Jayanta Mahapatra

Jayanta Mahapatra (born 22 October 1928)^[2] is a major Indian English poet.^[3] He is the first Indian poet to win Sahitya Akademi award for English poetry. He is the author of such popular poems as Indian Summer and Hunger, which are regarded as classics in modern Indian English literature. Jayanta Mahapatra was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian honour in India in 2009.^[4][5]

Jayanta returned his Padma Shri to protest against the rising intolerance in India.^[6]

Indian Poets Trio

Besides being one of the popular Indian poets of his generation, Mahapatra was also part of the trio of poets who laid the foundations of Indian English Poetry. He shared a special bond with A. K. Ramanujan, one of the finest poets in the IEP tradition. Mahapatra is also different in not being a product of the Bombay school of poets besides R. Parthasarathy. Over time, he has managed to carve a quiet, tranquil poetic voice of his own—distinctly different from those of his contemporaries. His wordy lyricism combined with Indian themes put him in a league of his own. In one of his interviews, Mahapatra says, "Meeting with A D Hope, especially in his warm home in Canberra, and with his charming wife, Penelope, is an unforgettable happening in my life. The man's humility was amazing, it humbled me. It was a lesson. I wrote a sort of editorial piece on him in the magazine I was editing—Chandrabhaga, and I'd like you to read what I had said. This appeared in the journal in 1979."^[7]

Mahapatra had his early education from kindergarten to Cambridge classes in English medium at Stewart School, Cuttack, Odisha. He completed his M. Sc. in Physics from Patna University, Bihar, India. He began his teaching career as a lecturer in Physics in 1949. During his professional life, he taught Physics at various government colleges in Odisha including Gangadhar Meher College, Sambalpur, B.J.B College, Bhubaneswar, Fakir Mohan College, Balasore and Ravenshaw College, Cuttack. He superannuated at the Ravenshaw College, Cuttack (now Ravenshaw University) and retired from his government job as the Reader in Physics in 1986.^[8] He began his writing career very late already in the late sixties. His short stories as well as poems were initially rejected by several publishers. Then his poems got published in international literary journals such as Critical Inquiry, the Sewanee Review, the Kenyan Review, and the New Yorker. His poems were also published in other poetry magazines in India. He received many literary awards for his published poems. He was invited to participate in the International Writing Program (IWP) at Iowa among twenty two selected international poets. This gave him an opportunity to go out of India and acquire international exposure.

Mahapatra has authored 27 books of poems, of which seven are in Oriya and the rest in English. His poetry volumes include Relationship, Bare Face and Shadow Space. Mahapatra is a Sahitya Akademi awardee, and also a recipient of the Jacob Glatstein memorial award conferred by Poetry magazine, Chicago. He was also awarded the Allen Tate Poetry Prize for 2009 from The Sewanee Review, Sewanee, USA. He received the SAARC Literary Award, New Delhi, 2009. Besides poetry, he has experimented widely with myriad forms of prose. His published books of prose are Green Gardener, an anthology of short stories and Door of Paper: Essay and Memoirs. Mahapatra is also a distinguished editor and has been bringing out, for many years, a literary magazine, Chandrabhaga, from Cuttack. The magazine is named after Chandrabhaga, a prominent river in Orissa. His poems appeared in many prestigious poetry anthologies like The Dance of the Peacock: An Anthology of English Poetry from India,^[9] published by Hidden Brook Press,^[10] Canada.

He began writing poems when he was in the age of 40. The publication of his first book of poems, Svayamvara and Other Poems, in 1971 was followed by the publication of Close The Sky Ten By Ten. One of Mahapatra's better remembered works is the long poem Relationship, for which he was the first Indian English poet to win the Sahitya Akademi award in 1981.

He was conferred the Padma Shri in 2009 by the president of India and was awarded an honorary doctorate by Ravenshaw University on 2 May 2009. He was also awarded D. Lit. degree by Utkal University, Odisha in 2006.

Mahapatra has also translated from Odia into English simultaneously while he was composing his original poems in English and Odia. He has translated poems of senior as well as young writers of Odisha, of Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Some of his translations are published in the bi-monthly literary magazine titled Indian Literature published by the Central Sahitya Akademi of India and some are in his own magazine titled Chandrabhaga. Some anthologies of his translations have been published by different publishers of India.

