Baidyanath Mishra , who with his independent and resilient intellect came to known as “Yatri”, “Nagarjun” and most remarkably as peoples’ poet/Jankavi ,naturally left overarching effects on the modern Maithili and Indian literature. As per existing custom in Mithila, he was born at his maternal place {Village Satlakha, Madhubani} on June 30, 1911. But alas, only at the young age of three, he lost mother and consequently the attention of father, who was by nature a wanderer and free from holding the worldly obligations. Such familiar stiffness made him untimely matured towards the worldly affairs.
Although defying all odds, young Baidyanath started learning through traditional Sanskrit/Maithili education in his maternal village and later moved to Kashi in the quest of knowledge. He was a great informal learner, that adaptability might be shaped with the chronic adverseness he faced but finally that established him as an avid scholar of Maithili, Sanskrit, Hindi, Bangla, Pali, Prakrit. Further in his formative years, he established very intimate ties with the natural impulses that kept him highly sensible throughout his literary voyage. Probably, with feeble familiar back up, he sensed the importance of travelling and relentless learning albeit that didn’t deter him to be in functional material fray. So, he married to Aprajita Devi, who played atleast half role in making of this poet; with amazing determination and sacrifices, she brought up her six child and allowed freedom to “Yatri” for continuing with the humane aspirations, that proved catalyst in his literary productions.
Except of short overtures in family, 1930’s onward “Yatri” became completely align with writing and traveling, and rest is history before us about his broader perspectives and its literary expression. Primarily and even ultimately, he was closer to instinct rather following mechanical cognition order, which he demonstrated by remaining at ease and keeping himself away from the institutional engagements, except a short stint as teacher in Saharanpur {UP}in very early phase of transition. Here, he was closer to Tagore; both emphatically valued the natural human instinct in place of surpassable artificial affiliations. The basic difference between these two great poets were of not world views but of approaches-Tagore with his aristocratic background was obviously an elitist unlike the “Yatri” whose background and construction of psyche both were akin to people-centric and based on the social realities.
If culturally, Mithila was closer to Bengal, then on socio-economic counts, there used to exist a huge drift…lack of urbanization and western temptations were among the foremost reasons of reality check. Although, he was too a keen naturalist like Tagore but again the differences were on the institutional levels. If Tagore had vision for an institution like Shantiniketan and later institutionalizing his own works too; “Yatri”, on the other hand had incessant devoid for such possibilities. A stout reason was ofcourse the aloofness of Mithila from outside world unlike Bengal during the British colonialism and in post-colonial years. “Yatri” missed a dynamic Mithila, and this region an enlighted mediation from him that could have made a huge difference on socio-cultural fabric in this region. But in absence, things of importance met to lackluster treatment at large and Maithili way of life never impacted the national mainline as it should have. Though with his unique standing against the unfortunate social stigmas, he heralded a revolutionary wave of progressivism inside and outside of the Mithila and established himself as first Maithil on national and international literary arena.
Meanwhile, in the course of experiments with the knowledge, this freethinker came under the Buddhist influence-though it was short lived as he couldn’t suppress his embedded Maithili progressivism albeit before that he travelled across the Tibbat, Central Asia and Srilanka (Kelania). Even after, he left the Buddhist commune, his cult name “Nagarjun” followed him forever-it reminds another contemporary literary figure and also a Buddhist, Rahul Sankritayan. In late 1930’s, he again entwined with a new ideology-Communism, though it remained his part of vision throughout the remaining life. He was a progressive minded, both in life and writing-he understood the Communism through direct experiences in U.S.S.R, and kept alive that touch within or outside the purview of Indian Communist Parties. What he did best with ideology, he supported it as movement rather a means of party blocks that happened in India post 1962.
