Roundabout | The rite of passage to the write women
The 16th century finds India face-to-face with the Hindu mystic poet Mirabai writing verses of love for lord Krishna and the devotion continued in the face of convention as she defied the patriarchal to practice devotion in her verses
Today one feels like writing about the right of passage to the “write” women, don’t get me wrong it’s not the cruel cold that is making me forget my spellings, but it is driving me to some punning games even though my first news editor cautioned me that puns and alliterations never make for good writing. Sorry sir, but it really takes a lifetime to be rid of wrong habits. Now the history of the write women goes back a long time. A look back tells us that the first known woman poet recognised in the world was Enheduanna - the high priestess of goddess Inanna, and the moon god Nanna, who lived in the Sumerian city-state of Ur some four thousand plus years ago. Then we have Sappho of 570 BCE, an archaic Greek lyrical poet from the island of Lesbos. Come home to the Indian subcontinent and we find Avvaiyar, a Tamil poet of the third century, who interestingly was a people’s poet, roaming across the length and breadth of the land, as legend has it, composing verses for the poor farmers of the Sangam era.
The 16th century finds India face-to-face with the Hindu mystic poet Mirabai writing verses of love for lord Krishna and the devotion continued in the face of convention as she defied the patriarchal to practice devotion in her verses. Before Mirabai, who is believed to have drunk a cup full of poison, sent by the Rana, and she consumes it as divine nectar in her devotion to the lord. We also have Lal Ded, also referred to as Lalla Yogeshwari, in the 14th century. She was a Kashmiri mystic poet of the Shaivism school of Hindi poetry.
Of here and now
Having roamed several centuries, one comes to the 20th and 21st centuries in which women poets across the globe came forward in a grand manner. Swedish author Selma Otilla Lovisa Lagerlof was the first woman author to win the Nobel Prize in 1909, and closer home our very own Punjabi poet Amrita Pritam was the first woman writer to win the Sahitya Akademi Award for her poetry in Independent India in 1956 when the likes of this writer were mere toddlers. And to come to the point for all this research for a rare scholarly and research-based column is that a contemporary poet Paul Kaur has won the Sahitya Akademi Award, which somehow evaded her as lesser authors, male and female, kept getting it year after year. Well let bygones be bygones and celebrate her victory after all. As I shared my woes for the delay in the award to this weighty poet with some dozen poetry collections and a beautiful translation of her poetry in English by Arvinder Kaur and scholar Yog Raj Angrish, who heads the department of Punjabi studies in Panjab University, I get a quotable quote, rare of now, “It is good that Paul Kaur has got the award for a scholarly book in verse “Sun Guwanta, Sun Budhiwanta” (Listen you blessed one, listen you wise one) and not just some ordinary run-of-the-mill book!
When a woman pens poetry
{{/usCountry}}When a woman pens poetry
{{/usCountry}}Now coming to the words penned in black and white. Writing the cultural history of Punjab in verse is what our friend picked up for her subject for this epical work. Of course, she put me in a quandary too for trying to sound scholarly in this column. I have been witness to the poet diligently working on it for some fifteen years and often visiting her cottage in the Himachal hills to work quietly. The hard labour and love shows. I would like to quote a common friend, the late writer Des Raj Kali, who was a source of inspiration in creating a book to be remembered. Thus, he said when it came out: “It is said that this book has been written from a woman’s perspective and why not it is women who make history humane. Well done Paul for your view of seeing history not just for its politics but its humane and positive movements from the Harappan times to the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
{{/usCountry}}Now coming to the words penned in black and white. Writing the cultural history of Punjab in verse is what our friend picked up for her subject for this epical work. Of course, she put me in a quandary too for trying to sound scholarly in this column. I have been witness to the poet diligently working on it for some fifteen years and often visiting her cottage in the Himachal hills to work quietly. The hard labour and love shows. I would like to quote a common friend, the late writer Des Raj Kali, who was a source of inspiration in creating a book to be remembered. Thus, he said when it came out: “It is said that this book has been written from a woman’s perspective and why not it is women who make history humane. Well done Paul for your view of seeing history not just for its politics but its humane and positive movements from the Harappan times to the reign of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.
{{/usCountry}}nirudutt@gmail.com
