Note of Scepticism in Arun Kolatkar’s Jejuri

Note of Scepticism in Arun Kolatkar’s Jejuri

Arun Kolatkar, born in 1932, writes poetry in Marathi and in English. A bilingual poet, he works as a commercial artist. He is well known for his long poem Jejuri, published in 1976 for which he got the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1977. He got H.S. Gokhale award for his Marathi poems. He belongs to the Bhakti tradition. His poetry is in the tradition of the modernist and symbolist poets. Jejuri established Kolatkar’s reputation as the leading Indian English poet.

The poem Jejuri is written after Kolatkar’s visit to Jejuri, a town 59 km south-­west of Pune, in 1964. The place is famous for the temple of Lord Khandoba, an incarnation of Lord Shiva, who is known in  Maharashtra as Malhari, Martand, Malhari, Mhalsakant, Mailar or Mairal and in south India, Murugan. The poem is in the form of pilgrimage of Manohar, a spiritual journey of the poet from the city. He records what he sees on the hills of Jejuri. He does not come here for worship or prayer. The poem is without a religious purpose. The poet is not interested in questions such as the belief in god. He is unable to see any religious significance of Jejuri. Divided into thirty one sections, the poem expresses Kolatkar’s conflict between religious faith and scepticism.

In the first poem, ‘The Bus’, the poet describes his bus journey to Jejuri. He does not believe in god. He is a modern sceptic. His journey to Jejuri is not for religious purpose. It is simply an observation. There is an old man in the bus who is a religious devotee. He is going to Jejuri for worship and prayer. The old man opposite Manohar has spectacles. The poet sees two reflections of himself in the two glasses of the old man:

Your own divided face in a pair of glasses
on an old man’s nose
is all the countryside you get to see.

The old man’s destination is Jejuri. The caste-mark on his forehead shows that he is a religious devotee. The old man is used for Kolatkar’s other self. He does not share the old man’s view of faith and belief in god. Therefore, when he comes down the bus, he does not step inside the old man’s head.

The poem ‘An Old Woman’ describes a beggar woman on the deserted hills of Jejuri in a realistic way. The old woman is helpless and lives in poverty. She has no protection of any religious tradition like the priest, Vaghya and Murli. The poet realises her pitiable condition and looks at her, her eyes and her face. The poet feels that the hills crack, the temples crack and the sky falls around the old withered woman:

And the hills crack.
And the temple cracks
And the sky falls.

The woman stands alone and the poet is reduced to small change in her hand. He realises how small and worthless he is as a human being. He shows the pitiable condition of the old woman. The poet intends to bring out the similarity between the old woman and the hills. The woman’s portrait is vivid and realistic.

In ‘Chaitanya’, the pilgrim believes that Jejuri is a sacred place and the temple is a real temple of Khandoba. But Chaitanya was the Bengali saint. He believes that each stone at Jejuri a god. The pilgrim picks up a stone at Jejuri and puts it into his mouth as if it were a grape. But he spits out gods. It means that each stone is holy. Each stone in Jejuri is a god. ‘Chaitanya’ is a Sanskrit word which stands for an energy and human activity and the creative spirit of the man. The poet makes an ironical comment on the sanctified approval of the stones of Jejuri. This poem is a satire on the blind faith of the people that every stone at Jejuri is a god and thus the poet uses irony.

Manohar is the protagonist and Makarand is his alter-ego or the other self. Makarand represents the sceptical condition of mind. The short poem ‘Makarand’ expresses the poet’s total disbelief in the worship of god Khandoba. Manohar’s mind is torn between faith and no faith. He has to make a choice between performing ‘puja’ and smoking a cigarette. He faces the problem of worshipping god. He would rather smoke outside than enter the temple shirtless for the worship. His objection is not only to taking off the shirt but also to worship god. He does not find any meaning in puja. Thus, scepticism and disbelief in the puja is the main subject matter of the poem.

‘The Blue Horse’ is a satirical poem which depicts the hollowness of rituals and superstitions associated with our worship of god. The priest of Khandoba’s temple has arranged a religious ceremony at his home. The protagonist goes there and watches the ceremony there. The drummer’s music strikes a discordant note as the religious passion disappears. The singer sings the blue horse and the priest has drawn a picture of white horse on the wall. The poet asks him about it and the priest gives the funny answer, “looks blue to me.” There is a doubt in the mind of the poet:

The singers sang of a blue horse.
How is it then, that the picture on your wall
Shows a white one?

Thus, although, Jejuri is about the journey of the protagonist, its main theme is the conflict between faith and scepticism. Kolatkar does not seek to define religion. Irony is the basic structural principle in the poem. The poet also raises social issues like superstition in the masses. The ignorant masses are misled by the priests giving false notion of religion. Irony and pathos are the two main features of the poem. It is remarkable for its surrealistic imagery. The conflict between the appearance and reality is brought out vividly by the poet.