Jayanta Mahapatra: General Estimate as a Poet

 

Jayanta Mahapatra is an eminent Indian English poet born in Cuttack in 1928. He belongs to a lower-middle-class family. He had his early education at Stewart School, Cuttack. After a first-class Master's Degree in Physics, he joined as a teacher. He began writing poetry at the age of forty in 1968. Therefore he is called “a late bloomer in poetry.” Mahapatra’s poetry is an eloquent expression of the eternal silence of the Unknown. His poetry springs from deep personal memories and experiences. He is a celebrated poet in post-independence Indian English poetry. Perhaps any discussion on Indian English Poetry is incomplete without referencing his poetical works.

According to him “poem is knit together by an inconceivable silence, which is intangible (abstract/untouchable) substance, of which words are but manifestations; words which can build the poem from a silence and to which the poem must eventually return.  The poet experiences this silence within and it opens out “a thousand memories, a thousand longings, as these, in turn, come into being in a poem.

The Orissa landscape, history, culture, social life, poverty, rites and rituals constitute the most important theme of Mahapatra’s poetry.  He frankly discusses sex, sexuality, prostitution and poverty. ‘Hunger’ and ‘The Warehouse in a Culcutta Street’ are his famous poems on this theme. He depicts a somber and gloomy vision of life which is marked by loss, dejection, grief, alienation and suffering. His poetry is an exploration of the Indian sensibility and ethos, especially the Orissa landscape, religion and psyche, and the intricacies of human relationships. His poems seem like all of these are his personal life encounters.

He uses language in a very vast way; he uses English idioms for Indian text. He shows his love for Orissa in many poems like Myth, and grandfather but he finds the English language more comfortable than Oriya. His poems also show women in a helpless and objectifying light. A major example of the power of males and sexuality is seen in his poem ‘Hunger’. His area is indeed limited only to his experiences and history. His poetry appears to be very difficult because of its contrived style.

Mahapatra’s poetic sensibility is typically Indian. He is intensely aware of his environment and vividly portrays the variegated Orissa landscape throbbing with religious fervour. His poetry deals with contemporary socio-political reality in India. It also exposes the economic disparity and utters the apathy (indifference) of the politicians to the public welfare. Prostitution and sexual exploitation result from economic disparity and gross social injustice.

Mahapatra also explores with robust tenderness the intricacies of human relationships, especially those of lovers. His poetry is related to the existential dilemma of the modern man.  He is intensely aware of the alienation and isolation of the modern man. His poems demonstrate a remarkable concern for both structure and linguistic versatility. His symbols and images are evocative (motivate) and suggestive, and they reflect his love for the Orissa landscape with all the myths and rituals associated with it.