“Yatri” had struggled against the authoritative extreme, equally during the independence struggle against British and in post-independent India with authoritarianism of political classes…he spent time in Jail (1939-42) and again in 1975-77 during emergency. Like a true maverick, he remained attracted with the peoples’ causes, for their upliftment, he struggled with the eminent peasant leader, Swami Sahjanand Saraswati (Founder, Kisan Sabha) during colonial period and later under the socialist movements including in JP Movement. “Yatri” was among the finest part of Bengali Hungry Generation Poets, there could be no doubt, why he is regarded only next to Tulsidas in India through his stellar convictions for mass folks.
Away from Geographical boundaries, his literary expression has closeness with high universality but whenever, he touched the themes of Mithila, a unique and very close affinity came out there. He had in mind the prevailing realities of Maithili socio-economic scene and its challenges for an equitable and just society. It was a positive co-incidence that some of iconic names in Maithili literature-Harimohan Jha, Phanishwar Nath “Renu”, Rajkamal Chaudhary, Lalit, Dhumketu and in politics-Bhogendra Jha, Chaturanan Mishra, Suryanarayan Singh, Shivchandra Jha, Lalit Narayan Mishra were his contemporaries – theirs collaboration made huge impacts on the socio-cultural atmosphere in Mithila.
With broadness of canvasses and amazing hold over translation skills, his work hardly leaves any technical dialectism between Maithili-Hindi; most of his work is available in both the language. As a poet, he could visualize beauty in oddness and grief in lavishness-so, writing on jackfruit or icefall at hill stations; both were very kin to him. His collection of poetries-“Patrahin Nagna Gaachh”, “Yugdhara”, “Satrange Pankhon Wali”, “Taalab ki Machhliyan”, “Khichhri Viplab Dekha Hamne”, “Hajaro-Hajaro Banhon Wali”, “Purani Juliyon ka Koras”, “Tume Kaha Tha”, “Aakhir Aisa Kya Kah Diya Maine”, “Es Gubbare ki Chhaya Me”, “Ye Danturit Mushkaan”, “Main Military ka Budhha Ghora”, “Baadal ko Ghirte Dekha Hai”, “Paka Hai ye Kathal” introduces to his wider reach among the common folks and intricacies of humanity. He was never been a subversive preacher despite having genuine anger against the social and political system, instead his progressive stand enabled him to be a rational novelist, in this role; he forwardly acted as social change agent.
His novels-“Ratinath ki Chachi”, “Balchanma”, “Baba Batesar Nath”, “Nai Puadh or Nav Turia”, “Barun ke Bete”, “Dukhmochan”, “Ugratara”, “Jamania ka Baba”, “Kumbhi Paak”, “Paaro”, “Aasman me Chand Taare” exudes the diversity of Maithili as well as Indian villages under the new compelling challenges. With great exposure to the outside world, his memoirs, travelogue and even hundreds of published letters gives delight and zest to readers while exploring his writings. His collection of essays, “Annan Hinam Kriyanam”, work on culture “Desh Dashkam aa Krishak Deshkam/’, his travelogue “Baadlo ko Ghirte Dhekha Hai”, satire “Mantra Kavita” and “Aao Rani Han Dhoenge Palki” and many Bangla poetries introduces to his broader grasp with amazing expressions over the range of themes.
He had a unique credit of making a generation of writers/critics in both the Maithili and Hindi-fortunately that worked out well for him and overall literary scene. Like Renu, he never had to face the reckless wrath of preoccupied critics…foremost among them, even Namwar Singh couldn’t maintained his line of regionalism with him. Despite all wandering and fame, he remained essentially a non-possessive man attached to his route…his village Tarauni, nearest railway station, Tarsarai Muriya (East Central Railway, near the erstwhile princely town Darbhanga ) remained closest to his heart&soul. In 1998, he left the world from Khajasarai (Darbhanga) after streamlining his prolific literary works. On his birth centenary, my fond remembrance for this great literary figure, who was and still is a most loving BABA for many generations.