Poetry Readings

Outside India

• University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1976
• University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, 1976
• University of the South, Sewanee, 1976
• East West Center, Honolulu, Hawaii, 1976
• Adelaide Festival of Arts, Adelaide, 1978
• P.E.N. Centre, Sydney, 1978
• Australian National University, Canberra, 1978
• International Poets Conference, Tokyo, 1980
• Asian Poets Conference, Tokyo, 1984

Books by Jayanta Mahapatra

Poetry

• 1971: Close the Sky Ten by Ten, Calcutta: Dialogue Publications^[11]
• 1971: Svayamvara and Other Poems, Calcutta: Writers Workshop^[11]
• 1976: A Father's Hours, Delhi: United Writers^[11]
• 1976: A Rain of Rites, Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press^[11]
• 1979: Waiting, Samkaleen Prakashan^[11]
• 1980: The False Start, Bombay: Clearing House^[11]
• 1980: Relationship, Greenfield, New York: Greenfield Review Press^[11]

Prose

• 1997: The Green Gardener, short stories, Hyderabad: Orient Longman^[11]
• 2006: Door of Paper: Essay and Memoirs, New Delhi: Authrospress^[11]
• 2011: Bhor Moitra Kanaphula. In Oriya. Bhubaneswar, Paschima^[11]

Poetry in Oriya

• 1993: Bali (The Victim), Cutack: Vidyapuri^[11]
• 1995: Kahibe Gotiye Katha (I'll Tell A Story), Arya Prakashan^[11]
• 1997: Baya Raja(The Mad Emperor), Cuttack: Vidyapuri^[11]
• 2004: Tikie Chhayee (A Little Shadow), Cuttack; Vidyapuri^[11]
• 2006: Chali (Walking), Cuttack: Vidyapuri^[11]
• 2008: Jadiba Gapatie (Even If It's A Story), Cuttack: Friends Publishers^[11]
• 2011: Smruti Pari Kichhiti (A Small Memory), Cuttack: Bijayini^[11]

Translations into English

• 1973: Countermeasures: Poems, Calcutta. Dialogue
• 1976: Wings of the Past: Poems, Calcutta. Rajasree
• 1981: Song of Kubja and Other Poems, New Delhi. Samkaleen
• 1994: I Can, But Why Should I Go: Poems, New Delhi. Sahitya Akademi
• 1996: Verticals of Life: Poems, New Delhi. Sahitya Akademi
• 1998: Tapaswini: a Poem, Bhubaneswar. Orissa Sahitya Akademi
• 2001: Discovery and other Poems, Kolkata. Writers Workshop
• 2003: A Time of Rising (Poems), New Delhi. Har-Anand

Awards

• Kanhaiya Lal Sethia Award for Poetry - 2017 (Jaipur Literature Festival)^[12]
• RL Poetry Lifetime Achievement Award for Poetry, 2013, Hyderabad.
• Second Prize – International Who's Who in Poetry, London, 1970.
• Jacob Glatstein Memorial Award – Poetry, Chicago, 1975.
• Visiting Writer – International Writing Program, Iowa City 1976–77.
• Cultural Award Visitor, Australia, 1978.
• Japan Foundation – Visitor's Award, Japan, 1980.

Appearances in the following poetry Anthologies

• A New Book of Indian Poems In English (2000) ed. by Gopi Kottoor and published by Poetry Chain and Writers Workshop, Calcutta
• Ten Twentieth-Century Indian Poets (1976) ed. by R. Parthasarathy and published by Oxford University Press, New Delhi^[13]

Further reading

• The Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: Themes & Imagery by Vivekanand Jha, New Delhi: Authorspress, ISBN 978-8172736736^[14]
• 2001: Bijay Kumar Das, The Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra: 3rd revised and enlarged edition; New Delhi: Atlantic, ISBN 81-7156-968-4^[15]
• 2006: Jaydeep Sarangi and Gauri Shankar Jha (eds), The Indian Imagination of Jayanta Mahapatra, New Delhi: Sarup and Sons, 2006, ISBN 81-7625-622-6, a compilation of critical articles.^[16]
• Jaydeep Sarangi, Jayanta Mahapatra Joy of Living and Loving in His Poetry, Aavishkar Publishers' Distributors, 2012, ISBN 8179103749. Printed INR: 600.00, hardcover, 162 pp.
• Zinia Mitra, "Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra Imagery and Experiential Identity", Authorspress,2012, ISBN 978-81-7273-655-2 Hardcover, INR:500,172pp
• Shiba Shankar Nath,"The Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra:A Study in Imagery", Delhi:Authorspress,2014, ISBN 978-81-7273-897-6.Printed INR: 700.00, hardcover,173 pp.

See also

• Biodata of Jayanta Mahapatra
• Indian English literature

Rock Pebbles, Vol. XV No.1, January–June 2011(a special issue on Jayanta Mahapatra) ISSN 0975-0509

Notes

External links

• Literary review, The Hindu, 2 October 2005
• A Profile of Jayanta Mahapatra
• JM's poem Freedom from The Little Magazine
• An Article by JM
• Interview at Muse India
• Jayanta Mahapatra's Official Homepage
• Jayanta Mahapatra's Video Interviews
• Interview in Mint