Arun Kolatkar

Arun Balkrishna Kolatkar (Marathi: अ ण बालकृ ण कोलटकर) (1

Arun Kolatkar
November 1932 – 25 September 2004) was an Indian poet[1] who
wrote in both Marathi and English. His poems found humour in
everyday matters. Kolatkar is the only Indian poet other than Kabir to
be featured on the World Classics titles of New York Review of
Books.

His first collection of English poetry, Jejuri won the Commonwealth

Poetry Prize in 1977.[2] His Marathi verse collection Bhijki Vahi won
a Sahitya Akademi Award in 2005. An anthology of his works,
Collected Poems in English, edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, was
published in Britain by Bloodaxe Books in 2010. Trained as an artist
from the J. J. School of Art, he was also a noted graphics designer.

Contents
Life
Born 1 November 1932
Marathi Poetry and influence
Kolhapur, Kolhapur
Influences
State, British India
English poetry Died 25 September 2004
Later work (aged 71)
Appearances in the following poetry Anthologies Pune, Maharashtra,
India
Further reading
Occupation Poet
See also
Literary Indian
References movement postmodernism
External links Notable Jejuri
works
Notable Sahitya Akademi
Life awards Award
Commonwealth
Kolatkar was born in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, where his father Tatya Poetry Prize
Kolatkar was an officer in the Education department. He lived in a Spouse Darshan Chhabda
traditional patriarchal Hindu extended family, along with his uncle's (div 1966); Soonu
family. He has described their nine-room house as "a house of cards. Kolatkar
Five in a row on the ground, topped by three on the first, and one on
the second floor.".[3] The floors had to be "plastered with cowdung every week".

He attended Rajaram High School in Kolhapur, where Marathi was the medium of instruction. After
graduation in 1949, much against his father's wishes, he joined S. B. College of Arts, Gulbarga, where his
childhood friend Baburao Sadwelkar was enrolled. His college years saw a "mysterious phase of drifting and
formal as well as spiritual education",[4] and he graduated in 1957.
In 1953, he married Darshan Chhabda (sister of well-known painter Bal Chhabda).[5] The marriage was
opposed by both families, partly because Kolatkar was yet to sell any of his paintings.

His early years in Mumbai were poor but eventful, especially his life as an upcoming artist in the Rampart
Row neighborhood, where the Artists' Aid Fund Centre was located.[5] Around this time, he also translated
Tukaram into English. This period of struggle and transition has been captured in his Marathi poem ‘The
Turnaround’:

Bombay made me a beggar.

Kalyan gave me a lump of jaggery to suck.
In a small village that had a waterfall
but no name
my blanket found a buyer
and I feasted on plain ordinary water.

I arrived in Nasik with

peepul leaves between my teeth.
There I sold my Tukaram
to buy some bread and mince. (translation by Kolatkar)[4]

After many years of struggle, he started work as an art director and graphic designer in several advertising
agencies like Lintas. By the mid-60s he was established as a graphic artist, and joined an eclectic group of
creatives headed by the legendary advertising professional Kersy Katrak. It was Katrak, himself a poet, who
pushed Kolatkar into bringing out Jejuri.[6] Kolatkar was, in advertising jargon, a ‘visualizer’; and soon
became one of Mumbai's most successful art directors. He won the prestigious CAG award for advertising six
times, and was admitted to the CAG Hall of Fame.[7]

By 1966, his marriage with Darshan was in trouble, and Kolatkar developed a drinking problem. This faded
after the marriage was dissolved by mutual agreement and he married his second wife, Soonu.[5]

Marathi Poetry and influence

His Marathi poems of the 1950s and 1960s are written "in the Bombay argot of the migrant working classes
and the underworld, part Hindi, part Marathi, which the Hindi film industry would make proper use of only
decades later".[4] For instance, consider the following, which intersperses Hindi dialect into the Marathi:

