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www.rersearch-chronicler.com Research Chronicler ISSN-2347-5021

International Multidisciplinary Research journal

Volume III Issue VI: July 2015 Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke

Research Chronicler A Peer-Reviewed Refereed and Indexed International Multidisciplinary Research Journal

Volume III Issue VI: July – 2015

CONTENTS Sr. No. Author Title of the Paper Page No.

1 Dr. Bhaskar Roy Barman Postmodern Sensibility in Midnight’s Children 1

2 Dr. S. Karthikkumar &

N. Karthick

Plight of Woman as a Minority in Anita Rau

Badami’s Can You Hear the Nightbird Call?

14

3 Talluri Mathew Bhaskar Chetan Bhagat’s: One Night @ The Call

Center: A Critical Study

20

4 Ms. Tusharkana

Majumdar &

Prof. (Dr.) Archana

Shukla

Sexting: Innocence or Ignorance

28

5 Prof. (Dr) Mala Tandon Enhancing Skills For Professional Excellence

As Mentor And Role Model

34

6 Vijay D. Songire

Existential Crisis in Toni Morrison’s The

Bluest Eye and Alice Walker’s Possessing the

Secret of Joy

39

7 Dr. Khandekar Surendra

Sakharam

The Influence of Sanskrit Poetry on T.S.

Eliot’s Critical Theories

43

8 Vinay Kumar Dubey &

Dr. B.N. Chaudhary

Alienated Self in Shashi Despande’s ‘That

Long Silence’

51

9 Dr. Santosh D. Rathod

Investigating Problems in Dattani’s Final

Solutions

57

10 Dr. Pooja Singh, Dr.

Archana Durgesh & Ms.

Neha Sahu

Queen: The Hypocritical Indian Society and

Culture

64

11 Nidhi Pareek Need of Moral Education in Schools 70

12 Dr. Rajib Bhaumik

Bharati Mukherjee’s The Tiger’s Daughter: A

Study of the Diasporic Space between Memory

and Desire

73

www.rersearch-chronicler.com Research Chronicler ISSN-2347-503X


Volume III Issue VI: July 2015 (43) Editor-In-Chief: Prof. K.N. Shelke

The Influence of Sanskrit Poetry on T.S. Eliot’s Critical Theories

Dr. Khandekar Surendra Sakharam

HoD, Dept. of English, Arts, Commerce & Science College, Wada, Dist- Palghar, (M.S.) India

Abstract

The present paper focuses on The Influence of Sanskrit Poetry in T.S. Eliot‟s Critical

Theories. Studies in T.S. Eliot‟s poetry have already been made from the Indian

viewpoint. But there are still remains an area of fresh investigation and that is Eliot‟s

main critical theories to be considered in the light of the Sanskrit Poetry. It is needless

to point out here that such an investigation is both interesting and rewarding, for it

brings out something new and knowlegeable to the Literary World and thereby

supplies its necessary food.

Key Words: Sanskrit poetry, critical theory, T.S. Eliot

The Ancient Indian wisdom contained

in our holy scriptures has whom T.S.

Eliot is quite notable. By common

consent, Eliot might be called the

literary giant of our age. He was

definitely a poet, a fine poetic

dramatist, and an exacting critic, who

drew upon not only the „best‟ of

European culture and American mind,

but also upon the known salient

features of Indian thought and

tradition. He explicitly appears so even

in his poetic plays wherein we have

unmistakable echoes of Sanskrit but

religious poetry.

There are scholars who might initially

differ with him in regard to his

formulations about Eliot‟s

indebtedness in the light of Sanskrit

Poetics, but they will have to accept

them ultimately in the presence of

well-researched and well-documented

internal and external evidences. Even

established Western scholars like

Grover Smith of the Duke University

and Charles M. Holmes of the

Transylvania University, U.S.A.,

besides a host of Indian Professors and

scholars, have acknowledged the truth.

Eliot was an American by birth and

education, an Anglo-Catholic by

religion, an English, by way of

„naturalized citizenship‟, a deep-rooted

European by sense of culture, a

„universal poet‟ and an „International

Hero‟ by means of his creative talent

and art.

Coming to the subject of our study,

one of the most original and acute

observations of Eliot on the poetic

process is contained in his phase

„objective correlative‟. It was in his

essay Hamlet and his Problems that

Eliot used the phrase first of all.

