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