Research Innovator: International Multidisciplinary Peer-Reviewed Journal ISSN: Print: 2395-4744 http://research-chronicler.com/resinv/index.asp ISSN: Online: 2348-7674

The Aurobindonian and the post- Aurobindonian Traditions in Indian English Poetry: A Contrastive Study of Representative Poets Dr. R.K. Mishra Retd. Reader in English, Mahalaxmi Nagar, Bolangir (Odisha) India

Tradition in art, literature and culture classification, which was made by P. Lal the inevitably undergoes with the passage of founder of the Writers Workshop and his co- time a vicissitude in any nation of the world. worker K, Raghavendra Roa on the basis of This law of change also occurs in the the new poets’ response and reaction to the evolution of a new tradition in literature. poetry of Sri Aurobindo led to a kind of From this angle of vision, if we rivalry and hostility between two groups of retrospectively review the past trend of poets. Each group of poets asserted in poetry Indian English Poetry, we notice progressive an identity and individuality of its own. transmutation of its features from poet to They differed radically from each other in poet from the time of Derozio up to post- their conception of the mode and technique modern period. of versification. In this context of metamorphosis of tradition The stream of Aurobindonian poetry that of Indian English poetry, attempt is sought emerged from the poetical works of the pre- to demarcate two traditions exploiting the Aurobindonians like HLV Derozio, Kashi traits of Aurobindonian poetry as the basis Prasad Ghose, Michael Madhusudan, Toru of distinction. Dutt and Manmohan Ghose gradually This article expatiates comprehensively widened it breadth by assuming exuberantly romantic and mystical character .This trend upon the distinctive features of the Aurobindonian and the post- Aurobindonian of Aurobindonian poetry perpetuated till the poetry in English with a view to highlighting dawn of post-modernism in the wake of the dissimilarities existing in the traditions which it declined due to predominant of Indian English poetry. It focuses on the influence of new ideological theories and bifurcation of avenue of poetry in terms of concepts. The evolution of new theories trend and tradition and establishes two such as post-modernism, Marxism, distinctive traditions that are analyzed in the feminism and existentialism paved the path article on the basis of contrastive study of for emergence of post- Aurobindonian the poets of the pre-Independence and post- poetry known as new poetry. The new poets Independence periods. were inspired by the Writers Workshop to write poetry in accordance with the canons At the advent of new modernism in post- of kavita Manifesto introduced by the poets independence India an ideological cleavage P-Lal and Raghavendra Rao. The new poets occurred in the community of Indian Poets of the post- Aurobindonian tradition writing in English and resulted in their intellectually opposed the Aurobindonian classification into the Aurobindonians and tradition of poetry evolved by Sri Aurobindo the post-Aurobindonaians. This and sustained by his adherents .With this

Volume IV Issue IV: August 2017 (1) Editor-In-Chief: Dr. B.N. Gaikwad Research Innovator: International Multidisciplinary Peer-Reviewed Journal ISSN: Print: 2395-4744 http://research-chronicler.com/resinv/index.asp ISSN: Online: 2348-7674 objective in view they characterized their achievements as a poet. The overwhelming verses with new ingredients such as new sentiments of modernism and the influence themes of sociological interest , surrealism, of this new theory gradually weaned poets private voice, colloquialism, new idioms and from the Aurobindonian tradition of jargons. They exploited all these traits as versification. advocated by the writers Workshop founded The emergence of Sri Aurobindo as poets in 1959. The new poets who invariably ushered a new tradition in to Indian poetry denounced the past poetic convention in English. His exquisite thematic adhered to by the Aurobindonians , often exploitation of myths and legends, reviewed retrospectively their poetical innovation of new mode, diction and artifice works to derive inspiration from their of versification infatuated many of his versification .They ,however ,revolutionized contemporary poets, who formed a school of their own trend of writing and reshaped their poets and became the practitioners of the mode and artifice of versification in an poetic convention known as Aurobindonian altogether new mould but without ignoring tradition of poetry. Sri Aurobindo and his the traditional value sustained by their adherents initiated a new tradition that predecessors . M.K.NAIK