Therein he reordered:

“The only way of expressing

emotion in the form of art is by

finding an objective correlative; in

other words, a set of objects, a

situation, a chain of events which

shall be the formula of that

particular emotion, such that when

the external facts, which must

terminate in sensory experience,

are given, the emotion is

immediately evoked”1




This is something comparable with the

Rasa Sutra of Bharata, which, in a

short gnomic formula, condenses a

world of insights. In terms of the

psychology of the poetic process, its

implications are much fuller than in the

case of Eliot‟s brief reference to

objective correlatives. In the opinion of

a commentator, Both Eliot and Bharat

are concerned with the manner in

which the creative poet should

plastically mould the aesthetic

situation or context in such a way that

it stimulates in the perceiver the same

emotion which the poet originally

felt.”2 The poet is, therefore, credited

in his creative moment to

impersonalize and Universalize the

world of emotion by the spell of his art

in Sanskrit Poetics, this is unique

poetic function is significantly termed

generalising of emotion.

The characters projected by the poet

cease to be mere individuals and

become representatives of humanity as

whole. What the poet artistically

produced is nothing but universalised

stumili, Universalised moods and

feelings. Their successful combination

is the essence (aatman) the soul of

literature poetry or drama. This much

about the basic artha (content) of

literature.

But what about the literary form or

shabda? Could the aesthetic pleasure

(rasa) without the adequate medium?

The answer invariably will be „no,

never‟. If (artha) content is the soul

(the aathman), a language heightened

by decorations and characters

(alamkaaras and gunas) is the very

body (sharirra) of the poetry; and,

therefore both are inseparable

prerequisites.

To indicate the inseparable relationship

of (artha) content and (shabda) form,

the unique concept of (saahitya)

togetherness was formulated in

Sanskrit Poetics. It is the most basic of

all concepts in Sanskrit criticism, and it

comes very close to Eliot‟s concept of

the “objective correlative”3, for his

emotions. He defines it as a set of

objects, a situation, a chain of events,

which shall be the formula for some

peculiar emotion of the poet. Eliot

himself uses European literature,

ancient myths and legends, as

objective correlatives in his critical

work. While aesthetic pleasure (rasa) is

an index of the (rasika‟s) reader‟s taste

and sensibility, a close analysis of the

poem of his part must take into account

the poetic beauty contributed by

(alamkaaras) decorations. A blind

conformity to rules of rhetoric in the

use of figures and qualities of diction is

not enough, they should also serve as

effective agents for releasing the

aesthetic pleasure (rasa).

Another oft-quoted dictum in Eliot‟s

criticism is to be found in Tradition

and the Individual Talent:

“Poetry is not turning loose of

emotion, but an escape from

emotion: it is not the expression of

personality, but an escape from

personality”4

It might look to be against the romantic

conception of poetry in English.

Whatever the case is but, for one thing,

it doesn‟t appear to be strange to

enlightened Indian who regards the

poet‟s task as consisting in the




impersonalisation of his life -emotions.

By Universalising personal emotion,

the poet succeeds in escaping from

what Eliot called „personality‟. The

poet‟s creative flash known Pratibha,

comes to his aid and gives him a new

and fresh imaginary adequate to the

reader by transmuting (bhaava)

personal emotion. The distinction

between personal emotion and

aesthetic pleasure (bhava and rasa) in

Sanskrit Poetics goes to the very root

of the matter. This distinction is as old

as „Valmiki‟ in Sanskrit literature, and

Bhavabhuuti as also by the critics like

Anandavardhana and Abhinavagupta.

We read in this light, the whole of the

following passage from Eliot‟s

Tradition and Individual Talent may

take on the appearance of the modern

commentary on the Indian theory of

aesthetic pleasure (rasa).

“The experience, you will notice,

the elements which enter the

presence of the transforming,

catalyst, are of two kinds: emotions

and feelings. The effect of work of

art upon the person who enjoys it is

an experience different in kind

from any experience not of art. It

may be formed out of one emotion,

or may be a combination of

several; and various feelings,

inhering for the writer, in particular

words or phrases or images, may

be added to compose the final

result. Or great poetry may be

made without the direct use of any

emotion whatever composed out of

feelings solely.”5

Sanskrit Theories also arrive at this

conclusion independently and we have

a genre in Sanskrit literature devoted

feelings. Solely like religious devotion

(bhakti) and renunciation (nirveda).

