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CHAPTER-II

THE POETRY OF ARUN KOLATKAR

2.1. BIOGRAPHY

2.1.1. Childhood and Education

Arun Kolatkar was born on 1st November 1932, in Kolhapur, Maharashtra in India. His

full name was Arun Balkrusha Kolatkar. His mother was Sitabai. His father was Balkrushna

(Tatya) Kolatkar, who was an officer in the Education Department in Kolhapur. He lived in a

traditional Hindu family, along with his uncle’s family. He has described his nine-room house as

a house of cards, five in a row on the ground, topped by three on the first, and one on the second

floor. He said that the floors had to be plastered with cow dung every week. His mother was not

much educated but she taught him moral and sense of life. Though his father was British

government officer, he was against British rulers. He completed primary and secondary

education from Rajaram High School and graduated in 1947 from J.J.School of Arts, Bombay,

where he met his childhood friend Baburao Sadwelkar. In 1993, he married Darshan Chhabda

who was sister of well-known painter Bal Chhabda. The marriage was opposed by both families

partly, because Arun Kolatkar was yet to sell any of his paintings. He completed diploma in

painting from J.J.School of Arts in 1957 and fine arts degree as a distance student.

His early years in Mumbai were poor but eventfully, especially his life was upcoming

artists, in the Rampart Row neighbourhood, were the artists’ Aid Fund Centre was located. He

spent his early life in Kolhapur. Kolhapur district is inherited by greatest social reformers and

distinguished politicians. He was influenced by Rajaram Mohan Roy, Rajarshri Shahu Maharaj

and Karmveer Bhaurao Patil. He kept his career in writing Marathi poems and English poems.

By 1966, his marriage with Darshan Chhabda was in trouble, and Kolatkar developed a

drinking habit. This went down after the marriage was dissolved by mutual agreement and he

married his second wife Soonu. Finally he died on 25th September 2004, succumbing to intestinal

cancer. He is survived by wife Soonu Kolatkar.

2.1.2. Profession and Works

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Arun Kolatkar had performed in many advertising agencies as a graphic designer and in

the art direction as an art Director also graphic designer in several advertising agencies like

Lintas. By mid-60s he was established as a graphic artist, and joined mass communication and

marketing, an eclectic group of creative headed by the legendary advertiser Kersy Katrak. It was

Katrak, himself a poet, who pushed Kolatkar into bringing out Jejuri. Kolatkar was, in

advertising Jargon, ‘a visualizer’, and soon became one of Mumbai’s most successful art

directors. His ‘Marathi’ poems of the 50s and 60s are written in the Bombay argot of the migrant

working classes and the underworld, part Hindi, Part Marathi, which the Hindi film industry

would make proper use of only decades later. In Marathi, his poetry is the quintessence of the

modernist as manifested in the ‘Little Magazine Movement’ in the 1950s and 60s. His early

Marathi poetry was radically experimental and displayed the influence of European avant-garde

trends like surrealism, expressionism and beat generation poetry. These poems are oblique,

whimsical and at the same time dark, sinister, and exceedingly funny. Arun Kolatkar has written

following poems:

1. Boatride [magazine, damn you, a magazine of the arts] 1968.

2. Sarpa Satra

3. Bhijki Vahi-2004

4. Droan-2004

5. Jejuri-1976

6. Kala Ghoda-2004

7. Arun Kolatkarchya Kavita-1977

8. Chirimiri-2004

9. The Boatride and other poems-2008. (Pras Prakashan).

10. Bloodaxe Books-2010. (Ed. By Arvind Krushna Mehrotra)

11. Heart of Bombay

12. Bombay made me Beggar

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2.1.3. Recognition and Awards

Marathi devotional poetry and popular theatre (Tamasha) had early influenced on

Kolatkar. American beat poetry, especially of William Carlos Williams had later influenced on

him. Along with friends like Dilip Chitre, he was caught up the modern shift in Marathi poetry

who was pioneer by B.S. Mardhekar. Arun Kolatkar had received many awards and rewards

from different institutes. He was awarded by “CAG Award” six times from ‘CAG’ institute. He

won the Kusumagraj Puraskar given by the Marathwada Sahitya Parishad in 1991 and Bahinabai

Puraskar was given by Bahinabai Prathistan (Hall of fame) in 1995. He won the commonwealth

award in 1977 for “Anthology of Jejuri”. He participated in Global Poet Gathering which was

managed by Bhopal Bhavan; he was representative of Marathi language and Marathi speaker. He

got “Sahitya Akademi Award” for “Bhijki Vahi” in 2004.

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2. 2. THE THEMES OF THE POETRY

2.2.1. Kolatkar’s Attitude to Scepticism and Disbelief

Arun Kolatkar has written a poem about the place of pilgrimage, giving to his poem the

title of Jejuri. But the most important aspect of his writing this poem is the faith which the

people of Maharashtra have in the miraculous powers of god Khandoba. It is the god to worship

whom people from different parts of Maharashtra, and some even from other parts of India, go.

They go there to pay their obeisance to the god, to worship the image of the god and to make

their offerings in an effort to placate him and win his favour. But Kolatkar has not written the

poem Jejuri to celebrate this god or to pay his personal tribute and homage to him. In fact he

does not even fully or whole-heartedly believe in idol- worship or the worship of gods. He

believes this worship to be kind of superstition, though he does not openly say so anywhere in

the poem. M.R. Satyanarayana says that “his vision of Khandoba –worship has a positive aspect

to it.” 1

Jejuri, the poem, depicts a direct and unflinching attitude of denial and disbelief. Kolatkar

seems to be debunking and denigrating not only people’s faith in this kind of worship but in all

kinds having its origin in a belief in the existence of gods and goddesses. So, “Kolatkar’s general

attitude is that of a rationalist. But, without a spiritual element in human life, this world would

seem to be ‘A Waste Land’ this view is expressed by M.R.Satyanarayana.” 2 Because, there is a

rush of people to visit Jejuri, people show temporary belief while visiting Jejuri, but they don’t

have real faith in gods and goddesses. They enjoy watching atmosphere of Jejuri.

Some poems of Arun Kolatkar’s from Jejuri indicate religious tradition and superstitions

which are; ‘An old woman’, ‘A song for a Vaghya’, ‘A song for a Murli’, ‘The Priest’, ‘The

Priest’s Son’, ‘Chaitanya’, ‘Yeshwant Rao’, ‘Manohar’, ‘A Little Piles of Stones’, and

‘Makarand’. The people from Maharashtra have blind faith about Lord Khandoba so; they visit

Jejuri to fulfil their faith and beliefs.

First of all, the main question to be discussed in detail is, how far does Jejuri appeal as an

analysis of the Hindu religious and spiritual sensibility for which India is rationally known? The

second question is, does the poem succeed in adequately shaping such a characteristic

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experience? The poem describes the poet’s visit to the town of Jejuri and the hill temple of

Khandoba or Lord Shiva as the incarnation also known as Malhari Martand. The visit was

completed in a half revolution of the sun, starting in the early morning and ending in the late

evening. According to Brijraj Singh “the entire experience is secularised and trivialised.” 3

The visitor is starkly non-involved and frankly impervious to a scene of devotion, a spirit

of worship which ordinarily and normally prompts thousands to visit Jejuri. It is striking and

intriguing to note that the experience is so familiar and yet so foreign to the protagonist who is an

Indian.

Here is a poem, ‘The Blue Horse’ indicates traditional and superstition attitude of singers’

on Khandoba’s vehicle.

God’s own children

making music.

The singers’ songs of a blue horse.

How is it then, that the picture on your wall

shows white one?

Looks blue to me. (BH – 51-52)

This poem indicates tradition and superstition. The singers sing a song around Lord Khandoba

and Blue horse. A drummer plays a small drum to keep company with singers. The drummer’s

face seems to have fallen down on itself; and his skin, which is black, has become even blacker

on account of the sun’s heat to which it has remained exposed for long period’s time. He plays on

his instrument with all the force which he can command; and he reinforces the singers hymn with

great vigour though he cannot play the tune correctly. The drummer has a step-brother who is

also a member of the chorus singers the hymn to tune of the drum and another musical

instrument. Arun Kolatkar describes the step-brother of drummer who has had attack of small-

pox which has left its makes on his face. He plays on a musical instrument which has just one

string, and he too plays on his instrument in a somewhat clumsy manner. Though singers sing a

musical song, God is regardless about how God’s children singing a religious song. As a

superstition the protagonist who keeps Arun Kolatkar turns to the priest and says that, while the

singer has been singing about the blue horse on which Khandoba has ridden away after killing

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the demons and after having murdered his wife, the picture on the wall of the priest’s house

shows a white horse. The protagonist asks question about horse. Then, he replies that the picture

on his wall seems to his eyes blue. And then, the priest’s son artistically import a bluish huge to

the picture on the wall in order to make it looks blue. In other words, he contrives to make the

white horse on the wall looks blue. In the meantime the drum continues to be beaten with great

force.

In a septic manner Arun Kolatkar says the singer of the hymn in praise of god Khandoba

is a toothless woman from whose throat the hymn issues with some difficulty as if something has

gone with her throat just as something may go wrong with electric wire and may cause a fuse,

with the result that the electric appliances in the house cease to function. Something is also

wrong with the tongue of toothless singer; in fact, her tongue seems to be half-burnt. Her tongue

seems to be throwing out a shower of sparks, so fervent and loud is the voice in which she is

singing.

There are two poems from Jejuri need a closer analysis as they seem to speak and stand

for the Jejuri ethos and traditions or superstitions which are ‘A song for Vaghya’ and ‘A song for

Murli’. According to myth a song for a Vaghya is a traditional poem, if we offer first son to Lord

Khandoba, is called Vaghya, who is a son of God Khandoba. Vaghya is religious traditional

person who lives close to Khandoba. He is the form of tradition. But Arun Kolatkar could not

fully accept this kind of tradition. According to B.N. Nemade “Kolatkar’s stance of unfaith is

totally an Indian of philistinism on the poet’s part.” 4

Both views seem extreme and untouchable. As for Nemade’s charge of faith, it is

sufficient to mention Charvak whose outlooks also belong legitimately to the Indian philosophic

tradition.

