Bhikhari Thakur: Difference between revisions

{{more footnotes|date=August 2017}}

'''Bhikari Thakur''' (18 December 1887 – 10 July 1971) was an Indian [[Bhojpuri language]] poet, playwright, lyricist, actor, [[folk dance]]r, [[folk singer]] and social activist, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the Bhojpuri Langauage and most popular folk writer of [[Purvanchal]] and [[Bihar]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Leiter|first=Samuel L.|title=Encyclopedia of Asian Theatre: A-N|publisher=Greenwood Press|year=2007|isbn=9780313335297|pages=61}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Journal of the Bihar Purāvid Parishad, Vol. 19-20|publisher=Bihar Purāvid Parishad|year=1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/article3534122.ece|title=On the Shakespeare of Bhojpuri|author=Shalaja Tripathi|publisher=[[The Hindu]]|date=16 June 2012|access-date=2 January 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Agra University Journal of Research: Letters, Volumes 1-5|publisher=Agra University|year=1952}}</ref> He is often called the "[[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]] of Bhojpuri" and "Rai Bahadur".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Theatre, Vol. VI|publisher=Raj Publication|year=2004|isbn=9788186208359}}</ref> His works consist of more than a dozen plays, [[Monologue]]s, Poems, [[Bhajan]]s which appeared in print as nearly three dozen books. His noteworthy works are [[Bidesiya (play)|Bidesiya]], [[Gabarghichor]], [[Beti Bechwa]] and Bhai Birodh, Gabarghichor is often compared with [[Bertolt Brecht]]'s play ''[[The Caucasian Chalk Circle]]''.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Bhikhari Thakur: Voice of the marginalised|url=https://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/theatre/bhikhari-thakur-voice-of-the-marginalised/article30931327.ece/amp/|website=THE Hindu}}</ref> He is also known as the father of the Bidesiya folk theatre tradition.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Narayan|first=Badri|title=Culture and Emotional Economy of Migration|year=2016|isbn=978-1315448039|pages=74}}</ref>

Thakur was born and raised in Kutubpur village of [[Saran district|Saran]], in his adolescent he married to Matuna from which he had only one son: Shilanath Thakur. In the early 1900s, he started his career as an actor, writer, singer and dancer. he remained active till his death in 1971. He published most of his works between 1938 to 1962. His early works were dialogues and musical plays, later he wrote some philosophical works, [[Bhajan]]s, Harikirtans and other poems.

Thakur was born in a barber family on 18 December 1887 in Kutubpur village of [[Chhapra]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=जयंती विशेष: भोजपुरी के 'शेक्सपियर' भिखारी ठाकुर की 10 बड़ी बातें|work=Aaj Tak|url=https://www.aajtak.intoday.in/lite/story/facts-about-shakespeare-of-bhojpuri-bhikhari-thakur-tpral-1-1047658.html}}</ref><ref name="first">{{Cite book|title=Indian Literature, vol. 44|publisher=Sahitya Akademi|year=2000}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=Sangeet Natak, Volume 37|publisher=Sangeet Natak Akademi|year=2002|pages=49}}</ref> Initially his village was the part of [[Shahabad district]] (present [[Bhojpur district, India|Bhojpur]]) but later (in 1926) due to the change in the course of the [[Ganges]] got saperated from Shahabad and became the part of Saran district, his maternal grandmother's house remained in [[Arrah]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Singh|first=Durgashankar Prasad|title=Bhojpuri ke Kavi aur Kavya|publisher=Kalika press|year=|isbn=|location=Patna|pages=}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Dwiwedi|first=Bhagwati Prasad|title=Bhikhari Thakur: Bhojpuri ke Bharatendu|year=2000|publisher=Aashu Prakashan|isbn=81-85377-41-3|location=Allahabad|pages=25}}</ref> He was the son of Dalsingar Thakur, who was a barber by profession and his mother's name was Sivkali Devi. Bhikhari Thakur was elder of the two sons, the name of his younger brother was Bahor Thakur. Due to the poor condition of his family, Thakur did not even manage to complete his primary education. He only had the knowledge of the [[Kaithi]] alphabets and [[Ramcharitmanas]].<ref>{{Cite news|title=एक आम आदमी, जो बना भोजपुरी का शेक्सपियर!|work=Amar Ujala|url=https://www.amarujala.com/news-archives/india-news-archives/bhikhari-thakur-shakespear-of-bhojpuri}}</ref> In his adolescence, he married Matuna, in 1921 Matuna gave birth to a son, Shilanath Thakur.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dwiwedi|first=Bhagwati Prasad|title=Bhikhari Thakur: Bhojpuri ke Bharatendu|date=Aashu Prakashan|location=Allahabad|pages=28}}</ref> He used to graze cattle in his childhood and when he grew up he had to adopt his family profession of a Barber. However, he wanted to do something else and did not want to do the job of Barber. He shifted from his village to the neighboring village named Fatanpur. After that, he left his family and went to [[Kharagpur]] in the search of job.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sulabh|first=Hrishikesh|title=Rangmanch Ka Jantantra|date=January 2009|publisher=Rajkamal Prakashan|isbn=9788126717842|pages=99}}</ref> From there he went to [[Medinipur]] and started doing some job. He used to watch the [[Ramlila]], and from there he got the inspiration to write and act in plays. He returned to his village formed a drama company and started performing Ramilia.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Choubey|first=Devendra|title=Sahitya Ka Naya Soundaryashastra|publisher=Kitabghar Publication|isbn=9788189859114|pages=342}}</ref>