“The devotional hymns of

Smkaraachariya and the Century on

Renunciation by Bhartrihari are glaring

instances in point.”6

It is interesting to note that Eliot‟s

“three voices of poetry”7 bear close

correspondence with the three

manifestations of poetic suggestion

(dhvani) was formulated by

Anadavardhana in his pioneering work,

Dhvanyaaloka. Of the „three voices‟ as

explained by Eliot, lyrics are examples

of the first person. The second is

predominantly found in the epic

wherein there is social, didactic

purpose, because he has an audience

constantly in view. The third voice is

peculiar to poetic drama in which the

poet imparts something of himself to

his characters and in his turn is

influence by the characters for all the

three voices to be heard

simultaneously.

In terms of that Babbitt frequently

mentions the importance of „the

doctrine of „self control‟ and „higher

will‟ which render life an act of faith‟.

Babbitt also brings in the question of

Civilization, which can hardly endure

without religion, and religion cannot

endure without a church. At the end of

the essay, Eliot suggests that all the

hopes of humanity cannot be placed on

one, situation, i.e. the Catholic Church,

and the „humanism‟ is either an

alternative to religion or is ancillary to

it.

These „three voices‟ of the poetry are

like the three divisions of (dhavani)




poetic suggestion into vastu,

decoration (alamkara) and aesthetic

pleasure (rasa). Like Eliot, Sanskrit

theorists have also given in the first

place to drama and regard it as the best

and most beautiful of all literary forms

- „kaav yesu naatakam ramyam‟ which

is a well-known anonymous Sanskrit

epigram. “The Sanskrit theorists claim

that drama has the presence of all

possible manifestations of the poet‟s

art like a picture painted by a master-

painter.”8 They also claim that the

drama is nothing but visual poetry

(drisha kaavya). Not only in theory,

but in practice too, Sanskrit classical

poets like Kaalidhas and Bhavabhuuti

wrote their dramatic master pieces

besides trying their hand a lyric and

epic genres.

The Waste Land traces certain Indian

myths and rituals which have been

explored herein for an understanding

of the poem „Fire Sermon‟ and „What

the Thunder Said‟ have been

interpreted from the Indian Standpoint.

In Four Quartets (1943). The concept

of time (kaalam) in relation to the

Timeless (Ananta or Brahman) has

been explored in Burnt Norton.

In dealing with Little Gidding, an

attempt has been made to identify the

symbolism of Christian fire with that

of Hindu „agni‟ in all its thinkable

functions. In the third movement the

passage introducing three conditions -

attachment, indifference and

detachment - takes us one more to

Brahmanism. To the Indians who died

in Africa (1943) stands out as one

which pointedly refers to the Hindu

doctrine of action (Karma). The Poem

was written for inclusion in the

commemorative volume called Queen

Mary‟s Book for India, is an address to

Indian who laid down their lives in

Africa to safeguard the interests of the

British Empire.

Some of the ideas have been found in

the works of Eliot are pessimism

suffering, deteminism, fatalism,

metempsychosis, the wheel of birth,

death and rebirth. Maya and the world

and Brahman, the liberation through

Yoga, renunciation, the death wish and

Nirvana, and the stress on spiritual

discipline. The poet has shown an

inclination to Indian literature and

poetry, to Indian asceticism and

metaphysics, and to Indian thought and

religions. He has used certain typically

Indian symbols such as the lotus, the

wheel, the darkness, the light or

sunshine, the purification by fire, the

river and the sea, the bird etc. The

Bhagavad-Gita tells us that the lotus is

an object of purity:

“He who acts offering all actions to

God, and shaking off attachment

remains untouched by sin, as the lotus

leaf by water”10

In another place, it pictures Brahma,

the god of creation, as „perched on his

lotus-seat‟. Elsewhere Arjuna wants to

see Lord Krishna‟s Four-armed shape

„Bearing the conch, charka, mace and

lotus. It is to be recalled that Lord

Vishnu is also generally pictured as a

four-armed deity holding at least, Lord

Krishna becomes‟ an incarnation of

Vishnu‟. Eliot employs this symbol in

the first movement of Burnt Norton:

“Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown

edged




And the pool was filled with water out

of sunlight,

And the lotus rose quietly, quietly,

The surface glittered out of heart of

light,

And they were behind us, reflected in

the pool”11

This is of course would attach it to

Hinduism. Mr. Zimmer thinks that the

lotus plant is a product of the

vegetation of India proper, and was

therefore foreign to the Aryan invaders

who poured in from northern

homelands.

