death & Destiny, 1915—igt6 (London: 1917) 380 — Awake! 380 — The Gift of India 381 xii Mapping the Nation

11. Roby Datta 3 81 Echoes from East and West (Cambridge: 1909) 382 — The Grief of Ravan 382 — The Fair Martyrs 387 — The Sworn Hero 388 — Piyadasi 389 — On Tibet 390 — To Britain 391

12. Hasan Shahid Suhrawardy 392 Faded Leaves, a collection of poems (London: 1910) 392 — Dedication 392 — The Indian Maid's Lament 393 — Swinburne 394

13. Rabindranath Tagore 394 Gardener, trans, by author (London: 1913) 395 — [Excerpts] Fruit-Gathering, trans, by author (London: 1916) 395 — [Excerpts]

14. Peshoton Sorabji Goolbai Dubash 398 Rationalistic and Other Poems (London: 1917) 398 — Britannia and Mother Hind 398

15. Sri Ananda Acharya 412 Snow-birds (London: 1919) 412 — LXXXII. Ode on the Rishis, the Darsanikas, and the Sannyasins of India 412

APPENDICES 1. Indian Poets on their Poetry 415 a. "Preface" by Behramji Merwanji Malabari, from The Indian Muse in English Garb (Bombay: 1876) 415 b. "Prefaces" and "Appendix" by Hamid Ali Khan, from A Farewell to London:The Story of the Slave and the Nose-Ring (London: 1885, 2nd ed.) 417 c. "Translator's Epilogue" by Romesh Chunder Dutt, from Maha-Bharata: Epic of the Bharatas, Condensed into English Verse (London: 1898) 421 d. "Preface" by Avadh Behari Lall, from Behar, and other poems (Calcutta: 1898) 429 e. "Preface" by Roby Datta, from Echoes from East and West (Cambridge: 1909) 43 1 Contents xiii

2. British Poets/Critics on Indian Poets 433 a. "Introductory Memoir" by Edmund Gosse forToru Dutt s Ancient Ballads and Legends of Hindustan (London: 1882) 433 b. "Introduction" by Arthur Symons for Sarojini Naidu's The Golden Threshold (London: 1905) 439 c. "Introductory Memoir" by Laurence Binyon for Manmohan Ghose's Songs of Love and Death (Oxford: 1926) 443 d. "Introduction" by W B.Yeats for RabindranathTagore's Gitanjali (London: 1912) 448

3. "Preface," "Introduction" and poems from A Garland of Ceylon Verse, i8jy—i8gj (Columbo: 1897), edited and with an introduction and notes by Isaac Tambyah 452

Bibliography 459 Index of Titles 464 Index of Authors 467