INTRODUCTION OF LITRATURE
Nepal is known for its great diversity of people, from the many language spoken to the variety of ethnic groups. This great array of backgrounds has contributed much to the development ofliterature in Nepal. From poetry to short stories, from essays to novels, Nepal has produced an abundance of literary figures and works worthy of note. Nepal's literature has been written in a variety of local languages, the most popular being Nepali literature, followed by Nepal Bhasa literature. Let us have a closer look at the history of literature in Nepal.
PERIODS OF NEPALI LITERATURE
Before Bhanu Bhakta Era
The majority of literature in this era was written in poetry form. Shuwananda Das, a Newar, played a major role in Nepal's literature during the era, composing mostly poetry. His poetry was unique in that he made use of lyrical folk songs. His poetry often related to the king and various victorious events. Prithivi Narayan Shah, the author of 'Divya Upedesh', never wrote works in his own hand but his thoughts and advice was penned for him. His works are said to provide excellent instruction even appropriate for today. Shakti Ballav Arjjyal was a writer and scholar of this period also serving as a royal priest.
Bhanu Bhakta Era
Bhanu Bhakta Aacharya, after whom this era is named, is considered a legend of Nepali literature having exerted a great influence on the writings of Nepal. Born in Ramgha, Bhanu Bhakta was taken to Kasi by his grandfather where he could study further. Many writers of this particular age based their works on mythology, largely giving up on politics. Yadu Nath Pokhrel was the exception. Being a great Nepalese patriot much of his work revolved around the army. He is likely the first poet in Nepal to make use of English words.
From this era onward a variety of styles and mediums for literature in Nepal were introduced. Today, Nepalese authors continue to produce outstanding literary works, some translated into other languages and read by people around the world.
KALIDSS(VALMAKI)
One of the greatest poets and dramatists in Sanskrit. His chronicle of the kings of the Raghu clan ('Raghuvamsha'), the great play 'Shakuntala' and other works depict,
through many great characters, the highest ideals of life as seen by the ancientpeople of Bharat.
There are hundreds of languages in the world. However, great and classical literature which people in all countries need to read is found only in a few languages. One such great language is Sanskrit. It is one of the oldest languages. It is the mother of several Indianlanguages such as Hindi, Bengali and Marathi in the North. Kannada, Telugu and other languages in the South have also been nourished by it.
BALKRISHNA SAMA (Natyasamrat)
Bal Krishna Sama was born as the second son to General Samer Shumshere Jung Bahadur Rana and Kirti Rajya Laxmi in1902 in Gyaneshwor. As the son of a Rana - the then ruling regime in Nepal at the time - Bal Krishna Sama was able to receive the best education available in the country. Later on in life, he never experienced financial problems unlike many writers of his time.
Sama completed his high school from Durbar High School in Rani Pokhari and took up science in Tri Chandra Campus. During his second year of academic studies, he was sent to Dehradoon for army training as an army captain, afterwards he became a Lieutenant Colonel, by the then prime minister Chandra Shumshere who did not receive Sama's interest in writing positively. At the time, the Nepalese people suffered under a harsh rulership; they had to abide with the rules and regulations of an autocratic Rana government. Sama was not happy about leaving his studies mid-way and was less happy about the political situation of the country. He got married to Mandakini in 1921.
SIDDHICHARAN SHREATHA
t was in the green hues of your lap
on the coolness of your breast
I passed my boyhood days,
O my beloved Okhaldhunga!
To everybody he was a poet - sensitive and heavy with emotion. But to me, he meant something more. He was the father to my mother and to me, my grandfather. Others knew him as the famous poet Yuga Kabi Siddhi Charan Shrestha, but for me, he was more human and, I shared with him some of my life's best and most precious moments.
Grandfather was a compassionate and kind person. He was aware of the hardships many Nepalese families lived in and, whenever he could, he looked forward to helping those in need. It gives me much joy to hear some of them recall how he illuminated their lives.
That is why, I am proud to be his granddaughter. Not only because I admire him as the poet Siddhi Charan Shrestha; it is also because I have begun to learn about the wisdom in his words. For me, they carry lessons valuable to life. My life.
"… Truth is something that a person must find in oneself first…
Utmost devotion to its quest can alone lead to the truth."
I remember a time when he helped me come through one of my worst experiences in life. I was seven years old and my father had passed away. I was in shock and accepting his death was something I wasn't willing to grasp and understand. I said to grandfather: "Everyone says that my father has died, but I don't believe them. You are an old man and you are still alive. What does this mean?" I can still remember his pain and his eyes swelling up in tears. He lifted me up onto his lap and started explaining to me about the realities of life. "Death is uncertain and it transcends all age bars. You should always be ready for it." Although I was too young to understand what grandfather was trying to tell me at the time, I think the way in which he said it made an impact on me. Today, as I live my life, I draw strength from his words whenever I know I need to accept the realities of life.