Atul Kumar Thakur
Thursday, April 29th 2011, New Delhi
Mail: summertickets@gmail.com
Showing posts with label Makers of Maithili Literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Makers of Maithili Literature. Show all posts
Friday, April 29, 2011
Friday, April 3, 2009
Dhumketu : An Unexposed Giant of Maithili Literature
Life: -
On 25th January 1932,Bholanath Jha ”Dhumketu” was born in an elite family of village Koilakh; then this village was the part of Raj Darbhanga. His forefathers were the resident of Ujjan village, but due to a matrimonial tie in the family of eminent scholar Umapati Upadhayaya, they were inhabited in Koilakh.Being born in an influential family, he got comfortable upbringing, but never distracted through the feudal manners. Although that phase of his village life provided him chances to enter in the arena of letters and traditional knowledge.
Due to feudal leaning of his family he used to have chances to visit and spent times at various Zamindari of Mithilanchal, but all such experiences could not altered his revolutionary and defying attitude towards the spoiling feudal order.
Indeed, he was a man of uncompromising nature….he kept it throughout his life. His transformation from Bholanath Jha to Dhumketu was an initiation of his revolutionary journey and his consistent switching in his material life. That even later caused for his pauper material condition and premature death, which remained the ultimate revelation of his struggle. Despite his nurtured family belongings, he was not a man of destiny. When he reached the age of institutional learning, he could not get proper backing from his conflict ridden family.
He earned his education through hard means .He got first class in his Matriculation exam in 1949, in 1951 he earned second class in his intermediate exam from Madhubani; this falling academic performance was caused by his active involvement in progressive activism and extremely resonant association with local communist leaders.
He further proceeded to prestigious Patna University for pursuing his higher studies, where he qualified B.A (1953) and M.A (1955) in Economics. After completion of his studies, he started working in Aryavarta press in Patna where he kept working from 1955 to 1957.But he found the stint unsatisfactory because it was not justifiable to his intellect.
So, finally he got away from his short tenure in Journalism and moved to a new voyage in academics. He joined R.R Campus (Janakpur, Nepal) as a lecturer of Economics in 1957, and kept working for a considerable phase, which ended in only in 1973. Meanwhile he got struck through a major blow with the untimely demise of his wife in 1965; in 1968 he remarried.
Like Rajkamal Chaudhary, he was also a man of contradiction, which is evident from his family life and creative productions where a lot of gap could be found between his revolutionary belief and its pragmatic action.
Though he spent a remarkable time of his academic working life in Nepal, but after the break of his stint in Janakpur (Nepal) due to his resistance against the discriminatory Panchayati System introduced in Nepal; he moved to his native place in Madhubani where he did two remarkable work by founding the two colleges in nearby areas, despite this he remained unmindful for a stable career.
In 1980, he moved again to Tribhuvan University (Kathmandu, Nepal) as an Associate Professor of Economics where he continued working till 1984 .He again got back to his home in 1984 because of personnel reasons, afterwards kept himself aloof from any institutional profile until 1997, when he again joined Tribhuvan University as Professor Emeritus where he keep working until close to his death on 6th August year 2000.
Once he quoted saying of famous philosopher T.S Elliot about the life”Where is the life, we are lost in living”, absolutely he refrained himself from absorbing in narrow aims of pleasure instead he lived in universal frame and remained a universal seekers for understanding the true meaning of life. Undoubtedly he was an alluring adventurist.
Literary Journey: -
Dhumketu was a gifted story teller; he was endowed with the great lingual skills with his wide range of studies in different languages including the world classics and humanities, which immensely contributed the development of Maithili language. Since initiation, he was oriented towards prose. His first published story in Maithili was Didi(sister,1952),which got high acclaim in literary circles that further encouraged him for more literary productions. Though he was inclined towards the prose but later he had also found taste to pen some great poetry in Maithili like “Dak Peen (Postmen, 1956)” and “Ek Ber Pher Rajdhani Main (Once again in the capital, 1977); which deserves better attention.
