Research Chronicler ISSN International Multidisciplinary Research journal Research Chronicler

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2 Research Chronicler ISSN Research Chronicler A Peer-Reviewed Refereed and Indexed International Multidisciplinary Research Journal Volume III Issue VI: July 2015 CONTENTS Sr. No. Author Title of the Paper Page No. 1 Dr. Bhaskar Roy Barman Postmodern Sensibility in Midnight s Children 1 2 Dr. S. Karthikkumar & Plight of Woman as a Minority in Anita Rau 14 N. Karthick Badami s Can You Hear the Nightbird Call? 3 Talluri Mathew Bhaskar Chetan Bhagat s: One The Call Center: A Critical Study 20 4 Ms. Tusharkana Sexting: Innocence or Ignorance 28 Majumdar & Prof. (Dr.) Archana Shukla 5 Prof. (Dr) Mala Tandon Enhancing Skills For Professional Excellence 34 As Mentor And Role Model 6 Vijay D. Songire Existential Crisis in Toni Morrison s The 39 Bluest Eye and Alice Walker s Possessing the Secret of Joy 7 Dr. Khandekar Surendra The Influence of Sanskrit Poetry on T.S. 43 Sakharam Eliot s Critical Theories 8 Vinay Kumar Dubey & Alienated Self in Shashi Despande s That 51 Dr. B.N. Chaudhary Long Silence 9 Dr. Santosh D. Rathod Investigating Problems in Dattani s Final 57 Solutions 10 Dr. Pooja Singh, Dr. Queen: The Hypocritical Indian Society and 64 Archana Durgesh & Ms. Neha Sahu Culture 11 Nidhi Pareek Need of Moral Education in Schools Dr. Rajib Bhaumik Bharati Mukherjee s The Tiger s Daughter: A Study of the Diasporic Space between Memory and Desire 73 Volume III Issue VI: July 2015 Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke

3 The Influence of Sanskrit Poetry on T.S. Eliot s Critical Theories Dr. Khandekar Surendra Sakharam HoD, Dept. of English, Arts, Commerce & Science College, Wada, Dist- Palghar, (M.S.) India Abstract The present paper focuses on The Influence of Sanskrit Poetry in T.S. Eliot s Critical Theories. Studies in T.S. Eliot s poetry have already been made from the Indian viewpoint. But there are still remains an area of fresh investigation and that is Eliot s main critical theories to be considered in the light of the Sanskrit Poetry. It is needless to point out here that such an investigation is both interesting and rewarding, for it brings out something new and knowlegeable to the Literary World and thereby supplies its necessary food. Key Words: Sanskrit poetry, critical theory, T.S. Eliot The Ancient Indian wisdom contained in our holy scriptures has whom T.S. Eliot is quite notable. By common consent, Eliot might be called the literary giant of our age. He was definitely a poet, a fine poetic dramatist, and an exacting critic, who drew upon not only the best of European culture and American mind, but also upon the known salient features of Indian thought and tradition. He explicitly appears so even in his poetic plays wherein we have unmistakable echoes of Sanskrit but religious poetry. There are scholars who might initially differ with him in regard to his formulations about Eliot s indebtedness in the light of Sanskrit Poetics, but they will have to accept them ultimately in the presence of well-researched and well-documented internal and external evidences. Even established Western scholars like Grover Smith of the Duke University and Charles M. Holmes of the Transylvania University, U.S.A., besides a host of Indian Professors and scholars, have acknowledged the truth. Eliot was an American by birth and education, an Anglo-Catholic by religion, an English, by way of naturalized citizenship, a deep-rooted European by sense of culture, a universal poet and an International Hero by means of his creative talent and art. Coming to the subject of our study, one of the most original and acute observations of Eliot on the poetic process is contained in his phase objective correlative. It was in his essay Hamlet and his Problems that Eliot used the phrase first of all. Therein he reordered: The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an objective correlative; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion, such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked 1 Volume III Issue VI: July 2015 (43) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke

