Jagannath Pathak is a Sanskrit scholar and poet. In 1981 his poetry collection Kapishayani won the Sahitya Akademi Award for Sanskrit. He also won the Sahitya Akademi Translation Award (for Sanskrit) in 2004, for translating Mirza Ghalib's Diwan-E-Ghalib Urdu poetry into Sanskrit as Ghaliba Kavyam.
The 2nd half of 20th century and the first decade of 21st century is being rightly considered as the golden age for the modern Sanskrit Literature. During this period we have plenty of poetical compositions in the form of महाकाव्य-s] खण्डकाव्यs and lyrical poems etc. written by the poets from all regions of our country. Similarly, in prose compositions we have stories, short stories, novels, travelogue and fine essays etc., whereas in dramatical compositions we have plays, short plays (or rather one-act-plays), Radio-plays and street-plays etc. Out of these literary genres of creative writings along with their sub-genres mentioned above, some are continuing from ancient times and few are the contributions of this modern age.
The poet and his works : At a glance
Dr. Jagannath Pathak, the poet of this Anthology i.e. जगन्नाथसुभाषितम् is a well known name in the field of contemporary creative writings in Sanskrit. He was born in Sasaram, Bihar in the year 1933 and he retired as a principal from Rashtriya Sanskrit Samsthan, Ganganath Jha Campus, Allahabad in 1994. He now leads the literary galaxy of Prayag where he is well-settled at present and by his precious presence he adorns Pratisthanapuri (Jhusi), Allahabad (a historical place related to mythological characters such as Pururavas and Urvashi etc.) .
A number of creative literary works have been published so far to his credit. He is the author of many मुक्तककाव्यs like कापिशायनी (1980), मृद्वीका (1983), पिपासा (1987), विच्छित्तिवातायनी (1992) and आर्यासहस्रारामम् (1995). He has also translated कामायनी as well as अश्रु of Jayashankar Prasad into Sanskrit in poetry-form and सौन्दर्यदर्शनविमर्शः of Prof. G. C. Panday into Hindi. He has edited many important works like समुद्रसंगमः (original Mazm Ul Bahrain by Dara Shikoh), काव्यप्रकाश, सुभाषितहारावली, रतिमन्मथनाटकम् etc. In addition to that, पत्रलेखा के पत्र (1981) and थेरीगीतगाथा (1998) are his original writings in Hindi.
थेरीगीतगाथा is an important collection of life history of sixteen Buddhist Nuns including famous उत्पलवर्णा, क्षेमकेशा, गौतमी and आम्रपाली He has edited the 7th volume of History of Sanskrit literature published from Uttar pradesh Sanskrit Sansthan, Lucknow. This particular volume is dedicated to Modern Sanskrit literature. Besides the works mentioned above, thousands of his आर्या still wait to see the light of the day. For details of his works one may go through the 10th issue of Drik (a leading criticism of contemporary Sanskrit literature) published by Drig-Bharati, Allahabad in 2002.
For his marvelous creations stated above, he has been awarded with several prestigious National awards. To name a few, he has been awarded with president award in 2005. He is also a recipient of many other important awards like Sahitya-akademi (1981) for कापिशायनी (1980), Vachaspati-sammana of K. K. Birla Foundation (1992) for मृद्वीका. Besides these, he received several awards from Uttar pradesh Sanskrit Sansthan and Rajasthan Sanskrit Academy also.
The Poet vis-à-vis आर्या metre
Dr. Pathak has unique mastery over writing traditional metre in general and आर्या-s in particular. Therefore, he is rightly called as आर्यासम्राट् by many contemporary critics. Though he mostly writes in traditional metres like many other traditional contemporary poets, still unlike them, he is not against the use of free verses (muktachhandas) in contemporary Sanskrit writings, which is widely adopted in other contemporary Indian literature. He is never of the opinion that it is only writer’s weakness to write free verses.
आर्या is a musical metre which seems to be most conducive towards the nature of the उत्त्त्र्दू-शेर. He well-deserves the credit of making उर्दू and Persian literature immortal, for first of all, digesting them and then for transforming them into Sanskrit metre in its traditional form. Through his चषक -s of कापिशायनी he lives in the hearts and the brains of the lovers of Sanskrit literature who are in favour of extending Sanskrit literature a greater platform. By translating ¶ दीवाने गालिब ¸ into आर्या-s, he has undoubtedly shouldered a new responsibility. His आर्यासहस्रारामम् (1995) contains one thousand आर्या-s. Interestingly, the title refers to the Sanskritised name of his native place Sasaram (Bihar). His विच्छित्तिवातायनी also contains around two thousand आर्या-s.
