Description

Preface

Gujarati Poetry has come through a long tradition which has its roots in Apbhramsa and Prakrit poetry which starts from Hemchandracharya, a poet from 11^{th –} 12^th century; passing through the great period of Bhakti Poetry, Bardic Poetry, Reformation Age, Pandita Yuga, Gandhian era and Post-Gandhian Era before it found its new form in modern age. The Gujarati poetry has gone through a great transformation in terms of language, style, prosody, expression and forms.

Makrand Dave is one distinguished poet of modern age whose range of writing runs through all the ages that Gujarati poetry witnessed. The ancient meters like ‘dohra’, ‘Savaiya’ are found in his poetry alongside the most modern forms like verse libre, ghazal and sonnet. In terms of language, he incorporates Vraj, Hindi, English and other words within the poems. His great bulk of poetical creations includes almost all forms that Gujarati poetry has witnessed and the subject matter has no lesser continuum.

His simplistic view of life, the vision for looking into minute miracles of nature, novel renditions of historical events, a deep insight into human-psyche are only a few of the most amazing features of Makrand Dave’s emotional world. The most striking feature, however, which is the main aspect discussed within this work, is the spirituality perceived and represented in his poems. The researcher has selected all the major anthologies of Makrand Dave’s poetry and tried to demystify the spiritual concerns of Makrand Dave otherwise not so easily traceable since its representation is done by the poet in a very simple, lucid style. The present book tries to depict and analyse the poetical instances where Makrand Dave has reflected his self-experienced spiritual journey in a lyrical way rare to be found in Gujarati Poetry.

While the publication of this book, I would like to showcase deep sense of gratitude towards all the people who have helped me in this journey. I also thank my family members for their constant support. Remembering my two sons, Tigmanshu and Tathagat for their innocence, love and affection.