Dr. Mukul Dahal
Lekhnath Paudyal’s arrival in Nepali literary scenewas significant in the sense that it paved way to modernist Nepali poetry. What was most important about him was his understanding of ‘the pastness of the past’ and that of ‘presence’ as T.S. Eliot puts in his essay ‘Tradition and Individual Talent’ arguing that the ‘order’ that makes ‘tradition’ is altered by the arrival of a new talent or a new work of art (Eliot). This argument finds relevance as much in Lekhanath Paudyal as in Laxmi Prasad Devkota, Bala Krishna Sama, Gopal Prasad Rimal and all other prominent figures of Nepali literature. In this write up I argue that Lekhnath Paudyal’s poetic force altered the ‘tradition’ by leading the poetry of his time from devotion, didacticism and shringarik(love and eroticism) to social reality setting a modernist tone. However, he did not completely discard these trends but embraced in his writing with new insights and gradually moved away from them.
Various poetic impulses were at play in Lekhanath Paudyal’s own poetic output. He began with pedantic “riddle-solving” (samasya-purti ) verses, a popular genre adapted from an earlier Sanskrit tradition (Hutt). He dwelt in devotional mode of writing too as inSaraswati Smriti(Remembering Saraswati) and moralising and philosophical pondering as in NaitikDristanta(Moral Perspective). He worked against the currents of the Shringarik tradition which leaned heavily on eroticism at that time (Bista) by employing classic Sanskrit meters in poetry but creating sweetness and melody. Therefore, he became the supreme exponent of meter, alliteration, and melody and the first to perfect the art of formal composition in Nepali (Hutt).
As mentioned earlier, Lekhnath Paudyal laid a solid foundation of 20th century Nepali poetry (Shreshtha) and marked a break away from the Shringarik (love and eroticism)age of medieval literature. His creative consciousness exhibited a unique blend of different modes of creativity. In his moralizing, his observance of the rules of classical Sanskrit forms, spiritual and philosophical ponderings as in ancient Vedic classics, he is viewed as a classicist; in his communion with nature, his criticism about the urban encroachment to the purity and sanity of the natural world, he is romanticist. He received a perennial ‘moral inspiration’ from nature; so he positioned nature in the center of all worldly activities. Lekhnath’s classicism was apparent in the poems he wrote in Vedic philosophical mode. He believed that the constantly degrading human society would find remedy only in Vedic moral philosophical precepts.
Lekhnath made a significant contribution in standardizing Nepali language through his unconventional use of diction and rejection of halanta.The rejection of the halantawas for retaining dignity of language keeping it close to colloquialism. He showed extreme care in handling rhythm exploiting the potential offered by the form and the potential inherent in the language. The following couplet is very popular among Nepali readers because of its message and use of diction. The allusion between a wicked man and the forest thorns,and the music created through the rhythm of the meter has made the verse so subtle and precise that it has an unmistakable appeal immediately. Because of such effect and the message in it, this is one of the most quoted verses, both in academic and non-academic contexts.
Sānai dekhi chhucho hunchha dusta mānisko mati
Ghochane jangali kādā pahilana itikhā kati
[A wicked man is mean when he is still young
How pricklythejungle thorns are in their tender age!]
(My translation)
An exquisite play of sound with repetition of words and alliteration is in the following quatrain from the poem Satya Sandesh (the message of truth). (Tripathi) I provide here its transliteration and translation:
Kālo mandākiniko jala, jalanidhiko motiko jyoti kālo
Kālo saudāminiko chahak saba sharach-chandrako kānti kālo
Kailāsh shreni kālo jhalamala garane suryako bimba kālo
Yo sārā sristi kālo manabicha chha bhane dambha durbhāba kālo
[Black is the water of Mandākiniand the shine of the pearl,
Black is the flash of lightning, and Autumn’s moon light
Black is the colour of Kailash, and the glittering image of the sun
Balck is the colour of entire world, if in the heart dwell conceit and ills]
(My translation)
Lekhnath could speak in form with freedom because he discarded the orthodox notion about forms and simplified them wherever required. Although he conveyed moral messages, philosophical ponderings or sounded thoroughly didactic, he created special rhythmic effects to avoid dryness. Instead, the rhythm lured the readers and the moral, didactic message seemed to illuminate the reader with realizations.
Lekhnath’s metaphorical transformation of his ‘experiential truth’ is a remarkable feature of his most popular poem ‘Pinjarako Suga’ (A Parrot in a Cage). He took the evil of the time, the suffering caused by politics and harmonized this in a work of art. The poet presented the bird as a twice-born child, the natural birth being the first and its life as the second birth. This dual life at another level signifies the poet’s own dual existence. Below I present some more interesting interpretations of the poem.
Here are a few quatrains of this poem (M. Hutt):
A Parrot in a Cage
A pitiful, twice-born child called parrot,
I have been trapped in a cage,
Even in my dreams, Lord Shiva,
I find not a grain of peace or rest.
My brothers, my mother and father,
Dwell in a far forest corner,
To whom can I pour out my anguish,
Lamenting from this cage?