मै भाभीको बोला main bhAbhiiko bolA

या भाईसाबके ूट पे मै आ
kya bhAisAbke dyuTipe main A jAu?
जाऊ ?
भड़क गयी साली bhaRak gayi sAli
रहमान बोला गोली चलाऊँगा rahmAn bolA goli chalAungA
मै बोला एक रंडीके वा ते? mai bolA ek raNDike wAste?
चलाव गोली गांडू chalao goli gaNDu (quoted in[8]

To match this in his English translation, he sometimes adopts "a cowboy variety":[2]

allow me beautiful
i said to my sister in law
to step in my brother's booties
you had it coming said rehman
a gun in his hand
 shoot me punk
kill your brother i said
for a bloody cunt (Three cups of Tea[9])

In Marathi, his poetry is the quintessence of the modernist as manifested in the 'little magazine movement' in
the 1950s and 1960s. His early Marathi poetry was radically experimental and displayed the influences of
European avant-garde trends like surrealism, expressionism and Beat generation poetry. These poems are
oblique, whimsical and at the same time dark, sinister, and exceedingly funny. Some of these characteristics
can be seen in Jejuri and Kala Ghoda Poems in English, but his early Marathi poems are far more radical,
dark and humorous than his English poems. His early Marathi poetry is far more audacious and takes greater
liberties with language. However, in his later Marathi poetry, the language is more accessible and less radical
compared to earlier works. His later works Chirimiri, Bhijki Vahi and Droan are less introverted and less
nightmarish. They show a greater social awareness and his satire becomes more direct. Bilingual poet and
anthologist Vilas Sarang assigns great importance to Kolatkar's contribution to Marathi poetry, pointing to
Chirimiri in particular as "a work that must give inspiration and direction to all future Marathi poets".[10]

He won the Kusumagraj Puraskar given by the Marathwada Sahitya Parishad in 1991 and Bahinabai Puraskar
given by Bahinabai Prathistan in 1995. His Marathi poetry collections include:

Arun Kolatkarcha Kavita (1977)

Chirimiri (2004)
Bhijki Vahi (2004) (Sahitya Akademi award, 2004)
Droan (2004)

Kolatkar was among a group of post-independence bilingual poets who fused the diction of their mother
tongues along with international styles to break new ground in their poetic traditions; others in this group
included Gopalakrishna Adiga (Kannada), Raghuvir Sahay (Hindi), Dilip Chitre (also Marathi), Sunil
Gangopadhyay, Malay Roy Choudhury (Bengali), etc.[11]

Influences

Marathi devotional poetry and popular theater (tamasha) had early influences on Kolatkar. American beat
poetry, especially of William Carlos Williams[3][4] were later influences. Along with friends like Dilip Chitre,
he was caught up in the modern shift in Marathi poetry which was pioneered by B. S. Mardhekar.

When asked by an interviewer who his favorite poets and writers were, he set out a large multilingual list.
While the answer is part rebuff, the list is indicative of the wide, fragmented sources he may have mined, and
is worth quoting in full:

Whitman, Mardhekar, Manmohan, Eliot, Pound, Auden, Hart Crane, Dylan Thomas, Kafka,
Baudelaire, Heine, Catullus, Villon, Jynaneshwar, Namdev, Janabai, Eknath, Tukaram,
Wang Wei, Tu Fu, Han Shan, C, Honaji, Mandelstam, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Isaac Bashevis
Singer, Babel, Apollinaire, Breton, Brecht, Neruda, Ginsberg, Barth, Duras, Joseph Heller ...
Gunter Grass, Norman Mailer, Henry Miller, Nabokov, Namdeo Dhasal, Patthe Bapurav,
Rabelais, Apuleius, Rex Stout, Agatha Christie, Robert Shakley, Harlan Ellison, Balchandra
Nemade, Durrenmatt, Aarp, Cummings, Lewis Carroll, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Sylvia
Plath, Ted Hughes, Godse Bhatji, Morgenstern, Chakradhar, Gerard Manley Hopkins,
Balwantbuva, Kierkegaard, Lenny Bruce, Bahinabai Chaudhari, Kabir, Robert Johnson,
Muddy Waters, Leadbelly, Howling Wolf, Jon Lee Hooker, Leiber and Stoller, Larry Williams,
Lightning Hopkins,Andre Vajda, Kurosawa, Eisenstein, Truffaut, Woody Guthrie, Laurel and
Hardy."[12]
English poetry
Kolatkar was hesitant about bringing out his English verse, but his very first book, Jejuri, had a wide impact
among fellow poets and littérateurs like Nissim Ezekiel and Salman Rushdie. Brought out from a small press,
it was reprinted twice in quick succession, and Pritish Nandy was quick to anthologize him in the cult
collection, Strangertime.[13] For some years, some of his poems were also included in school texts.[12][14]