4 This is something comparable with the Rasa Sutra of Bharata, which, in a short gnomic formula, condenses a world of insights. In terms of the psychology of the poetic process, its implications are much fuller than in the case of Eliot s brief reference to objective correlatives. In the opinion of a commentator, Both Eliot and Bharat are concerned with the manner in which the creative poet should plastically mould the aesthetic situation or context in such a way that it stimulates in the perceiver the same emotion which the poet originally felt. 2 The poet is, therefore, credited in his creative moment to impersonalize and Universalize the world of emotion by the spell of his art in Sanskrit Poetics, this is unique poetic function is significantly termed generalising of emotion. The characters projected by the poet cease to be mere individuals and become representatives of humanity as whole. What the poet artistically produced is nothing but universalised stumili, Universalised moods and feelings. Their successful combination is the essence (aatman) the soul of literature poetry or drama. This much about the basic artha (content) of literature. But what about the literary form or shabda? Could the aesthetic pleasure (rasa) without the adequate medium? The answer invariably will be no, never. If (artha) content is the soul (the aathman), a language heightened by decorations and characters (alamkaaras and gunas) is the very body (sharirra) of the poetry; and, therefore both are inseparable prerequisites. To indicate the inseparable relationship of (artha) content and (shabda) form, the unique concept of (saahitya) togetherness was formulated in Sanskrit Poetics. It is the most basic of all concepts in Sanskrit criticism, and it comes very close to Eliot s concept of the objective correlative 3, for his emotions. He defines it as a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events, which shall be the formula for some peculiar emotion of the poet. Eliot himself uses European literature, ancient myths and legends, as objective correlatives in his critical work. While aesthetic pleasure (rasa) is an index of the (rasika s) reader s taste and sensibility, a close analysis of the poem of his part must take into account the poetic beauty contributed by (alamkaaras) decorations. A blind conformity to rules of rhetoric in the use of figures and qualities of diction is not enough, they should also serve as effective agents for releasing the aesthetic pleasure (rasa). Another oft-quoted dictum in Eliot s criticism is to be found in Tradition and the Individual Talent: Poetry is not turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion: it is not the expression of personality, but an escape from personality 4 It might look to be against the romantic conception of poetry in English. Whatever the case is but, for one thing, it doesn t appear to be strange to enlightened Indian who regards the poet s task as consisting in the Volume III Issue VI: July 2015 (44) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke

5 impersonalisation of his life -emotions. By Universalising personal emotion, the poet succeeds in escaping from what Eliot called personality. The poet s creative flash known Pratibha, comes to his aid and gives him a new and fresh imaginary adequate to the reader by transmuting (bhaava) personal emotion. The distinction between personal emotion and aesthetic pleasure (bhava and rasa) in Sanskrit Poetics goes to the very root of the matter. This distinction is as old as Valmiki in Sanskrit literature, and Bhavabhuuti as also by the critics like Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta. We read in this light, the whole of the following passage from Eliot s Tradition and Individual Talent may take on the appearance of the modern commentary on the Indian theory of aesthetic pleasure (rasa). The experience, you will notice, the elements which enter the presence of the transforming, catalyst, are of two kinds: emotions and feelings. The effect of work of art upon the person who enjoys it is an experience different in kind from any experience not of art. It may be formed out of one emotion, or may be a combination of several; and various feelings, inhering for the writer, in particular words or phrases or images, may be added to compose the final result. Or great poetry may be made without the direct use of any emotion whatever composed out of feelings solely. 5 Sanskrit Theories also arrive at this conclusion independently and we have a genre in Sanskrit literature devoted feelings. Solely like religious devotion (bhakti) and renunciation (nirveda). The devotional hymns of Smkaraachariya and the Century on Renunciation by Bhartrihari are glaring instances in point. 6 It is interesting to note that Eliot s three voices of poetry 7 bear close correspondence with the three manifestations of poetic suggestion (dhvani) was formulated by Anadavardhana in his pioneering work, Dhvanyaaloka. Of the three voices as explained by Eliot, lyrics are examples of the first person. The second is predominantly found in the epic wherein there is social, didactic purpose, because he has an audience constantly in view. The third voice is peculiar to poetic drama in which the poet imparts something of himself to his characters and in his turn is influence by the characters for all the three voices to be heard simultaneously. In terms of that Babbitt frequently mentions the importance of the doctrine of self control and higher will which render life an act of faith. Babbitt also brings in the question of Civilization, which can hardly endure without religion, and religion cannot endure without a church. At the end of the essay, Eliot suggests that all the hopes of humanity cannot be placed on one, situation, i.e. the Catholic Church, and the humanism is either an alternative to religion or is ancillary to it. These three voices of the poetry are like the three divisions of (dhavani) Volume III Issue VI: July 2015 (45) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke

6 poetic suggestion into vastu, decoration (alamkara) and aesthetic pleasure (rasa). Like Eliot, Sanskrit theorists have also given in the first place to drama and regard it as the best and most beautiful of all literary forms - kaav yesu naatakam ramyam which is a well-known anonymous Sanskrit epigram. The Sanskrit theorists claim that drama has the presence of all possible manifestations of the poet s art like a picture painted by a masterpainter. 8 They also claim that the drama is nothing but visual poetry (drisha kaavya). Not only in theory, but in practice too, Sanskrit classical poets like Kaalidhas and Bhavabhuuti wrote their dramatic master pieces besides trying their hand a lyric and epic genres. The Waste Land traces certain Indian myths and rituals which have been explored herein for an understanding of the poem Fire Sermon and What the Thunder Said have been interpreted from the Indian Standpoint. In Four Quartets (1943). The concept of time (kaalam) in relation to the Timeless (Ananta or Brahman) has been explored in Burnt Norton. In dealing with Little Gidding, an attempt has been made to identify the symbolism of Christian fire with that of Hindu agni in all its thinkable functions. In the third movement the passage introducing three conditions - attachment, indifference and detachment - takes us one more to Brahmanism. To the Indians who died in Africa (1943) stands out as one which pointedly refers to the Hindu doctrine of action (Karma). The Poem was written for inclusion in the commemorative volume called Queen Mary s Book for India, is an address to Indian who laid down their lives in Africa to safeguard the interests of the British Empire. Some of the ideas have been found in the works of Eliot are pessimism suffering, deteminism, fatalism, metempsychosis, the wheel of birth, death and rebirth. Maya and the world and Brahman, the liberation through Yoga, renunciation, the death wish and Nirvana, and the stress on spiritual discipline. The poet has shown an inclination to Indian literature and poetry, to Indian asceticism and metaphysics, and to Indian thought and religions. He has used certain typically Indian symbols such as the lotus, the wheel, the darkness, the light or sunshine, the purification by fire, the river and the sea, the bird etc. The Bhagavad-Gita tells us that the lotus is an object of purity: He who acts offering all actions to God, and shaking off attachment remains untouched by sin, as the lotus leaf by water 10 In another place, it pictures Brahma, the god of creation, as perched on his lotus-seat. Elsewhere Arjuna wants to see Lord Krishna s Four-armed shape Bearing the conch, charka, mace and lotus. It is to be recalled that Lord Vishnu is also generally pictured as a four-armed deity holding at least, Lord Krishna becomes an incarnation of Vishnu. Eliot employs this symbol in the first movement of Burnt Norton: Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged Volume III Issue VI: July 2015 (46) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke

7 And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight, And the lotus rose quietly, quietly, The surface glittered out of heart of light, And they were behind us, reflected in the pool 11 This is of course would attach it to Hinduism. Mr. Zimmer thinks that the lotus plant is a product of the vegetation of India proper, and was therefore foreign to the Aryan invaders who poured in from northern homelands. Another fundamentally Indian symbol used by Eliot is the wheel. The Gita has repeatedly employed it. This symbol stands for birth, death and rebirth. The terrible wheel may be an illusion, but it nevertheless holds us prisoners in this Sansara: Maya makes all things, what moves what is unmoving O son of Kunti, that is why the world spins Turning its wheel through birth And through destruction 12 The symbol of wheel, as we find it in Eliot s writings, has significance more or less an in the Gita. By this symbol Eliot shows the eternally decreed pattern of suffering. The symbol is to be found in Gerontion, The waste Land, Ash Wednesday, and Burnt Norton. Indian philosophers have invariably advocated or a negative approach to life and God. (Not this, not this), (Neti, neti) True to this approach, they vehemently recommended the practice of pessimism, suffering, determinism, fatalism, metempsychosis, the cycle of birth, and rebirth, the concept of Brahman, Maya and the word, Yoga, especially karma Yoga, renunciation, the doctrine of death- wish and nirvana and spiritual discipline. The translation of these characteristically Indian ideas specially written is Sanskrit into practice is a must for the attainment of lasting peace here on earth and for the possible union of the individual soul (jiatman) with Brahman hereafter. Apparently, Eliot had an implicit faith in these ideas because the articulated them forcefully in his writings. There exists a parallelism between Eliot and Sanskrit theorists in respect of effects of poetry on the sensitive reader in particular and the society in general. In one of his lectures. Eliot draws a fine distinction between the direct didactic aim of early poets and the indirect educative value of all poetry 13. I suppose it will be agreed that every good poet, whether he be a great poet or not, has something to give us besides pleasure, the pleasure itself could not be of the highest kind. Beyond any specific intention which poetry may have... There is always the communication of some new experience, or some fresh understanding of the familiar, or the expression of something we have experienced but have no words for, which enlarges our consciousness or refines our sensibility. Without producing these two effects, it simply is not poetry. 14 Eliot, a great traditionist, knew very well that unless and until there was a meaningful interaction between Volume III Issue VI: July 2015 (47) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke

