2017-02-21 Tue

The Poet is a liar, who always speaks the truth’
- Jean Cocteau (French Poet)

The sensations of literature and poetry savour in the air of this land. Their essence throbs in the Indian blood since a millennium which gave birth to countless thinkers and poets. They illustrated philosophy and poetry with their words and thoughts but many amongst them went against the flow and with their work they gave the world a new outlook, one such poet was ‘Nirala’.

Nirala was born today in 1896 and like his name he was a unique poet amongst many great poets of his time. Nirala was the pen name of Suryakant Tripathi and he was the most famous poet of modern Hindi literature. He is said to be the pioneer of the Chhayavaad (Era of neo-romanticism) movement along with Jaishankar Prasad and Mahadevi Varma.

Vedanta, nationalism, mysticism, love for nature and principals of humanity coalesced in his work. Nirala’s work in Parimal and Anaamika is said to be the real Chaayavaadi Hindi literature. His understanding of aesthetic sense, love of nature and freedom form was his style of writing and went off to become the chief tents of Chhayavaad.

His poem Saroj Smriti is one of his greatest works which show his sentiments toward his late daughter so clearly. Nirala was not recognized during his life due to the revolutionary style in his writing which was not acceptable to the classical minds of his time.

He was credited to bring free verse in Hindi prose. Sri Ramakrishna Paramahansa, Swami Vivekananda, and Rabindranath Tagore’s work influenced his thoughts and writing.

To remember him and his unique writing India Post issued a Commemorative stamp on 15th October 1976.