It’s my job to carry

this can of oil.

yours to see

It’s always full.

But if I can’t beg

I’ll have to steal.

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Is that a deal? (ASV-37)

To carry oil can is job of Vaghya, he asks for oil to pilgrims to light lamp. Sometime he begs to

them because it is his right, because he is the son of God.

Another poem is ‘A Song for a Murli’, she is daughter of god. It is also traditional poem;

Murli is also daughter of God Khandoba. The devotees who are childless, they vow to god

Khandoba in order to get child and they offer god Khandoba first child even they get girl. So, she

becomes Murli or Devdashi in her womanhood. She dances and entertains in front of god

Khandoba.

‘A Low Temple’ is another traditional poem, the poem pointing out that the pilgrim is a

modern intellectual sceptic and the priest is the traditional believer in religion. The protagonist

says;

You lend a matchbox to the priest.

One by one the gods come to light.

The eight arm goddess, the priest replied.

You can count.

But she has eighteen, you protest. (T LT -21)

The poem is a conversational, because it is the conversation between the priest and the pilgrim.

The tone is ironic while lighting the gods and answering the pilgrim and question the priest says

that goddess has eight arms but pilgrim says that there are eighteen arms the goddess in. The

poet’s scepticism is heightened by the protagonist’s coming out in the sun and lighting a cigarette

to smoke.

You come out in the sun and light a Charminar.

Children play on the back of the twenty foot tortoise. (TLT-21)

The last line, describing the children at play, is incidental; and yet it contains a vital bit of

information. Outside the temple, is the statue of a tortoise, twenty feet high; and the children

climb up to the top of the statue to play on the back of the tortoise. There must be some holy

belief relating to this statue also, though no indication of the nature of that belief has been

supplied by the poet here.

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Another tradition is at Jejuri to take turmeric and full shape coconut to offer to Lord

Khandoba and other gods and goddesses. As a result of that most of the priests’ sons collect and

again they sell to sellers. Many priests put donate boxes everywhere in order to collect money so,

they are about to eat pilgrims as economically. There is another tradition “Otibharne” for five

rupees, all attract towards that. It is good omen to newly married couple. It is tradition of

particularly shepherd community. They follow whole-heartedly. But it is totally sceptic sound of

poet. “Nangar” is also another magical tradition in Jejuri. It is located at downstairs of the

Khandoba temple. The people, particularly shepherded community believe to touch and to break

it at any cost in order to satisfy in their whole life. According to old man, it has been got priest

veneration in religion. Another tradition that, there is “Doli” those who are old and wealthy

person they reach at Khandoba and Kadepathar by Doli. The tradition from Jejuri is nothing but

mean of collecting money. That’s why narrator is doubtful about religious place.

Another sceptic poem is ‘Yeshwant Rao’. It is sceptic because Yeshwant Rao is called

second class god. The poet says:

Yeshwant Rao,

mass of basalt,

bright as any post box,

The shape of protoplasm

or a king size lava pie

thrown against the wall,

without an arm, a leg

or even a single head. (YR-50)

This god is believed to have no head, no hands, no arms, no feet, in fact, none of the limbs which

every other god possesses. Being headless, armless, and feetless, he is regarded as the patron god

of all those human beings who have lost one or other of their limbs either on account of some

dreadful of some accident. Those, who are short of a limb, go to Jejuri to offer worship to this

particular god who has the power to restore the lost limb to the petitioner who comes to him.

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Actually Jejuri is about the emotional aesthetic, linguistic, cultural, religious failure the

poet to grip with characteristically orthodox Indian situation. It is a casual westernized tourist’s

visit to wrong place. Arun Kolatkar beautifully blends the theme of morality and God. “Asked by

an interviewer whether he believed in God, Kolatkar replied I leave the question alone. I think I

have to take a position about God one way or the other. ” 5

Thus, this is however considering Jejuri as a quest poem without evincing any value

judgment or attitudinal stance useful only to ascertain extent. There are many poems are related

the sceptic attitude.

2.2.2. Quest, Investigation and Enquiry about Jejuri

Arun Kolatkar imagines the protagonist of his poem as actually paying a visit to Jejuri to

explore the beliefs under the influence which people travel to Jejuri in order to offer worship to

god Khandoba. For all we know, the protagonist may be the poet himself but the poet gives to his

protagonist the name Manohar to avoid individuality. The protagonist is a city bred man visiting

a small town which is more or less a village. The protagonist himself is a sort of tourist because;

he has no intension offering worship at the feet of the revered god Khandoba. He goes round the

place, scrutinizing every image of Khandoba and a number of other deities. He meets the priest

of the temple and asks him all sorts of questions about the temple and the god Khandoba. Arun

Kolatkar is that rare phenomenon among modern Indian English poets a bilingual poet, writing

both in English and his mother tongue (Marathi in this case). His shorter poems in English are

still uncollected, but his long poem, Jejuri appeared in 1976 and won the Commonwealth poetry

prize. Many of Kolatkar’s shorter poems, like Mehrotra’s, present a dark, surrealistic vision in

which his persona’s, “lion has bared its teeth”; the cat “knows dreaming as an administrative

problem”; and a hag devours orange/ in self –defence.” 6

In Jejuri, the technique yields better results. The thirty-one short sections of the poem

describe a visit to Jejuri, a famous temple near Pune District in Maharashtra. The poet’s

impressions of the temple are juxtaposed with those at the railway station at the end. The

surrealistic similarities startlingly disclose how at both the places (and no two places could be

more dissimilar) there is the same blind faith in ossified traditional and the establishment, the

same exclusiveness and the same dilapidation and general deadness. M.K. Naik says that “the

penultimate section, between Jejuri and the Railway station present an experience which

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provides a sharp contrast; ‘A dozen cocks and hens in a field of Jawar/In a kind of a harvest

dance; This is obviously a vision of primeval vigour and the joy of life sadly missing both from

the temple (i.e, religious tradition) and the railway station (machine civilization). The poet is

generally sceptical and ironic; though moments of sympathy (as when he encounters and old

beggar woman and a teenage wife) do break in. The poem opens with a journey (to Jejuri) and

closes with return journey in the offing, thus suggesting the motif of a quest.” 7

Jejuri is hardly an Indian Waste Land, since it lacks both the impressive social and

religious dimensions and the complexity of that modern classic, but it is certainly an experiment

in a fruitful direction. Arun Kolatkar meets the priest and priest’s son and asks questions about

temple and God Khandoba, though the priest is unable to answer these questions because he is

not a learned kind of priest but a priest who merely looks after the temple and collects the

offerings as his income for the work which he does. He is thus, a mercenary kind of priest; and

this priest is therefore regarded by the protagonist as one of the proofs of the hollowness of all

the claims which have traditionally been made on behalf of Khandoba. The priest has even

trained his young son to officiate whenever he himself is not available to escort the groups of

pilgrims into the temple or to take them to other places of interest near the temple close to the

temple is not only the five rocks which embody the five demons that had been killed but also a

huge stone statue of a tortoise; and these are worth seeing.

The poem Jejuri written by Arun Kolatkar, it has quest intension about the place Jejuri.

There is poem ‘The Priest’s Son’ it is merely asking questions;

says the priest’s son

a young boy

who comes along as your guide

as the schools have vacations

do you really believe that story

you ask him [TPS-30]

This poem depicts not the priest, who has been depicted in the poem entitled ‘The Priest’, but

‘The Priest’s Son’ who is a school going young boy and who is often deputed by his father to

take the tourists to different parts of the temple and to its environs and explain to them the

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significance of the various statues and of some of the hills. In this poem, the priest’s son takes the

protagonist to the different places connected with the various legends about Khandoba and his

deeds. There are five hills, situated close to one another, which are described by the priest’s son

to the protagonist as being the stone figures of the five demons whom Khandoba had killed. So,

protagonist asks many questions in order to seek legendary story about hills and rocks. The

priest’s son has no reply to this question and he, therefore looks uncomfortable. He merely

shrugs and looks away from the hills and away from the protagonist also. Then perceiving a

movement in the grass growing nearby, the young fellow says to the protagonist:

“look,

there is a butterfly

there”. (TF-30)

Thus, the priest’s son is clever enough to think of a device by means of which he can try to divert

the protagonist’s attention to evade answering the questions which the protagonist had asked. So,

according S.K. Desai, it is obvious that the narrator goes to Jejuri “not as a seeker...nor as a

pilgrim... . He is a kind traveller... a tourist.” 8

There is a poem ‘A Scratch’, the use of the word ‘Scratch’ in the title is intended to covey

the idea that, merely by scratching a stone at Jejuri, a pilgrim would come across or discover a

legend which proves the sanctity of the temple of god Khandoba;

that giant hunk of rock

the size of bedroom

is Khandoba’s wife turned to stone

the crack that runs across

is the scar from his broadword

he struck her down with

once in fit of rage [AC-32]

It is very difficult to decide at Jejuri what is god and what is stone. The dividing line between a

god and a stone at Jejuri is very difficult to determine because any stone may prove to be a holy

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stone personifying some god. In fact, any stone, which a pilgrim picks up, may prove to be the

image of a god represented by the first stone. A god’s cousin is as holy as the god himself; and,

therefore, every stone deserves worship. There is one huge portion of a rock, of the size of a

bedroom. This portion of the rock is Khandoba’s wife who had been turned into a stone figure by

Khandoba when he had struck her down with sword in his fit of fury. The crack, which runs

across the portion of the rock, is the scar of the wound which the wife had received from her

husband’s sword which had a broad blade. Thus, a very important event in the life of Khandoba

and in the life of his wife has been imprinted on this portion of the rock. The rock bears witness

to Khandoba’s murderer wife in a fit of anger.

