Durga Bhagwat

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Durga Narayan Bhagwat

Born

1910

Died

2002

Nationality

Indian

Notable work(s)

Pais, Vyas Parva, Bhavmudra,

Rutuchakra

Notable award(s) Sahitya Academy ( Pais)

Durga Narayan Bhagwat (19102002), popularly known as Durga Bhagwat, was an Indian
scholar, socialist and writer. She studied Sanskrit and Buddhist literature, roamed jungles of
Madhya Pradesh to study tribal life, later returned to Mumbai as a researcher and wrote books in
Marathi. Being a rebel by nature, she highly opposed Government during The Emergency (India)
and was subsequently imprisoned. She also had refused to accept literary honors like Padma
Shree and Jnanapeeth.

Contents

[hide]

1 Early years

2 Later years

3 Her contribution

4 Bibliography
o 4.1 Short stories
o 4.2 Novels
o 4.3 Children's literature
o 4.4 Other works

Early years[edit source | editbeta]

Durga Bhagwat was born in 1910 in a Karhade Brahmin family settled in the then princely state
of Baroda. The veteran Sanskrit scholar and social activist Rajaram Shastri Bhagwat was the
brother of her grandmother. Her sister Kamala Sohoni went on to become the first woman
scientist of India. Her father was a scientist who discovered the procedure of making Ghee from
oil.Many American companies offered him the job with a handsome salary which he declined.He
offered that technique to Tata only without a single penny considering that a national
duty.Durgabai got also attracted to Gandhism and took part in Indian freedom movement for a
very short time.When she realised that she cannot do it for a longer time she left that and
completed her studies from Wilson College.But she continued to wear Khadi in that period.Her
paternal aunty Smt Seetabai Bhagwat who remained unmarried to look after family had a great
influence on Durgabai.Durgabai went to Madhya Pradesh for studying tribal culture where she
had idiosyncratic reaction to sweet potato for which she was bed ridden for 6 years.So she could
not complete her doctarate course.But she was Durgabai on whose literature many people had
doctorate research.

Later years[edit source | editbeta]

Durga Bhagwat was elected President of the 51st Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, held in Karad, in
1975. She was second woman President of Sammelan, after Kusumavati Deshpande since its
inception in 1878.Yashwantrao Chavan,a great congress leader was the host of that
ceremony.Durgabai opposed emergency and arrest of Jaiprakash Narayan openly. The Indian
Government later on jailed her for the speech delivered by her during the Meet and open protest
of the Government of India. She campaigned against the ruling Congress Party in 1977 general
election, and remained opposed to it for the rest of her life.After emergency, she was offered an

influential government seat by then ruling Janata Party which she declined.She even decided not
to accept any state-sponsored honours and declined an offer of Dnyan Peeth, the most prestigious
award for Indian writers.
Before chairing Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, she was elected chairperson of Tamasgir Meet
(tamaasgeers who perform dance programms but are treated as prostitutes by people), and she
was very proud of it, considering it a greater honour between the two. She contented that if she
wasn't born in a well-off Brahmin family, and were born to a prostitute, her destiny would be
very different.And so respected them as a part of one great art. She did social work among
downtrodden sections of the society, and wandered jungles to study the nomads.

Her contribution[edit source | editbeta]

Durga Bhagwat's notable works include biography of Rajaram Shastri Bhagwat, Pais, a
collection of articles based around religions, their literature and practises and Vyas Parva, a book
about her study of Mahabharat. She studied religious literature, particularly Buddhist, works of
Marathi saints from Dnyaneshwar to Tukaram, major Sanskrit works of Vyas and Adi
Shankaracharya. Her book 'RRitu-chakra', detailing the nature (particularly trees and flowers) in
each Indian month, is perhaps her most famous work. In early 1940s during her stay in forest,
she tried to cook a vegetable which turned out to be poisonous and she was bed-ridden for years.
The recovery was slow but it helped her observe the changes in the nature over the 12-month
cycle, and spurred her to write articles on each seasons. She was a good cook having inspiration
from Smt Seetabai Bhagwat,her paternal aunt.Though she has not written any specific book on
this topic,had written many articles on this topic.She was much interested in crafts even,on
which she wrote many articles.She was a lady who was interested in learning any new thing and
was ever curious to have knowledge.That is why perhaps Va Pu Kale calls her as 'Marathi
Saraswatachi Sarswati'.
Even though good-looking in her young age, Durga Bhagwat never married. The reason
according to her as told in a personal interview was that she spent several years of her youth in
research, during which she was also the victim of food poisoning and by the time she recovered
from it, it was too late.
Her idols throughout her life had been Vyasa, Gautama Buddha, Adi Shankaracharya, Henry
David Thoreau, and Shridhar Venkatesh Ketkar.

Bibliography[edit source | editbeta]

Short stories[edit source | editbeta]

Poorva

Novels[edit source | editbeta]

Mahanadichya tiravar

Children's literature[edit source | editbeta]

Tulshiche lagna

Vanwasi rajputra

Chandralekha ani aath chor

Other works[edit source | editbeta]

Loksahityachi ruprekha

Dharma ani loksahitya

Vyas parva

Rupranga

Pais

Prasangika

Doob

Bhavmudra

Khamanga

Satyam Shivam Sundaram

Ketkaki kadambari

Rajaram Shastri Bhagwat yanche charitra

Rutuchakra

Godhadi

Dupani

Nisargotsav