Contends “the flourished luxuriantly till its culmination in modernist poets who are militant modernists the publication of his epic Savitri in 1950. stand on the shoulders of the older poets’. (1) Let us first analyse the characteristics of the poetry of the Aurobindonian tradition in Thus, the post- Aurobindonian poetry order to differentiate it from that of the post- blossomed out after the appearance of Aurobindonian modernist poets. The Nissim Ezekiel as a harbinger of new poets distinctly marked features of their poetry are in the new horizon of Indian poetry in pointed out contrastively in the following English. He is pre-eminently a major voice paragraphs. Let us first analyses the that represents the change of an era in the characteristics of the Aurobindonian poetry. domain of Indian English poetry. Ezekiel is The Aurobindonians were the practitioners an outstanding poet in terms of his wealth of of religious, mystical, philosophical and literary output and sustained quality of meditative verse. The poetical works of Sri verse. He is the first post-Independence poet Aurobindo, N. K. Gupta, D. K. Roy, K.D. who inaugurated a new tradition of poetry. Sethna, Nirodbaran, Anilbaran, Romen and which was later on invigorated by his Prithwindra give ample evidence of this kind successors P. Lal , R. Rao, Pritish Nandy, of poetry. They keenly responded to the Parthasarathy, Daruwalla, Adil Jussawalla values of legends, myths and mystical ideas. and above all by Kamala Das, Gauri The post-Aurobindonians on the other hand Deshpande, Mamta Kalia and other women reacted against this kind of poetry of poets. All these new post- Aurobindonian imagination and vision. Instead of savouring poets waged a war against Sri Aurobindo the myths and legends and the Vedantic and and his adherents with the weapon of new mystical ideas drawn from the past of India, modernist poetry that undermined his poetic they responded to the psychological, social, tradition and overshadowed his economic and cultural issues of the Volume IV Issue IV: August 2017 (2) Editor-In-Chief: Dr. B.N. Gaikwad Research Innovator: International Multidisciplinary Peer-Reviewed Journal ISSN: Print: 2395-4744 http://research-chronicler.com/resinv/index.asp ISSN: Online: 2348-7674 contemporary society. The post- sensibility manifested itself in their Aurobindonians committed to writing verses adherence to the Vedic and Upanishadic with an anti-Aurobindonian interest outlook tradition of spiritualism and mysticism. and spirit imbibing the mode style and K.S.R Iyengar observes “ All modern Indian technique innovated by Ezekiel , Dom poetry including Indian English poetry is Moraes, Kamala Das, P. Lal. R. Rao sustained by the living waters of our racial Daruwalla and Shiv K. Kumar. It is tradition ,the Veda, the Upanishad, the axiomatic that the post- Aurobindonians Ramayana, the Mahabharata ,the stream of were basically anti- Aurobindonians, who Vaishnav or Shiva devotional Poetry”.(2) pioneered a new tradition of versification in They also revived English romanticism in response to the new modernist concepts and their poetry. They conceived themes for conventionalized the new mode of writing their poetry by exercising their romantic for the new poets of the post-Independence sensibility and hence their themes are era. With an unflinching commitment they imaginary, visionary, dreamy and embarked upon the new tradition of writing meditative. This kind of unrealistic poetry verses in an unprecedented new fashion with appealed to the Aurobindonians but a view to imparting a new identity and embittered the taste of the post- dimension to new poetry. Their verses bear Aurobindonians, who crusaded against that the stamp of their anti- Aurobindonian tradition and discarded verses of attitude and spirit. Aurobindonian, flavour. They eschewed Hence they adopted themes from Indian life forms of romanticism and metaphysical and situation such as folk-belief, rituals, speculation in order to make their poetry a corruption in socio-political life, miseries of vehicle of social service and reform. S.C. life of the downtrodden and natural Harrex comments “the new poetry was new calamities. The poetry of Ezekiel, because it abhorred the old conventional Parthasarathy, K.N. Daruwalla, Adil jargons, sociological as well as literary and Jussawalla and Pritish Nandy is replete with rejected romantic or mythic generalizations picturesque descriptions of contemporary that deflected the attention from every day Indian life. These poets were chiefly realities (3) concerned with the realities of life on which The new poets started writing poetry in the they focus in their verses. Ezekiel, Shiv K. new modernist