Friday 14 August 2015

13th AUGUST 1890 - 5th MAY 1918 ' BALKAVI ' - TRYMBAK BAPUJI THOMBRE


Balkavi

(13 August 1890 – 5 May 1918)

bal kavi.jpg
Acknowledged as a great poet of nature, Balkavi alias Trimbak Bapuji Thomare always expressed both joy and happiness as well as despair in his poetry. A poet who died prematurely, Balkavi wrote poetry that was dominated by nature imagery. On the basis of his creative imagination and word power, however, he was able to bring in nature’s innocence in his poems. As a result, joy and despair enter into his verse quite innocently. His presentation of nature was different from conventional nature descriptions because he coupled it with human emotions. His famous and popular poem “Anandi Anand” is often included in textbooks.
He says in it,
आनंदी आनंद गडे
इकडे तिकडे चोहिंकडे
वरती खालीं मोद भरे,
वायूसंगें मोद फिरे,
नभांत भरला,
दिशांत फिरला,
जगांत उरला,
मोद विहरतो चोहिंकडे
आनंदी आनंद गडे!
(Joy is everywhere
Here and there,
Here happiness dwells
With wind it swells.
The sky it fills
The space it dwells
In the world it lingers.
As joy is everywhere
Cheerful rapture is here!)
The same poet of joy and happiness has written a poem “Udaasinata” (Despair):
कोठुनि येते मला कळेना
उदासीनता ही हृदयाला?
काय बोंचते तें समजेना
हृदयाच्या अंतर्हृदयाला?
येथें नाहीं तेथें नाही
काय पाहिजे मिळवायाला?
कुणीकडे हा झुकतो वारा?
हांका मारी जीव कुणाला?
मुक्या मनाचे मुके बोल हे;
घरें पाडिती पण हृदयाला!
तीव्र वेदना करिती, परि ती
दिव्य औषधी कसली त्याला?

I don’t understand from where
My heart catches this despair.
Deep down I don’t understand
What it is that prick my heart.
What does my heart seek?
What does it wish to achieve?
Where is blowing this wind?
Who is my heart calling?
My mind is dumb, its words are dumb.
Giving it pain and agony,
It pierces through my heart.
How do I find divine medicine to cure it?

Balkavi, who died in an accident at the age of twenty-eight, left his poetry incomplete in more than one way. In a creative period of 10-12 years, he could leave only 163 poems behind for us.
Balkavi was born at Dharangaon in Jalgaon district. Being a policeman, his father Bapurao Devrao Thomare, was always transferred. That naturally affected Balkavi’s education. Their family comprised of four siblings, of which Balkavi’s sister Jiji was particularly close to him. Owing to the contemporary obsession of love for the country, Balkavi and his father had no interest in education imparted in English. So Balkavi was mostly taught at home. His sister Jiji alias Laxmibai Bhave taught him Sanskrit to begin with. It was she who turned him toward poetry. Later on Balkavi studied on his own to master Sanskrit. He had keen interest in learned and folk poetry.
balkavi pustak 2.JPG
He wrote his first poem at the age of eleven when he was at Navapur. He had given no title to it. (Later the editor of his collected poetry, Prof. B. L. Patankar called it ‘Vanmukund.’) He read his poems in the first Marathi Kavya Sammelan held at Jalgaon in 1907. Inspired by his poems, the President Kanhoba Ranchoddas Keertikar honoured him with the title ‘Balkavi.’ He was 17 then. Later the title became his name for life.
When he was thirteen, Balkavi lost his father in 1908. Two of his brothers were active in the freedom struggle movement. So the responsibility of his family fell on Balkavi’s shoulders. He tried his best to make money and get a job after that. In less than a year after his father’s death, Balkavi was married to Parvatibai Joshi from Nashik owing to the lead taken by his mother. While learning at Baroda, he met Rev. N.V. Tilak around 1909. Realizing his poor condition, Tilak brought him to stay at his home in Ahmednagar. Tilak’s wife, the famous writer Laxmibai Tilak has written about Balkavi in her celebrated autobiography Smriti Chitre,
“Though Thomare was Balkavi, he was more of a child than poet.”
Later on Balkavi lived intermittently at Pune and Ahmednagar owing to his job and pressures of his family members.
In the summer of 1918, Balkavi visited Bhadli in Khandesh for the wedding of Jiji’s daughter. At that time, he received a letter from his poet friend K.M.Sonalkar. In order to meet him, Balkavi started walking in a hurry to the railway station. His leg was caught between the rails and he died under the train.
balkavi - pustak 1.jpg
For further reading-
Samagra Balkavi – Editor: Nanda Apte (Popular Prakashan)
Balkavinchi Kavita : Teen sandarbh - Ramesh Tendulakr (Mauj Prakashan)
Balkavi Sameeksha – S. S. Nadkarni
Balkavinche Kavyavishwa – M.S. Patil
Phulraani – Editor: Kusumagraj (Continental Prakashan)
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Translated by Dr. Vilas Salunke.






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