Dhumketu had enormous impact of Freudian Psychology like his contemporary great writer Rajkamal Chaudhary; they had many similarities in their ideology. Both defied the orthodox patterns of Maithil society and tried to penetrate in very complex corner of human mind.
Dhumketu believed story as a struggle between ID and EGO, so inner conflicts of mind canopied every theme of his literary stuffs. Once he wrote that I have no commitment to languages or literature only I am committed for peoples; who are real cause of my creative engagement. He remained a people’s oriented writer throughout his life.
He has written two memoirs in fond memory of his contemporary Rajkamal Chaudhary. First,”Vishwasht Avishwashniya (Confident Incredulous) and second, Suryapatan (Sunset).-both were published in Mithila Mihir just after the premature demise of his contemporary friend. Even his two obscure articles posses all the qualities to be called a master craft.
It was quite unfortunate for a great writer like him to see only one published collection of stories (Agurban, 1980) in his life time, even though he masterly written more than forty stories, two novels and dozens of poems besides some memoir, travelogues and articles .One among his novel “Sannipat” serially published in an obscure magazine,”Bharti Mandan”, and his second novel “Mor Par (On Turning, year2000) could be published only after his death.
Two more works of him was published posthumously “Udyast (collection of stories2002-03) and second one was “Nav Kavitak Navinta (Novelity of New Poems); though it could be a matter of solace for him but definitely he deserved more credit for his lifelong contribution in literature.
For proper evaluation of his Maithili stories, we will have to back for a while to see his work in a new light. Because like Baidyanath Mishra” Yatri (Nagarjun, popularly known in Hindi literary world) and Rajkamal Chaudhary, he had also shown immense effort to cultivate the old orthodox plot of Maithili Society. His every work has binding with the lower strata of society and their daily struggle for existence besides this he also exposed the pseudo moral constraint of authoritative class.
His three stories, “Manukhak Devta (Men’s God), Kulta (Characterless) and “Bihairi (Storms) are genuinely deserves to be ties with ‘Yatri’s Paro (A short novel) and Rajkamal Chaudhary’s ”Sugna Sagun Bichare”.
A very minute depiction of relationships which is often crossed the socially approved threshold are unique characteristics of these stories. Dhumketu made utmost efforts to unleash the ugly orthodox norms of Maithil society, sometime even he sounded overtly too much vocal and impatient about the existing deformities.
Two other less known story “Hamara Aaur (We People)”and “Shivir (Camp)” present a very candid delineation of deteriorating morale.
There is a wide range of diversity in his creative plot, which being unleashed from reading his some more stories. Like, “Dansh” presents a very complex relationship in a long span of time frame from Childhood to Young hood within a set of desire between its male and female protagonist.
“Sanbandh Bodh” and “Manukhak Devta” presents two very different and unusual attitudes towards relationship; “Sambandh Bodh” visualises lost relationship to an extreme level. On the other end”Manukhak Devta (Mens God)” narrates an awkward relationship between a maritally disturbed daughter and an aged widower father.
The story constructed around the very close social fabrics but demonstrate very hard and unpleasant transaction of conditions; this is an extremely serious work of Dhumketu, by which he tried to assault on the discriminatory matrimonial structure of Mithila. It’s ended with many question marks on social institutions. His, another story “Pita” focused a very alluring relationship between father and son, in which father ethically superseded and formatted a fine balance in family order.
In my views three of his stories deserve lot of accolades for its relentless sensible pursuits of throughout the theme. First,” Bauasin (Daughter in law)” shows an acute picture of falling feudal structure in which its lone survivor represents a metaphor of its demise. Second “Vightan (Separation)”lucidly visualises the child psychology and its articulation on religious occasions, which ended with the honest confessions from its every prime characters.
Third,”Udyast” establishes a micro observation of disabled and downtrodden people’s life, which are generally overlooked from social inclusion. Indeed, Dhumketu proved his commitment towards people’s aspirations, which assisted him to broaden his horizons and set out his desired creative world.