tradition reposing faith in a Kumar, Daruwalla and Adil Jussawalla vital language, in the value of concreteness, portray the plight of beggars, rickshaw and in the full time nature of the poet’s pullers, vagrants, and slum dwellers, vocation. They opposed propaganda, prostitutes and child widows and so on with imitation and romanticism and finally compassion and sympathy. The evils of city asserted their faith in a private voice. The life are depicted by Ezekiel, Daruwalla, post- Aurobindonians produced a new kind Jussawalla and Nandy. In contrast to these of poetry characterized by surrealism, new poets, the Aurobindonians were not at all idiom, colloquialism and new diction. Thus, concerned with the realities of socio- Indian Poetry in English took a new economic problems of India. Their Indian direction and dimension in the hands of the Volume IV Issue IV: August 2017 (3) Editor-In-Chief: Dr. B.N. Gaikwad Research Innovator: International Multidisciplinary Peer-Reviewed Journal ISSN: Print: 2395-4744 http://research-chronicler.com/resinv/index.asp ISSN: Online: 2348-7674 new poets. Kamala Das writes her poem in a philosophical contemplation for ecstatic colloquial manner “It voices my joys and experiences. The post-Aurobindonians my longings, my hopes and it in useful to disdained the quality and excellence of the me Aurobindonian poetry on the ground of As cowing is to crows or roaring to the lions exuberance of romanticism and mysticism and resolved to bring this trend of writing it in human speech ,the speech of the mind to an end . With this objective in view they that is here and not there (4) publicly proclaimed their break with the past The Aurobindonians were complacent in with the slogan that “ the phase of Indo- their world of myths and legends and gods Anglian romanticism ended with Sarajini and goddess. In the light of these themes Naidu”.( 6) they explored the deeper levels of human The new modernist poets have a tendency to mind and truth of life and death enshrouded exploit their own self own self and in the mist of mystery. These themes of personality in poetry for which it becomes a myths and mystical experiences had a deep vehicle of autobiographical reflection of the fascination and appeal to them. The post- poet’s personal experiences .From this Aurobindonians on the other hand were viewpoint of use of self, the new poets echo psychologically pre-occupied with their self- the British poets who have written poetry scrutiny and self-introspection. It is pertinent about their own” experiences. here to refer –to M.K. Naik’s views about Parthasarathy’s “Rough Passage” Ezekiel’s Indian Literature of the post-Independence “Events and Enterprise”, “Night of the period “ The era of hope, aspiration and scorpion”, Ramanujan’s “Small Scale certitude was gone: an age of merciless self- Reflections on a Great House”, “Love Poem scrutiny, questioning and ironic exposure for a Wife”, and Kamala Das’s “My Grand commenced" Among the post- Mother’s House”, Jaisurya”, “Hot Noon at Aurobindonaians, there are poets like Malbar” etc are the poems of an Ezekiel, Parthasarathy, Dom Moraes, autobiographical nature. Unlike these poets Ramanujan, A.K. Mehrotra and Kamala Das the Aurobindonians were far away from who are well known for exposition of their their self. Their poetry is bereft of any self- inwardness. They do not take delight in revelation or autobiographical reflection philosophical speculation about life and They on the other hand luxuriated in the death but they are psychologically obsessed versification of mystical lyrics but the post- in the discovery of their own cultural Aurobindonians dismissed such themes heritage and roots. The other themes of based upon these elements .They on the psychological significance are a sense of contrary adopted contemporary social issues alienation. loneliness, nostalgic and exile of universal interest . M.K. Naik comments that impart a distinct identity to the new “it is strange that certain Indian critics who poetry. The post- Aurobindonians resorted reverently genuflect before The Wreck of to nostalgic reminiscences and dreamy Deuts land, Ask Wednesday and The Four experiences for a kind of pleasure where as Quartets should turn up their noses at these the Aurobindonian remained engrossed in mystical lyrics”(7)