BP KOIRELA
Bishweshwar Prasad Koirala, better known as B.P. Koirala (1914-1982), was one of the presidents of the Nepali Congress Party. He founded the Nepali National Congress, which in 1950 became the Nepali Congress Party, while in exile in India with his father Krisha Prasad Koirala, who is regularly referred to as the follower of Mahatma Gandhi.
"He was not only a leader of Modern Renaissance," said former Prime Minister of Chandra Shekhar.
He was also active in the quick india movement led by Mahatma Gandhi while still young, joining the Indian Congress Party in 1924. Koirala was educated first at Banaras Hindu University, took a law degree from Calcutta University in 1937 and practiced law for several years in Darjeeling, the northern district in West Bengal state, India.
During World War II the British interned him in Dhanbad for two years (1942-1944). After his release, the political situation in India was taking shape for liberation. In the midst of this he set his strategies to bring change to Nepal. He was imprisoned in Nepal in 1947-1948 on reaching his hometown Biratnagar to lead a labor demonstration at Biratnagat Jute Mill. A year later he was arrested again, but was soon released after a 27-day hunger strike, protests and intervention of then Indian Prime Minister Jawarharlal Nehru.
Politics was his inborn quality. He used to say, "There was politics in the blood of my family. My father had to leave Nepal when I was three years old. Everyone in the family had a warrant of arrest against him; our entire property was confiscated. We were in exile in India for twelve years." After years of struggle against the Rana regime of Nepal from exile, Nepali Congress Party finally won victory and established democracy in Nepal in 1951.
MADHAV PRASAD GHIMIRE
Madhav Ghimmire is a living legend. Born in 1919, he is among the last of the older generation of poets in Nepal. His contemporaries – Bal Krishna Sama, Laxmi Prasad Devkota, and Siddhicharan Shrestha – have become historical figures in the annals of Nepalese literature; Ghimire is the only link to their past. A time in which these poets created some of the most powerful verses in Nepali literature. Today, their works are studied in school, college, and university.
Madhav Ghimmire does echo the past. His eyes twinkle as he fondly remembers old times. At this point in his life, he is eight-one years old, he expresses contentment regarding his personal and professional experiences. Ghimire knows his destiny has been proven and he is pleased about it. His childhood, youth, and adulthood are now memories he reflects upon calmly. His innate love for the study of literature has made possible the growth of his poetic genius. As he recites a few lines from “Rupa Rani”, one can appreciate the rhythmic use of his words. What comes to mind is the play of sunlight on water, the breeze soft on the skin, and the sensation of lightness. Ghimire caresses words like an ardent lover; he seeks for emotional gratification in his creations and is comforted.
His childhood was spent in Lamjung District – among the hills, trees, rivers, and birds of rural Nepal and he grew up playing nearby cowsheds – the herders, cows and calves his close companions. Ghimire’s father was the second son in the family and was responsible for looking after cattle. They lived as a joint family and had enough to go by. The eldest son looked over household affairs and farming. Ghimire’s father along with the herders would stay high up in the lekh for several months in the cowshed and during winter, they would bring the cattle down to graze in the besi. Eight-year-old Ghimire would often accompany them and during his stay, loved having rice and milk amidst surroundings rich with natural resources. Sometimes when the cattle were fed salt, a customary practice in cow herding, his father would also add salt to young Ghimire’s meal.
SHAMBHU PRASAD DHUNGEL (Ansukavi)
In the pre-modern era of Nepali literature, Shambhu Prasad Dhungel’s contribution is very important. In fact, he is the lone star of that era. After Bhanu Bhakta and Motiram and before Lekhnath Poudyal, Sambhu Prasad Dhungel represented the entire era of the Nepali literature.
Shambhu Prasad Dhungel was born in Bhatbhateni, Kathmandu, in 1946 BS. As his father Devi Raman Dhungel was a government clerk stationed in Hanuman Nagar of Birgunj, he spent his childhood in Birgunj. His family was a better off financially and had good social reputation. Thus, he spent his childhood with comfort and delight. He enjoyed an excellent environment for learning at home. His father hired a host of good tutors both from Nepal and India to teach young Dhungel at home. After learning literacy and numeral, he was taught Sanskrit, Nepali and Hindi literature. This was the period he learnt the art of poetry and became interested in literature and writing. Although he did not have any formal degree, he was well versed in Nepali and Sanskrit from private tutors and through self-study. He also had working a knowledge of Bengali, Urdu, Hindi and Newari. Apart from Nepali literature, he was also interested in music.
