Vaidyanath Mishra (Aged 87) born on 30 June 1911 in Satlakha Village, Madhubani District, Bihar, India. He is better known as Nagarjun, was a Hindi and Maithili poet, famous for his novels, short stories, literary biographies, and travelogues. He was also known as Janakavi, the People’s Poet and regarded as the most significant protagonist of modernity in Maithili.
He spent most of his days in his mother’s village, his birthplace, and later converted to Buddhism, taking the name Nagarjun. When he was only three, his mother passed away, and his father, a vagabond, was unable to provide for him. However, he relied on his relatives and scholarships he won as an exceptional student. He became skilled in Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit languages, studying in Varanasi and Calcutta while also working part-time. He married Aparajita Devi, and the couple had six children.
In the 1930s, he began writing Maithili poems under the pen name Yatri and switched to Hindi poetry later. He worked as a full-time teacher in Saharanpur but became a monk in Sri Lanka in 1935 because of his passion for studying Buddhist scriptures. There, he also studied Marxism and Leninism. After returning to India in 1938, he joined the ‘Summer School of Politics’ and extensively traveled throughout the 1930s and 1940s. He participated in many mass-awakening movements before and after independence and was jailed by British courts for leading a farmer’s agitation in Bihar between 1939 and 1942. After independence, he was involved with journalism for a long time.
Nagarjun played an active role in Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement before the Emergency period (1975–1977) and was jailed for eleven months during the emergency period. He was strongly influenced by Leninist-Marxist ideology, which was one of the reasons he never found patronage from the mainstream political establishments. He passed away on November 5th, 1998, in Khwaja Sarai, Darbhanga district, Bihar, India.
His poetry subjects are varied, with the effects of his wandering tendencies and activism evident in his middle and later works. His famous poems, such as Bādal kō Ghiratē Dēkhā hai, are a travelogue in themselves. He often wrote on contemporary social and political issues. His famous poem, Mantra Kavita, is widely considered the most accurate reflection of a whole generation’s mindset in India. Another such poem is Āō Rānī Hum Ḍhōēṅgē Pālakī, which sarcastically humiliates the then-Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, for the extravagant welcome thrown by him for Queen Elizabeth.
Apart from these accepted poetry subjects, Nagarjun found poetic beauty in unconventional subjects. One of his most astonishing works is a poem based on a show called With Sharp Teeth. Another such creation is a series of poems on a full-grown jackfruit.
Due to the breadth of his poetry, Nagarjun is considered the only Hindi poet after Tulsidas to have an audience ranging from the rural sections of society to the elite. He effectively freed poetry from the bounds of elitism.
Vaidyanath Mishra Nagarjun
(1911 – 1998) – (Bihar)
Vaidyanath Mishra (Aged 87) born on 30 June 1911 in Satlakha Village, Madhubani District, Bihar, India. He is better known as Nagarjun, was a Hindi and Maithili poet, famous for his novels, short stories, literary biographies, and travelogues. He was also known as Janakavi, the People’s Poet and regarded as the most significant protagonist of modernity in Maithili.
He spent most of his days in his mother’s village, his birthplace, and later converted to Buddhism, taking the name Nagarjun. When he was only three, his mother passed away, and his father, a vagabond, was unable to provide for him. However, he relied on his relatives and scholarships he won as an exceptional student. He became skilled in Sanskrit, Pali, and Prakrit languages, studying in Varanasi and Calcutta while also working part-time. He married Aparajita Devi, and the couple had six children.
In the 1930s, he began writing Maithili poems under the pen name Yatri and switched to Hindi poetry later. He worked as a full-time teacher in Saharanpur but became a monk in Sri Lanka in 1935 because of his passion for studying Buddhist scriptures. There, he also studied Marxism and Leninism. After returning to India in 1938, he joined the ‘Summer School of Politics’ and extensively traveled throughout the 1930s and 1940s. He participated in many mass-awakening movements before and after independence and was jailed by British courts for leading a farmer’s agitation in Bihar between 1939 and 1942. After independence, he was involved with journalism for a long time.
Nagarjun played an active role in Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement before the Emergency period (1975–1977) and was jailed for eleven months during the emergency period. He was strongly influenced by Leninist-Marxist ideology, which was one of the reasons he never found patronage from the mainstream political establishments. He passed away on November 5th, 1998, in Khwaja Sarai, Darbhanga district, Bihar, India.
His poetry subjects are varied, with the effects of his wandering tendencies and activism evident in his middle and later works. His famous poems, such as Bādal kō Ghiratē Dēkhā hai, are a travelogue in themselves. He often wrote on contemporary social and political issues. His famous poem, Mantra Kavita, is widely considered the most accurate reflection of a whole generation’s mindset in India. Another such poem is Āō Rānī Hum Ḍhōēṅgē Pālakī, which sarcastically humiliates the then-Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, for the extravagant welcome thrown by him for Queen Elizabeth.
Apart from these accepted poetry subjects, Nagarjun found poetic beauty in unconventional subjects. One of his most astonishing works is a poem based on a show called With Sharp Teeth. Another such creation is a series of poems on a full-grown jackfruit.
Due to the breadth of his poetry, Nagarjun is considered the only Hindi poet after Tulsidas to have an audience ranging from the rural sections of society to the elite. He effectively freed poetry from the bounds of elitism.
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