Atmanimajjan


Atmanimajjan is an 1895 collection of poems in Gujarati by Indian writer Manilal Dwivedi. The poems in the collection are heavily influenced by Advaita philosophy, which was at the core of Manilal's philosophical thinking. Uniquely in Gujarati poetry, for each poem Manilal wrote a long commentary, interpreting it in terms of Advaita philosophy.
The poems have been noted for their romantic mood, philosophical content, and variety of poetic forms. Manilal's best-known poem, the ghazal "Amar Asha", was reviewed by Mahatma Gandhi, who published it in his magazine, Indian Opinion, in South Africa.

Publication history

In 1876, when Manilal passed his matriculation exam, he published a collection of 101 poems, Shikshashatak, written in a tone. It was dedicated to fellow poet Balashankar Kantharia. In 1887, Manilal published a collection of 11 poems under the title Premajivan, with a commentary written by himself. Seven years later, he published another set of 11 poems under the title Abhedormi. Manilal also published Atmanimajjan, consisting of 40 poems composed prior to the end of June 1895. They included 22 poems from Premajivan and Abhedormi, 15 from Mishra-dhvani, two entitled "Javanika", and one entitled "Upahar".
Manilal died in 1898. In 1914, his younger brother, Madhavlal Dwivedi, published the second edition of Atmanimajjan. It included an additional 5 poems composed between 1895 and 1898. In 1959, Gujarati writer Dhirubhai Thaker published the third edition of the book, which included another 10 previously unpublished poems taken from Manilal's handwritten diary.

Contents

Manilal's poetic ideal was influenced by his association with Gujarati writer and poet Narmad, and also by his own philosophical outlook and study of English poetry. In his journal Priyamvada, Manilal wrote that many of his poems came from his own intense personal experiences.
Over the twenty-two years during which he wrote poetry, Manilal tried various poetic forms. Atmanimajjan includes ghazals, songs, and bhajans, in addition to metrical poetic compositions.
A majority of Manilal's poems, thirty in number, are songs. Of these, according to Dhirubhai Thaker, "Gagane aaj premni zalak chhai re", "Drig ras bhar more dil chhai rahi", "Udi ja tu gafel gabhara", "Sachi Balam priti na bane", "Prit Vashkarni Vidya janjo", and "Ame Veragi Veragi janamna veragi" are excellent expressions of Advaita philosophy.

Commentary

Manilal was an exponent of Advaita philosophy, which he aimed to disseminate through his poetry. For this purpose, he appended a lengthy commentary to each poem, in which he attempted to interpret worldly experiences in terms of Advaita philosophy.
Manilal used the poetic form of the ghazal, for example, to convey physical love using the romantic terminology of Sufism. For Thaker, reading the ghazals alone, without the commentary, allows the reader " in them the deep anguish, intensity and thrill of romantic love." Thaker describes the commentaries interpreting these ghazals in terms of Vedanta as far-fetched, and having the unintended consequence of compromising the ghazals' emotional and aesthetic appeal. In Thaker's words, "Manilal, the missionary of Advaita, overshadowed Manilal, the poet. Eventually the delicate structure of the poetry gets crushed under the weight of the philosophy of Vedanta."

Reception and criticism

Thaker considers that Manilal's contribution to modern Gujarati poetry lies in the touch of philosophical seriousness he brings to it through Atmanimajjan. He cites the poem "Drig rasabhar" as an excellent example of poetry that transforms subjective feeling into universal experience.
Thaker notes that Manilal's appending a commentary to each of his poems is unique in the history of Gujarati poetry. Concerning this, he comments:
In his poems "Upahar" and "Janmadivas", to express his poetic thoughts and feelings Manilal experiments with prithvi, a meter from Sanskrit prosody. In Thakar's view, Manilal accomplishes this "flawlessly". Thakar notes that the same kind of experiment is found in Balwantray Thakore's poetry, saying that, although Thakore did not blindly imitate Manilal, in this regard Manilal is a predecessor of Thakore.
Gujarati critic Tribhuvandas Luhar, in his critical work Arvachin Kavita, cited the poems "Premajivan" and "Abhedormi" as the best lyrics in Gujarati poetry.
Atmanimajjan contains 12 ghazals, among which the critics Chimanlal Trivedi, Vijayray Vaidya, and Thaker identify "Kismat", "Anandormi", "Jame Ishq", "Aha! Hu Ekalo", and "Amar Asha" as Manilal's finest. The ghazal "Amar Asha" became popular in the Gujarati language. Mahatma Gandhi wrote a review of it while he was in South Africa, and published it in his own magazine, Indian Opinion. The critic Mansukhlal Jhaveri calls "Amar Asha" "a gem of Gujarati poetry".