Volume IV Issue IV: August 2017 (4) Editor-In-Chief: Dr. B.N. Gaikwad Research Innovator: International Multidisciplinary Peer-Reviewed Journal ISSN: Print: 2395-4744 http://research-chronicler.com/resinv/index.asp ISSN: Online: 2348-7674 Another feature of poetry is the theme of imbued with a new spirit of creativity, love. Both the groups of poets have written innovation, experiment and novelty. David poems of love but in the conception and Mc Cutchion remarks ”the poets of fifties treatment of love they differ entirely from were fresh, inventive and individual”(8) each other. Ezekiel, Kamala Das, Shiv K. The former group of poets was writing Kumar, Pritish Nandy, Daruwalla and lyrical verse, traditional narrative poetry and Mahapatra have written poems on love, poetic drama but the latter group was pre- mostly in earthly or at best psychological occupied with free verse and prose poems. terms and with regard to marriage or Nandy is pre-eminently known for his prose personal relations. In contrast to this kind of poems, which constituted a new erotic love, the Aurobindonians conceived breakthrough in Indian poetry in English. of celestial love of immortal character. The The Aurobindonians considered poetry a love between Urvasie and Pururavus, vehicle of spirit and the world of body. It Chitrangada and Urjoon, Savitri and served as a communication between Man Satyavan transcends the boundary of and God. Unlike them, the post- vulnerability, inconsistency and transience. Aurobindonians treat poetry as a medium of Their love assumes spiritual significance manifestation of all creative urges. Modern and attains fulfillments. The lover conquers poets embody in their verses new areas of death by love. They never experience any thoughts and philosophy such as Darwinism, kind of frustration, dejection and anguish in Marxism, Buddhism, Gandhism, Feminism, love as Keats, Yeats and Kamala Das had existentialism, positivism and Freudian felt in their real life. The lovers in the poetry psychology. The new poets ‘ vision of life is of the Aurobindonians sublimate their love coloured by humanism and irony but the by virtue of their fidelity , intensity and Aurobindonians perceive life mystically consistency. These disciples of Sri and symbolically. Aurobindo treated love on a higher spiritual plane. They also deal with mystical love In respect of versification the between Man and God and Man and Nature. Aurobindonians continued to write in the Miltonic and Keatsian tradition. They used In writing these love poems the similes, images, symbols, meters, blank Aurobindonians have followed the Vedic verse and vocabulary provided by the British tradition that treats physical love as sinful poets . The poetic diction of Sri Aurobindo and as an impediment on the path of a was interlarded with Miltonic Latinized possible relationship between Man and expressions. His disciples too followed his God. Indian mythology is a storehouse of footsteps in the versification of poetry . K.D. tales of mythical love. It is out of this Sethna, N.K. Gupta, D.K. Roy, Romen and repertoire of stories of love that the other Aurobindonians wrote exactly or tried Aurobindonians have borrowed themes for to write exactly like their master. They were their love poetry. Whereas the trained in the art and technique of writing by Aurobindonians were inspired by a cult of Sri Aurobindo himself. The poems, written beauty, lyrical passion and intensity of by K.D. Sethna were corrected by him. The emotion, the post-Aurobindonians were corrected scripts give evidence of this Volume IV Issue IV: August 2017 (5) Editor-In-Chief: Dr. B.N. Gaikwad Research Innovator: International Multidisciplinary Peer-Reviewed Journal ISSN: Print: 2395-4744 http://research-chronicler.com/resinv/index.asp ISSN: Online: 2348-7674 training imparted by the master. They all is often called the poetry of obscurity and cultivated an elevated style of writing. ambiguity from this viewpoint. The post- Unlike them, the post-Aurobindonians drew Aurobindonians used images in poetry. inspiration from P. Lal to write a new kind Women, body of women, city and nature are of poetry in accordance with the canons of recurring images, which assume symbolic versification laid down in the Kavita overtones. Unlike these poets, the Manifesto(1959) . These poets searched for Aurobindonians used the traditional symbols new and innovative techniques of expression to avoid confusion and vagueness. They and innovated their own art and artifice. used various elements of nature as symbols. They used the colloquial style and idioms to The Aurobindonians imbibed the influences give vent to their Indian sentiments and of Milton, Wordsworth, Keats and Tennyson sensibility. Their poetry became an and assimilated them to their own Indian expression of their private voices. Satire and sensibility. The post-Aurobindonians on the irony are salient features of the Post- other hand criticized the Aurobindonians as Aurobindonian poetry. Irony is noticed for imitators on this ground of such absorption example in Ezekiel’s”, Afternoon