Bal Sitaram Mardhekar, or better known as B. S. Mardhekar was an exceptional Marathi writer whose innovations in the Marathi literary scene engraved his name as a prolific writer in literature forever. He founded a new style of poetry in Marathi which radicalized the very sensibilities of the Marathi poetry. Apart from poetry, Mardhekar also penned opera type short plays and novels which introduced the stream of consciousness in the Marathi linguistic space.
A thinker in literary aesthetics, B. S. Mardhekar introduced an avant-garde style poetry which sent waves of wonderment and interest in the Marathi literary world. On his 113th birth anniversary, here’s a closer look at his life and works.
Early Life
Bal Sitaram Mardhekar was born on December 1st, 1909 in Faizapur in Khandesh region of Maharashtra. His father was a primary school teacher but later retired as a deputy officer. His family came from a religious background, and the worshipping of Purushottam Ram was the family tradition. Mardhekar’s father, Sitarampant was very interested in philosophy and literature.
Mardhekar owes his primary education to his father’s friend, Shri Phadake. In highschool, Mardhekar grew up as an introvert and a bookworm. One would rarely see him out playing in the fields. He got his B.A. Degree from Bombay University in 1928. After failing to complete his M. A. education because of some practical difficulties, B. S. Mardhekar went to England for an I.C.S. qualification. However, yet again, this dream of his too shattered. After four years, he returned back to his home country. The four years in Europe gave Mardhekar first hand experiences of war, technology, culture, and the arts and aesthetics.
Bal Sitaram Mardhekar And His Steps Into Marathi Literature
Although Mardhekar wanted to be a professor, his lack of educational qualifications hindered at this occupational prospect. Eventually he got employed at All India Radio where he worked till his death. Mardhekar initiated a number of new programmes in All India Radio, which highlighted his own personal interests and likes. For instance, reading of poetry by the poets themselves, broadcasting of short plays and reading of famous novels.
Mardhekar’s intellect and a penchant for the creative imagination made him embrace it through writing and theorising literary criticism and literary aesthetics. He began his literary work with his anthology, Shishiragam published in 1939. Other of his major poetic works has been Kahi Kavita (1947) and Anakhi Kahi Kavita (1951). His poems had an echo of both the influences of the west and the native voice. Moreover, he also experimented with the stream of consciousness his poems.
In Shishiragam, the poet has penned an emotional journey of insignificant satisfactions and palpable agonies of a lover’s frustrations. Meanwhile, in Kahi Kavita, the personal dilemmas are questioned in a social paradigm. In it, he also introduced a corrupted urban ethos in his poems, which was a first in the Marathi Literature. On the other hand, Anakhi Kahi Kavita is more on the philosophical quest side. Here is one of the poet’s much read translated poems:
This Is The Order
This is the order
Of a dark world :
A wick of soot
In the heart of darkness.
A black ‘plane
Zooms into darkness
Through black air.
There are no signals
Not red, nor green;
One cannot get lost
In the invisible.
Wherever I go
I am my own partner :
My eyes have turned
Into such walls.
Apart from poems, Mardhekar also penned a play titled, Natashreshta (1944) and the novels Ratricha Divas (1942), Tambadi Mati (1943) and Pani (1948).
In 1956, Bal Sitaram Mardhekar was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for his work ‘Saundarya ani Sahitya (A study of aesthetics)’, the same year he breathed his last breath. The poet died at the age of 47.