8 modernity and tradition, there would be not real development. Besides, he was fully alive, emotionally vibrant and mentally alert in his age never exhorted his fellow men to develop any nostalgic or sentimental link with the past. He was bold enough to pronounce that tradition without intelligence is not worth having 15. Bomb and the pollution of earth, which threaten world peace, and the survival of the human race are the inevitable consequences of blind and cultural dimension of life. The fact is too obvious that any development effort that is not found on the rich creative potential that culture offers is going to fall. It is on the cultural dimension of development that should engage our attention more than any other thing now and Eliot strove very hard to make us aware of that. Eliot s efforts to bring poetic language close to everyday speech are very laudable. Eliot also insisted that the writers must truly represent the particular region in which they were born: to be human and is to belong to a particular region of the earth, and men of such genius are more conscious than other human beings. 16 It was observed by Eliot that the essential advantage for a poet is not, to have a beautiful world with which to deal: it is to be able to see beneath, both beauty and ugliness; to see the boredom, and the horror, and the glory. Eliot profoundly saw and it is a great part of our health that we had a poet who could penetrate our anxious trivial world with such profound compassion. Eliot was a very religious man, and as such, he was truly tolerant of all religions, which imply spirituality and respect for life. Being a very religious man, has vision of the world was unified, and he was full aware that men, irrespective of the place and time when they lived, had common aspirations and longing. Although Heaven and Nirvana are slightly different notions, the notion of reaching perfection through suffering and shedding off of all earthly impediments - such as desires, ambitions and the demands of the senses - is common to Christian and Hindu thought. The Four Quartets and The Waste Land give us great evidence to Eliot s deepest desire for a true synthesis. The Dry Salvages of the Quartets encapsulates the wisdom of the Bhagavad-Gita. Eliot turns to Upanishads and Buddhism in The Waste Land and his great Poem is concluded with the traditional formula that closes all Hindu prayers: Shantishanty-shanti (peace). He, actually, wants to attain peace amid of a burning world, and intend with intent looks and great expectation turns to India for it. The purification by fire is one of the symbol employed by Eliot in his poetry, and this, according to Prof. Smidt, is A Hindu Symbol. Of course, the fire has been frequently referred to in the Hindus scriptures as a purifier of sins. Thus, the Rig Veda has the hymns: Shining brightly, Agni, drive away, Our sin, and shine thou wealth on us. Shining bright, drive away our sin. Volume III Issue VI: July 2015 (48) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke

9 For good field, for good homes, for wealth, We made our offerings to thee,.... Carry us across, as by a boat, Across the sea, for our good, Shining bright drive away our sin. 17 A close look of the poem will reveal how the different polarities of the firesymbol are reconciled in the Superior drift of love. Thus frost and fire Pentecostal fire, and the communication of the dead which is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living of the first movement, the death of water and fire, and the restoration of the exasperated spirit by that refining fire where you must move in measure, like a dancer of the second movement, the two fires of desire and becoming of the forth movement : all are gathered up in perfect unison in the closing lines of Little Gidding. And all shall be well and All manner of thing shall be well When the tongues of flames are in folded Into the crowned knot of fire And the fire the rose are one. 18 The rose here is the symbol of human loves and is not different from divine love or Bhakti to God, which is one of the means of attaining him. The infolded flame is the supreme God without form. The rose is inseparably fused with the fire of divine love that resolves all the paradoxes of human life. Sanskrit critics also show a similar attitude when they conform categorically that the beneficent of poetry on the reader in particular and society in general is two-fold such as (rasa) or aesthetic pleasure and indirect instruction in human values (pursaarthas) after the manner of a loving wife (kaantaasammitayaa upadesha) whose influence on the husband is as irresistible as it is sweet. Notes and References: 1. T.S. Eliot, The Sacred Wood, (1920. London : Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1960), p A.N. Dwivedi, T.S. Eliot- A Critical Study, (New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2002), p M.K. Naik, K. Krishnamurthy s article in Indian Response to Poetry in English, (Madras: Macmillan & Co Ltd. 1970), p T.S. Eliot, The Sacred Wood, (1920. London : Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1960), p T.S. Eliot, The Sacred Wood, (1920. London : Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1960), p M.K. Naik, K. Krishnamurthy s Article in Indian Response to Poetry in English, (Madras: Macmillan & Co Ltd. 1970), pp T.S. Eliot, The Three Voices of Poetry and Poets, 5th impr. (1957. London: Faber & Faber, 1969), p.89 ff. 8. A.N. Dwivedi, T.S. Eliot- A Critical Study, (New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2002), p Ibid., p.93. Volume III Issue VI: July 2015 (49) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke

10 10. Bhagavad-Gita. V T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, (London: Faber & Faber Ltd), p Prabhavananda and Isherwood, tr. Bhagavad-Gita, mentor ed.,p A.N. Dwivedi, T.S. Eliot Critical Study, (New Delhi : Atlantic Publishers & Distributors, 2002), p Ibid., pp.93_ T.S. Eliot, After Strange Gods, (London : Faber & Faber Publication Ltd., 1934),p T.K. Titus, A Critical Study of T.S. Eliot s Works, (New Delhi : Atlantic Publishers and Distributors, 1999), p Rig Veda, Tr. Abinash Chandra Bose, Hymns from the Vedas (Mumbai: Asia Publishing House, 1966), pp T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, (London : Faber & Faber Ltd), p.59. Volume III Issue VI: July 2015 (50) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke

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