Another fundamentally Indian symbol

used by Eliot is the wheel. The Gita

has repeatedly employed it. This

symbol stands for birth, death and

rebirth. The terrible wheel may be an

illusion, but it nevertheless holds us

prisoners in this Sansara:

“Maya makes all things, what moves

what is unmoving

O son of Kunti, that is why the world

spins

Turning its wheel through birth

And through destruction”12

The symbol of wheel, as we find it in

Eliot‟s writings, has significance more

or less an in the Gita. By this symbol

Eliot shows the eternally decreed

pattern of suffering. The symbol is to

be found in Gerontion, „The waste

Land‟, „Ash Wednesday‟, and „Burnt

Norton‟.

Indian philosophers have invariably

advocated or a negative approach to

life and God. – (Not this, not this),

(Neti, neti) True to this approach, they

vehemently recommended the practice

of pessimism, suffering, determinism,

fatalism, metempsychosis, the cycle of

birth, and rebirth, the concept of

Brahman, Maya and the word, Yoga,

especially karma Yoga, renunciation,

the doctrine of death- wish and nirvana

and spiritual discipline. The translation

of these characteristically Indian ideas

specially written is Sanskrit into

practice is a must for the attainment of

lasting peace here on earth and for the

possible union of the individual soul

(jiatman) with Brahman hereafter.

Apparently, Eliot had an implicit faith

in these ideas because the articulated

them forcefully in his writings.

There exists a parallelism between

Eliot and Sanskrit theorists in respect

of effects of poetry on the sensitive

reader in particular and the society in

general. In one of his lectures. “Eliot

draws a fine distinction between the

direct didactic aim of early poets and

the indirect educative value of all

poetry”13.

“I suppose it will be agreed that

every good poet, whether he be a

great poet or not, has something to

give us besides pleasure, the

pleasure itself could not be of the

highest kind. Beyond any specific

intention which poetry may have...

There is always the communication

of some new experience, or some

fresh understanding of the familiar,

or the expression of something we

have experienced but have no

words for, which enlarges our

consciousness or refines our

sensibility. Without producing

these two effects, it simply is not

poetry.”14

Eliot, a great traditionist, knew very

well that unless and until there was a

meaningful interaction between




modernity and tradition, there would

be not real development. Besides, he

was fully alive, emotionally vibrant

and mentally alert in his age never

exhorted his fellow men to develop

any nostalgic or sentimental link with

the past. He was bold enough to

pronounce that “tradition without

intelligence is not worth having”15.

Bomb and the pollution of earth, which

threaten world peace, and the survival

of the human race are the inevitable

consequences of blind and cultural

dimension of life. The fact is too

obvious that any development effort

that is not found on the rich creative

potential that culture offers is going to

fall. It is on the cultural dimension of

development that should engage our

attention more than any other thing

now and Eliot strove very hard to make

us aware of that.

Eliot‟s efforts to bring poetic language

close to everyday speech are very

laudable. Eliot also insisted that the

writers must truly represent the

particular region in which they were

born: “to be human and is to belong to

a particular region of the earth, and

men of such genius are more conscious

than other human beings.”16

It was observed by Eliot that the

essential advantage for a poet is not, to

have a beautiful world with which to

deal: it is to be able to see beneath,

both beauty and ugliness; to see the

boredom, and the horror, and the glory.

Eliot profoundly saw and it is a great

part of our health that we had a poet

who could penetrate our anxious trivial

world with such profound compassion.

Eliot was a very religious man, and as

such, he was truly tolerant of all

religions, which imply spirituality and

respect for life. Being a very religious

man, has vision of the world was

unified, and he was full aware that

men, irrespective of the place and time

when they lived, had common

aspirations and longing. Although

Heaven and Nirvana are slightly

different notions, the notion of

reaching perfection through suffering

and shedding off of all earthly

impediments - such as desires,

ambitions and the demands of the

senses - is common to Christian and

Hindu thought.

