Gujarati
Gujarati may refer to:
* something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India
* Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat
* Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them
* Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...
writer, poet and critic
Tribhuvandas Luhar
Tribhuvandas Purushottamdas Luhar, better known by his pen name Sundaram, (22 March 1908 – 13 January 1991), was a Gujarati poet and author from India.
Life
He was born on 22 March 1908 at Miyan Matar, Bharuch, Bombay Presidency, Britis ...
, pen-name 'Sundaram'. The book offers a historical and critical survey of modern Gujarati poetry from 1845 to 1945.
Publication history
As mentioned in the preface, Sundaram was asked by
Gujarat Vernacular Society
Gujarat Vidya Sabha, originally called Gujarat Vernacular Society, is a literary institution for the promotion of vernacular Gujarati literature and education, and for the collection of manuscripts and printed books; located in the city of Ahmed ...
to write a history of Gujarati poetry written during 1845 to 1945. Sundaram consulted the works of about 350 poets, and out of these he assessed 250 poets and their work in this book. The book was first published in 1946. Its third edition was published in 1965 by
Gujarat Vidhya Sabha
Gujarat Vidya Sabha, originally called Gujarat Vernacular Society, is a literary institution for the promotion of vernacular Gujarati literature and education, and for the collection of manuscripts and printed books; located in the city of Ahmed ...
.
Content
The book presents an outline of the history of modern Gujarati poetry, and deals with the main currents of modern Gujarati poetry as it developed during a period of eighty years (1845–1945). The poems evaluated here are divided into two sections: new current and old current.
The appendix includes information about translations from
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
, English,
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
,
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
ghazal
The ''ghazal'' ( ar, غَزَل, bn, গজল, Hindi-Urdu: /, fa, غزل, az, qəzəl, tr, gazel, tm, gazal, uz, gʻazal, gu, ગઝલ) is a form of amatory poem or ode, originating in Arabic poetry. A ghazal may be understood as a ...
s, folk-songs and devotional songs, Rasa, patriotic poems and songs. An index of books and authors is given at the end of the book.
Reception
Since it publication, ''Arvachin Kavita'' remained as the most significant critical landmark of Gujarati literature. It has been described as 'classic' and 'monumental' work. It was awarded Mahida Prize in 1946.
Gujarati poet and critic
Mansukhlal Jhaveri
Mansukhlal Maganlal Jhaveri (1907–1981) was a Gujarati language poet, critic, and literary historian of the Gandhian era. He was deeply interested in classical Sanskrit poetry and authored ''History of Gujarati Literature'' (1978). Jhaveri had ...
called it 'unique and unparalleled in Gujarati literature'.
Chandrakant Topiwala
Chandrakant Amritlal Topiwala is a Gujarati language poet and critic from Gujarat, India.
Early life
Topiwala was born on 7 August 1936 at Vadodara, to Amritlal and Lilavati. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Gujarati from the University of ...
acclaimed the book and wrote that, "...this is a trustworthy historical study of modern Gujarati poetry conducted with
close reading
In literary criticism, close reading is the careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of a text. A close reading emphasizes the single and the particular over the general, effected by close attention to individual words, the syntax, t ...
and careful analysis of the texts".
Babu Suthar
Babu Kohyabhai Suthar () is a Gujarati writer, linguist, journalist and academic from United States. Born and educated in India, he was a lecturer in South Asia Studies at the University of Pennsylvania in 2003, at the time the only full-time ins ...
, a critic of new generation, noted in one of his articles that ''Arvachin Kavita'' is a kind of history that satisfies the conditions of Encyclopedic history and Narrative history.