The real intension of writing this poem is to know every event and being situation from

Jejuri. ‘An Old Woman’, this poem may be called a vignette. Here the poem has drawn the

portrait of an old beggar – woman, begging money from the pilgrims who go to Jejuri. Some

pilgrims would readily give money to an old beggar woman but there are other like the

protagonist who, having gone to Jejuri not as a pilgrim but as a casual visitor wanting to observe

what kind of a place Jejuri is and what goes on there, would not like to part with any money. But

the beggar woman in this poem is very persistent. She first offers to take the protagonist to the

Horseshoe shrine which he may not have seen before, when the protagonist tells her that he has

already seen that shrine, she yet clings to him like a burr and would not leave him. Ultimately the

protagonist’s refusal to give her any money makes him feel that the sky has fallen upon him and

that, while she still stands unaffected by this catastrophe, he feels that he has been reducing to a

nonentity.

The portrait of the old woman in this poem is very vivid, very realistic, very convincing,

and very interesting. The poet has used the right words to draw the portrait; and he has depicted

the woman’s behaviour and his own reactions to her most effectively. In fact, it is one of the

finest poems in the whole sequence. It is one of the few poems in which the protagonist feels

genuinely moved. In other words, the sight of the old woman and her behaviour arouses his

human sympathy even though, throughout the poem, he expresses his reluctance to give her any

money. The poem is a mode of simplicity and clarity. So, it is crystal clear motif of the poet

about Jejuri, is that to seek what is Jejuri about. He investigates every stone, tradition, culture,

legend which is connected with God, Goddess and place of Jejuri.

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2.2.3. The Power of Legend and Myth

Arun Kolatkar is an Indian poet. He is known as bilingual poet, simultaneously he writes

poems in English and his native language, Marathi. His famous poem, Jejuri, is related to

religion and myth. Actually most of the poems are written in an ironical and sarcastic vein.

Together these poems constitute a satire on the people’s religious beliefs which actually are

superstitions. Kolatkar exposes the legends about god Khandoba for what they really are. As

pointed out, they are superstitions and myths. Every legend and every myth tends to acquire a

stronger and still stronger hold upon the minds of the people with the passing of time. Years only

strengthen the legends and myths; and this is what seems to have happened not only in Jejuri but

in all the many places of pilgrimage in the various far flung stated of India, and also in other

countries. So, according to Shirish Chindhade “scratch a rock and legend springs.” 9

First of all, the main question to be discussed in detail is, how far does Jejuri appeal as an

analysis of the (contemporary) Hindu religious and spiritual sensibility for which India is

traditionally known? The second question is, does the poem succeed in adequately shaping such

a characteristic experience? The poem describes the poet’s visit to the town of Jejuri and the hill

temple of Khandoba or Lord Shiva as the incarnation also known as Malhari Martand. The visit

is completed in a half revolution of the sun, starting in the early morning and ending in the late

evening. The entire experience is ‘secularised and trivialised’. The visitor is starkly non-involved

and frankly impervious to a sense of devotion, a spirit of worship which ordinarily and normally

prompts thousands to visit Jejuri. It is striking and intriguing to note that the experience is so

familiar and yet so foreign to the protagonist who is an Indian.

We are made aware of this imperviousness at the very outset, in the opening poem, ‘The

Bus’ through a juxtaposition of the protagonist with an old man who is a fellow traveller in the

bus going to Jejuri. His destination appears to be well- defined by the caste mark between his

eyebrows. The protagonist cannot ‘step beyond the caste mark’ obviously because he has not

such well- marked (spiritual) destination but has only a few questions knowing about in his head.

Is it the tarpaulin flap that precludes a penetration beyond the symbolic caste mark? In traditional

Hinduism metaphysical ignorance is said to pose as a curtain between the devotee and the deity,

the same way as the tarpaulin flap prevents glimpses of the landscape outside the bus. The

journey to Jejuri is made by the state transport bus and return journey is by train, both being

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comparatively very comfortable modes in view of the fact that most devotees choose to take a

‘Dindi’ god’s banner and walk miles together from everywhere to Jejuri. Thus, the protagonist’s

physical comfort seems to engender an idle occupation of indulgence in minor material

superficialities. Eventually he seems to be rendered incapable of stepping ‘inside the old man’s

head’ with the caste mark which obviously symbolizes deep devotion. ‘The Bus’, thus, helps to

the style and stance adopted by the protagonist while comforting an experience which demands

an altogether different kind of sensibility.

This striking sense of emotional non-involvement is a persistent feature of Jejuri from

beginning to the end. Once down the bus at Jejuri, the camera eye of the protagonist who is

Manohar begins to on and also to peck at the wordily, sensuous experiences only, so much so

that even the ‘quick intake of testicles’ of hunched priest is not lost sight of. Then, from the

testicles to the mind of the priest where thoughts seem to hover rather on the wordily prospects

so a ‘Puran Poli’ in his plate than on the sacred Purans. The vacuous but expectant stare of the

priest is described as he;

he turns his head in the sun

to look at, the long road winding out of sight

with evenlessness

of the fortune line on a dead man’s palm. (TP-14)

The fortunate man seems to be frozen for a while only, as he rises, protease like assuming, first,

the form of lizard-stare, then a cat- grin, and finally almost a cannibal with ‘a pilgrim/ held

between its teeth’. The act of preying and plundering is enacted in the extended metaphor of the

cat –rat game, the priest being the cat and the pilgrim, the rat. One wonders whether this

surrealistic presentation is a phantasmagoria of a mind that is simultaneously mechanical like a

camera and miraculous like the poet’s simplistic imagination. For the religiously inclined reader

this is nothing short of skulduggery mixed with the sinister. In his Introduction to An Anthology

of Marathi poetry Dilip Chitre says, “Kolatkar finds a strange attraction for the sinister; in fact it

is almost a Kafkaesque Mania.” 10

Prashant K. Singha works out “in some details how this sense of the sinister persists in

some of it. Kolatkar’s Marathi poems translated in to English.” 11What one witnesses through out

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Jejuri is a journey through ‘The Heart of Ruin’. Since the eye of the protagonist is too

indulgently attracted by externalities he seems blind folded to certain touching realities; even the

‘Heart of Ruin’ can provide shelter to someone as derelict and as agonized as a mongrel bitch

who;

…… has found a place

for herself and her puppies (THR-16)

One wonders whether the references to the vacuous stare of the priest, the Heart of ruin, are in

some ways, pointers to a cultural lacuna on the part of the cameral eye. There is a customary

significance to the whole situation: Lord Khandoba is a protector of dogs that are often

enduringly called “Waghya”, “Khandya” reminding us of the close association between the god

and the dog:

God is the word

and I know it backwards …. (ASV-38)

The dog is inextricably connected with Khandoba the same way as the Mooshaka (mouse) is

with Lord Ganesha and the cows with Dattatrya and legend from Ramayana Hanuman is

associated to Lord Rama. Nothing, therefore, is desecrated by the mongrel bitch and her puppies.

So the heart of ruin, seen in this perspective, is in fact both a place of refuge and a house of God.

In his flair for the physical specification and curious juxtaposition, Kolatkar tends to lose sight of

the reality behind this various appearances. One is almost prone to remark that the heart of ruin is

an objective correlative for the protagonist’s own heart, a conjecture soon to be corroborated in

poems like, ‘Water Supply’ (p-18) and ‘The Reservoir’ (p-40), the reservoir was built by the

Peshwas, and now ;

There is nothing in it

Except a hundred years of silt. (TR-40)

Spiritual sources may be getting commercialized and given new forms but have they also gone

dry in the modern mind represented by the protagonist. Is there only the silt of irreverence and

scepticism left to cover and smother them? A continuous pattern displaying disbelief coherently

emerges as we read ahead. The little piece, ‘The Doorstep’;

33

That’s no doorstep.

It’s a pillar on its side.

Yes.

That’s what it is. (TD-17)

It helps to underline the persistence willing suspension of belief on the part of the observer. That

poses a difficulty in according to M R Satyanarayana’s view that “The Reservoir prepares the

reader for a possible symbol of a permanent drought. There is no water in the reservoir built by

the Peshwas. Whatever spiritual sources Jejuri might have boasted of in the past have dried up.” 12

It is possible to look at the situation from a different perspective; bhakti has percolated

down to the very grass roots of the latter-day life of Jejuri as testified by “Gorakshanath cutting

Saloon”, or Mhalasakant café” which even a casual passerby can see. Lord Khandoba is, after

all, a folk god, a god for the Bhahujan Samaj composed of the shepherds, the oilmen and the

tensors. Unless people have a living faith in receiving the grace of their god, they would not

name even their cafes and their hair cutting Saloons after Him, not to mention names of their

sons and daughters. This actually speaks for the living presence of god as a daily experience for a

people. The modern sensibility for the protagonist is blunted by forces of rationalism and

scepticisms with the result that there is incapacity to see the roots of traditional culture. The

device of wry humour also creates an impression of blasphemous banter. The ostensible welter in

a house of god being turned into a kennel or a little temple after all being “just a cowshed” has a

deeper unity and universality in the world of Jejuri which the protagonist misses.

It is quite revealing to note how mutually cancelling points of view come in clash

between the Jejuri sensibility and the traveller’s modern mind. If the former likes to invest every

stone and rock with divinity, the latter is bent on divesting them of any such virtue. The Jejuri

mind sees god in every stone. While the modern mind sees mere stone in images of god. What is

more, both insist on having them in their own manner, on their own perception of reality. To the

priest the image in the low temple is the eight- arms goddess, but;

A sceptic match coughs.

You can count.

34

But she has eighteen, you protest,

All the same she is still an eight arm goddess to the priest. (ALT-21)

Faith and scepticism being mutually exclusive, the modern mind persist-

Come off it

Said Chaitanya to a stone

In stone language.

