Shanta

नन्दा देवी-10

Nanda Devi-10

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan 'Agyeya'

2 min read 2 versesदोराहाcrossroadsकवि

2 verses · ~2 min

सीधी जाती डगर थी क्यों एकाएक दो में बँट गयी? एक ओर पियराते पाकड़, धूप, दूर गाँव की झलक, खगों की सीटियाँ बाँसुरी में न जाने किस सपनों की दुनिया की ललक दूसरी ओर बाँज की काई-लदी बाँहों की घनी छाँह, एक गीला ठिठुरता अँधेरा, दूर चिहुँकता कहीं काँकड़, प्रश्न उछालता लंगूर। जहाँ भी दोराहा आता है मैं दोनों पर चलता हूँ। सभी जानते हैं कि यों मैं चरम वरण को टालता और अपने को छलता हूँ। पर कोई यह तो बताये कि क्या कवि वही नहीं है जिसे पता है कि मैं ही वह वनानल हूँ जिस में मैं ही अनुपल जलता हूँ! ऐसा होगा तो कि फिर मिल जाएँगी दोनों राहें। कवि नहीं वरेगा, कवि को घेर लेंगी वरण की बाँहें। पर कौन कहेगा कि कवि तब भी कवि रहेगा। -जब साधक के भीतर प्रपात की धार-सा एक ही गुंजार करता अद्वैत बहेगा?

सितम्बर, 1972

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.

Paired Painting

Shiva and Parvati as Kirata and Kirati

This profound chromolithograph captures Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati disguised as Kirata and Kirati, tribal hunters of the Himalayan forests. The scene echoes the timeless epic narrative of the Kiratarjuniya, where the supreme deities test the might, humility, and devotion of the Pandava prince Arjuna. Raja Ravi Varma masterfully blends European academic realism with deeply sacred Indian iconography. Shiva stands tall and commanding, adorned with the crescent moon in his matted locks, the trident, and a tiger skin, embodying fierce ascetic power. Beside him, Parvati radiates gentle grace, adorned with peacock feathers and holding a bow, perfectly assuming the likeness of a mountain huntress. Through this work, the divine couple transcends distant temples, walking intimately among the rugged earthly terrain they lovingly sustain.

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