Bharatendu Harishchandra

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Bharatendu Harishchandra
Bharatendu Harishchandra 1976 stamp of India.jpg
Born(1850-09-09)9 September 1850
Benares, Benares State, British India
Died6 January 1885(1885-01-06) (aged 34)
Benares, Benares State, British India
Pen nameRasa
OccupationNovelist, poet, playwright

Bharatendu Harishchandra (9 September 1850 – 6 January 1885) was an Indian poet, writer and playwright. He was an author of several dramas, life sketches and travel accounts; he used new media such as reports, publications, letters to the editor, translations, and literary works to shape public opinion.[1][2]

Writing under the pen name "Rasa", Harishchandra represented the agonies of the people, the country's poverty, dependency, inhuman exploitation, the unrest of the middle class and the urge for the progress of the country. He was an influential Hindu "traditionalist", using Vaishnava devotionalism to define a coherent Hindu religion.[2]

Bharatendu Harishchandra is often considered the father of Hindi literature and Hindi theatre.[3][4]

Biography[edit]

Born into the Agrawal caste in Banaras, Bharatendu Harishchandra's father Gopal Chandra was a poet. His ancestors were landlords in Bengal.[5] His parents died when he was young but they seem to have had an influence on him. Acharya Ramchandra Shukla has described how Bharatendu went to the Jagannath temple in Puri, Orissa with his family in 1865, when he was merely 15 years of age.[6] During this trip he was influenced by the Bengal Renaissance and decided to bring the genres of social, historical, and Puranic plays and novels into Hindi. This influence reflected in his Hindi translation of the Bengali drama Vidyasundar, three years later, in 1868.

Harishchandra edited the magazines Kavi Vachan Sudha, Harishchandra Magazine, Harishchandra Patrika and Bal Vodhini.[7]

He wrote under the pseudonym Girdhar Das. He was titled "Bharatendu" ("The moon of India") at a public meeting by scholars of Kashi in 1880 in recognition of his services as a writer, patron, and moderniser. Ram Vilas Sharma refers to the "great literary awakening ushered in under Bharatendu's leadership" as the "second storey of the edifice of renascent Hindi", the first being the Indian Rebellion of 1857.[5]

He was married and had one daughter.

Hindu traditionalism[edit]

According to Barbara and Thomas R. Metcalf, Bharatendu Harishchandra is considered an influential example of Hindu "traditionalist" in north India, typifying continuity with received tradition and self-conscious participation with the modern world. He was typical of those Indians who engaged with Western institutions and learning. He used new media, especially publications to shape public opinion. Harishchandra was also typical of revivalists of Hindi literature which were closely connected with Hindu revivalist movements. He "combined pleas for [the] use of Swadeshi articles with demands for replacement of Urdu by Hindi in courts and a ban on cow slaughter".[8] He used Vaishnava devotionalism to define a coherent Hindu religion, with a base in the Kashi Dharma Sabha, started in the 1860s by the Maharaja of Benares as a response to more radical Hindu reformist movements.

He also went to Delhi Durbar on behalf of Maharaja of Benares asking for a legal ban on cow slaughter. He also drew a petition on the same later and according to Sahay ([1905] 1975: 84) had 60,000 signatories and was submitted to Lord lytton but no action was taken however this proved to be of lasting significance and he was given the title "Vir Vaishnava"[9]

Harishchandra insisted on the value of image worship and interpreted Bhakti as devotion to a single god; this was in response to Orientalist and Christian critiques of Hinduism.[2]

Major works[edit]

Plays[edit]

Bharatendu Harishchandra soon become a director, manager, and playwright. He used theatre as a tool to shape public opinion. His major plays are:

  • Vaidika Himsa Himsa Na Bhavati, 1873 (वैदिक हिंसा हिंसा न भवति)
  • Satya Harishchandra, 1876 (सत्य हरिश्चन्द्र)
  • Bharat Durdasha, 1875
  • Niladevi, 1881 (नीलदेवी)
  • Andher Nagari (अन्धेर नगरी, City of Darkness), 1881: A popular play of modern Hindi drama and a political satire. Translated and performed in many Indian languages by prominent Indian directors like B. V. Karanth, Prasanna, Arvind Gaur and Sanjay Upadhyaya.