Wipe the red paint off your face (C-20)

For the (pristine) Jejuri sensibility there is no contradiction between appearance and reality; they

are inextricably unified. The modern analytical mind, in its effort to reach the reality behind

appearance ‘murders to dissect’ and finds only stones with the justification –

what’s wrong

with being just a plain stone (C-20)

In spite of this insistence, the stone gods of Jejuri seems to be shatter proof like the “crone who

stands alone”, and would not give up their divine character. Pop a stone of Jejuri in your mouth

and you will spit out gods. The tension between the modern and the orthodox outlook is very

pithily revealed in ‘Chaitanya’. Gauranga Prabhu Chaitanya, a fifteen century Bengali saint, was

to be an incarnation of Krishna said, is said to have walked in to the ocean, in the deep blue

colour of which he saw the vision of Krishna himself. This transformation of the blue ocean into

the blue Krishna was obviously due to Chaitanya’s deep bhakti whereas, ironically enough the

modern Chaitanya sees stones, a mere mass of basalt (p-53) in the gods at Jejuri. Both the old

priest and his school-going son cherish this conviction that the stones of Jejuri are gods and the

hills are the demons that Khandoba killed, but the urban mind tends to devastate it:

do you really believe that story

you ask him

He doesn’t reply

but merely looks uncomfortable

shrugs and looks away (TPS-30)

35

Nemade asks exasperatedly, “Does one go to a historical or religious place to ask such foolish

question as the protagonist asks of the priest’s son whom, like a colonial tourist, he has hired as

his guide?” 13

Three poems from Jejuri need a closer analysis as they seem to speak and stand for the

Jejuri ethos and culture. They are ‘An Old Woman’, ‘A song for Vaghya’, and ‘A song for

Murli’. The old woman must be a one-time Murli, a Devdasi now old and therefore, without any

commercial prospects (when she asks)

‘What else can an old woman do

on hill as wretched as there?’ (AOW-25)

She is strictly like a burr and the question she asks is disturbing so much so that:

…..you are reduced

to so much small change

In her hand. (AWO-26)

Prashant K. Sinha observes, “The ugly old woman like T. S. Eliot’s ‘Gerontion’ is described in

pictures that show total decay. She is ‘stone deaf’. The window is ‘grimy’. When she devours

orange, ‘she paws/ she claws, an orange isn’t pealed, isn’t torn’. Her face ‘rushes to the battle’s

toothless centre, ‘her eyes are ‘like a dead horse’. The picture of the old woman does not thus

have any softening touch.” 14

Comparatively the Murli of Jejuri poem has better fate because she has a young body,

and the choice seems to be hers:

keep your hands off Khandoba’s woman

you old lecher

let’s see the colour of your money first (ASM- 39)

The old woman foreshadows the future of the young Murli, while the Murli herself stands for the

present of the Jejuri culture fast getting commercialized. The Vaghya, however, seems to be a

man for all seasons and times; past, present and future of Jejuri;

Khandoba’s temple

36

rises with the day.

But it must not fall

with the night.

I’II hold it up

with a flame for a prop. (ASV- 37-38)

This sounds like the true voice of Jejuri culture that is aware of the living presence of god. The

single minded firmness of faith is expressed to the accompaniment of his one –stringed

instrument, in the following words:

But if it plays

just the one note,

who am I to complain

when all I’ve got

is just a one word song

inside my throat?

God is the word

and I know it backwards….

And this is the only song

I’ve always sung. (ASV-38)

The modern sensibility feels puzzled to perceive the Vaghya’s totality of involvement with god:

to him even the anagram of god read backwards as ‘dog’ equally relevant and sacred, as pointed

out earlier. The protagonist who is trying to build a story out of this chooses the very first stone

wrongly; hence the pile cannot be raised to this satisfaction:

If you choose

Your first stone well

the kind you can

37

build upon

the stones will stand (ALS-42)

The protagonist’s first stone here seems to be his attitude of stark and studied non-involvement

which he has adopted from the beginning of the journey as evidenced in ‘The Bus’. R.S.

Kimbahune argues that the entire poem “reveals a lack of contemplative spade work that the

material strongly demands.” 15

And when such a spade work is done, the pile is made successfully and there are the

desired results as well as consequent benedictions:

god bless you

young woman

go home now

with your husband

may you find

happiness together

and may it last (ALPS-42)

Is the “young woman” here the protagonist’s wife, his companion of the person represented by

“you?”

In any case, the young woman seems to be the only devotee with appropriate “meditative

spade work” (spiritual faith) who provides an effective contrast (and also a complement) to her

atheistic companion; she supplies what he lacks (the true “better half”) namely experiential

response. In the absence of such a response the protagonist’s exasperation is sharpened:

Take my shirt off

and go there to do Pooja?

No thanks.

Not me.

Give me the matchbox

38

before you go,

will you?

I will be out in the country

where no one will mind

if I smoke. (M-43)

Who is this….. “I”? The protagonist or the poet? Who is preparing for a Pooja? The striking a

abundance of the monosyllables helps to intensify the standoffishness of the visitor who is

thereby future detached from the scene to the extend that he regards smoking as more rewarding

than performing Pooja. The monosyllables leave an impact of an assertive, direct and clinching

finality about preferences of the protagonist.

Here one may ask if the Vaghya’s burning torch and protagonist’s burning cigarette are

studies in sharp contrast in the poem. One illuminates through faith whereas the other simply

burns itself to cause further decay. And do they, in turn, throw light on the poet’s intention of

pointing out the larger contrast at Jejuri, namely, the slowly wearing off of ancient faith vis- a –

vis an important modern sensibility. It is a sensibility that concentrates more on stones and

animals, rather than men and gods; lizards, butterflies, cats, rats, horses, bulls, claves, sheep,

lambs, dogs, bitches, puppies, tortoises, vultures, cocks, hens- a bizarre world seen by a

trivialized eye. The bitches, puppies and rats seem particularity irreverent. The bold ‘Temple

Rat’;

Stops at the mighty shoulder

of the warrior god

Scarce a glance

at the fierce eyes and the war paint

on the face Malhari Martand,

and it’s gone. (TR-44)

39

The protagonist’s inability to keep down his risibility heightens the impact of bathos in, ‘The

Cupboard’, ‘Yeshwant Rao’, and ‘A Kind of Cross’, of these the last mentioned had vivid

surrealistic effects in which the consciousness of the sacrificial bull is shown operating-

Hills and temples dance ground.

Bull calfs and tortoise swim around.

Constellations wheel overhead like vultures

in one mad carousal. (AKC-47)

Here the sense of doom and fear that is supposed to invoke a mood of solemn sacrifice and,

perhaps, compassion is deflated thus;

With a fingernail, you try

to pry rivet from the sirloin.

And hurriedly, with the ball of thumb,

to smooth a dent from the brass rump. (AKC-47)

This tendency persists throughout the work. One reason is the misfocusing of vision as in The

Cupboard’ where a welter of moral values is brought in to prominence:

the cupboard is full

of shelf upon shelf

of gold gods in tidy rows

you can see the golden gods

beyond the strips

of stock exchange quotations

they look out at you

from behind slashed editorials

40

and promises of eternal youth (TC-48)

Such a welter is foreshadowed even at an earlier stage in ‘The Door’ which would have walked

out,

if it weren’t for

that pair of shorts

left to dry upon it shoulders. (TD-19)

And also in ‘The Pattern’ describing;

a checkerboard pattern

some old men must have drawn

yesterday

with a piece of chalk

on the back of the twenty foot

tortoise (TP-22)

One tends to remark that the deflationary attitude seems to grow out of all proportions in

‘Yeshwant Rao’ where a queer theological classification is attempted in terms of practical

benefit. Yeshwant Rao, a huge mass of basalt out side the main temples only of a “second class”

god:

I’ve known gods

prettier faced

or straighter laced.

Gods who soak you for your gold.

Gods who soak you for your soul.

Gods who make you walk

on a bed of burning coal.

Gods who put a child inside your wife.

41

Or a knife inside your enemy.

Gods who tell you how to live your life,

double your money

or triple your land holdings.

Gods who can barely suppressed a smile

as you crawl a mile for them.

Gods who will see you drown

If you won’t buy them a new crown. (YWR- 49 )

This vision of anthropomorphic gods is, according to M R Satyanarayana, a result of “a

misguided sense of humour.” 16

All these anthropomorphic gods are present at Jejuri as everywhere else, since they have

been catering to the physical needs of man from times immemorial. Jejuri is religious place in

Maharashtra and Arun Kolatkar wants spiritual faith of people about god, he finds that faith

through the poem. According to S.H. Deshpande “Jejuri is full of universal sense and spiritual

superiority. He wrung religious and spiritual sense from the poem.” 17

2.2.4.The Study of Pilgrimage Place

Maharashtra is the saint venerable land; there are so many religious places like

Pandharpur, Alandi, Shingnapur, Shegao, Shirdi and Jejuri. Jejuri is the faithful centre of god

Khandoba. Though there are pluralistic places in Maharashtra, the condition of these places are

very pathetic. Vilas Sarang says that “all poems in this volume are centred on Jejuri.” 18

Jejuri is a place of pilgrimage in Maharashtra. Arun Kolatkar depicts Jejuri atmosphere

and condition as alienated person. He would not suggest anywhere improvement to civil society.

According to P.S. Rege “Arun Kolatkar is the man of saving grace; he only observe: the tap and

reservoir the without water, an old beggar, railway station, despair of temple and priest, doctor,

nurse, the goddesses which is eight armed or eighteen armed.” 19

There is a poem ‘The Bus’ it shows atmosphere and condition of pilgrim place, Jejuri.

‘The Bus’ is the opening poem of the sequence of thirty-one sections of Jejuri. It describes the

42

bumpy journey from the starting point to its destination which is the temple of Khandoba. It is

state Transport bus, the windows, which are screened by the tarpaulin with which the bus has

been covered to keep off the possible rainfall, and also to keep off the cold which keeps blowing

throughout the journey. It is night journey which the bus has undertaken and after several hours

of the arduous journey the passengers start waiting eagerly for day break. The bus is full of the

pilgrims who are bound for the temple of Khandoba where they want to offer worship and the

passengers might have included a few tourists who merely want to satisfy their curiosity about

what kind of a temple it is! And in what surroundings the temple stands for!

