Written 1982 Illustrator Shailesh Modi Language Gujarati Country India | First published in January 1983 Cover artist Kurang Mehta Originally published January 2013 Page count 152 OCLC 249677342 | |
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Form Metrical and Nonmetrical verse | ||
Bahuk (Gujarati: બાહુક) is Gujarati language long narrative poem written by Chinu Modi. The poem has been composed both of in metrical and non-metrical verse and based on one of the characters from Mahabharata called Nala who got metamorphosed in Bahuka. It is a well-acclaimed poem of Gujarati literature written in Sanskrit styled and figurative language. The poem was selected for Ushnas Prize (1982-83) by Gujarati Sahitya Parishad.
Contents
Background
Modi started to write this poem in 1971 but somehow he did not complete it. During 1979-81, he got the fellowship by Department of Culture, Delhi for creating works and restarted working on it. Modi completed this poem in October 1982, and was published as a book in January 1983 by Adarsh Publication, Ahmedabad and then reprinted in 1999. The third edition, including critical articles, was published in October 2014.
Characters
Theme
The theme of poem is based on the story of Nala and Damayanti from the 27th chapter of Vanparva of Mahabharata. The poem's main subject is the psyche and subtle emotions of Nala (and also of his wife Damayanti) who lost his empire in gambling with his brother Pushkara. After, losing his empire, Nala spends three days and nights out of his city Nishadnagar with Damayanti before going into the woods. Due to the cut off from his city, Nala feels extreme loneliness; the dissolution of his personality during these three days and nights, are depicted in this poem.
Structure and techniques
The whole poem is divided in three sarga - cantos. The first contains 15 chapters, the second 13 chapters, while the third contains 22 chapters. Here, the three characters do not communicate with each other but their independent monologues are described.
The chronological order of the monologues of narrator are as under:
The first and the second sarga have been composed in non-metrical verse while the third sarga has been composed in Sanskrit-vritta and Matra-vritta like Prithvi, Vasantatilka, Mandakranta, Shikhrini, Chopai and Katav. The whole poem has been structured in Sanskrit-styled and figurative language. The narrative of poem contains long monologues of the three characters, namely Nala, Damayanti and Brihadashwa. But because of their affection towards Nala, the monologues of Brihadashwa and Damayanti alternatively centre round Nala and his psyche. The two accounts from the original story are reinterpreted by the poet called Karkotaka dankh (The sting of Karkotaka) and Matsya Sajivan Prasang. In the original story, Nala got transformed into Bahuka due to the sting of snake Karkotaka but here, Chinu Modi described his metamorphosis in Bahuka due to the natural phenomena.
Sarga 1
The first sarga (canto) begins by three visuals that Brihadashwa give: The arrival of victorious Pushkara in the town Nishadanagar, The fear aroused in the citizens by his arrival, The motional states of victorious Pushkara and The numb Nala. After that, Nala's despair of being cut-off from his city is described. In the end, Damayanti's thoughts and feeling regarding Nala's situation is described.
Sarga 2
The second sarga begins with a line by Brihadashwa. He addresses it to the Vrukharaj (a banian tree) which was placed at the border of Nishadanagar and some other elements of the nature, about the mental state of Nala. The comes Nala's monologue, where his stillness, his passivism and his lack of life is described. Nala becomes conscious of these things. Then follows Damayanti's monologue where the certain lines are about her own state of mind, while the rest are about Nala. Damayanti tries to arouse life in him in his numb state by addressing him. The entire monologue uses the technique of Indication.
Sarga 3
It begins with Damayanti’s monologue, in which Nala’s mental state is described through the symbol of Vruksharaj ( a banian tree) and other elements of nature. She tries to convince nala to accept the new situation. Then comes Brihadashva’s monologue. Using natural elements like darkness and forest, he describes Nala’s situation. The last monologue is by Nala. At the beginning of this mologue, Nala finds a golden, fleshy bird. But the hungry Nala finds them fits to eat while looking at them. This is the point from where his transformation into Bahuka commences. He makes a snare out of his only cloth to catch hold of the bird, but it flies away carrying that. Nala remains naked, and feels dissolution of individuality and deep sense of grief. Finally, Nala turns into Bahuka, not by the sting of snake Karkotaka as said in original story of Mahabharata, but by the sting of loneliness. He leaves Damayanti and goes away in the forest. The incident that started by Nala’s desire to kill the bird ends with Nala leaving Damayanti, showing the ugly side of him. Nala is written as a displaced person in this poem.
Award
The book was selected for Ushnas Prize (1982-83) by Gujarati Sahitya Parishad.
Critical response
The poem have been critically acclaimed by several Gujarati authors. Harivallabh Bhayani noted that Chinu Modi have broken new grounds in modern Gujarati long narrative poem (Khandakavya) and indicate his attempts at narrative poem. Chandrakant Topiwala noted, In Gujarati literature, poets like Ravji Patel, and Raghuvir Chaudhari have written poem on separation from village when they moved from village to city. But here for the first time, Chinu Modi has grabbed the opportunity to writing on separation from the city as the lead character is separated from the city and moving to woods. By this he has described the pain of personal separation in modern context. However, Promodkumar Patel has questioned the psychological role and the truthfulness and authenticity of the emotions of the character Damayanti in one of his articles. He has also noted that the behaviour of Damayanti is opposite of reality at some instances in the poem.