Garhwali, Kumaoni, Himalayan literature

Murli Manohar Sati ‘Gadhkavi’: The Poet of Optimism, Imagery, Symbolism and Personification

Less discussed by critics in Garhwali literature , Murli Manohar Sati ‘Gadhkavi’ has been contributing Garhwali poetry development for many decades and is called the poet of people ‘Gadhkavi’. his poems are full of understandable figures of speech, symbolic symbols, imagery and related to the life style of common men in rural Garhwal.
Murli Manohar Sati ‘Gadhkavi’ belongs to Devsthan village of Bichhla Nagpur , Chamoli Garhwal , Himalaya. Sati is born on 17th October, 1915.
Murli Manohar Sati belongs to a Karmkandi Brahmin of Upper Garhwal . Hence the spirituality, religious symbols, fear and benefits of religious rituals are commonly found in the poems of Sati .
Murli Manohar Sati is credited for more than seven poetry collections in Garhwali language and each collection plays significant role in Garhwali poetry field. The poetry collection ‘ Gadhwal ki Jhanki published in 1949 narrates the life of rural Garhwal specifically Nagpur area and shows the social, religious, economical structure of rural Garhwal. The poems of Gadhwal Jagran (197) are inspirational poems and the poet dreams about a happy, prosperous and spiritual Garhwal where poverty is not seen but there is no infighting or jealousy for the ownership. The poems of ‘Panchayat raj ki Jhalak‘ (1952) ‘ are influenced by Gandhian philosophy that India is the country of villages and villages are the backbone of Indian economy, political structuring, social alignments, agriculture the back bone of Indian advancement .
Dhad lagaundi dharti tumtain
Jhatpat kara gudai
‘ The poems of Gopi Geet ‘ (1965), ‘Gadh Gitika’ (1965) and ‘Banyt Chandrika (1978) are having narration of different subjects as social engineering, social causes, agro-economy, role of spirituality and philosophy in day to day life, natural beauty of Garhwal , ritualism .
Murli Manohar Sati is expert of using different metaphors or figurative words-sentences, proverbs, symbolic words and weaving perfectly to the subject or objectives , uses of imagery to take the readers into different world.
Murli Manohar Sati has been also successful in personification of Ghughuti the common bird of Garhwal in his poems as
Hey Ghughti !jayeen chhe mal, lauti ayege apna gaun
Meen te bhair khud lagyeen sachi bonu chhaun tero saun
The language of Sati is very simple and readers feel at home in listening the poems. Murli Manohar Sati did not avoid using dialects of Nagpurya Chamoli Garhwal, The uses of Nagpurya dialects create exclusive place for Mulri Manohar
This author read the commentary of Abodh Bandhu Bahuguna about Murli Manohar Sati in his edited historical book ‘Shailvani and Bhishma Kukreti don’t hesitate to criticize Bahuguna for his miseries in praising the poet as Murli Manohar Sati Gadhkavi’ as per his contribution, potentiality and his capabilities , The poetry critics of Garhwali poetry require revision in reviewing the poems of Murli Manohar Sati. This author is also shocked that Abodh Bandhu Bahuguna can position himself ‘Pran and Mahakvi of Garhwali poetry , then Abodh Bandhu should have written more about Murli Manohar Sati as has every right to be praised by critic like Bahuguna .
Bahuguna did not mention the best uses of personification and perfect uses of symbols in his many poems by Gadhkavi Idf Kalidas is praised for using cloud as the symbols of messenger, Murli Manohar Sati used Ghughuti for a married female of rural Garhwal and even then the poem ’Mal ki Ghughti’ is easily understandable by illiterate person too. Sati has been successful in creating sadness , aloofness by separation from the lovers, and the poet also successful in narrating the jungle scenes of Garhwal with emotional values. No doubt, Sati took the base of Garhwali folk songs ‘Baramasa’ but he modernizes the narration of ‘Baramasa differently as per the requirement of creating modern poetry in Garhwali language .
This author feels that Murli Manohar Sati ‘Gadhkavi’ requires another review for his contribution to the Garhwali literature .

Copyright @ Bhishma Kukreti, Mumbai, India 2009.