In the early part of twentieth century, he returned to his village and started presenting [[Ramlila]] with a small troop, but was opposed and blocked by Upper Caste Hindus to perform such an important religious text by people with lower caste.<ref name="Prakash">{{Cite journal|last=Prakash|first=Brahma|date=2016|title=Performing "Bidesiyā" in Bihar: Strategy for Survival, Strategies for Performance|url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24737156|journal=Asian Theatre Journal|volume=33|issue=1|pages=57–81|doi=10.1353/atj.2016.0023|jstor=24737156}}</ref> After that, Bhikhari Thakur formed a theatrical company and started writing and directing plays by his own. Most of his plays used to revolve around the plight of women, village folks and confrontation between old values and modern values.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sahitya Ka Naya Soundaryashastra|isbn=9788189859114|last1=Choubey|first1=Devendra}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Sinha|first=Biswajit|title=Encyclopaedia of Indian Theatre: pt.1-2. Rabindranath Tagore|publisher=Raj Publication|year=2000|isbn=9788186208359|pages=89}}</ref> The first play written by Bhikhari Thakur was [[Biraha Bahar]], he wrote his most famous play [[Bidesiya (play)|Bidesiya]] in 1917, when he was 30 years old. Between 1938 to 1962, more than three dozen books of Bhikhari Thakur published. Most of the books published from Dudhnath Press ([[Howrah]]) and Kachaudi Gali ([[Varanasi]]).<ref name="second">{{Cite book|last=Dwiwedi|first=Bhagwati Prasad|title=Bhikhari Thakur: Bhojpuri ke Bharatendu|date=Aashu Prakashan|location=Allahabad|pages=29}}</ref>

He impressed people all over [[Bihar]], [[Jharkhand]], [[Uttar Pradesh]] and [[Bengal]] by his performances.<ref name="first" /> He used to visit place to place with the artists of his theatre company to perform at marriages and other events and used to charge a lump sum.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Garagi|first=Balawanta|title=Theatre in India|publisher=Theatre Arts Books|year=1962|pages=147}}</ref> A humongous number of people would gather to watch his plays, especially for Bidesiya, whenever and wherever Bidesiya was staged and played, there used to be an uncontrollable crowd.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Misra|first=Ram Baksh|title=Sociology of Bhojpuri Language|publisher=Swasti Publications|year=2003}}</ref> Owing to his popularity, people started selling pirated copies of his books and even such books that were not written by him, for this he had to write "Bhikhari Pustika Suchi", which had the list and details of all of his published works. He also wrote "Bhikhari Shanka Shamadhan" to clear fake news that was spreading about him.<ref name="second"/>

In 1963, Bhojpuri movie [[Bidesiya (1963 Film)|Bidesiya]] released which was based on his play, in the movie Bhikhari Thakur made a special appearance in the song "Hasi Hasi Panwa Khiyawale Baimanwa". Thakur died on 10 July 1971.