The poem sequence deals with a visit to Jejuri, a pilgrimage site for the local Maharashtrian deity Khandoba (a
local deity, also an incarnation of Shiva). In a conversation with poet Eunice de Souza, Kolatkar says he
discovered Jejuri in ‘a book on temples and legends of Maharashtra… there was a chapter on Jejuri in it. It
seemed an interesting place’.[4] Along with his brother and a friend, he visited Jejuri in 1963, and appears to
have composed some poems shortly thereafter. A version of the poem A low temple[15] was published soon in
a little magazine called Dionysius, but both the original manuscript and this magazine were lost. Subsequently,
the poems were recreated in the 1970s, and were published in a literary quarterly in 1974, and the book came
out in 1976.

The poems evoke a series of images to highlight the ambiguities in modern-day life. Although situated in a
religious setting, they are not religious; in 1978, an interviewer asked him if he believed in God, and Kolatkar
said: ‘I leave the question alone. I don’t think I have to take a position about God one way or the other.’[16]

Before Jejuri, Kolatkar had also published other poem sequences, including the boatride, which appeared in
the little magazine, damn you: a magazine of the arts in 1968, and was anthologized twice.[9][17] A few of his
early poems in English also appeared in Dilip Chitre's Anthology of Marathi poetry 1945-1965 (1967).
Although some of these poems claim to be an 'English version by poet', "their Marathi originals were never
committed to paper." (this is also true of some other bilingual poets like Vilas Sarang.[18]

Later work

A reclusive figure all his life, he lived without a telephone,[19] and was hesitant about bringing out his work. It
was only after he was diagnosed with cancer that two volumes were brought out by friends[2] – the English
poetry volumes Kala Ghoda Poems and Sarpasatra (2004).

Sarpa Satra is an 'English version' of a poem with a similar name in Bhijki Vahi. It is a typical Kolatkar
narrative poem like Droan, mixing myth, allegory, and contemporary history. Although Kolatkar was never
known as a social commentator, his narrative poems tend to offer a whimsical tilted commentary on social
mores. Many poems in Bhijki Vahi refer to contemporary history. However, these are not politicians' comments
but a poet's, and he avoids the typical Dalit -Leftist-Feminist rhetoric.

While Jejuri was about the agonized relationship of a modern sensitive individual with the indigenous culture,
the Kala Ghoda poems[20] are about the dark underside of Mumbai's underbelly. The bewilderingly
heterogeneous megapolis is envisioned in various oblique and whimsical perspectives of an underdog. Like
Jejuri, Kala Ghoda is also 'a place poem' exploring the myth, history, geography, and ethos of the place in a
typical Kolatkaresque style. While Jejuri, a very popular place for pilgrimage to a pastoral god, could never
become Kolatkar's home, Kala Ghoda is about exploring the baffling complexities of the great metropolis.
While Jejuri can be considered as an example of searching for a belonging, which happens to be the major
fixation of the previous generation of Indian poets in English, Kala Ghoda poems do not betray any anxieties
and agonies of 'belonging'. With Kala Ghoda Poems, Indian poetry in English seems to have grown up,
shedding adolescent `identity crises’ and goose pimples. The remarkable maturity of poetic vision embodied in
the Kala Ghoda Poems makes it something of a milestone in Indian poetry in English.
After his death, a new edition of the hard to obtain Jejuri was published in the New York Review Books
Classics series with an introduction by Amit Chaudhuri (2006). Near his death, he had also requested Arvind
Krishna Mehrotra to edit some of his uncollected poems. These were published as The Boatride and Other
Poems by Pras Prakashan in 2008. His Collected Poems in English, edited by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, was
published in Britain by Bloodaxe Books in 2010.