The lyrical Sanskrit metre आर्या is one of the few small metres in Sanskrit. Besides the ‘आर्या’, the अनुष्टुभ् is also a small metre. However, there is a fundamental difference between these two metres. The अनुष्टुभ् suits as a medium for the continuous narration as it is mostly used in पुराण-s, while the आर्या is fittest for the lyrical expression of romantic feelings. May be, therefore, कालिदास has adopted the आर्या-s for songs in his plays and the same tradition has also been followed by most of his successors. However, by adopting the आर्या-s for the purpose of Muktakas in general, Dr. Pathak has given a new direction to the Classical Sanskrit tradition.
A Brief survey of poet’s Poetic Creation
The great merit of Dr. Pathak’s poem is that it is marked by a rare lucidity. Though he has no specific style as such still the nature of his poems, is extra-ordinarily simple. Mostly he uses the simplest possible words and expressions. His works are considered as the massive contributions to the contemporary writings in Sanskrit for its quality and not for quantity. He has accomplished his own marvelous skill due to his mastery over the language and the metre he uses. What I feel, the qualities and the significance of Dr Pathak’s poems can only be realized by going through them originally. Before writing any thing about the present volume, let me analyze some examples of the already published works of Dr. Pathak.
Like many other writers of present era, the poet Dr. Pathak is also very much worried about the present complicated awesome social set up. For example, at present, he finds रावणs all around him just waiting for their opportunities to steal the chastity of सीता. In this situation he asks a question to himself and others that how much the poor लक्ष्मणरेखा will be able to protect her : In another verse he compares himself with such a lamp which is exstinguished right now by the saree’s boarder which was supposed to protect him from the great threats of storms. He believes in surrendering to God completely. Such evidences can be found in many of his poems including the following one where he says that there is no object left which cannot be given to you, because everything is yours. In poet’s language : Dr. Pathak’s internal mind has got proper expression in his poems. Whatever he has written so far he has written them very honestly by entering to the utmost depth of his heart. He has written his poems by lifting himself above the bar of cast and creed. The search of eternal truth is the thrust area of his poems. The understanding of contemporary age, innovative thoughts and simple as well as transparent language, are other qualities of his poems. it is very difficult to raise finger against his correct usage of appropriate words and error-free language along with selection of proper metre. Dr. Pathak has mostly chosen muktakas to express his feelings in poetry-form. He is master of आर्या metre. He has written two thousand आर्या&s in विच्छित्तिवातायनी, one thousand in आर्यासहस्रारामम्. Though आर्या is his favourite metre, he has adopted viyogini in मृद्वीका. I am very much fond of one of his verse composed in viyogini. The thoughts of the verse quoted below, are as under : Let someone annihilate my wings or let one prison me in cage. But how can one cease my inner longing to fly up high in the sky. In the poet’s language: I take a lot of inspiration from this single verse. I feel that the verse can very well guide the young generation too. Not only this verse but many other verses of Dr. Pathak contain new themes in a most appealing style. His emotional expressions do efficiently give a shape to the expressions of his own life.
The poet is sad enough about the tendency of new generation who has blind faith on western culture. Therefore, he sometimes casts satiric expressions on such tendency and says : I feel, at present Dr. Pathak almost surpasses not only his contemporary generation but he also sits in the driver’s seat of both the generations (i.e. upper and lower both) . The Sanskrit poets are famous for their proud expressions including कालिदास (पुराणमित्येव न साधु सर्वम्) or Bhavabhuti (ये नाम केचिदिह प्रथयन्त्यवज्ञां) or Panditaraja Jagannatha in many of his poems. They all of course have their own style of expressing such proudness. While Panditaraja is more exposed in this direction, Dr. Pathak has his own symbolic style in this context. As Prof. Radhavallabh Tripathi has rightly pointed out in his Foreword right now and once before in Drik 10 also, that Panditaraja uses direct methods for such proud expressions whereas Dr. Pathak adopts the indirect ones. Let us now look at a couple of examples, again quoted in Foreword (पुरोवाक्) itself : After a close observation of his poems one can find that Dr. Pathak does not want to accompany the people who are in very much hurry to achieve goals by hook or crook. The flattering culture also did not entertain him. Therefore, some times he finds himself alone.