№ MMXXVI

RACHNA · A LIVING ARCHIVE

Rachna by M.

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MM · XXVI

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Jatayu Vadham

Karuna

क्योंकि मैं

Kyonki Main

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya'
2 min read 4 versesइंसानhumanभूख

4 verses · ~2 min

क्योंकि मैं यह नहीं कह सकता कि मुझे उस आदमी से कुछ नहीं है जिसकी आँखों के आगे उसकी लम्बी भूख से बढ़ी हुई तिल्ली एक गहरी मटमैली पीली झिल्ली-सी छा गई है, और जिसे चूंकि चांदनी से कुछ नहीं है, इसलिए मैं नहीं कह सकता कि मुझे चांदनी से कुछ नहीं है।

क्योंकि मैं उसे जानता हूँ जिसने पेड़ के पत्ते खाए हैं और जो उसकी जड़ की लकड़ी भी खा सकता है क्योंकि उसे जीवन की प्यास है; क्योंकि वह मुझे प्यारा है इसलिए मैं पेड़ की जड़ को या लकड़ी को अनदेखा नहीं करता बल्कि पत्ती को प्यार भी करता हूँ करूंगा

क्योंकि जिसने कोड़ा खाया है वह मेरा भाई है क्योंकि यों उसकी मार से मैं भी तिलमिला उठा हूँ इसलिए मैं उसके साथ नहीं चीख़ा-चिल्लाया हूँ: मैं उस कोड़े को छीन कर तोड़ दूंगा। मैं इन्सान हूँ और इन्सान वह अपमान नहीं सहता।

क्योंकि जो कोड़ा मारने उठाएगा वह रोगी है आत्मघाती है इसलिए उसे संभालने, सुधारने, राह पर लाने ख़ुद अपने से बचाने की जवाबदेही मुझ पर आती है। मैं उसका पड़ोसी हूँ: उसके साथ नहीं रहता।

इति

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya'

The Poet

अज्ञेय

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya'

1911 · 1987

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan, universally known by his pen name Agyeya, completely rewired the circuitry of modern Hindi literature. Born in 1911 in a British archaeological camp in Uttar Pradesh, his life was as fiercely untraditional as his prose. Before he became the architect of the Prayogavaad (Experimentalism) movement, he was an active revolutionary who spent four years in British colonial prisons for attempting to help Bhagat Singh escape. In those prison cells, he began drafting Shekhar: Ek Jivani, a psychological novel that shocked the literary establishment with its unapologetic exploration of the individual ego. He rejected the prevailing romanticism of the era and instead assembled the Tar Saptak series, bringing together a new generation of poets who wrote in free verse about alienation, intellect, and the fractured modern psyche. He won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964 and the Jnanpith Award in 1978. Agyeya was a novelist, a combatant officer in World War II, a journalist, and a profound existential thinker. He gave Hindi literature the vocabulary to interrogate the inner self without the comfort of traditional morality.

Jatayu Vadham

Paired Painting

Jatayu Vadham

This profound and emotionally charged chromolithograph immortalizes a heart wrenching episode from the epic Ramayana. The noble demigod vulture, Jatayu, valiantly attempts to rescue Sita from the clutches of the demon king Ravana, sacrificing his physical body in an act of supreme devotion and righteousness. Raja Ravi Varma masterfully captures the instant of tragic violence as Ravana severs the great bird's wing with his gleaming sword. Sita stands beside them, overwhelmed by grief and despair, her face buried in her hands. Through this work, the artist bridges classical Indian narrative with Western academic realism, allowing viewers to viscerally feel the sorrow and drama of the epic encounter.

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If this held you

Four more, in the same key.

Chosen for their rasa and their register, not their popularity. Each one carries some part of what Kyonki Main carries.