Bal Sitaram Mardhekar (1 December 1909 – 20 March 1956) was a

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

writer who brought about a radical shift of sensibility in

Marathi poetry Marathi poetry is a poetry written in the Marathi language, including its various dialects. The poet-saints Namdev (Devanagari: नामदेव) and Dnyaneshwar (Devanagari: ज्ञानेश्वर), from Maharashtra, India, wrote the e ...

. He was born in a town called

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in the

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region of

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

. He was educated in

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million ...

and

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, and worked at

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until his death. His earlier collection of poems, ''Shishiragam'' (शिशिरागम), was a product of ''Ravi Kiran Mandal'' poetry: sentimental and lyrical. But his later avant-garde poetry brought about a storm in the Marathi literary world. His poem with the title "पिपात मेले ओल्या उंदिर" (Mice Died in the Wet Barrel) appeared in ''Abhiruchi'' (अभिरुची) magazine in 1946. Similar to what

Baudelaire Charles Pierre Baudelaire (, ; ; 9 April 1821 – 31 August 1867) was a French poet who also produced notable work as an essayist and art critic. His poems exhibit mastery in the handling of rhyme and rhythm, contain an exoticism inherited fro ...

did in French poetry, Mardhekar brought a decadent urban ethos into Marathi poetry. Marathi ''bhakti'' (भक्ति) poetry and the poetry of T. S. Eliot and

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

had an influence on him. In 1948, he was charged and tried for obscenity for some of his poems in ''Kahi Kavita''. He was declared innocent of these charges in 1952. Mardhekar was also an influential critic and an experimental novelist. He attempted to bring in the consciousness technique in Marathi novels. He received in 1956

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

Sahitya Akademi Awards 1955-2007
for his work ''Saundarya ani Sahitya'' (''A study of aesthetics'') (सौंदर्य आणि साहित्य).

Published works

Books

yes he is a god so

Poetry

* ''Shishiragam'' (1939) * ''Kahi Kavita'' (1947) * ''Aankhin Kahi Kavita'' (1951) * ''Kiti Tari Divsat'' * ''Ala Ashadh Shravan''

Novels

* ''Raatricha Divas'' (1942) * ''Tambdi Maati'' (1943) * ''Paani'' (1948) * ''Mardhekaranchya Kadambarya'' (1962)

Aesthetics and Criticism

* ''Arts and Man'' (1937) * ''Vangmaiyeen Mahaatmata'' (1941) * ''Two Lectures on an Aesthetic of Literature'' (1944) * ''Saundarya ani Sahitya'' (1955)

Plays

* ''Karna'' (1944) * ''Natashreshta'' (1944) * ''Sangam'' (1945) * ''Aukshan'' (1946) * ''Badakanche Gupit'' (1947)

Short Stories

* ''Natashrestha Appasaheb Rele'' (1944)

References

Special Issues on Mardhekar

* Satyakatha May 1956 * Nabhowani. Year 1, Issue 9, March 1971

Translation of Mardhekar's Poetry

Dilip Chitre Dilip Purushottam Chitre (17 September 1938 – 10 December 2009) was one of the foremost Indian poets and critics to emerge in the post Independence India. Apart from being a notable bilingual writer, writing in Marathi and English, he was also ...

. An Anthology of Marathi Poetry (1945-1965) *

. Poems of Mardhekar ( For Private Circulation) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mardhekar, Bal Sitaram Indian male poets Marathi-language writers Marathi-language poets Marathi people 1909 births 1956 deaths Indian literary critics Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Marathi All India Radio people 20th-century Indian poets Poets from Maharashtra 20th-century Indian male writers