poem,” of Western influences. Ironically, they The Egoist’s Prayers” and “Theological” . In forgot that they themselves had written Shiv K. Kumar’s “In my Co-Respondent” poetry under the influence of the British and and Pilgrimage”, we perceive an implicit Americans poets, like Hopkins, Yeats Eliot, irony. Similarly Daruwalla uses irony in the Pound, Wyndham, Lewis and Allen Tate. In poem “Fire-Hymn.” the words of M.K. Naik “they (two groups Symbolism is used by the new modernist of poets Pre-Independence and post- under the influence of the French poets and Independence poets) have merely exchanged the kinglog of Milton, Shelley and Tennyson British poets like Eliot, Yeats and Wyndham and Lewis. H.M. William “in many cases for the kingstork of Pound, Eliot and Yeats. the new poetry was generated by the It is specially Eliot, who is too much with acceptance of a new set of influences .In these poets, for poetry for them seems to be place English and Indian Romantic poets almost synonymous with Eliotry.” The post- Aurobindonians revolted with an anti- came the influence of the British poets or the modernist poets, who echo Yeats, Eliot and Aurobindonian spirit against the persistence Pound”.(9) of old tradition of writing romantic and mystical lyrics and professed their In Ezekiel’s poems, “Crow, “Night of the superiority to the Aurobindonians for their Scorpion” and “Enterprise” the underlying new kind of surrealistic and representative meaning of the poems can be inferred forms of poetry woven in a new thread of symbolically. To Ezekiel, the crow is a language. Nevertheless they reckoned their symbol of evil and sin. Likewise, the Aurobindonian predecessors as versatile scorpion in the “Night of the scorpion” poets in view of latter’s exquisiteness of suggests the pervading evils. These symbols versification Iyengar states “ Although the sometimes made poetry obscure. The poetry anti- Aurobindonians look upon Sri of A.K. Mehrotra, Mahapatra and Kolatkar Aurobindo as their Milton and Tagore and

Volume IV Issue IV: August 2017 (6) Editor-In-Chief: Dr. B.N. Gaikwad Research Innovator: International Multidisciplinary Peer-Reviewed Journal ISSN: Print: 2395-4744 http://research-chronicler.com/resinv/index.asp ISSN: Online: 2348-7674 Sarojini Naidu as romantic singing birds yet directions are different without any meeting they waged a war against them through point, the Aurobindonians and the post- criticism” .(11) Aurobindonians can never be reconciled at Despite the inception and predominance of any point of concordance or agreement in new tradition of poetry, there are poets like the line of Indian English poetry. B.B. Paymaster and Adil K. Sette, who Thus, both groups of poets sustain their own continue to write in the well-established tradition of versification and traverse along Aurobindonian tradition of poetry. In the their respective paths pioneered by their case of poets like Kamala Das, we find a masters. At the end we reassert in unique blend of the physical as well as the unequivocal terms the existence of two spiritual aspects of life. She writes about her traditions, the Aurobindonian and the post- personal physical love and aspires for its Aurobindonian, which in other terms are spiritualism transcendence. She desires to traditionalism and modernism or new transmute her love to in the mythical love of symbolism and new modernism, Although Radha and Krishna. these traditions have conflicting groups of There are also poets among the post- poets in respect of differences in aesthetics Aurobindonians, who instead of siding with of poetry and ideology yet both have any of these two groups stand poised generated talented and versatile poets and between them. Mokashi Punekar and R.Y. rich poetical works which are reckoned as Deshpande are modernist poets, who steer a the literary monuments of world literature. middle course and oscillate between the Aurobindonians and post-Aurobindonians, between traditionalists and the new modernists and between the sentimentalists and the intellectualists. Mokashi-Punekar voices his predicament in the poem” The Rejected Race”. He writes “We poets are race Rejected by two worlds” The contrastive study of the poetical features and traditions of the Aurobindonians and the post-Aurobindonians drives us to a conclusion that these two groups of poets stand irreconcilable because they march uncompromisingly along two different paths of poetry that run in opposite directions. The former followed the path of the Vedic and Upanishadic tradition in poetry and the latter group proceeded along the new path of modernism to post-modernism. Since their Volume IV Issue IV: August 2017 (7) Editor-In-Chief: Dr. B.N. Gaikwad