MHD-2 Block 2 Unit 4

 

This topic is about the kavya of Jaishankar Prasad. It is better to have a prerequisite knowledge about Prasad's times, his Chhayavadi style, and the poet that he was in terms of his creativity. With his poems, Prasad had conveyed his special brand of emotions, his own train of thoughts and beliefs, all this could still fit in the criteria of Chhayavad. Yet, it is important to reach to the deepest recesses of feelings that Prasad's poems can invoke. Prasad too contributed in his own unique way to lay the foundation stone of Chhayawad. 

Jaishankar Prasad's major poems range from 'Prem Pathik' to 'Kamayini'. 

A collection of poems by Prasad:

http://kavitakosh.org/kk/%E0%A4%9C%E0%A4%AF%E0%A4%B6%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%95%E0%A4%B0_%E0%A4%AA%E0%A5%8D%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%B8%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%A6

Prem Pathik ebook:

https://www.rekhta.org/ebooks/prem-pathik-jaishankar-prasad-ebooks

Kanan Kusum, Chitradhar, Jharna, Ansu, and Leher were all composed by this great poet somewhere in between these two compositions. 

Prasad came during the period when Chhayawad was just seeing its rise. And, these lines from 'Jharna'  mark the beginning of a line of Chhayawad:

There is something secretive deep down. 

Its source is mellifluous, mellifluous is its wave

I cannot help but marvel at the practical way and khadi boli Hindi in which this sweetness has been delivered. These two lines feel to me like meetha paan, very flavourful, but spicy and humid at the same time. Nevertheless, it fills my mouth with a mellifluous fragrance.

Modern bhaav is different from the bhaav that predates it. Maybe it was the contact with the British or the wiping away of superstitions at a break neck speed, but the world of Hindi speakers did change rapidly. And, Chhayawad was the name given to this modern form of verse expression of practical and modern Bhaav. Chhayawad became the medium of expression of this Nava-jagaran which found itself wedded to the feeling of modern Indian nationalism and social awareness. 

Mother nature who has always been an integral part of the Indian culture too got a prime position in this new Chhayawad. Jaishankar Prasad himself called Nature as the reflection of Paramatma. 

The two decades spanning from 1916-36 saw the times of Chhayawad in Hindi Poetry. Though it was also the time between the two world wars, it was mainly the freedom struggle in India that shaped this movement. Freedom was the obsession of the Indians back so imagination became an integral part of literature. 

The Indians were reeling under the pressure of the barbaric British rule. It was their imagination and thought to be set free that led them to join the freedom struggle. This imagination of a free nation free from oppression also saw its influence on free thinking in literature. 

Chhayawad started with the coming of the Mahatma at the center of the world stage. On the one hand, Ahimsa and Satyagraha took the forefront on the political stage, and on the other hand, Chhayawad reveled in beauty of subtle feelings.