He was survived by his wife Soonu Kolatkar.

Appearances in the following poetry Anthologies

The Golden Treasure of Writers Workshop Poetry (2008) ed. by Rubana Huq and published by
Writers Workshop, Calcutta[21]
Ten Twentieth-Century Indian Poets (1976) ed. by R. Parthasarathy and published by Oxford
University Press, New Delhi[22]
The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets (1992) ed. by Arvind Krishna
Mehrotra and published by Oxford University Press, New Delhi[23][24]
Strangertime: An Anthology of Indian Poetry in English (1977) ed. by Pritish Nandy and
published by Hind Pocket Books, New Delhi

Further reading
Chaudhuri, Amit. Estranging India. New Left Review, Vol. 40 (July/August), 111-126, 2006.
Pankti Desai, Arun Kolatkar's Sarpa Satra as an Allegory of Extremism . (https://web.archive.or
g/web/20110110233445/http://www.newquestindia.com/Archive/171/Html/Article_Arun_Kolatk
ars_SARPA_SATRA.html)
A Third Way of Reading Kolatkar Sachin Ketkar (https://archive.is/20121130003313/http://66.22
0.11.194/visit/viewarticle.asp?AuthorID=73590&id=34758)
Wagh, Saleel. Arun Kolatkar : Marathi Kavitecha Bhishma, Blog Pahila. Time & Space
Communications. 2007.
Wagh, Saleel. Arun Kolatkaranchya Teen Kavita : (Three Poems of Arun Kolatkar), Blog Pahila.
Time & Space Communications. 2007.
Wagh, Saleel. Arun Kolatkaranchi Manavsankalpana : (Arun Kolatkar's Concept of Man),
Navakshardarshan. Savantvadi, Maharasjtra 2013.
Zecchini, laetitia. Moving Lines, The celebration of impropriety and the renewal of the world in
Arun Kolatkar's poetry. [1] (https://web.archive.org/web/20141121090902/http://www.arias.cnrs.f
r/Fiches/Laetitia_Zecchini/moving_lines_kolatkar_zecchini.pdf)
Zecchini, Laetitia. Dharma reconsidered: the inappropriate poetry of Arun Kolatkar in Sarpa
Satra, in Diana Dimitrova ed. Religion in Literature and Film in South Asia, New York :
Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.