Arun Kolatkar gives the example of one of the passenger at the place of Jejuri; who sat

opposite, an old man wearing glasses; and this passenger, while looking at the man, sees his

reflection in both the glasses of the spectacles which the old man is wearing. This passenger can

feel that onward movement of the bus. The old man keeps on his forehead a mark indicating him

being Hindu faith and even the high caste to which he belongs among the passenger is the

protagonist or the person who speaks in the poem, describing his experiences and his reactions to

what he sees at Jejuri. In due to course, the sun appears on the horizon, and quietly moves

upwards in the sky. The sun’s rays filtering through the gaps in the tarpaulin fall upon the old

man’s glasses. Then a ray of the sun falls up on the bus driver’s right cheek. The bus seems to

have changed its direction. It has been an uncomfortable journey; but when the destination is

reached, the passengers get down from the bus which had held them tightly in its grip.

‘The Bus’ is a purely descriptive poem which does not give us much of information about

the purpose of the journey, apart from telling us that it is going to Jejuri and that it is a night

journey, with a cold wind blowing all the way. There are a few numerous touches in this poem

as, for instance, the protagonist finds two reflections of himself in the two glasses of the

spectacles. It is the general tendency to have some kind of people at religious like vower

(Navse), enthusiasm (Hause) and thief (Gause) in order to offer themselves.

The second poem ‘The Reservoir’ it indicates water supply of pilgrim place:

There isn’t drop of water

in the great reservoir the Peshawa was built.

There is nothing in it.

43

Except a hundred years of silt. (TR-40)

By observing geographical area of Jejuri, Arun Kolatkar says that there are two ponds around the

Jejurgar. Ponds had been built by great king Peshwas from Maharashtra hundred years ago. The

appearance of both ponds, there is no any drop of water there is no any drop of water there are

only empty ponds without water but full of silt. So, it is the critical situation of pilgrim places in

not only Maharashtra but also other parts of India too. There is no such facility to provide water

at holy place, no one ready to look towards the problem. The poet evokes water problem from

religious place. It is reality of pilgrims’ place. Arun Kolatkar tried to comparer Jejuri with the

reservoir. The reservoir looks full of water, actually it goes dry and full of silt, so Jejuri looks full

of faith, and actually it is empty and silts. It is the vivid picture of Jejuri.

The door and the Doorstep, both are around Khandoba temple.

That’s no doorstep.

It’s a pillar on its side.

Yes.

That’s what it is. (TD-17)

The doorstep which was made by external authority, it is the entrance way to go to Khandoba.

According to protagonist they are nothing but only a pillar. Pilgrims believe and call it is the

doorstep of god. While entering into the doom of Khandoba they take Darshan.

There is another poem ‘An Old Woman”, it portraits the beggars’ condition in the place of

pilgrim place.

An old woman grabs

hold of your sleeve

and tags along.

She wants fifty- paise coin. (AOW-25)

At Jejuri, an old woman catches sleeves of a pilgrim in order to extract money from him. She is

very poor woman who earns her living by begging money from the pilgrims who go to Jejuri.

Her demand is very modest because she asks pilgrim for only a fifty-paisa coin; when the pilgrim

44

shows his unwillingness to give money. She says that in exchange for money, she would take

him with her to the horse shoes shrine. When pilgrim replies that he has already seen that shrine,

she still clings to him and in fact tightens her grip on his sleeve. The pilgrim looks at her with an

expression of finality, indicting her refusal to give her any money. But the woman still does not

allow leaving him and says that a poor old woman has no alternative but to maintain herself on

the charity of people.

There may be five hundred and fifty beggars. Those who are old beggar women, they

were Murli in their younger age, and who are old beggar men they were Vaghya in their younger

age, but now they don’t show their dancing and singing skills to entertain pilgrims. So, they

became beggars for sustained and to be survived themselves. It is the critical condition of

beggars at pilgrim place. There is beggar who sat at the third step. He looks innocent and tragic,

because he is an old beggar man. Actually, he is a man but he wore sari and bangles in his hands.

An old man took fake rings in his fingers, his legs decayed by heat of the sun and air. He is

ignorant towards physical body. The old beggar sat beside of the upstairs with dirty and grimy

old back piper water plastic bottle. There is a little plate made form little twigs and other dirty

plate with full of turmeric and piece of butter occasionally wide dog called “Vaghya” takes taste.

Vaghya is a worshipper of people, so beggar also worship Vaghya by giving food and on his plate

weaving the bees honey comb. Beggar is not aware about dog and his physical appearance

because he has quite faith about god. Most of the places which are pilgrimage in not only

Maharashtra but also other part of India which are covered by beggars. The portrait of the old

woman in this poem is very vivid, very realistic, very convincing and very interesting. The poet

has used the right words to draw the portrait; and he has depicted the woman’s behaviour and his

own reactions to her most effectively. In fact, it is one of the finest poems in the whole sequence.

It is one of the few poems in which the protagonist feels genuinely moved. In other words the

sight of the old woman and her behaviour arouses his human sympathy even though, throughout

the poem, he expresses his reluctance to give her any money. The poem is a model of simplicity

and clarity.

There is another poem named ‘The Priest’ under the collection of Jejuri. It shows to look

after god believer.

catgrin on its face

45

and a live, ready to eat pilgrim

held between its teeth. [TP-15]

The actual theme of the poem, it indicates religious tendency of the priest .This poem is a sketch

of the priest who looks after the temple and god Khandoba, who naturally lives either on the

premises of quite closer to the temple of which he is the custodian and the chief Pujari. Priest

performs the role of custodian of god; priest thinks that he is sustainers or protector of god. To

look after god is the occupation of priests where ever god dwells. They don’t permit to pilgrims

to meet god directly so we have to take permission to enter and to worship god .The priest, the

poem describes the priest is eagerly and suspensefully waiting for arrival of pilgrims by the bus

which is expected to arrive at Jejuri in the morning. The priest takes “Puran Poli” in his hand and

waits to pilgrims to collect money from them. The priest head is then exposed to morning

sunlight and he is in worldly reciting a Mantra again and again as form of to have his wishes

fulfilled. Actually, the priest is, of course, not bothered about the religious aspect of the pilgrims.

He is more concerned with the offerings which the pilgrims always make when they bow

reverently before a stone or bronze image of the god, Khandoba. The priest always chews a betel

nut and Gutka in his mouth. So, the priest is ready to eat pilgrims economically. The priest is

hungry and foolish for collecting money from pilgrims. He wishes to have collect money from

pilgrims. Thus, there are two questions in the priest’s mind; one is whether the bus has been

delayed and the other is whether he would get enough in the form of the offerings by the

pilgrims. The priest, in fact, has begun to pray for the speedy arrival of the bus; and his prayers is

soon answered.

The poem ‘Priest’s Son’ is too related to pilgrim place. Priests’ sons become by birth and

heritage from their forefather. It is the traditional work of priests’ sons

who comes along as your guide

as the schools have vacations

do you really believe that story

you ask him

but merely looks uncomfortable

shrugs and looks away [TPS-30]

46

This poem depicts to the priest who has been depicted in the poem entitled the priest but priest’s

son who is young school going boy and who is deputed by his father to take the tourists to

different parts of the temple and its environs and explain to them significance of the various

statues and some of the hills. In this poem, the priest’s son takes the protagonist to the different

places connected with the various legends about god Khandoba and his deep; there are five hills

which are connected to each other which are described by the priest’s son to the protagonist as

being the stone figures of the five demons whom Khandoba had killed. The protagonist asks

some questions to young fellow, if he really believes those hills and the stone figures of the five

demons that Khandoba had killed. The priest’s son has no reply to this question and he, therefore

looks uncomfortable. He merely shrugs and looks away from the hills and the protagonist, then

perceiving a movement in the grass growing nearby, the young fellow says to protagonist;

“Look” there is butterfly in the grass that has beautiful wings. Thus, the priest son is clever

enough to think of a device by means of which he can try to divert the attention and to evade

answering, the question which the protagonist had asked. The priests’ sons work as a guide at

every pilgrim places in school vacation. This poem is ironical in which the hollowness of the

legends relating to god Khandoba has been exposed as being merely superstitions. Of course, the

Maharashtrian pilgrims, who visit Jejuri, genuinely believe; and likewise, they sincerely believe

in the five demons having been transformed into hills after having been murdered by God

Khandoba. Actually, the whole story of Khandoba is a fabrication from point of view of

rationalist like the protagonist. The protagonist has used his own method to give expression to

his scepticism and unbelief. In the poem, before us, the priest’s son, who has been trained as a

guide to take the tourists around the place, shows his cleverness by evading a question to which

no sensible reply is possible. In fact, the young fellow himself does not believe an authenticity of

the stories which are current about god Khandoba. But being the priest’s son and being

dependent for his livelihood on the credibility of the legends, he cannot deny the legends. And

yet being somewhat of a conscious fellow, he cannot affirm the truth of these legends. This is the

reason why he tries to divert the protagonist’s attention to a butterfly in the grass. It is certainly a

most amazing poem like most others in Jejuri. So, it is most different between priest and priest’s

son, by thinking they are centre of attitude and behave with pilgrims. But as a livelihood being

priest’s son he has to accept this duty and job.

47

Here is another poem “the Temple Rat”, it indicates god’s creatures play around temples

and gods. At the holy places not only pilgrims but also animals live around temples and pilgrim

place, Jejuri looks dirty, grimy.

It slips down a slope

and looks brassily over the edge

of the bigger bell [TTR-45]

The Rat lives in the temple with Khandoba. Khandoba likes Rat as Dattatraya likes cow and

Ganesh likes too Rat. Rat lives on the God’s bell which is bigger that Rat. Rat runs behind the

drum and god. During the absence of priest, Rat takes taste by licking the Prasad and god too. It

is ignorant about deity, God Khandoba, who is a deity of all over Maharashtra.

‘Yeshwant Rao’ is another poem which has religious importance. The statue of Yeshwant

Rao is worshipped by pilgrims who are worshipper of god Khandoba. There is parody; if we

stick a coin on Yeshwant Rao our wish would be explored. Actually, Yeshwant Rao does not have

head, legs, feet and hands:

Yeshwant Rao

mass of basalt,

bright as any post box,

the shape of protoplasm

or a kind size lava pie

thrown against the wall,

without an arm, a leg

or even a single head. [YR-50]

This poem is about the second class god whose name is Yeshwant Rao. This god is believed to

have no head, no hands, no arms, no feet in fact, none of the limbs which every other god

possesses. Being headless, armless and feetless, he is regarding as the patron god of all those

human beings who have lost one or other of their limbs either on account of some accident.

