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 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 3 of The Poetry Pulse’s 100-part journey through India’s poetic heritage.Mirabai, the sixteenth-century poet associated with Rajasthan and the Krishna bhakti tradition, composed songs of intense devotion, longing and spiritual independence. Her poems often speak in the voice of a lover who cannot accept a life without the beloved. In this tradition, Krishna is at once a divine presence and t…