See also
Indian English Literature
Indian Writing in English

References
1. "Sahitya Akademi : Who's Who of Indian Writers" (https://web.archive.org/web/2016030419055
1/http://sahitya-akademi.gov.in/sahitya-akademi/SASearchSystem/sauser/writerinfo.jsp?wrids=
 3809). Sahitya Akademi. Sahitya Akademi. Archived from the original (http://sahitya-akademi.g
ov.in/sahitya-akademi/SASearchSystem/sauser/writerinfo.jsp?wrids=3809) on 4 March 2016.
Retrieved 27 October 2015.
2. Ranjit Hoskote (27 September 2004). "Poetry loses a major presence (obituary)" (http://www.hi
ndu.com/2004/09/27/stories/2004092702971000.htm). The Hindu. Retrieved 23 September
2008.
3. Mehrotra 1993, pp. 52–55 Kolatkar introduction
4. (Kolatkar 2006) From the introduction by Amit Chaudhuri
5. Dilip Chitre (25 September 2005). "remembering arun kolatkar" (http://dilipchitre.spaces.live.co
m/blog/cns!A038B6D880E19298!105.entry). Retrieved 21 September 2008.
6. Vikram Doctor (9 January 2008). "Flamboyant Adman: Remembering Kersy Katrak" (http://econ
omictimes.indiatimes.com/ET_Features/Brand_Equity_/Flamboyant_Adman_Remembering_K
ersy_Katrak/articleshow/2684449.cms). The Economic Times. Retrieved 23 September 2008.
7. Indian Poets Writing In Marathi,
https://web.archive.org/web/20091026144555/http://geocities.com/indian_poets/marathi.html
8. Mehrotra 1993, pp. 5)
9. Contemporary Indian Poetry in English: An Assessment and Selection, 1972, ed. Saleem
Peeradina
10. Prabhakar Acharya. (2 October 2005). "Poems of remarkable resonance" (http://www.hindu.co
m/lr/2005/10/02/stories/2005100200120300.htm). The Hindu. Retrieved 30 September 2009.
11. yeshwant rao (poem) http://www.thedailystar.net/2003/10/18/d31018210289.htm
12. Nilanjana S Roy (28 September 2004). "Speaking Volumes : Arun Kolatkar (1932-2004)" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20110708105043/http://businessstandard.com/india/storypage.php?au
tono=164266). Business Standard. Archived from the original (http://businessstandard.com/indi
a/storypage.php?autono=164266) on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 2009-09-23.
13. Nandy 1977
14. An old woman, from Jejuri, in a poetry technique course
(http://learningat.ke7.org.uk/english/ks4/year11/aow.htm)
15. Rajendra Kishore Panda and Bhagirathi Mishra. "Anthology of Indian Poetry in English
Translation" (https://web.archive.org/web/20091026172959/http://www.geocities.com/kavitaya
n/arun_kolatkar.html). Archived from the original (http://geocities.com/kavitayan/arun_kolatkar.ht
ml) on 26 October 2009.
16. Bruce King, Modern Indian Poetry in English Oxford University Press, 1987/1989, p. 170
17. Ten Twentieth-Century Indian Poets. Ed. R. Parthasarathy. Delhi: Oxford UP, 1976; repr. 1989
18. Mehrotra 1993, pp. 1–8 Introduction
19. Arun Kolatkar, Two Poems, http://www.littlemag.com/vox/kolatkar.html
20. Book Excerptise: Kala Ghoda Poems (http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/~amit/books/kolatkar-2004-kala-
ghoda-poems.html) (extended extracts)
21. "Rubana Huq, ed. The Golden Treasury of Writers Workshop Poetry. Review : ASIATIC,
VOLUME 3, NUMBER 1, JUNE 2009" (http://journals.iium.edu.my/asiatic/index.php/AJELL/arti
cle/view/82/67). journals.iium.edu.my. journals.iium.edu.my. Retrieved 4 September 2018.
22. "Ten 20th Century Indian Poets" (https://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/amit/books/parthasarathy-197
6-ten-20th-century.html). cse.iitk.ac.in. cse.iitk.ac.in. Retrieved 23 August 2018.
23. "The Oxford India Anthology of Twelve Modern Indian Poets" (https://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/a
mit/books/mehrotra-1993-oxford-india-anthology.html). cse.iitk.ac.in. cse.iitk.ac.in. Retrieved
26 August 2018.
24. "Book review: 'Twelve Modern Indian Poets' by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra" (https://www.indiatod
ay.in/magazine/indiascope/story/19920815-book-review-twelve-modern-indian-poets-by-arvind
-krishna-mehrotra-766731-2013-01-03). indiatoday.in. indiatoday.in. Retrieved 26 August 2018.
External links
Kolatkar, Arun (2006). Amit Chaudhuri (ed.). Jejuri (https://archive.org/details/jejuri0000kola).
Pub Group West. ISBN 1-59017-163-2.

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