48

Those, who are short of a limb, go to Jejuri to offer to this particular god who has the power to

restore the lost limb to the petitioner who comes to him.

The speaker in this poem tells us that, if we are looking for a god whom we would like to

worship, he suggests god who is one the best god and whose name is Yeshwant Rao. The speaker

says that Yeshwant Rao does not belong to the highest category of gods and that he is a god only

of the second rank. This god has not been assigned any place, inside the main temple at Jejuri.

The statue of Yeshwant Rao has been installed outside the main temple, in fact, outside of the

outer wall treated as if he were a member of the trading community or of the leper community.

The statue of Yeshwant Rao is made by black stone; and this statue is as bright as any

letter box. This statue has the shape of protoplasm and it has large dimensions even though it is a

statue without an arm without a leg and without even a head. Yeshwant Rao is the god to whom a

man must go if he has lost a limb, who wants limb to be restored to him. Yeshwant Rao does not

do anything spectacular. He does not give pilgrim a promise to make him the ruler of the earth or

to send him straight to heaven by means of a rocket. What he can really do is to mend the bones

of a man who has suffered a fracture. He can restore to his worshippers whichever part of the

body they may have lost. He can only restore the missing parts of a body, leaving the soul of a

worshipper to look after itself. He is only a kind of a bone shelter. His only deficiency is that he

himself has no head, no hands, and no feet. Being without these limbs, he can realize the misery

of that human being who have lost a limb or two, and who therefore go to worship him to win his

favour and to get back the limbs which they have lost.

‘They Railway Station’, this is the concluding poem of the sequence which bears the title

Jejuri and which consists of thirty – one sections. This section, the last in the sequence, consists

of six parts, each having a heading, ‘The Indicator’ the second part has the heading ‘The Station

Dog’ and third part has the heading ‘The Tea stall’, and fourth part has the heading ‘The Station

Master’ the fifth part has the heading ‘Vows’, and sixth part has the heading ‘The Setting Sun’.

Taken together, or even taken separately and individually, these six parts of the poem build up

the picture of a railway station which does not seem to be in use and which does not seem

functioning except in a most inefficient and ineffective Manner. The total impression produced

by this poem is one of the complete neglect of a railway station. In fact; the total effect is one of

meaningless, absurdity and futility in relation to a railway station.

49

The first part of the poem depicts ‘An Indicator’ which indicates nothing and which

pretends a faded look. The indicator, which has a clock to indicate the time, is no longer

functioning. A passenger would not be able to know from this indicator when the next train is

due, and the numerals on the clock are so faded and dim that, if passenger were to total them,

they would amount to zero.

There is a dog living on the station. This dog is suffering from a severe skin disease; but

he has very spirit of the whole place. The dog seems to have been doing some penance here for

the last three hundred years while trains have been arriving and departing. The dog opens his

right eye when you go near him, and he opens his eyes only to find out if the person standing

before him is a man a demon or a demi-god. If the railway time- table were to offer to take this

dog to heaven, he would refuse on the ground that the day, when he should make his exit from

this world, has not yet come.

A young man, who is in charge of the tea-stall at the railway station, is new to his job;

and he seems to have taken a vow of silence because, instead of answering a question which a

passenger might ask him, he throws away dishwater which falls upon the passengers’ face. The

young man continuous washing dishes and caps in the kitchen sink.

The booking clerk too does not speak much. He would only give the required ticket to

passenger and, for any other information; he would direct the passenger to his superior. The

station master, like several gods in the temple at Jejuri, has tow heads. He does not believe in ant

time-table except the one which was published long ago at the time when the railway line was

first laid here Jejuri. He keeps looking anxiously at the sun which is about to set. He seems to

think that the sunset is apart some secret ritual; and he, therefore, does not want that anything

should go wrong with the impending sunset.

There are also other poems which highlight pilgrimage situation, like ‘The Pattern’, a

piece of chalk, the tortoise, which is in front of main temple of god Khandoba at Jejurgar. Most

of the children who are priests’ sons, they play on the back of tortoise and they dance, sit on the

back of the tortoise.

‘The Water Supply’, it is another poem, it indicates water supply of town and temple.

There is a water pipe on the heavy and big stone. It looks only pipe without water. Pehwas had

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been built ‘The Reservoir’ to get water for pilgrims to quench their thirst, but is only full of silt.

The corporation has provided water pipe line, but is dry now.

Pilgrims are responsible to do dirty place of pilgrim place. They ignorant about the cleanliness

and safety about the place. All Ancient places from Maharashtra which are holy and religious

made from ancient time and middle historical place, because there is so evidence to know today.

The following lines are witnessed to know the temple was built in ancient time.

There is a sentence at the entrance on the door of Khandoba temple:

`“Jejurgar Parwat Shivlingakar

Mrutivloki Dusare Kailas Shikhar”

Jejuri is known as heaven on earth, it is scepticism of the protagonist. At the temple, we have to

cross seven bows from the feet of the steps. There are also other gods and goddesses at Jejuri,

like Vithal Rukhmai, Kokanya Dev, Ganesh, Khokhalai Devi, who helps us to cure cough,

Virbhadra, who is son of Khandoba, Horse of Khandoba. There is a big and majestic horse,

named Suraj, statue of great Umajirao Naik who was a founder of Talim, Hegdipradhan, who

was Prime Minister of king Khandoba, Nangar. Some owners of restaurants and hotels, they

offer visiting cars to pilgrims. It is said that every point in Jejuri is holy and every stone in Jejuri

is gods and goddesses.

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2.3. TECHNIQUES AND STYLES OF THE POETRY

When we think of style in poetry, we take into account formal constituents of poetry like

language, rhythm, irony, symbol, figure and imagery; for style, after, all is language though it is

language that has incorporated in itself elements like the poet’s vision, attitude, moods, though

and themes. The discussion regarding style has been lively and prominent in western as well as

in Indian literary criticism.

Style, then, is the amalgamation, the fusion of all those constituents of a work of art

which are there to express the poet’s vision. The vision itself partly affects the nature of style that

is employed to express it and so does the literary form through which the work of art is

projected. The style is the man. But it is equally true to say that the style is the work of art itself.

An opinion is loosely entered that, by style, we mean the language or diction employed the poet.

style means diction to which added qualities criticism, humorous, satire, wit, pathos, boastful,

lucidity, colloquial, economical, dialogue, felicities, phrase, stillness and impressionistic. Gokak

says that “The poem could perhaps represented as a series of concentric circles around the Centre

called the poet’s vision as – V - vision, A - attitude, T - thought , S - subject , I - imagery , R -

Rhythm, L - Language.” 20

In Indian English literature, most of the writer used style to write their work, as Shri

Aurobindo, Nissim Ezekiel, Kamala Das, Gieve Patel, Rabindranath Tagore, A.K Ramanujan and

Arun Kolatkar. Arun Kolatkar was the stylistic writer and poet. He uses in his work appropriate

diction, colours and style.

2.3.1. Imagery

This term is one of the most common in criticism, and one other most variable in

meaning, its applications range all the way from the “material picture” which it is sometimes

claimed, are experienced by the reader of the poem, to the totality of the components which

make up poem. Examples of this range of usage are C. Day Lewis’s statements remarked by

M.H. Abrahams in his poetic image (1948), that the image “is a picture made out of words”, and

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that “a poem itself be an image composed from multiplicity of image. Imagery is said to make

poetry concrete and opposed to abstract.” 21

The initial consideration in assessing the poetic craft of a writer is the kind of imagery

which he supplies in connection with the exposition or elaboration of an idea. Imagery is an

indispensable ingredient of poetry because it is imagery which leads solidity to an idea. Some

times no doubt the imagery itself is very abstract, and in that case, it does not impart any

concreteness to an idea though it may still serve as a clarification of the idea in philosophical

language. Kolatkar’s imagery is perfectly concrete except here and there.

Arun Kolatkar uses imagery in Jejuri to show the best quality and understandable poetry.

From the critical point of view, then, there is hardly any substance in the poem. However, the

poem is not without its merits. A striking merit of the poem is the imagery of course. Every

image is vividly presented because it is sharply etched. Especially noteworthy is the pictures of

the posture of the men women in Jejuri. According to L.S. Deshpande “Arun Kolakata’s Jejuri is

a poem, remarkable in many ways: it is complex in terms of theme, characterization and imagery.

It’s most striking qualities are ambiguity and multi-violence.” 22

The poem, ‘The Butterfly’, it is the example of imagery. There are some images used by

Arun Kolatkar;

It’s a little yellow Butterfly.

It has taken these wretched hills

under its wings. [TB-31]

The striking images of real Butterfly and hills are the best examples of images in his poetry. The

Butterfly has no legends relating to its existence. It has no past and no future. The beautiful

creature exists only for a moment and then it is no more. The image of butterfly and its many

colours, poet uses deliberately in his collection.

Another poem ‘Heart of Ruin’, Arun Kolatkar employs some images in the poem.

Probably the poet’s pause and to reminds us of a fleeting nature of the life, not only of the

butterfly but also of all living things, or perhaps the poet wanted to divert our attention from

Jejuri and its temple to live creatures. His purpose might have been to bring before us to contrast

between the stone or bronze statues which are lifeless and animate and a creature which has life

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and validity in it and which is dynamic things. Thus, the poem offers a contrast between environs

of Jejuri and the cheering spectacle of a butterfly and other creature. The temple of Maruti, is

belonged from the ancient time, this temple is now in a state of ruin, and the poet has described

the temple as the ‘Heart of Ruin’ in the title of the poem. The poet uses images in this poem as

animals like bitch and puppies.