Dhumketu, reached to the zenith of his creativity by writing most comprehensive and detailed novel in Maithili language “Mor Par (On Turning, year 2000)” which is based on time frame between 1945-1970, though also consists some pictures of 1942 movements as well.
The novel emerges from the transformational phase of independence and in later course with the development of happenings; it raises questions on relevance of Indian Independence. Like all the previous works, Dhumketu reset the landscape of falling feudal order in which he analyzed the post independent rural India through creating a family construct inside.
The protagonists ‘Sadashiv Jha (Sada Bhai)’and Guna, illustrates a complex set of relationship between them. Guna being the cousin, daughter of Daijee and widow of fellow comrade Dukhran; impulses Sada Bhai to share in her misfortune and tries best for her emancipation, but as the novel ended with the suicide of Guna, his efforts turn into void. Before such outcome, Dhumketu very carefully dealt the class separation rather relying on cast or religious parameter in Zamindari of Lal Bachha and his successor Bhaiya Jee.
Yashodar, father of sada presents typical position of a close confident under the limit of relationship, a class divides frequently occurs during entire novel. On the other hand, second mother of Sadasiv represents unique woman character of Maithili society, because of her ethical and affectionate character and with no worldly lust.
Dhoomketu also successfully had shown the contradictory characters of revolutionary by comparing Suri Bhai and Dukhran. Breakthrough of opportunities and defeat of sacrifice superbly produced by comparing these two phase of communist movement. Indeed, his novel “Mor Par”is a masterpiece in Maithili language, which authoritatively characterised the subtle incidents of contemporary Maithili society in a very responsive manners.
No doubts he heightened the limit of literature in judging the social and individual ills. Dhumketu, like his name secured his position in Maithili literature and awoken the mass people for their upliftment from impractical social and moral constraints. He dreamt for a tolerant and egalitarian society, for which he remained incessantly aspired throughout his life. A man can only perform his duty; it is up to successive generation how they rate the works done in back…literary contribution of Dhumketu deserves a fresh look from literary commoners and luminaries!
Atul Kumar Thakur
New Delhi, April 3rd, 2009
On 25th January 1932,Bholanath Jha ”Dhumketu” was born in an elite family of village Koilakh; then this village was the part of Raj Darbhanga. His forefathers were the resident of Ujjan village, but due to a matrimonial tie in the family of eminent scholar Umapati Upadhayaya, they were inhabited in Koilakh.Being born in an influential family, he got comfortable upbringing, but never distracted through the feudal manners. Although that phase of his village life provided him chances to enter in the arena of letters and traditional knowledge.
Due to feudal leaning of his family he used to have chances to visit and spent times at various Zamindari of Mithilanchal, but all such experiences could not altered his revolutionary and defying attitude towards the spoiling feudal order.
Indeed, he was a man of uncompromising nature….he kept it throughout his life. His transformation from Bholanath Jha to Dhumketu was an initiation of his revolutionary journey and his consistent switching in his material life. That even later caused for his pauper material condition and premature death, which remained the ultimate revelation of his struggle. Despite his nurtured family belongings, he was not a man of destiny. When he reached the age of institutional learning, he could not get proper backing from his conflict ridden family.
He earned his education through hard means .He got first class in his Matriculation exam in 1949, in 1951 he earned second class in his intermediate exam from Madhubani; this falling academic performance was caused by his active involvement in progressive activism and extremely resonant association with local communist leaders.
He further proceeded to prestigious Patna University for pursuing his higher studies, where he qualified B.A (1953) and M.A (1955) in Economics. After completion of his studies, he started working in Aryavarta press in Patna where he kept working from 1955 to 1957.But he found the stint unsatisfactory because it was not justifiable to his intellect.
So, finally he got away from his short tenure in Journalism and moved to a new voyage in academics. He joined R.R Campus (Janakpur, Nepal) as a lecturer of Economics in 1957, and kept working for a considerable phase, which ended in only in 1973. Meanwhile he got struck through a major blow with the untimely demise of his wife in 1965; in 1968 he remarried.