‘The Four Quartets’ and ‘The Waste

Land’ give us great evidence to Eliot‟s

deepest desire for a true synthesis. The

Dry Salvages of the Quartets

encapsulates the wisdom of the

Bhagavad-Gita. Eliot turns to

Upanishads and Buddhism in The

Waste Land and his great Poem is

concluded with the traditional formula

that closes all Hindu prayers: „Shanti-

shanty-shanti (peace). He, actually,

wants to attain peace amid of a burning

world, and intend with intent looks and

great expectation turns to India for it.

The purification by fire is one of the

symbol employed by Eliot in his

poetry, and this, according to Prof.

Smidt, is „A Hindu Symbol‟. Of

course, the fire has been frequently

referred to in the Hindus scriptures as a

purifier of sins. Thus, the Rig Veda has

the hymns:

“Shining brightly, Agni, drive away,

Our sin, and shine thou wealth on us.

Shining bright, drive away our sin.




For good field, for good homes, for

wealth,

We made our offerings to thee,

…. ….. … …… ……….

Carry us across, as by a boat,

Across the sea, for our good,

Shining bright drive away our sin.”17

A close look of the poem will reveal

how the different polarities of the fire-

symbol are reconciled in the Superior

drift of love. Thus „frost and fire‟

„Pentecostal fire‟, and the

communication of the dead which is

„tongued with fire beyond the language

of the living of the first movement,

„the death of water and fire‟, and the

restoration of the exasperated spirit by

that refining fire where you must move

in measure, like a dancer of the second

movement, the two fires of desire and

becoming of the forth movement : all

are gathered up in perfect unison in the

closing lines of Little Gidding.

“And all shall be well and

All manner of thing shall be well

When the tongues of flames are in

folded

Into the crowned knot of fire

And the fire the rose are one.”18

The „rose‟ here is the symbol of human

loves and is not different from divine

love or Bhakti to God, which is one of

the means of attaining him. The

infolded flame is the supreme God

without form. The „rose‟ is inseparably

fused with the fire of divine love that

resolves all the paradoxes of human

life.

Sanskrit critics also show a similar

attitude when they conform

categorically that the beneficent of

poetry on the reader in particular and

society in general is two-fold such as

(rasa) or aesthetic pleasure and indirect

instruction in human values

(pursaarthas) after the manner of a

loving wife (kaantaasammitayaa

upadesha) whose influence on the

husband is as irresistible as it is sweet.

Notes and References:

1. T.S. Eliot, The Sacred Wood, (1920. London : Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1960),

p.100.

2. A.N. Dwivedi, T.S. Eliot- A Critical Study, (New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers &

Distributors, 2002), p. 92.

3. M.K. Naik, K. Krishnamurthy’s article in Indian Response to Poetry in

English, (Madras: Macmillan & Co Ltd. 1970), p.35

4. T.S. Eliot, The Sacred Wood, (1920. London : Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1960), p.

58.

5. T.S. Eliot, The Sacred Wood, (1920. London : Methuen & Co. Ltd. 1960), p.

54.

6. M.K. Naik, K. Krishnamurthy’s Article in Indian Response to Poetry in

English, (Madras: Macmillan & Co Ltd. 1970), pp.3940

7. T.S. Eliot, “The Three Voices of Poetry and Poets, 5th impr. (1957. London:

Faber & Faber, 1969), p.89 ff.

8. A.N. Dwivedi, T.S. Eliot- A Critical Study, (New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers &

Distributors, 2002), p.93.

9. Ibid., p.93.




10. Bhagavad-Gita. V-10.

11. T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, (London: Faber & Faber Ltd), p.14.

12. Prabhavananda and Isherwood, tr. Bhagavad-Gita, mentor ed.,p.96.

13. A.N. Dwivedi, T.S. Eliot Critical Study, (New Delhi : Atlantic Publishers &

Distributors, 2002), p.93

14. Ibid., pp.93_94.

15. T.S. Eliot, After Strange Gods, (London : Faber & Faber Publication Ltd.,

1934),p.19.

16. T.K. Titus, A Critical Study of T.S. Eliot’s Works, (New Delhi : Atlantic

Publishers and Distributors, 1999), p.119.

17. Rig Veda, 1.97. Tr. Abinash Chandra Bose, Hymns from the Vedas (Mumbai:

Asia Publishing House, 1966), pp.229-21.

18. T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets, (London : Faber & Faber Ltd), p.59.

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