Poetic perspective spurred by physics
An accomplished Indian English poet and litterateur, Jayanta Mahapatra was born into a well-known Christian family in Cuttack, Odisha. His M.Sc. in physics from Patna University in Bihar preceded his teaching career, from 1949 in several Odisha government colleges. In 1986, he retired from his government position as the Reader in Physics and superannuated at Ravenshaw University.
Although interested in science and mathematics, he went on to subtly transform Indian-English poetry. He began his writing career in the late 60s. He captured the richness of Odia life in his evocative everyday descriptions. His poetic perspective was informed by physics. His distinct poetry style was characterised by an abundance of words.
Sensitive, he explored a wide range of emotions, including men/women relationships. They also showed the grief of childhood alienation from his mother. The term shadow he used, conjured up images of a ghost or of darkness. His connection to myths and legends was a recurring theme.
He was one of three poets with A.K. Ramanujan and R. Parthasarathy, who established the groundwork for Indian English poetry. His dual work as a poet and translator produced a diverse vocabulary that defied the Bombay-created canon of Indian English poetry. Many publishers initially rejected his work, but being widely acknowledged late in life helped establish his own peaceful, serene poetic voice.
After his first popular collection ‘Swayamvara and Other Poems’ in 1971 he never looked back. He then catapulted to the top of the writing world with his book ‘Close the Sky Ten by Ten’. Of the 27 books of poems he authored, seven were in Odia and the rest in English. His poetry volumes include Relationship, Bare Face, Shadow Space, Indian Summer and Hunger. His poems also appeared in prestigious poetry anthologies.
Besides poetry, he experimented widely with myriad forms of prose, which included Green Gardener, an anthology of short stories and Door of Paper: Essay and Memoirs. Mahapatra’s translations from Odia into English, were published in the bi-monthly literary magazine Indian Literature. He was also a talented writer of short stories, a tireless translator, and an exceptional editor. For decades he edited the poetry section of the Telegraph magazine, as well as the literary journals Chandrabhaga and Lipi).
Mahapatra became the first ever writer in English language to have won the Sahitya Akademi award for his book ‘Relationships’. He was also conferred the Jacob Glatstein memorial award by Poetry magazine, Chicago; the Allen Tate Poetry Prize for 2009 from the Sewanee Review; the SAARC Literary Award, New Delhi, 2009, and the Tata Literature Lifetime Achievement Award. He got an honorary doctorate from the Ravenshaw University in 2009. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 2009, which he returned to protest against “the rising intolerance in India.”
He was protective of his books and his repeated desire to reread the same books showed his ambition to transform real-world time into a mythological realm. He was as silent as a stone after the passing of his wife and son, although at midnight the stone
would occasionally whisper poetic sentences. His spirit had moved to a new place due to his loneliness. His mental serenity was not a prelude to a storm, but rather the knowledge of a fakir that embodied all that made him a poet.
Mahapatra seemed to have premonition of death. At the age of 94, he succumbed to pneumonia in Cuttack. Despite being a third-generation Christian, he was cremated with full State honours at his request.
“I have no message to give except a smile,” he once declared. And we all know that a smile knows no boundaries.
A.Radhakrishnan is a Pune based freelance journalist, poet and short story writer.