Like Rajkamal Chaudhary, he was also a man of contradiction, which is evident from his family life and creative productions where a lot of gap could be found between his revolutionary belief and its pragmatic action.
Though he spent a remarkable time of his academic working life in Nepal, but after the break of his stint in Janakpur (Nepal) due to his resistance against the discriminatory Panchayati System introduced in Nepal; he moved to his native place in Madhubani where he did two remarkable work by founding the two colleges in nearby areas, despite this he remained unmindful for a stable career.
In 1980, he moved again to Tribhuvan University (Kathmandu, Nepal) as an Associate Professor of Economics where he continued working till 1984 .He again got back to his home in 1984 because of personnel reasons, afterwards kept himself aloof from any institutional profile until 1997, when he again joined Tribhuvan University as Professor Emeritus where he keep working until close to his death on 6th August year 2000.
Once he quoted saying of famous philosopher T.S Elliot about the life”Where is the life, we are lost in living”, absolutely he refrained himself from absorbing in narrow aims of pleasure instead he lived in universal frame and remained a universal seekers for understanding the true meaning of life. Undoubtedly he was an alluring adventurist.
Literary Journey: -
Dhumketu was a gifted story teller; he was endowed with the great lingual skills with his wide range of studies in different languages including the world classics and humanities, which immensely contributed the development of Maithili language. Since initiation, he was oriented towards prose. His first published story in Maithili was Didi(sister,1952),which got high acclaim in literary circles that further encouraged him for more literary productions. Though he was inclined towards the prose but later he had also found taste to pen some great poetry in Maithili like “Dak Peen (Postmen, 1956)” and “Ek Ber Pher Rajdhani Main (Once again in the capital, 1977); which deserves better attention.
Dhumketu had enormous impact of Freudian Psychology like his contemporary great writer Rajkamal Chaudhary; they had many similarities in their ideology. Both defied the orthodox patterns of Maithil society and tried to penetrate in very complex corner of human mind.
Dhumketu believed story as a struggle between ID and EGO, so inner conflicts of mind canopied every theme of his literary stuffs. Once he wrote that I have no commitment to languages or literature only I am committed for peoples; who are real cause of my creative engagement. He remained a people’s oriented writer throughout his life.
He has written two memoirs in fond memory of his contemporary Rajkamal Chaudhary. First,”Vishwasht Avishwashniya (Confident Incredulous) and second, Suryapatan (Sunset).-both were published in Mithila Mihir just after the premature demise of his contemporary friend. Even his two obscure articles posses all the qualities to be called a master craft.
It was quite unfortunate for a great writer like him to see only one published collection of stories (Agurban, 1980) in his life time, even though he masterly written more than forty stories, two novels and dozens of poems besides some memoir, travelogues and articles .One among his novel “Sannipat” serially published in an obscure magazine,”Bharti Mandan”, and his second novel “Mor Par (On Turning, year2000) could be published only after his death.
Two more works of him was published posthumously “Udyast (collection of stories2002-03) and second one was “Nav Kavitak Navinta (Novelity of New Poems); though it could be a matter of solace for him but definitely he deserved more credit for his lifelong contribution in literature.
For proper evaluation of his Maithili stories, we will have to back for a while to see his work in a new light. Because like Baidyanath Mishra” Yatri (Nagarjun, popularly known in Hindi literary world) and Rajkamal Chaudhary, he had also shown immense effort to cultivate the old orthodox plot of Maithili Society. His every work has binding with the lower strata of society and their daily struggle for existence besides this he also exposed the pseudo moral constraint of authoritative class.
His three stories, “Manukhak Devta (Men’s God), Kulta (Characterless) and “Bihairi (Storms) are genuinely deserves to be ties with ‘Yatri’s Paro (A short novel) and Rajkamal Chaudhary’s ”Sugna Sagun Bichare”.