Poetry[edit]

  • Bhakta Sarvagya (भक्त सर्वज्ञ)
  • Prem Malika (प्रेम मालिका), 1872
  • Prem Madhuri (प्रेम माधुरी), 1875
  • Prem Tarang (प्रेम तरंग),1877
  • Prem Prakalpa (प्रेम प्रकल्प), Prem Phulwari (प्रेम फुलवारी) and Prem Sarowar (प्रेम सरोवर), 1883
  • Holi (होली), (1874)
  • Madhumukul (मधुमुकुल), 1881
  • Raga Sangrah (राग संग्रह), 1880
  • Varsha Vinod (वर्षा विनोद), 1880
  • Vinay Prem Pachasa (विनय प्रेम पचासा), 1881
  • Phulon Ka Guchchha (फूलों का गुच्छा), 1882
  • Chandravali (चन्द्रावली), 1876 and Krishnacharitra (कृष्णचरित्र), 1883
  • Uttarardha Bhaktamal (उत्तरार्द्ध भक्तमाल), 1876–77

Couplets[edit]

The following two rhyming couplets are taken from his famous poem, मातृ-भाषा के प्रति (For the Sake of Mother-Tongue or Towards Mother-Tongue). It has ten couplets. The poet asserts the importance of using mother tongue as a medium of instruction—conversational and educational.

निज भाषा उन्नति अहै, सब उन्नति को मूल ।
बिन निज भाषा-ज्ञान के, मिटत न हिय को सूल ।।

विविध कला शिक्षा अमित, ज्ञान अनेक प्रकार।
सब देसन से लै करहू, भाषा माहि प्रचार ।।

Translation:
Progress is made in one's own language (the mother tongue), as it the foundation of all progress.
Without the knowledge of the mother tongue, there is no cure for the pain of heart.

Many arts and education infinite, knowledge of various kinds.
Should be taken from all countries, but be propagated in one's mother tongue.

Translations[edit]

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items with reliable sources.

Essay collection[edit]

  • Bharatendu Granthavali (भारतेन्दु ग्रन्थावली), 1885

Bharatendu Harishchandra Awards[edit]

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of India gives the Bharatendu Harishchandra Awards since 1983 to promote original writings in Hindi mass communication.[10]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ Vasudha Dalmia, Poetics, Plays and Performances: The Politics of Modern Indian Theatre, New Delhi, Oxford University Press (2006) ISBN 0-19-567473-1
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Barbara D. Metcalf; Thomas R. Metcalf (2002). A Concise History of India. Cambridge University Press. p. 143. ISBN 978-0-521-63974-3.
  3. ↑ Diana Dimitrova (2004). Western tradition and naturalistic Hindi theatre. Peter Lang. p. 14. ISBN 0-8204-6822-3.
  4. ↑ Sandria B. Freitag (1989). "Chapter 2: The Birth of Hindi Drama in Banaras: 1868–1885, by Kathryn Hansen". Culture and power in Banaras: community, performance, and environment, 1800–1980. University of California Press. p. 78. ISBN 0-520-06367-8.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Awadesh Pradhan, The Spiritual and Cultural Ethos of Modern Hindi Literature, Prabuddha Bharata, July 2009.
  6. ↑ Ramchandra Shukla, Hindi Sahitya ka Itihaas (History of Hindi Literature), 1928.
  7. ↑ Vasudha Dalmia (1997). The nationalization of Hindu traditions : Bharatendu Harischandra and nineteenth-century Banaras. Delhi; New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-563961-8.
  8. ↑ Sumit Sarkar (1 January 1983). Modern India, 1885–1947. Macmillan. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-333-90425-1.
  9. ↑ Dalmia, Vashudha (1997). Bharatendu Harischandra And Nineteenth Century. New Delhi. p. 370.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ↑ "Bharatendu Harishchandra Awards Presented" (Press release). Indian Ministry of Information & Broadcasting. 8 January 2003.

External links[edit]

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