Kolatkar as an Indian poet

           Introduction

Arun kolatkar was one of India's greatest modern poets. He wrote prolifically, in both Marathi and English, publishing in magazines and anthologies from 1955, but did not bring out a book of poems until he was 44. His first book of poetry, Jejuri, won him the Commonwealth Poetry Prize. His third Marathi Publication, Bhijki Vahi, won Sahitya Academy in 2004. Both an epic poem, or sequence, celebrating life in the Indian city of that name in the state of Maharashtra, Jejuri was later published in the US in the NYRB Classics series, with an introduction by Amit Choudhary, an edited version of which was published by 'The Guardian' in 2006.

         Kolatkar's work

Always hesitant about publishing his work, kolatkar waited until 2004, when he knew he was dying from cancer, before bringing out two further books, Kala Ghoda poem (a portrait of all life happening in Kala Ghoda, his favourist street) and Sarpa Satta. A posthumous selection, the Boatride and Other Poems edited by his friend, the poet and critic Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, contained his previous uncollected English poems as well as translations of his Marathi poems; among the book's surprises were his translations of bhakti poetry, song lyrics, and a long love poem, the only one he wrote, cleverly disguised as light verse. 

Jejuri offers a rich description of India while at the same time performing a complex act of devotion, discovering the divine trace in a degenerate world. Salman Rushdie called it 'sprightly, clear-sighted deeply felt... a modern classic.' For Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, it was 'among the finest single poems written in India in the last 40 years... it surprises by revealing the familiar, the hidden that is always before us.' Jeet Thayil attributed its popularity in India to 'the Kolatkarean voice: unhurried, lit with whimpy, unpretentious even when making learned literary or mythological allusions. And whatever the poet's eye alights on - particularly the odd, the  mishappen, and the famished receives the gift of close attention'.

Arun Kolatkar's Jejuri juxtaposes the ability to astonish, to give life interest and value, with what is conventional and dead. The artist is like the saint in being unconventional in seeing life differently, in having a direct or renewed appreciation of living. In contrast to the priest's son who is uncomfortable when asked if he believes in the legends he retails to tourists there is the butterfly, life itself, with no future, no past. A similar divine dynamism is represented by the scene of the cocks and hens dancing 'Between Jejuri and Railway Station'. In contrast to the petrification of the spirit in the temple town with each of its priests, houses, pictures, steps and arches numbered by guides and guide books, the fowls do an astonishing dance. The typography which represents the dancing puts the themes of dynamism and perception into visual terms. The dancing chickens, like the butterfly and the mongrel puppies, stand for the divine quality in life which the legends of Jejuri represents commercialization. 

The Independent's literary editor Bond Tonkin made it one of his books of the year in 2010:  'My Discovery Of The Year' arrived from India, in Collected Poems in English by Arun kolatkar. Sublime and satirical, comic and visionary by turns, close to the gutter but looking at the stars, Kolatkar over many years became a Bombay bard to march, or outperform, the cities novelist. Any reader of Midnight's  Children, and of its tribe of fictional children, should get to know Kolatkar too. And writing in The Tablet, Michael Glover said: 'The best new discovery of the season is Collected Poems in English by Arun Kolatkar, one of the great poets of post-war India... The poetry is utterly fearless. No topic is out of bounds... What is so delightfully unexpected, always, is his angle of attack. You can never quite prejudice how he will view the odd, impoverished particularities of the topsy-turvy world that he studies with such care are  irreverant fondness. Stephen Knight, reviewing the book for Poetry Review, declared that 'Collected Poems in English must already be regarded as a classic of English language poetry from India. In time, if there is any justice, its reputation will cross the globe.'

         Personal Life

All his life kolatkar had an inexplicable dread of publishers' contracts, refusing to sign them. This made his work difficult to come by, even in India. Jejuri was first published by a small co-operative, Clearing House, of which he was a part, and therefore it was kept in print by his old friend, Ashok Shahane, who set up Pras Prakashan with the sole purpose of publishing Kolatkar's first Marathi Collection "Arun Kolatkarchya Kavita". In the event, Shahane ended up as a publisher of both Kolatkar's English and Marathi books, which together come to ten titles to date, with more forthcoming, including newly discovered Marathi version of Jejuri, a book of interviews, and a novel in English.

            Conclusion

Arun kolatkar, one of the leading literary voices of his generation has contributed immensely towards raising Indian English poetry to its present canonical status. His poetry demonstrates indisputably that Indian poetry has come to acquire a distinct identity of its own. Earlier Indian English poetry was mimetic. Unable to resolve the duality of the position inherent in the rootedness in the age old culture and the impact of Western education, the poet sought refuge in romantic escapades. However the dichotomy between the two value systems - traditional roots on the one hand and acquired modern culture on the other has become a poetic reality today. His poetry demonstrate indisputably that Indian poetry has come to acquire a distinct identity of its own.