Sometimes I weep and shed my tears,
Sometimes I am like a corpse,
Sometimes I leap about, insane,
Remembering forest joys.
This poor thing which wandered the glades
And ate wild fruits of daily delight
Has been thrust by Fate into a cage;
Destiny, Lord, is strange!
( Trans: Micahel James Hutt)
Dr. Abhi Subedi brings two different interpretation of the poem.
Some critics regard this poem as an example of rebellious tone of the poet. Dr. Prayag Raj Sharma says, ‘Poet Lekhnath Paudyal, though being a Pundit employed in the palace of the Prime Minister BhimShumsher, indirectly pictured the palace of the Prime Minister as cage into which he was placed like a parrot, and voiced his inner desire to fly away from it.
…
Judging from the evidence of the poet’s other poems of the Vedantic trend; this poem can be interpreted as a philosophical poem also. The cage can be the symbol of the world. But the poet’s longing to escape from the monotony of his time also must have found expression in this poem. There is a blend of pathos, rebellion and asceticism in this poem.
Whether the ‘cage’ be a symbol of the insularity of the Ranas rule and the ‘parrot’ be a symbol for the Nepalese people, or the poet himself placed in the palace, the poem’s sonorous rhythm and the form create an effect that enables the poem to settle in a reader’s memory. Lekhnath consciously created such effects throughout his poetic career. In the later period he also included subtle irony in his poems. Dr. Subedi said:
He was also against the British rule in India. He compares mosquitoes and panthers with the ‘white’ colonizers: The wicked came from afar/Prowling slowly/Like a panther/ To break the pen of goats…/Like the wicked whites.
It is interesting to see the poet’s transition from his rhapsodic poems such as Ritu Bichar (Reflections on Seasons), from his didacticism to the poem in which he includes irony and he criticizes lapses and foibles in human behavior.
Drawing the blood and bribe from the innocent
With items of worship and slaughtering of goats,
Some offered puja, praying the god to be happy
I cried at it, at the degrading state of humanity (Paudel)(My translation)
His flights of imagination, his lyrical communion with nature changed to moralizing and the sense of irony. About change of poetic modes and language, it is worth looking at what Mutlu Konuk Blasing has said:
Poetic language is a thoroughly historical and social medium. Words, grammar, poetic forms, and the modes of their dissemination and circulation; speech, sounds and their representations; and the shape and social status of emotions are all subject to constant change, and the function of poetry also changes in tandem with social change. (Blasing)
The society of his time shared what Lekhnath thought the function of poetry was. He brought change in diction and applied it to his unorthodox use of Sanskrit forms. It was warmly hailed by the readers. Lekhnath became an instrument and vehicle of this change. His simplification of diction, his respect for syntactic and semantic potential of the language and his awareness about revising, refining and editing the verses before they were made public set an ideal for his contemporary poets. He influenced Laxmi Prasad Devkota and Bala Krishna Sama, two great figures of his time who led Nepali literature to a new height; Devkota with his copious creative outburst in various genres and Sama with his contribution in poetry, essay and plays.
Lekhnath’s versatility in terms of contents, satire against degrading human morale and self-centredness through melody and rhapsodic nature of language had the strength to alter the tradition not only by heralding a new era, influencing the contemporary poets but also by going beyond that. He is continued to be read with the same fervent today as people did in his time. Besides, Lekhnath’s individual poignant pieces, he wrote episodic poems containing long narratives. Tarun Tapasi was one of such poems, which he called navya kavya. It contained a long narrative suffused with philosophical ponderings and social satire. Michael Hutt says:
“The Young Ascetic” is a lengthy narrative poem concerning a poet stricken by grief at the death of his wife, who sits beneath a tree by the wayside…The poem contains much that can readily be construed as symbolism, allegory, and even autobiography. The poet probably represents Lekhnath himself, and the descriptions of the changing seasons are said to represent the advent and departure of the various ruling families of Nepal. (Hutt)
The following stanza from ‘The Young Ascetic’has resonated with Nepali readers over the years.It contains a staunch satire.
Ma khāumailāu, sukhasayalwāmoj ma garu
Ma bānchhu mai nāchu aru saba marun durbalaharu
Bhani dārā dhasne abujh sathadekhi chhakapari
Chita khitka chhodi abhayasita hasyo marimari
I feed and clothe myself, seek pleasure and comfort myself
I live and dance in merriment, let the helpless and the feeble die.
Bewildered to see such thoughtlessblockheads,
even a corpse broke into fits of laughter. ( Paudyal) (My translation)
What is so prominent in these lines is the musicality created out of internal rhythm fitting to the contents.The verse bears a powerful sense of derision at utterly selfish and self-centered characters. This is also an example of how he moved away from devotion to social reality. Even at the core of his moralising Lekhnath never deviated from social causewith humanity at the centre.
In conclusion, Lekhnathwas a poet with a true sense of aesthetic in the existing poetic tradition.The craft with which he produced his work added novelty. Using Eliot’s argument, it can be said that arrival of Lekhnath’s work modified Nepali poetic ‘tradition’ and created a new order.