A very minute depiction of relationships which is often crossed the socially approved threshold are unique characteristics of these stories. Dhumketu made utmost efforts to unleash the ugly orthodox norms of Maithil society, sometime even he sounded overtly too much vocal and impatient about the existing deformities.
Two other less known story “Hamara Aaur (We People)”and “Shivir (Camp)” present a very candid delineation of deteriorating morale.
There is a wide range of diversity in his creative plot, which being unleashed from reading his some more stories. Like, “Dansh” presents a very complex relationship in a long span of time frame from Childhood to Young hood within a set of desire between its male and female protagonist.
“Sanbandh Bodh” and “Manukhak Devta” presents two very different and unusual attitudes towards relationship; “Sambandh Bodh” visualises lost relationship to an extreme level. On the other end”Manukhak Devta (Mens God)” narrates an awkward relationship between a maritally disturbed daughter and an aged widower father.
The story constructed around the very close social fabrics but demonstrate very hard and unpleasant transaction of conditions; this is an extremely serious work of Dhumketu, by which he tried to assault on the discriminatory matrimonial structure of Mithila. It’s ended with many question marks on social institutions. His, another story “Pita” focused a very alluring relationship between father and son, in which father ethically superseded and formatted a fine balance in family order.
In my views three of his stories deserve lot of accolades for its relentless sensible pursuits of throughout the theme. First,” Bauasin (Daughter in law)” shows an acute picture of falling feudal structure in which its lone survivor represents a metaphor of its demise. Second “Vightan (Separation)”lucidly visualises the child psychology and its articulation on religious occasions, which ended with the honest confessions from its every prime characters.
Third,”Udyast” establishes a micro observation of disabled and downtrodden people’s life, which are generally overlooked from social inclusion. Indeed, Dhumketu proved his commitment towards people’s aspirations, which assisted him to broaden his horizons and set out his desired creative world.
Dhumketu, reached to the zenith of his creativity by writing most comprehensive and detailed novel in Maithili language “Mor Par (On Turning, year 2000)” which is based on time frame between 1945-1970, though also consists some pictures of 1942 movements as well.
The novel emerges from the transformational phase of independence and in later course with the development of happenings; it raises questions on relevance of Indian Independence. Like all the previous works, Dhumketu reset the landscape of falling feudal order in which he analyzed the post independent rural India through creating a family construct inside.
The protagonists ‘Sadashiv Jha (Sada Bhai)’and Guna, illustrates a complex set of relationship between them. Guna being the cousin, daughter of Daijee and widow of fellow comrade Dukhran; impulses Sada Bhai to share in her misfortune and tries best for her emancipation, but as the novel ended with the suicide of Guna, his efforts turn into void. Before such outcome, Dhumketu very carefully dealt the class separation rather relying on cast or religious parameter in Zamindari of Lal Bachha and his successor Bhaiya Jee.
Yashodar, father of sada presents typical position of a close confident under the limit of relationship, a class divides frequently occurs during entire novel. On the other hand, second mother of Sadasiv represents unique woman character of Maithili society, because of her ethical and affectionate character and with no worldly lust.
Dhoomketu also successfully had shown the contradictory characters of revolutionary by comparing Suri Bhai and Dukhran. Breakthrough of opportunities and defeat of sacrifice superbly produced by comparing these two phase of communist movement. Indeed, his novel “Mor Par”is a masterpiece in Maithili language, which authoritatively characterised the subtle incidents of contemporary Maithili society in a very responsive manners.
No doubts he heightened the limit of literature in judging the social and individual ills. Dhumketu, like his name secured his position in Maithili literature and awoken the mass people for their upliftment from impractical social and moral constraints. He dreamt for a tolerant and egalitarian society, for which he remained incessantly aspired throughout his life. A man can only perform his duty; it is up to successive generation how they rate the works done in back…literary contribution of Dhumketu deserves a fresh look from literary commoners and luminaries!
Atul Kumar Thakur
New Delhi, April 3rd, 2009
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
