Snowfall : A testament of poetic imagination

By DR MOHAN LOHANI 

The English Romantic poet Coleridge writing about imagination makes a distinction between the primary and the secondary imagination in his well-known book of literary criticism, Biographia Literaria. While the primary imagination, as Coleridge states, is the living power and prime agent of all human perception, the secondary imagination, although it is an echo of the former, dissolves, diffuses, dissipates, in order to recreate. There is emphasis in the aesthetics of Coleridge on the shaping power of imagination. It is this shaping power of imagination that enabled Laxmi Prasad Devkota, Nepal’s outstanding poetic genius, to enrich Nepali literature with his creative output at once varied, complex, innovative, profoundly thought-provoking and profusely imaginative. Devkota, like Shakespeare, goes down in the history of world literature as an immortal bard.

Snowfall described by Shyamdas Vaishnav as a short epic was composed by Devkota in January 1947 (Pausha, BS 2003) and recently published by the Nepal Cultural Association, with some interpolations in the text because the manuscript was moth-eaten. There was unprecedented snowfall in Kathmandu in January 1947, and I have a vivid recollection of this event as I was six years old at that time. According to Vaishnav, who was then 22 years old, Nepal’s poetic genius Devkota composed this poem on the same day of snowfall witnessed by all Kathmanduites including Devkota and Vaishnav. The poem consisting of 224 stanzas centres round snowfall, a unique natural phenomenon for the Kathmandu valley. Everything such as roads, trees and houses came within the wide embrace of snowfall. Snowfall as it succeeds Lekhnath’s Ritu Vichar (Reflections on Season) stands out as a Nature poem par excellence. The sight of snow ignites the creative spark in the poetic soul of Devkota. Like Kalidasa who introduced the cloud as a messenger of his personal thoughts and feelings in his famous poem Meghadutam, Devkota uses snowfall as a poetic device to artistically survey the social, political and economic scene of the time. The poet’s descriptive power is incredibly skillful and breathtakingly sharp and penetrating. Snowfall sets a pattern in descriptive writing in Nepali literature. Devkota has an eye for minute and accurate details. We come across lines where the poet measures the volume or inches of snowfall.

Devkota presents himself as a champion of the underdog in Snowfall. His heart goes out to the old, the infirm, the poor, the distressed or, in brief, those who are oppressed and exploited. Mist, frost, rain and snow are more than natural occurrences. They symbolize political oppression and social disparity of the time. Lines such as "As hunger upsets the belly and watery becomes the cold tongue. The poor man looks upon snow as his food" give us a glimpse of economic exploitation and the anguish of the poor. While the social setting encompasses the behaviour pattern of inhabitants of the Kathmandu valley, their gestures and gesticulations, their living conditions, customs and practices, social malpractices such as bribery and theft, there are references in the poem to the contemporary political situation. India’s gloomy and depressed mood due to its colonial status is referred to in the poem. It may be noted that India gained independence in August 1947 seven months after the composition of this poem. Devkota while sympathising with India which remained under British colonial domination for over two centuries takes pride in Nepal as a sovereign, independent country. This testifies to the poet’s patriotic fervour.

If Devkota is not out and out a religious poet, it is equally incorrect to dismiss him as an atheist. He is acutely conscious of how our socio-cultural setup is shaped and influenced by religion. Devkota is not completely averse to religious beliefs and practices. Repeated references to penance, hermit, Lord Shiva, Himalaya, Gauri-Shanker and the enlightened Buddha prove that religion in the poem is not a subject of sarcasm or satire. The poet’s imagination with its shaping power brings to life our religious tradition couched in ancient myths and legends. Nature and culture of which religion is a component are intertwined. The poet imagines that snow, fog, frost and rain are manifestations of God’s fury. At the same time, he visualises in snowfall the entire paraphernalia of a marriage ceremony solemnised by Vedic rites. The rain is compared to a woman carrying the sacred vessel or Kalasha. While the gusty wind looks like a musician, tree leaves toss around as if they are dancing. Time as the ever lasting reality is the principal manager or organiser. Bhim Nath Ghimire opines that snowfall is a poetic device by which Devkota presents his vision of life. The poet’s treatment of Nature is not divorced from his life-long commitment to humanism.

No less perceptive is Shrish Bhandari’s commentary on poem. He writes: "The change of seasons is in keeping with the laws of Nature. There is nothing unusual about the onset of winter and its concomitant development which is snowfall. Snowfall for poet Devkota is more than a natural phenomenon. It awakens the poetic mind and stimulates his creative imagination." Devkota’s poetic imagination wanders from east to west, from heaven to earth. Love of Nature, in brief, brings out Devkota’s genius as a romantic and humanist poet.

