Part 30 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through Indian poetry.Gieve Patel’s poem “On Killing a Tree” is often read as a striking account of how difficult it is to destroy a living organism that has grown over years. Its plain, almost instructional voice creates an unsettling contrast with the violence of its subject. This discussion analyses the poem’s key images and phrasing without repro…
Part 29 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through Indian poetry.Bahinabai Chaudhari’s Marathi poetry is treasured for the way it draws philosophical insight from ordinary work, family life, farming and the natural world. Her voice is associated with an oral, spoken idiom rather than an ornamental literary style. The result is poetry that feels close to lived experience while asking large que…
Part 28 of The Poetry Pulse’s journey through Indian poetry and song.Mirabai’s devotional poetry has travelled through centuries by way of manuscripts, oral performance and music. Its modern reception is inseparable from singers who brought these songs to new audiences, including M. S. Subbulakshmi. This essay looks at the meeting of poetic voice and musical interpretation, rather than treating a…
Part 27 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through Indian poetry.Mahadevi Varma, a leading voice of Hindi Chhayavad, wrote poetry marked by inwardness, longing, loneliness and a search for a presence that remains difficult to name. Her lyric world is often quiet rather than dramatic: a lamp, a path, a tear, a cloud or an absent companion can carry the weight of a whole emotional life.Chhayava…
Part 26 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through South Asian poetry.Bhanubhakta Acharya is celebrated as a foundational figure in Nepali literature, especially for rendering the Ramayana into a form of Nepali accessible to a broad readership. His importance is not simply that he retold a famous epic. He helped demonstrate that a literary language used by ordinary people could carry major re…
Part 25 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through Indian poetry.Kumaran Asan, one of the major modern Malayalam poets, used literature to examine compassion, caste and the moral contradictions of society. His narrative poem Chandalabhikshuki draws on a Buddhist story and places a socially marginalised woman at the centre of a profound encounter. This discussion focuses on the poem’s central …
Part 24 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through Indian poetry.Yogi Vemana is remembered for concise Telugu verses that turn ordinary life into a test of moral clarity. Many poems associated with him use accessible language, sharp observation and a memorable closing refrain. The tradition has circulated widely, and individual verses may have variant wording or uncertain attribution, so it i…
Part 23 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through India’s wider literary inheritance.Kazi Nazrul Islam, born in Bengal in 1899, became known as the “Rebel Poet” for writing with extraordinary energy against oppression, communal hatred and social injustice. He is now especially celebrated as the national poet of Bangladesh, while his Bengali works remain important to the shared literary histo…
Part 22 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through India’s poetic heritage.Tukaram, the seventeenth-century Marathi saint-poet, is remembered for abhangs: devotional songs that speak in a direct, intimate voice. His poetry belongs to the Varkari tradition associated with devotion to Vithoba of Pandharpur. Rather than presenting spirituality as a privilege reserved for learned elites, Tukaram …
Part 21 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through India’s poetic heritage.Bharathidasan, the modern Tamil poet whose name honours Subramania Bharati, used poetry to argue for social equality, rational thought, Tamil language and women’s freedom. His work belongs to a period when literature became an active participant in debates about caste, education, identity and social reform. This essay …