MOTIRAM BHATTA
Motiram Bhatta was born in 1866 on the festival day of Krishnastami. At the age of six, he left his birthplace, Kathmandu, to pursue studies in the Indian city of Benaras. After learning the classical Sanskrit language for eight years, he enrolled at a Pharasi school. He was married at the age of fifteen. At that time, he was receiving music lessons and became attracted to Nepalese folk songs and their rhythm. One day, while attending a marriage ceremony of his friend, he was mesmerized by the Ramayan verses translated into Nepali by Bhanubhakta Acharya and resolved to find out more about this work.
It is due to Bhatta’s efforts that Bhanubhakta’s Ramayan received wide recognition. He edited the poet’s work and published it in 1887. He also wrote Bhanubhakta’s biography which was printed four years later. He and some colleagues formed a literary committee which opened a printing press. Motiram was chosen to become the manager. The press published the works of other Nepalese writers and poets to make the language popular. They also organized literary discussions and debates. During this time, the Nepali language had no set grammar rules.
Motiram’s own poetry attained such popularity that old men and women recited Pralhadbhakti every morning as a prayer and he was once summoned by the royal palace to translate the play Sakuntala into Nepali.
In time, Motiram became well versed in Urdu, Pharasi, Bengali, English, and Hindi. He gained fame as one of the most significant publishers, writers, poets, and biographers writing in the Nepalese language. Today, scholars and students remember him as a fine critic and language analyst. Without him, the Nepalese language would have floundered for a long time and probably would not have reached its present stage.
Coincidentally Motiram Bhatta died on the day of his birth. He was thirty years old when he died.
LAXMI PRASAD DEVKOTA (Mahakavi)
Devkota was born on the night of Gai Puja, when Laxmi, the goddess of wealth, is honored. Seeing this as an omen, Devkota’s parents named him after the goddess. It was an omen indeed, but of a different kind. In Nepal, Laxmi is seen as a bitter rival of Saraswati, the goddess of education and learning. Saraswati is displeased if a person is wealthy. On the other hand, Laxmi is not inclined to grant favors to those whose main pursuit is learning. As it turned out, the rivalry between the two goddesses was played out in Devkota’s life. He was known as Mahakabi, the great poet, and lived and died a poor man.
When Devkota was born in Dillibazaar, Kathmandu, in 1909, the country was ruled by the Rana oligarchy. The Rana administration was not enthusiastic about educating the masses, so the permit to study was a privilege. Devkota’s family went through a lot of trouble to enroll him at Durbar School, the only school in the Kathmandu Valley. Devkota wrote his first poems at school. He is said to be a quiet student who preferred reading and writing. He proved to be an excellent pupil and was married at the age of fifteen while at school.
BHANUBHAKTA ACHARYA (Adikavi)
Bhanubhakta (1814–1868) was a Nepali poet who translated the great epic "Ramayana" from Sanskrit to Nepali. Born to a Brahmin family in 1814 in Tanahu, he received at home an excellent education with a strong leaning towards religion from his grandfather.
After the fall of the Khas Empire in the 15th century, its language which evolved into present day Nepali was considered bastardized and limited to speech. Sanskrit dominated most of the written texts of South Asia and its influence was particularly strong in Nepal. Brahmins were the teachers, scholars and priests of the society by virtue of their caste. Their education was Sanskrit-oriented since most religious texts of the Hindu religion were in that language.
Many wrote poetry that was too heavily Sanskritized. Bhanubhakta was definitely "the" writer who gained the acceptance of a wide range of people and his creations played a key role in popularizing the written form of the Khas language.
Bhanubhakta's contribution was unique. Children who received an education at the time began their studies with light epics such as the "Ramayan" and graduated to the more complex "Upanishads" and "Vedas." Ram's heroic exploits were highly impressive to Bhanubhakta, so he decided to make the deity more accessible to the people who spoke Khas. (Since the social order did not encourage literacy, most country people did not understand anything when epics were read out to them in Sanskrit.)
When completed, his translation of the Ramayan was so lyrical that it was more like a song than a poem.
Bhanubhakta did not study Western literature. All his ideas and experiences were derived from his native land. This lent such a strong Nepali flavor to his writing that few poets have been able to equal his simple creations in terms of content: a sense of religion, a sense of simplicity, and the warmth of his country are the strongest features of his poetry. Those who read the first lines of the Bhanubhakta Ramayan can clearly feel Nepal in them.
Bhanubhakta was a young boy from a wealthy family and was leading an unremarkable life until he met a grass cutter who wanted to give something to society so that he could be remembered after death too. After listening to the grass cutter Bhanubhakta felt ashamed of himself. So by the inspiring words of the grass cutter, he wrote these lines:
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