The originality of the poem, as Bhim Nath Ghimire observes, lies in its rainbow-like structure. Everything from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal which gives birth to tropical rains, from Vedic culture to western technology such as German bombs and artillery used during the second world war is woven into the texture of the poem. Nature in the form of snowfall is the unifying principle. There is a vivid description of snowfall combined with an imaginative insight into the same phenomenon. The poet’s knowledge of how clouds are formed and are later transformed into rains is accurate and scientifically verifiable.

A few words on the style and diction of the poem will be in order. Although it lacks the poise, decorum and elegance of classical poetry, the poet is able to lend a human dimension to a simple natural event like snowfall. The use of apt similes has made the poem aesthetically satisfying. To mention a few, ‘jaws and teeth clattering with cold are like the drum beating of a traditional village doctor or Dhami’. Likewise, frost-bitten leaves of the tree look like the snow-white beard of an old man. Trees stand still in extremely cold winter followed by snowfall. They are now bereft of leaves when their branches like human hands rub against each other. Winter with its snow, frost and mist is like an old man hypnotised by the youthful charms of the earth. The snow-clad peaks are like hermits practising penance. The poet imagines that there is a witch inside the fog which looks like a white canopy. The poet further imagines that the dark and dismal sky of Kathmandu overcast with clouds reflects the gloom and depression of India under colonial yoke. The old Himalayas of the Kingdom witness to the sad plight of India heave a sigh of sorrow which manifests itself as an icy blast. There are a number of other similes and rhetorical devices used by the poet to enhance the poem’s aesthetic appeal.

A modern reader comes across some expressions in the poem that might appear to be archaic today. To Devkota they were familiar expressions. Words came to him, as some one has said about John Keats, like leaves to a tree. The poem contains several new words, which cannot be translated into English, coined by the poet. We come across words with religious connotation and words that embody the social tradition steeped in witchcraft and exorcism. A cursory reading of the poem gives one the impression that the poet has made no conscious attempt to polish the lines. This is not the case as the use of apt similes with cultural and social nuances, as stated earlier, testifies not only to the poet’s creative imagination but also his sensitivity to language which is a vehicle for experience. The poet also allows some alien words to find entry into the poem. The use of alliteration, however, adds rhythm and musicality to a few stanzas and lines in the poem. Despite a few rambling, ambiguous and incoherent lines, most of the stanzas are compact, well-knit and pregnant with meaning. To conclude, Snowfall, Devkota’s latest publication, serves as a lamppost to future generations.

Beloved Lake, where should I find solace ?

By YUYUTSU R D SHARMA

In the early morning waters of the Lake Fewa I see a shining thing swimming freely.

My eyes focus on it. No, it couldn’t be— may be it is a water hen, I tell myself, a duck or a dead fish floating.

I can’t simply believe, it’s an empty mineral water bottle.

The Lake seems to have shrunk, looking darkish, a dying Fairy Queen sulking at its polluted edges…

On the balcony of the rooftop restaurant overlooking its muddled waters, an Australian tourist approaches the lodge owner, complaining ‘ I need to consult a doctor’ he says nervously and takes off his T-shirts, exposing his chest and throat dotted with rashes all over. "It’s from the Lake" he asserts.

I want to make a move. New settlements have cropped on the grassy banks of the Lake, ugly reminder of human greed. I wonder if tourism is such a rosy thing, as most of the people/ experts in these parts of the world almost unanimously believe it to be. Intruding into the secret of others’ lives that they have lived since centuries could in way is a humane or liberal act. "I was going to go swimming" interrupts a woman with a pointed nose reading a book nearby " But thanks, now I wont. I shall climb mountains instead."

All night long I keep thinking, waiting far euphoric moments I had spent with the Lake to visit me. I fidget. I languish. After an hour I move out to the dark edge of the Lake. Beloved, where else should I find the solace. Should I kill the finest of my poems on your wailing waters?

On the third day I take a bicycle and decide to make a survey. I move past Khahare, Bangladi, Sheddi Khola, Khapaudi, its relieving. A motor boat seems to be doing the same in the distance, moving parallel to my racing bicycle, trying to reach the crotch of the lake. Once again, the notes of the bird-songs reach my ears, stirring a secret urge. I reach a shaded plinth, breathless. Multiple oak trees seem to have shot up a dozen of boughs up into the sky. A large limbed woman at the teashop stares at me .You have been here before, isn’t it?

Her daughter sits close, poking her blunt finger into her nose. Under the oak tree, a buffalo has been tied. A new master owns her now. It bellows, embarrassing the owner who sits in the open, eating dal-bhat with his friends. Sahuni comes and with her naked hands picks up tiny rocks of cold rice from her plate and serves them.