In the early 20th century, Bhikhari formed his own theater company against the wills of his parents.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Banham|first1=Martin|title=The Cambridge Guide to Theatre|last2=Brandon|first2=James R.|publisher=Cambridge university press|year=1995|isbn=9780521434379|pages=105}}</ref> In early days, the company used to perform only [[Ramlila]] but later it started staging plays written by Bhikhari Thakur. Most of the played were performed in open sky on an elevated platform surrounded by audience. The company had group of skilled singers, dancers and actors. Some notable names are [[Ramchandra Manjhi]] (dancer), Mahendra (singer),  Ram Lacchan and Juthan were [[comedian]]s, musicians were Ghinawan ([[Dholak]]), Tafzul (Tal), Alijan ([[Sarangi]]) and Jagdeo ([[Harmonium]]).<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dwiwedi|first=Bhagwati Prasad|title=Bhikhari Thakur: Bhojpuri ke Bharatendu|publisher=Aashu Prakashan|year=2000|pages=70}}</ref>

In those days, due to [[Parda system]], it was very hard for women to perform in plays, Bhikhari Thakur included the [[Launda Naach|Launda dancers]] to cast them as women in his plays. Later it became one of the greatest attractions of his plays, in January 2021 government of India feliciated [[Ramchandra Manjhi]], a Launda dancer of his company with [[Padma Shri]], the fourth highest civilian honour of India.<ref>{{Cite news|title=Padma Shri Ramchandra Manjhi and Dulari Devi: Tale of two artists, and of art, caste and grit in Bihar|work=The Indian Express|url=https://www.indianexpress.com/article/india/tale-of-two-padma-shri-winners-of-art-caste-and-grit-in-bihar-7167011/lite/|url-status=live}}</ref>

Most of the works of Bhikhari Thakur was based on the problem of the society like plight of the migrants and women, poverty, Mother's love, etc.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Golmej|publisher=Vani Prakashan|pages=97}}</ref> Bhikhari Thakur published almost 3 dozens Books and Bookelts in his career.  

His published and unpublished works were compiled by '''Bhikhari Thakur Aashram''' and published in three parts as '''Bhikhari Thakur Granthavali'''. The first part was published in 1979 in which his five plays are compiled namely, [[Bidesiya (play)|Bidesiya]], Bhai Birodh, [[Beti Bechwa]], Kaljug Prem and Radheshyam Bahar. The second part was published in 1986 in which five more plays are there, namely Putra Badh, [[Gabarghichor]], Nanad-Bhaujai, Ganga Asnan and Bidhwa Bilaap. The third and last part have his other plays, songs and monologues.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bhikhari Thakur: Bhojpuri ke Bharatendu|publisher=Aashu Prakashan|year=2005|location=Allahabad|pages=38}}</ref>

Plays of Bhikhari Thakur were different from modern plays of the 20th century, which used to have dialogues only, in spite of this, the plays of Thakur were closer to the style used in classical [[Sanskrit theatre]] and [[Shakespeare|Shakespeare's]] style, which used to contain songs and dialogues both.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Gomez|publisher=Vani Prakashan|pages=97}}</ref> Plays written by Thakur imbibed many principles from the Classical Indian Theatre.For example, His plays used to start with ''maṃgalācaran'' which is an essential part of Sanskrit plays in which prayers are dedicated to [[Ganapati]] and [[Saraswati]], asking for the blessings[[Saraswati|.]] They also had ''Samājī'' which is equivalent to ''Shutradhāra'' of Sanskrit theatre and [[Greek chorus|Chorus]] of [[Greek Theatre]]. The samaji used to explain about the play in the [[Prologue]], its characters and used to draw example parallel to [[Hindu mythology]].<ref name="Chaturvedi">{{Cite news|last=Chaturvedi|first=Namrata|title="BIDESIA" – THE FOLK THEATRE OF EASTERN INDIA|work=The Theatre Times|url=https://www.thetheatretimes.com/bidesia-folk-theatre-eastern-india/}}</ref> Another important part of his plays were '''labār''' which are known as '''viduṣak''' in Indian classical theatre, who used to come in the middle of the play just to entertain the audience by doing some comedy.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Narayan|first=Badri|title=Culture and Emotional Economy of Migration|pages=76}}</ref> The characters of the plays of Bhikhari Thakur are of types representing the general rather than the particular. For example, in the play [[Bidesiya (play)|Bidesiya]], the character of ''Bidesi'' represents all the young men who used to go to Assam and Bengal for earning. Similarly ''Batohi'' means ''Traveller'' and represents a random person who is going to Kolkata.<ref name="Chaturvedi"/>

