Draft:Pravaldvip

Pravaldvip or Pravaldweep (transl. Coral Island) is a series of 16 poems in Gujarati language written by Indian writer Niranjan Bhagat, between 1946 and 1956.

Background

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The poems were written over a decades, from 1946 and 1956.^[2]

'I wandered through the streets of Mumbai at different hours of morning, noon, evening [,] and midnight. During this flânerie, solitary on amidst crowds, I stumbled against phrases, lines, images [,] and rhythms of my poems,. representing sights, sounds, and smells of the streels, reflecting time and place, recreating the mood and the mind of the people, and revealing the mysteries of a massive metropolis and its myriad multitudes, which came to me suddenly and surprisingly. I wrote 16 poems between 1946 and 1956 and published them serially in literary periodicals. Finally, I collected them under the title 'Pravaldvip' and published them in 1956. It is poetry of cityscape, of urban experience in an unreal city. It is social and cerebral, cryptic [,] and colloquial. Critics think that 'Pravaldvip' has inaugurated the age of modernism in Gujarati poetry. In these poems I placed my feeling of loneliness in a larger context and projected my sense of solitude onto a wider perspective and hoped to overcome and outgrow them.'
— Niranjan Bhagat

Bhagat acknowledged inspiration from Narmad's Narmtekri, Umashankar Joshi's Atma na Khander (Ruins of Soul) and Balwantray Thakore's Bhankar, apart from his personal experiences. He also quoted modernist poets like T. S. Eliot, Charles Baudelaire and Rainer Maria Rilke.^[2]

The Poems

Pravaldvip consist of 16 poems:

"Mumbainagri" (City of Bombay)
"Adhunik Aranya" (A Modern Forest)
"Kolaba par Suryast" (Sunset on Colaba)
"Epolo par Chandroday" (Moonrise on Apollo)
"Fauntanna Busstop par" (At the Fountain Bus Stop)
"Charchgetthi Lokalma" (In a Local from Churchgate)
"Hornbi Rod" (Hornby Road)
"Patro" (Characters)
"Gayatri" (Gayatri)
"Myuziyamma" (In the Museum)
"Zuma" (In the Zoo)
"Ekveriyamma' (In the Aquarium)
"Eodrom Par" (At the Airport)
"Kafema" (In the Café)
"Foklend Road" (Falkland Road)
"Flora Fauntan" (Flora Fountain)

The poems are composed in various meters including Gulbanki, Harigit, Anushtup, Pruthvi, Shardulvikridit.^[2]

Reception

The poems of Pravaldvip were translated by Rita Kothari and Suguna Ramanathan under the title Coral Island, published by the Gujarat Sahitya Akademi in 2002.^[3]

Shailesh Parekh, biographer of Bhagat, remarks: "...these poems, blending East with the West, tradition with the modernity and revealing a voice that is distinctive and inimitable, are a distinct landmark and a pathbreaking beacon in the realm of Gujarati literature".^[2]

References

^ Patel, Bholabhai (2002). "Locating Niranjan Bhagat's Poetry". Coral Island (1946–1956). Translated by Ramanathan, Suguna; Kothari, Rita. Gandhinagar: Gujarat Sahitya Academy. ISBN 978-81-7227-113-8.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Parekh, Shailesh (2023). Niranjan Bhagat. Makers of Indian Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. pp. 59–64. ISBN 978-93-5548-498-7.
^ Tripathi, Salil (3 February 2018). "Remembering Niranjan Bhagat (1926-2018), a giant of Gujarati poetry". Scroll.in. Retrieved 25 December 2023.

External links

Pravaldvip on Ekatra Foundation
Mumbainagri (English translation)

Category:Poems in Gujarati Category:Poems about cities

[Patel-1] Patel, Bholabhai (2002). "Locating Niranjan Bhagat's Poetry". Coral Island (1946–1956). Translated by Ramanathan, Suguna; Kothari, Rita. Gandhinagar: Gujarat Sahitya Academy. ISBN 978-81-7227-113-8.

[Parekh_2023-2] Parekh, Shailesh (2023). Niranjan Bhagat. Makers of Indian Literature. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. pp. 59–64. ISBN 978-93-5548-498-7.

[Tripathi_2018-3] Tripathi, Salil (3 February 2018). "Remembering Niranjan Bhagat (1926-2018), a giant of Gujarati poetry". Scroll.in. Retrieved 25 December 2023.

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