From the shaded plinth I can see what Om Bhujal of Bangladi referred as Fewa Phant. On asking why he built his house on the bank of the Lake, he had shifted attention to Fewa Phant. Around 3200 ropanis of the Lake has been turned into a dry land. At Bangladi, Lakeside he built his house after a long wait. "Now it’s war" he says "we are not going to leave. What did the government do all these years? For last 32 years we have been hearing of Government /Nagar Bikas’ plan of converting this land into a Green Belt. Just look what happened to 200 ropanis of land in front of Fishtail Lodge. It’s lying there for years, just like wasteland."

Under the shade of the oak tree I sit amidst a cacophony of shrill birds. I notice children climb up into the maze of oak tree boughs. One girl creeps through the jumble of lush branches and from the top of the tree sings a Nepalese folksong. "Love, money doesn’t see, it has no eyes."

Contract marriage

By RABINDRA JOSHI 

People get married because of the feeling that being in a family is indeed an ideal way of living. That is why marriage becomes an institution in which a man and a woman are socially permitted to have children. Marriage is a stable relationship and durable connection between opposite sexes. Marriage brings a number of obligations, so society protests a couple that start living as husband and wife quietly without marriage. Thus, marriage somehow arranges society and ethnicity.

But nowadays, the traditional weight of marriage is ignored. I am not talking about the new generation. I was shocked when a man of seventy-one said, "I am going for a contract marriage." I couldn’t believe it, and I instantly memorized myself watching one of the Hindi movies related with such a topic. The movie was a fiction but this is the reality, a bitter and hair-raising reality in our society. Believe me, a man over seventy wants to remarry and chooses a contract marriage. What a decision? He expressed his supressed desire after a year of his wife’s death although he has different roles to play in his family. He is a father of two, has married sons and one unmarried daughter and grandfather of three grand children. His daughter is crossing her marriageable age and grand children are marching towards teenage. Everyone in his family was performing well until our old chap came up with his bold decision for a contract marriage. It was indeed difficult for our poor, old chap to stand against of his own family with his horrible decision. I don’t know what on earth gave him power to stand trembling with his balding head, poor vision, wrinkled face and stooped spine? I was more than surprised to hear that he has already gone for legal formalities. Obviously, he confronted lots of protest statements but he simply replied, "I don’t want a wife, I just want a friend, may be a support."

He wants a friend, a support…well I know after death of his wife, man becomes alone. He had to depend on his amateur servant. After crossing seventy, he became entirely alone. It is clearly not easy to live like an old lion caged inside the zoo. He must have found his den like a wasteland, lacking a single drop of water, not even a soul breathing to give him company. So what is the harm if he imagines to get near an oasis all by himself?

This happens to be a man’s world. Even a five-year-old kid, being a male dominates his elder sister. Our hero, old chap stands with his choice of contract marriage, he is strong, as he is a male. But have you ever thought of a woman whom he chose, what might be her problem that compelled her to take this step? (I am swaying in both sides now). People scolded her; she was labeled ‘whore’. She is helpless, as she has occupied a lower position. But did she go according to her wish? Who is bothered to think about her? In our society married woman enjoy high status. She is flattered to be called as goddess of the family ‘Griha Laxmi’ although she depends upon her husband; she has no power whatsoever. So what if she cannot express her likes and dislikes? Society directs her to live; she is even forced to live a widowed life and is not allowed to remarry like men. This is the personality of a woman in a high place. What will be the result if she thinks to live her own life by following her heart?

Life is a steering wheel of fortune; you never know where your wheel will stop. After spinning for half of his life our old gentleman demands for a change in ritual. He is now not even bothered about his spinster daughter and grandchildren even though he belongs to the generation that is supposed to guide the new one.

Normally we hear, "new age group is heading towards uncertainty and they are influenced badly by TV, western cultures and blah blah..." well in this context something is sounding odd, isn’t it? So what should grandchildren learn from a grandfather with his brave and constant pronouncement of contract marriage? You must have also heard or shared a crisis of an upper middle-class family.