He incorporated everything that he found appropriate and exciting from other popular theatre in his plays. His Bidesiya is the blend of religious, secular, [[Tragedy]], [[Comedy]], traditional and modern theatre genre. He also included instruments like [[Tabla]], [[Harmonium]], [[Dholak]], [[Sitar]], [[Cymbal|Jhal]], and [[Flute|Bansi]]. He also adopted all the popular Bhojpuri Folk songs genre in his plays like [[Biraha]], Purbi, [[Kajari]], Alha, Fagua, Chaita, Sorathi, Chaubola etc.<ref name="Prakash" /> He also created a new form of [[Chhand (poetry)|Chhand]] which are called ''Bidesiya Chhand'', unlike the chhands in vernaculars, which are [[Matrika metre|Matrik]], Bidesiya chhand is ''Varnik'' or syllabic like classical sanskrit poetry, which have 32 syllables in each line like ''Ghankashari Chhanda'' of Sanskrit.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Shandilya|first=Rajeshwari|title=Bhojpuri Lokgeetan me geeti tatva|publisher=Bhojpuri Sansthan|year=2001|location=Patna|pages=189}}</ref> For example in [[Bidesiya (Play)|Bidesiya]], ''Pyari'' is expounding her husband's appearance to ''Batohi'':<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bhikhari Thakur Rachnawali: Part 1|publisher=Lok Kalakar Bhikhari Thakur Aashram|year=1979|location=Qutubpur (Saran)|pages=33}}</ref>

{{quote|<poem>Kariyā nā gor bāte, lāmā nāhi hawan nāte (17),

==Messages==

The plays and songs of Bhikhari Thakur depict the evils that were corroding the society.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bihar District Gazetteers: Saran|publisher=Superintendent, Secretariat Press|year=1960|location=Bihar|pages=116}}</ref> Bidesiya depicts the pain of a woman whose husband leaves her and marries another woman, Beti Bechwa depicts the practice of unequal marriage,  Bidhwa Bilaap depicts that a widow is treated and cheated by the society and her family. Besides social problems, Thakur has also talked about the separation of joint families in Bhai Birodh and Nanad-Bhaujai. In Kaljug Prem or Piyawa Nasaïl, he has shown the consequences of drinking and impact on the family. In Putrabadh, a [[Stepmother]] plans to kill her [[Stepson]]. Ganga Asnan exposes the frauds of the dhongi Brahmins.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Dwiwedi|first=Mahesvari Prasad|title=Bhikhari Thakur: Bhojpuri ke Bharatendu|publisher=Aashu Prakashan|location=Allahabad|pages=50–54}}</ref>

* Thakur made a special appearance in a song of Bhojpuri movie [[Bidesiya (film)|Bidesiya]] in 1963.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Patel|first=Raviraj|title=Bhojpuri Filmon Ka Safanama}}</ref> In the film, Thakur recites his own poetry, writes Avijit Ghosh in his book, Cinema Bhojpuri.

</poem>|}}In 1944, Bihar Government gave him the title of ''Rai Bahadur'' or ''Rai Sahab''<ref>There is a debate of the exact name of the title, whether it was "Rai Bahaur" or "Rai Sahab". Some scholars also believe that the award was only announced but he never received it.</ref> and was felicited with a Copper Shield.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Bhikhari Thakur: Bhojpuri ke Bharatendu|publisher=Aashu Prakashan|year=2005|location=Allahabad|pages=23}}</ref>

* The Bhojpuri [[Bidesiya (1963 Film)|Bidesiya]] film released in 1963 was based on his play.

*His written song ''Ae Sajni re'' was one of the songs of the 2005 Bollywood film [[Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Rai|first=Sandeep|title=Aesthetics and Politics: Two Leading Bhojpuri Artists|publisher=Becomeshakespeare.com|year=2021|isbn=9789390543519}}</ref>

*The Bidesiya theatre genre also influenced theatres of other languages other than [[Bhojpuri language|Bhojpuri]], Rūpasēna of Kannada and Harikesh Muluk play of Hindi are written in the Bidesiya style.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Narayan|first=Badri|title=Culture and Emotional Economy of Migration|pages=77}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|title=The Tradition of Kannada Theatre|publisher=IBH Prakashana|year=1986}}</ref>

*[[The Legacy of Bhikhari Thakur]] is a music album composed of nine songs written by Bhikhari Thakur and sung by [[Kalpana Patowary]].<ref>{{Cite news|last=Tripathi|first=Shailaja|title=On the Shakespeare of Bhojpuri|work=[[The Hindu]]|url=https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/on-the-shakespeare-of-bhojpuri/article3534122.ece|url-status=live}}</ref>

*  {{Citation|last=Maheshwaracharya |first=.|publication-date=|year=1978|title=Bhikhari: Bhojpuri ke Lok kalakar bhakt Bhikhari Thakur ki Samast rachnaon ka vishleshana [Bhikhari: A critical study of all writings of Bhojpuri Folk-Dramatist and Devotee Bhikhari]|publisher=Lok Kalakar Bhikhari Thakur Aashram|isbn=}}

[[Category:Indian folk musicians]]