The poem ‘The Railway Station’ is full of images as indicator, station dog, station, tea

stall, railway clerk and setting sun. The indicator is non –living thing or image, indicator is not

working properly, it is indicator but not indicate nothing, which has a clock to indicate the time is

no longer functioning. A passenger would not be able to know from this indicator when the next

train is due; and the numerals on the clock are so faded and aim that, if a passengers were to total

them, they would amount to zero. The another image, station dog, the dog is suffering from

server skin disease; but he has very spirit of the whole place, the dog seems have been doing

some penance here for the last three hundred years while the train has been arriving and parting.

This image is very old and dirty, other image is tea –stall boy, he throws away dishwater which

falls up on the passengers’ face. The image Booking clerk, the booking clerk too does not speak

more. He would only give the required ticket to passenger and, for any other information; he

would direct the passenger to his superior. The other image like setting sun, the sun is about to

set it looks big wheel. So, according to R.G. Jadhav “Kolatkar’s poetry includes a social

atmosphere, middle class people, buildings, furniture, Irani hotels, flowers, pots, cigarette,

tobacco, coconut trees, animals, pictures, crafts, candles, foreign people and their languages,

warm, hospitals and gods.” 23

Arun Kolatkar’s another poem, ‘A Crab’ which is his special image itself. Kolatkar’s use of

the image of a crab inside the head echoes Freud’s concept of “dream thoughts”. Syangden

Siddarth says that “these (dream thoughts) usually emerge as a complex of thoughts and

memories of the most intricate possible structure, with all the attributes of the trains of thought

familiar to us in walking life. They are not infrequently trains of thoughts starting from more

than one centre...each train of thought is almost invariably accompanied by its contradictory

counterpart.” 24

Arun Kolatkar uses many images which are living and non-living. The poem Jejuri is full of

images and symbols. Many of the poems show vivid images like bus, window, cat, tortoise, door,

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the doorstep, reservoir, dog, bitch, puppies, stone, scratch, tiger, bronze image, stone image,

hills, demons, bell, horse, horseshoe shrine, cross, cupboard, butterfly and statue of Yeshwant

Rao.

2.3.2. Irony

Abram describes irony, “In Greek comedy the character called the “eiron” was dissembler,

who characteristically spoke in understatement and deliberately pretended to be les- intelligent

than he was, yet triumphed over the “Alazon” the self-deceiving and stupid braggart. In most of

the modern critical uses to term, “irony”, there remain, the root sense of dissembling of winding

what is actually the case; not however, in order to deceive, but to achieve special rhetorical or

artistic effect.” 25

Irony is one of the most conspicuous features of Kolatkar’s poetry. His treatment of the

theme in the poems of Jejuri is ironical from beginning to end. He does not attack the

superstations of the people directly. He exposes the absurdity of superstitious beliefs by the use

of irony. Almost every poem in Jejuri illustrates Kolatkar’s use of Irony which comes to him

naturally.

The very first poem of Jejuri shows how Kolatkar makes use of the weapon of irony in

expressing ideas and depicting situations. Although the bus carries devout pilgrims (with the

exception only of the protagonist who is given the name of Manonar), Kolatkar describes the

journey of the bus in mocking tone.

Your own divided face in a pair of glasses

on an old man’s nose

is all the countryside you get to see. [TB-13]

For instance, he tells the reader that, if he were sitting in bus, he would see his own divided face

in pair of glasses on an old man’s nose, and that this divided face is all the countryside he would

get to see.

The second poem entitled ‘The Priest’; this poem shows the use that Kolatkar makes of

Irony in portraying a person;

The bus is no more just a thought in his head.

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It’s now a dot in the distance [TP-15]

The priest is ironically portrayed as a worldly kind of man who is more interested in his income

than in any kind of pious living or in any kind of social or religious services. As the bus has been

delayed somewhat, the priest has begun to feel anxious and has started reciting a mantra which

actually works, with the result that the bus is no longer just a thought in his head but has become

a reality. The thought has now taken the shape of a “dot” in the distance. The dot is, of course,

the bus;

The poem entitled, ‘The Priest’s Son’ is also written in an ironical vein;

these five hills

are the five demons

that Khandoba Killed (TPS-30)

The five hills, to which the priest’s son has pointed out, are supposed to be the embodiments of

the five demons who had been killed by Khandoba. But, when asked whether the boy really

believes that story, the boy does not reply and merely looks uncomfortable.

look

there’s a butterfly

there [TPS-30]

There priest’s son shrugs and, looking away, draws the protagonist’s attention to a butterfly in the

grass , thus trying to make the protagonist forget the question which he has asked. The irony here

arises from the contrast between the protagonist’s expectation of an answer and the attitude

which the priest’s son actually adapts. The boy is clever enough to evade the inconvenient

question.

The irony in ‘A Scratch’ is even more striking. Here we are told that, at Jejuri there is no

crop other than god; the god is harvested here around the year and around the clock, even out of

the bad earth and out of the hard rock. This is an ironical way of denying the existence of any

god and doubting the authenticity of any belief in the stories which have accumulated around the

name of Khandoba’s wife who had been killed and turned to stone because of Khandoba’s wrath.

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Even the scar left by the sword, which Khandoba had used to murder his wife, is visible on the

rock. Then we come to the climax of Irony in this poem:

scratch a rock

and legend springs [AS-32]

The very short poem entitled ‘Chaitanya’ tells us ironically that the stone of Jejuri are sweet like

grapes and that, after having popped a stone in to his mouth;

sweet as grapes

are the stones of Jejuri

said Chaitanya [C-27]

The idea here is that there is an abundance of gods at Jejuri. The implication, of course, is that

the belief in gods is absurd.

The poem entitled, ‘A Low Temple’ also has its share of Irony. The idol of a goddess in

the temple is supposed to have eight arms. That is what the priest has told the protagonist;

All the same she is still an eight arms goddess to the priest.

You come out in the sun and light a Charminar.

Children play on the back of the twenty foot tortoise. [ALT -21]

Actually, however, the idol has eighteen arms, and the protagonist has counted the number. The

protagonist naturally draws the priest’s attention to the fact that the idol of the goddess has

eighteen arms. But the priest still says that she has eight arms. Here is a conflict between fact and

belief. In the first place the protagonist does not believe in gods and goddesses; and, secondly,

he is being asked to believe that an idol of a goddess has eight arms when it actually possesses

eighteen arms. The disparity could not have been more glaring, and the irony could, therefore,

not have been more striking.

There is a poem entitled ‘Heart of Ruin’. This poem is steeped in irony. The poem is

vivid for irony. The poet says ironically;

The roof comes down on Maruti’s head.

Nobody seems to mind.

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Least of all Maruti himself.

May be he likes a temple better this way.

A mongrel bitch has found a place

for herself and her puppies (HOR-16)

The roof of a temple dedicated to Maruti has collapsed. The temple is no longer visited by

pilgrims because it is in ruin. A mongrel bitch has found the premises to be very suitable for

giving birth to her puppies. The puppies, after coming into this world, fell quite comfortable

here. If any puppy creates a noise, a beetle residing in the dung feel terror-stricken and runs to

take shelter near the broken charity-box which had never got the chance to rescue itself from

under the crushing weight of the beam which fell down from the roof. Here we have Irony in

almost every two lines; and there is irony even blind the phrases “a mongrel bitch” and “the

pariah puppies”. The closing two lines are, or course, ironical too. This temple is no more a place

of worship but it is still nothing less than the house of god. In other words, it is no longer a place

where people would come to offer worship; and yet the particular god has not abandoned this

place. Here, Kolatkar is ridiculing the very idea of people going to temple to offer prayers and

worship. God is present everywhere; and one can worship a god or any number of gods at home

or in the privacy of one’s bedroom, or anywhere at all.

In the poem entitled ‘The Blue Horse’ we again have irony which arises from a

contradiction between what is supposed to be the case and what actually is the case;

‘The singers sang of a blue horse.

How is it then, that the picture on your wall

shows a white one?’

‘Looks blue to me’. (TBH-52)

The picture on the wall shows a white horse though Khandoba’s horse was blue, when the

protagonist points out this contradiction, the priest says that, to him, the picture of the horse on

the wall looks blue; and he then artificially imparts a blue tingle to the belly of the horse in the

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picture. And in the same poem, Kolatkar ironically describes the singer and her accompanists as

“God’s won children / making music”.

‘Yeshwant Rao’ is perhaps most amusing poem because of its Irony. This poem too is

steeped in Irony, and it is a downright assault on all the gods, irony being the chief weapon of the

attack;

Gods who soak you for your gold.

Gods who soak you for your soul.

Gods who make you walk

On a bed of burning coal. [YR-49]

In this poem we are told that there are gods who seek you for your gold, gods who seek you for

you soul, gods who enable you to walk on a bed of burning coal, and so on. If you are short of a

limb, Yeshwant Rao will give you one; and so the poem goes on in the same vein.

According to Ashutosh Dubey, the poem, “Jejuri is full of pictures of aridity and ugliness,

decay and neglect, fossilization and perversion. In Kolatkar’s poems, inanimate objects often

from a parallel world constantly endeavouring to defeat human beings. Their behaviour often

assumes ironical human ways.” 26

Perhaps the climax of irony in the whole sequence comes with the final poem which is

entitled, the railway station. A the railway station the indictor does not work; the clock does not

function; the dog dwelling there has a mangy body; the man at the tea-stall throws dish –water in

your face; in reply to your question the booking –clerk gives you only a ticket but tells you

nothing about the arrival of the train, and the station master is two –headed man who does not

believe in any time –table published after the one which was published in the year when the

railway track was laid .

2.3.3. Diction

The term, “diction” signifies the types of words phrase and sentence structure, and

sometimes also of figurative language, that constitute only work of literature. A writer’s diction

can be analyzed under the great variety of categories, such as agree to which the vocabulary and

phrasing is abstract or concrete.

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The most important consideration, so far as poetic technique is concerned, is the diction.