Scientific Vedic calendar and current delusions

By Pramodavardhana Kaundinnyayana 

The Vedas are the main scripture of the Hindus. That’s why the Hindu Dharma is called Vedic Dharma and the Hindu rituals are called Vedic rituals. But now-a-days it has become very hard to find scholars understanding the meaning of Vedic Dharma. ‘Vedic dharma’, the name itself signifies its basis i.e. it is based on the Veda. The way of studying and teaching of the Veda is fixed by time-honoured tradition. To understand the Veda, Vedic sages have created six disciplines of studies. They are called the Vedangas (Organs of the Veda), which include Shiksha (Phonetics), Kalpa (scripture of ceremonials and rituals), Vyakarana (Grammar), Nirukta (Etymology), Chhanda (Prosody) and Jyotisha (Astronomy). As the sages meant these disciplines for the correct interpretation of the Veda, one should understand the Veda by means of the six disciplines of Vedic studies. Vedanga Jyotisha clarifies the time aspects of the Vedic rituals. The treatise, Vedanga Jyotisha consists of 44 stanzas. It is supposed by eastern and western scholars that the treatise was written some 3400 years ago. The treatise has been in vogue in Vedic tradition up to near past. But some astronomers ill-informed of the Vedic studies and Vedic astronomy think the Vedanga Jyotish is primitive and unscientific. But the fact is reverse. Vedic Yajnas (Rites) such as Somayaga, Darshapurnamasa Yaga, Vivaha (marriage) and Vratabandha (initiation into a vow for a religious life) are done on specific time of the year, which is determined by Vedanga Jyotisha and not by any other so-called Jyotisha. In every religious rite of Vedic Dharma one should mention Vedic samvatsara (lunar year), ayana (lunar 6 months’ period), ritu (soni-lunar season), lunar month, paksha (lunar fortnight) and the tithi (day) as determined by Vedanga Jyotisha. Vedic scriptures clearly suggest that in the oath (sankalpa) of such rituals, mentioning of the lunar year is necessary. In this system a tithi consists of a time period of a day and the following night. A fortnight consists of 14 or 15 tithis. A month consists of such two fortnights. A Ritu consists of such two months. And an Ayana consists of three Ritus. And finally a year consists of such two Ayanas.

Now-a-days Jyotisha is neither based on the Vedanga Jyotisha nor scientific. Vedanga Jyotisha is quite scientific because it is based on actual position of the moon and not on man-made fallacious formula. Astrologers addicted to Faladesha (horoscopic prophecy) Grahadasha etc. obviously cannot even understand the system. It is seen that the astronomers of the Panchanga Nirnayaka Samiti don’t know what is the actual Vedic lunar year as well as how to calculate it and name it. Thus it is clear that in the field of main Vedic tradition and Vedic scriptures, they are as the blinds guided by the blinds.

Now let us see a clear example of the unscientificness of the Panchangas (Calendars) of the Panchanga Nirnayaka Samiti. Uttarayana is the process in which the sun seems to migrate to the Tropic of Cancer from the Tropic of Capricorn. That’s why the period of the same is also called Uttarayana. Likewise Dakshinayana is the name of the reverse process and the time period of the process. In Uttarayana the dinamana (measure of the day) goes on increasing in the northern hemisphere while the measure of the night goes on decreasing and the vice versa in Daksinayana. In the 7th Pausha of current year (December 22) the sun actually touches the Tropic of Capricorn and after that it migrates towards north day by day.

Vedanga Jyotisha strictly follows this natural phenomenon. But in the Vedic rituals instead of taking the pure solar Uttarayana the lunar cum solar (soni-lunar) Uttarayana is taken. Vedic sonilunar Uttarayana starts from the shukla pratipada (first day of white fortnight of Vedic lunar month) of such a lunar month in which the winter solstice day (starting day of solar Uttarayana) occurs within the first 24 tithis (days) of the month. This method is completely scientific and according to the natural phenomenon. But on the other hand the Panchangas (calendars) accepted by the Panchanga Nirnayaka Samiti take 1st Magha (January15) of current year as starting day of solar Uttarayana instead of the actual day, the 7th Pausha of the current year (December 22). This is completely unscientific and against the natural phenomenon. In this particular subject the Panchangas of the Panchanga Nirnayaka Samiti have no self-consistency. In their Panchanga the minimum dinamana (measure of the day) is 25 ghadi 37 pala on the 7th Pausha and it goes on increasing gradually day by day. And the dinamana (measure of the day) of 1st Magha is 26 ghadi 4 pala. So in fact they also seem to accept the beginning of solar Uttarayana at the 7th Pausha (December 22). But in their Panchanga they write that the Uttarayana starts on the 1st Magha (January 15). If they keep on this sort of unscientific calculations, in long run, a time will come when there will be warm season (summer) in their Shishir Ritu (winter) and cold season (winter) in their Grishma Ritu (summer). This proves that the so-called scientific astronomers of the Panchanga Nirnayaka Samiti are following completely unscientific system of calendar calculation.

According to the dinamanas (measures of the day) given by themselves also it is clear that actual solar Uttarayana starts from 7th Pausha (December 22) and not from 1st Magha (January 15). By this illustration every common educated person can understand that accepting the 1st Magha (January15) as the starting day of solar Uttarayana by the Panchanga Nirnayaka Samiti is quite unscientific and against the Vedic system.

Thus it becomes clear that the Vedic calendar according to Vedanga Jyotisha should be followed for all Vedic ritual purposes. Astronomers are now paying attention to this fact which is a positive move towards calendar reform.