Nagarjun

This article is about the 20th century Indian poet. For other uses, see Nagarjuna (disambiguation).
Nagarjun
Born Vaidya Nath Mishra
(1911-06-30)30 June 1911[1][2]
Satlakha Village, Madhubani District, Bihar
Died 5 November 1998(1998-11-05) (aged 87)
Khwaja Sarai, Darbhanga district, Bihar[3]
Other names Yatri
Occupation Poet, writer, essayist, novelist
Years active 1930–1994
Spouse(s) Aparajita Devi
Awards 1969:Sahitya Akademi Award
1994: Sahitya Akademi Fellowship

Nagarjun (Yatri, Baba Nagarjun, Vaidya Nath Mishra) (30 June 1911 – 5 November 1998) was a major Hindi and Maithili poet who has also penned a number of novels, short stories, literary biographies and travelogues, and was known as Janakavi- the People's Poet.[4][5]

Personal life and biography

Early life and education

Baba Nagarjun was Born as Vaidya Nath Mishra, in 1911, in the village of Satlakha in Madhubani District of Bihar, India, which was his mother's village, his original village is Tarauni in Darbhanga district, Bihar. He later converted to Buddhism and got the name Nagarjun. His mother died when he was only three, and his father being a vagabond himself, couldn't support him so young Vaidya Nath thrived on the support of his relatives, and the scholarships he won on the account of him being an exceptional student. Soon he became proficient in Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit languages, which he first learnt locally and later at Varanasi and Calcutta, where he was also semi-employed, while pursuing his studies. Meanwhile he married Aparajita Devi and the couple had six children.

Career

He started his literary career with Maithili poems by the pen-name of Yatri (यात्री) in the early 1930s. By the mid 1930s, he started writing poetry in Hindi. His first permanent job of a full-time teacher, took him to Saharanpur (Uttar Pradesh), though he didn't stay there for long as his urge to delve deeper into Buddhist scriptures, took him to the Buddhist monastery at Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, where in 1935, he became a Buddhist monk, entered the monastery and studied the scriptures, just as his mentor, Rahul Sankrityayan had done earlier, and hence took upon the name "Nagarjun". While at the monastery, he also studied Leninism and Marxism ideologies, before returning to India in 1938 to join 'Summer School of Politics' organised by noted peasant leader, Sahajanand Saraswati, founder of Kisan Sabha.[6] A wanderer by nature, Nagarjun spent a considerable amount of his time in the 1930s and the 1940s travelling across India.

He also participated in many mass-awakening movements before and after independence. Between 1939 and 1942, He was jailed by the British courts for leading a farmer's agitation in Bihar. For a long time after independence he was involved with journalism.

He played an active role in Jayaprakash Narayan's movement prior to the Emergency period (1975–1977), and therefore was jailed for eleven months, during the emergency period. He was strongly influenced by Leninist-Marxist ideology. This was one of the reasons that he never found patronage from the mainstream political establishments.

He died in 1998 at the age of 87 in Darbhanga.

Works and literature

The subjects of his poetry are varied. Effects of both his wandering tendencies and activism, is evident in his middle and later works. His famous poems like Bādal kō Ghiratē Dēkhā hai (Hindi: बादल को घिरते देखा है), is a travelogue in its own right. He often wrote on contemporary social and political issues. His famous poem Mantra Kavita (मंत्र कविता), is widely considered the most accurate reflection of a whole generation's mindset in India. Another such poem is Āō Rānī Hama Ḍhōēṅgē Pālakī (Hindi: आओ रानी हम ढोएंगे पालकी), which sarcastically humiliates the then prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, for the extravagant welcome thrown by him for Queen Elizabeth.

Besides these accepted subjects of poetry, Nagarjun found poetic beauty in unconventional subjects. One of his most astonishing works is a poem based on a sow called With Sharp Teeth (पैने दाँतो वाली). Another such creation is a series of poems on a full-grown jackfruit.

Because of the breadth of his poetry, Nagarjun is considered the only Hindi poet after Tulsidas to have an audience ranging from the rural sections of society to the elite. He effectively freed poetry from the bounds of elitism.

Languages

Maithili was his mother tongue and he authored many poems, essays and novels in Maithili. He was educated in Sanskrit, Pali, and Hindi. Hindi remained the language of the bulk of his literature. The Hindi of his works varies from highly sanskritized to vernacular forms. He was a poet of the masses, and preferred to write in the language of immediate local impact. Therefore he never adhered to specific bounds of languages.

He also had good grasp of the Bengali language and used to write for Bengali newspapers. He was close to the Bengali Hungry generation or Bhookhi Peerhi poets and helped Kanchan Kumari in translating Malay Roy Choudhury's long poem JAKHAM in Hindi.

Awards

Nagarjun was given the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1969 for his historic book Patarheen Nagna Gachh, and the 'Bharat Bharati Award' by the Uttar Pradesh government for his literary contributions in 1983.[7] He was also honoured by the Sahitya Akademi Fellowship, India's highest literary award for lifetime achievement, in 1994.

Major literary works

Poetry

Novels

Essay collections

Maithili works

His work on culture has been published in the form of books entitled Desh Dashkam and Krishak Dashkam.

Further reading

References

  1. ↑ The People's poet – Nagarjun Library, University of Virginia. From Biblio, Nov–Dec 1998, p. 8-9.
  2. ↑ Unsung Heroes of Bihar – Nagarjun
  3. ↑ South Asia, Hindi poet, Nagarjun, dead BBC News, 5 November 1998.
  4. ↑ An ocean of intellect passes into history The Tribune, 29 November 1998.
  5. ↑ Obituary www.revolutionarydemocracy.org.
  6. ↑ Poets of Mithila – Nagarjun
  7. ↑ Hindi authors
Work online
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