Garhwali, Kumaoni, Himalayan Literature

Glimpse of History of Modern Garhwali Poetry in Shailvani Part------1
Bhishma Kukreti

Shailvani a poetry collection of eighty Garhwali poets is a mile stone in the history of Garhwali literature. Abodh Bandhu Bahuguna did hard research and edited this remarkable book and Himalaya Kala Sangam published Shailvani in 1981. Dr Govind Chatak wrote the introductory note for the book and president of Himalaya Kala Sangam Lalt Mohan Keshwan wrote the objective of the book.
Apart from poetries of eighty poets, Abodh Bandhu Bahuguna wrote a small history of Garhwali poetry upto 1980 as ‘Bhumika’
Sanskrit Literature Creators :
In his introduction, Bahuguna mentioned Kalidas the legendary Sanskrit poet as a Garhwal born person. Sadanand Jakhmola, Lalita Prasad Naithani, Dr Shiva Nand Nautiyal and many scholars support with enough proof that Kalidas was born in Kaviltha Chamoli Garhwal. Logically, these learned scholars are right that unless and until your childhood is not spent in Garhwal Himalaya you can not describe so finely, minutely, about Himalaya and its life as Kalidas describes Himalaya in Abhigyan Shakuntalam , Meghdoot or Kumar Sambhav. The intention of Bahuguna mentioning Kalidas is clear that creation of poetry is not new in Garhwal are but the legacy goes beyond Kalidas. in this respect Abodh Bandhu Bahuguna is right that creation of poetry have there in Garhwal more than five thousand years. This author says that it is no secret that Vyas created Mahabharat in Garhwal . Sage Vyasa in Mahbharat mentioned elaborately about Kankhal, Tapovan, Badrikasharam, and Bhrigukhal and sage Bhrigu. It may be possible that Bhrigu sage might have created Bhrigu Samhita in Bhrig Shringi (Bhrigukhal, Udaypur patti) too.
Further Bahuguna mentioned that there had been Garhwalis creating Sanskrit poetry or literature as Bharat Jyotik Rai, Meghakar Bahuguna, Haridatt Nautiyal, Sadanand Ghildiyal, Balkrishna Bhatt and many more created various types of Sanskrit literature.
Braj and Khadi Boli Literature by Garhwalis :
Bahuguna does not forget mentioning the creators of Braj/Khadi Boli literature from Garhwal. Bahuguna briefs the readers about the works of Swaami Shashtra , Maularam and Chandrakumwar Bartwal in Braj and Khadi boli (Hindi). All created marvelous poetries and all used many garhwali words in their poetries
The Tihri king Sudarsan Shah (1825) created poems in Braj language and his poetry collection book ‘Sabhasar’ is appreciated by scholars for various reasons. Sudarshan Shah provided extract of each his Braj verse in Garhwali as
Ishwaran jakh rup dine takh samajh ni dini
Jakh samajh dine takh dhan ni deenyau
The famous Khadi Boli poet of Pithora Garh, Gumani Pant (1780-1846) spent some period in the Garhwal kingdom at the time of king Sudarshan Shah. Gumani Pant will be remembered in Sanskrit, Hindi , Garhwali, Kumaoni , Nepali, Himalayan literature for creating peculiar poetry. He used to write poems in Sanskrit but the last part of stanza would be in Garhwali , Kumaoni or Nepali as:
Uttam dhamk padanti, madhyam cha turatari
Nish dam farak padanti , kachhedi ma ch Tukituki II
Vadhurlok beerasya lamkeshwarasya , prasrmedhanadasya maydays
Rate devar hant mandodari sa, hwai rand nari gai laj sari
Continued ..........

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