An Indian Poet Prophet

In his 1840 feature entitled" the hero as poet�" Thomas Carlyle defines a poet�s role gloriously. Carlyle maintains that the poet-prophet speaks to the noble, the pure; thetype for all times and places. Seshendra sarma, the rebel poet of Andhra Pradesh is an example of such an Indian poet-prophets, the"spirits Fierie", who drive the dead thoughts over the universe like withered leaves and quicken the birth of a new, better tomorrow.

Seshendra sarma, born in 1927,is a coastal Andhra product. A highly educated and conscious poet with a marked academic and bureaucratic profile. But it is not his visibility in seminar circuits and academic circles that has endeared him to the Andhrites-To Andhrites-and those other Indians who read him in translation-seshendra sarma is the Revolutionary Poet Prophet. His poetry celebrates the clarion-call of resistance. His poems salute both the rivers rushing to fields to save the starved and the trigger-happy fingers shooting those who betray the people.

Such anger against agents of the establishment is the lifeline of seshendra sigma�s poetry. In poem after poem, in his stories, in his other writings, seshendra sarma stands" in defense of people and poetry�. As a result of this innate resistance which questions the future pleasures and empty beauty which the co-opting establishment may provide, for seshendra sarma� poetry is Guerilla�s innermost call for an uprising against all the principles and policies which have gone wrong and which have erupted as the so many ills which crush the common man.

Seshendra sarma is frank and honest enough to point out the pitfalls the communists have been trapped by. Though he refuses to identify himself with any political party, he is committed enough to join-despite illness-a protest meet which questioned the ban on the nxalites. His life and letters amply reveal his pro-people, anti-capitalistic, socialist sympathies.

How can a critic explain the life and work of such a people�s poet?In"RASHTRENDU SESHENDRA; ASHESHA AYAM�Dr. Vishrant Vashishta providesapanoramic view of Seshendra Sarma�slife and writings. So detailed and well exemplified is Dr.vashisht�s analysis of the development of the major themes of Seshendra sarma�s oeuvre that the book is a god-send to those who cannot read the telugu originals or have not had the chance to lay their hands on Omprakash Nirmal�s translations of seshendra�swritings

Dr.vashistha�s criticism, it must however be said, lacks a certain critical maturity which would locate a critique of seshendra sarma�s writings within larger ideological paradigm. Often Dr.Vasishta�s criticism dwindles down to anecdotage and idolatry and thus exemplifies the poverty of contemporary Indian criticism.

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������ If the Indian and or regional literature has to outgrow the regionally and ethnically splintered identities, our" native" criticism must not be hagiographic. It is not enough to compare Seshendra with Valmiki or Kalidasa. A sharper text-based analysis, which questions the layer "con-texts�", is necessary. Only then can"native"criticism celebrate and worldwide the organic intellectuals, the poet as heroes, who regionally, inspiring the rejects of the society. -PRATIMAAGNIHOTRI.

(RASHTRENDU SESHENDRA; ASESH AYAAM-BY Dr.Visrant vasistha

PP; 141, Rs.100/=)

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Dt; march12, 1999