After all, poetry is expression poetry is statement; poetry is an unfolding and a revelation. And

expression, statement etc., are possible only though the use of words. To what extent have poet

succeeded in expressing himself? What kind of words has he used to express his ideas, to depict

a scene, to describe an incident and so on? These are the questions to be asked. Words may be

simple or words may be difficult. Words may be ordinary and words may be scholarly. And then

there is the arrangement of words on which depends the syntax or the interrelationship between

the words as arranged by the writer. Now, in all these contexts, Arun Kolatkar raises to the

occasion. Like every major Indo-Anglian poet, he has a thorough understanding of the meanings

of English words and an unerring instinct for choosing the right words for his purpose. The

diction in his poems is not erudite. Nor is his diction ornate or ostentatious. At the same time the

diction is not too ordinary or prosaic. His diction is perfectly appropriate, and frequently elicits

our admiration. Very often his choice of word shows an exquisite taste and he arranges those

words skilfully. According to Thorat Harishchandra “production, grasping, and forecasting are

the features of Arun Kolatkar’s poetry. Too, the individuality of the artist as a superstar is

becoming increasingly.” 27

A few lines from, “The Boatride” may be taken as an example of beautifully sometimes

Kolatkar hands the English language. In these lines, Kolatkar speaks of a two year old child who

renounces his mother’s ear, and beings to cascade down her person, rejecting her tattooed arm,

denying her thighs, undaunted by her knees, and further down her shanks in order to go to his

father nearby and get balloons from him.

There is the poem in Jejuri, the very first poem, ‘The Bus’ here; we come across the

following lines which are remarkable because of the use of effective and appropriate words;

A cold wind keeps whipping

and slapping a corner of the tarpaulin

at your elbow. (TB-13)

Here, we are told that a cold wind keeps here whipping and slapping a corner of the tarpaulin. In

the next poem we read that, with a thud and a bump, the bus passes over a pot-hole and rattles

past the priest, painting his eyeballs blue. Here, again the words employed are most appropriate,

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and bring before us the picture of the bus most vividly. The same picture could have been

depicted by the use of different words; but the words actually used by Kolatkar strike us as the

most satisfactory.

In another poem we have the following lines in which again the words perfectly

appropriate and highly satisfactory:

One by one the gods come to light.

Amused bronze. Smiling stone. Unsurprised. [ALT-21]

‘Heart of Ruin’ also written in an excellent style even though some critics have objected to the

repetition of the line “may be he (or she or they) like a temple better this way”. Here, apart from

this repetition, we have some very well – written lines:

The bitch looks at you guardedly

The pariah puppies tumble over her.

It’s enough to strike terror in the heart

of a dung beetle [HOR-16]

The poem entitled ‘The Butterfly’ is even better–worded, with its metaphorical language. Here

we read such lines as the following;

It (the butterfly) is split like a second.

It hinges around itself.

It has no future.

It is pinned down to no past.

It’s a pun on the present. (TB-31)

The “alliteration” in the second stanza above is noteworthy. The “p” sound occurs four times in

two lines. Alliteration is noteworthy use where also in ‘The Boatride’ we come across the

following alliteration phrases;

The briny brunt

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Hurl its hunk

a gull hitched on hump.

The long trial toils on. (CP. 329)

At Jejuri the only crop grown and reaped consists of gods. In other words, anybody walking over

the rocky area around the temple of Khandoba would find that every stone, which he picks up at

any time of the day or the night, is regarded by pious people as the image of some god. A pilgrim

may pick up a stone from the dirty, loose earth or he may pick up a stone from the hard rock; but,

whatever the case, he would find the stone to be a sacred stone and personification of some god.

The poem ‘The Butterfly’, there is something unique about this poem because most

original and striking manner;

It’s a little yellow butterfly.

It has taken these wretched hills

under its wings. [TB-31]

Its taking the hills under its wings is an example of magnification; we have here a “hyperbole”

which means exaggeration or over – statement.

The poem ‘The Priest’ is the best for metaphors and similes. Some of the metaphors and

similes in the poem are noteworthy: “An offering of heel and haunch”; “with quick intake of

testicles”; “the sun plating the priest’s cheek familiarly” like the “village barber”; “the priest’s

stare beginning to grow slowly” like “a wart up on his noise’’; a catering on its face/ ready to eat

pilgrim/ held between its teeth” these are the striking metaphors and similes in the poem. Arun

Kolatkar uses simple and vivid language in his poems. He rarely uses punctuations marks like;

full stop and question marks. His poetic lines are without colon, semi-colon and exclamation

marks.

2.3.4. Lucidity, Brevity, Wit, Satire and Colloquial

Another merit of Arun Kolatkar’s style of writing is “lucidity”. We hardly come across

any obscurity in his poems except, to some in ‘Irani Restaurant Bombay’ and ‘The Boatride’.

Jejuri is also the best example of lucidity. The meaning in all the poems of Jejuri is almost

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transparent and we really enjoy the irony and mockery. There is no complication of syntax in

Kolatkar’s poems.

We generally speak of a poet’s capacity to cadence or compress his material in case he

possesses that capacity. Arun Kolatkar does not need that capacity because his natural manner is

not one of prolixity or profusion but of reserve and economy. He does not have to condense his

material because he naturally writes in an economical style.

The priest wonders.

Will there be a Puran Poli his plate?

a catgrin on its face

and a live, ready to eat Pilgrim [Tp-14-15]

Another poem ‘An Old Woman’ too has written in economical style.

“She wants a fifty paise-coin” [AOW -25]

An old beggar woman wants fifty paise-coin from all pilgrims and tourists.

Arun Kolatkar uses the style, wit, humour and comic. At the present both wit and humour

designate species of the comic. Any element in a work of literature, whether a character, event or

utterance, which is designate to amuse or to excite mirth in the reader or audience. The word wit

and humours however, had a variety of meanings in earlier literary criticism, and a brief

comment on their history will help to clarify the differences between them in present usage. Arun

Kolatkar used brevity which is the soul of wit in its case. Some poems from Jejuri, which are

witty: ‘The Bus’, ‘Heart of Rain’, ‘A Low Temple’ and ‘Manohar’.

Satirical style used by Arun Kolatkar in his work particularly in Jejuri. The satire in the

poem becomes pungent when the protagonist gives us a catalogue of the other gods and

goddesses which are worshipped by the people. Each of these gods characterized in just one or

two lines; and each of the gods characterized ironically. Indeed, irony and sarcasm run through

the whole poem. The catalogue of gods and goddesses contains reference to gods and goddesses

who are better looking; gods who weak worshippers because of the gold offerings which they are

likely to make, gods who want to take possessions of the souls of their worshippers; gods who

claim to endow their worshippers with the power to walk on a bed of burning coals. Gods who

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claim to have the power to less the barren wives of their worshippers with children: gods who

can put to death the enemies of their worshipers; and so on. The catalogue continues in the same

ironical and nightly amusing manner.

Another feature of Arun Kolatkar’s poem is colloquial style. According to R.

Parthasarathy, “much of Kolatkar’s poetry is written in colloquial style. Almost every poem in

Jejuri is written in the colloquial or conversational style.” 28

Obvious example of the use of this style is the priest’s son it is conversation between

protagonist and priest’s son. It is conversation between protagonist and priest’s son. Priest’s son

tells the story of five bills which are five demons and protagonist asks some question about the

story.

Other conversational poems are ‘A Scratch’ and ‘An Old Woman’ which are the examples

of colloquial style. Arun Kolatkar also portraits boastfulness, stillness, impression, directness,

dialogue, mood, code-mixing and code- switching in his poetry. According to M.G Krishna

Murthi, “Kolatkar’s poems leaves on the reader an impression of stillness, and that this

impression is probably related to the air of contemplativeness in them.” 29

Arun Kolatkar has written poetry in English directly. The mood of the poet about writing

is religious about Jejuri style of code- mixing and code-switching means to use two languages

simultaneously in same sentence. Arun Kolatkar used the style to write poem “Jejuri”. He has

poured this style in ‘The Priest’.

“Will there be a Puran Poli

in his plate?”.(TP-14)

The word “Puran Poli” is Marathi word, but as the contextually he used in English poem. It is

also Indian English writing style. According to M. K. Naik “the thematic complex is much larger

and the poem is a conscious attempt to present in sharp contrast, he finds three major value

systems in Jejuri. First is ancient religious tradition, second is modern industrial civilization and

third is the life principle of Nature and its ways.” 30

So, Arun Kolatkar is Maharashtrian poet. He focuses on Jejuri to write poems. He selects

religious place to describe social and cultural mood of society. He does not concentrate on

religion of the place. It is the focal point of study in the poetry of Arun Kolatkar.

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REFERENCES

1. Satyanarayana, M.R., (1980), “Jejuri: Arun Kolatkar’s Waste Land”, Indian Poetry in

English, Delhi: Macmillan, p. 78.

2. Ibid, pp. 72-83.

3. Singh, Brijraj, (summer, 1979), “Four New Voices”, Chandrabhaga, No.1, pp.76-77.

4. Nemade, B.V. “Arun Kolatkar and Bilingual Poetry”, Indian Reading in Commonwealth

Literature, pp. 72-83.

5. Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna, (1992), “Twelve Indian Poets”, Calcutta: Oxford University

Press, p. 54.

6. Ibid, p. 54.

7. Naik, M.K., (2010), “A History of Indian English Literature”, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi,

p. 217-18.

8. Desai, S.K., (1980), “Arun Kolatkar’s Jejuri: A House of God”, The Literary Criterion, XI, 1,

pp. 48-49.

9. Chindhade, Shirish, (2011), “Five Indian English Poets”, New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers

and Distributors (P) LTD, p. 91.

10. Chitre, Dilip, (1967), “Introduction”, “An Anthology of Marathi Poetry”, Bombay: Nirmala

Sadanand Bhatkal Publication, p. 18.

11. Sinha, Prakash K., (1986), “A Vision of Disintegration”: “A Glance at some of Kolatkar’s

own Translations of His Poems”, Poetry, special number on Poetry of Maharashtra, No.12,

pp. 16-20.

12. Satyanarayana, M.R., (1980), “Jejuri: Arun Kolatkar’s Waste Land”, Indian Poetry in

English, Delhi: Macmillan, pp. 72-83.

13. Nemade, B.V., “Arun Kolatkar and Bilingual Poetry”, Indian Reading in Commonwealth

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