Jaishankar Prasad (30 January 1889 15 November 1937) was a prominent figure in modern

Hindi literature Hindi literature ( hi, हिन्दी साहित्य, translit=hindī sāhitya) includes literature in the various Hindi language which have writing systems. Earliest forms of Hindi literature are attested in poetry of Apabhraṃś ...

as well as

Hindi theatre Hindi theatre is theatre performed in the Hindi language, including dialects such as Braj Bhasha, Khari Boli and Hindustani. Hindi theatre is produced mainly in North India, and some parts of West India and Central India, which include Mumbai and ...

. Prasad was his pen name. He was also known as Chhayavadi poet.

Poetic style

Prasad started writing poetry with the pen name of ‘Kaladhar’. The first collection of poem that Jai Shankar Prasad penned, named, Chitradhar, was written in Braj dialect of Hindi but his later works were written in Khadi dialect or Sanskritized Hindi. Later on Prasad promulgated ‘

Chhayavad Chhayavad ( hi, छायावाद) (approximated in English as "Romanticism", literally "Shaded") refers to the era of Neo-romanticism in Hindi literature, particularly Hindi poetry, 1922–1938, and was marked by an increase of romantic and ...

’, a literary trend in Hindi literature. He is considered one of the Four Pillars (''Char Stambh'') of

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic, literary, musical, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century, and in most areas was at its peak in the approximate ...

Hindi Literature Hindi literature ( hi, हिन्दी साहित्य, translit=hindī sāhitya) includes literature in the various Hindi language which have writing systems. Earliest forms of Hindi literature are attested in poetry of Apabhraṃś ...

(

), along with Sumitranandan Pant,

Mahadevi Verma Mahadevi Varma (26 March 1907 – 11 September 1987) was an Indian Hindi-language poet, essayist, sketch story writer and an eminent personality of Hindi literature. She is considered one of the four major pillars of the '' Chhayawadi'' era i ...

, and Suryakant Tripathi 'Nirala'. His vocabulary avoids the Persian element of

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

and mainly consists of

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

(

Tatsama Tatsama ( sa, तत्सम , lit. 'same as that') are Sanskrit loanwords in modern Indo-Aryan languages like Assamese, Bengali, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Hindi, Gujarati, and Sinhala and in Dravidian languages like Malayalam and Telugu. ...

) words and words derived from Sanskrit (

Tadbhava (Sanskrit: तद्भव, , lit. "arising from that") is the Sanskrit word for one of three etymological classes defined by native grammarians of Middle Indo-Aryan languages, alongside tatsama and deśi words. at pp. 67-69. A "tadbhava" is a w ...

words). The subject of his poetry spans the entire horizon of subjects of his era, from romantic to nationalistic.

Dramas and other writings

His dramas are considered to be most pioneering ones in

. Prasad's most famous dramas include ''Skandagupta'', ''Chandragupta'' and ''Dhruvaswamini'' . The majority of them revolve around historical stories of

Ancient India According to consensus in modern genetics, anatomically modern humans first arrived on the Indian subcontinent from Africa between 73,000 and 55,000 years ago. Quote: "Y-Chromosome and Mt-DNA data support the colonization of South Asia by ...

. Some of them were also based on mythological plots. In 1960s,

Shanta Gandhi Shanta Kalidas Gandhi (20 December 1917 – 6 May 2002) was an Indian theatre director, dancer and playwright who was closely associated with IPTA, the cultural wing of the Communist Party of India. She studied with Indira Gandhi at a residenti ...

Professor of Ancient Indian Drama while at

National School of Drama National School of Drama (NSD) is a theatre training institute situated at New Delhi, India. It is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. It was set up in 1959 by the Sangeet Natak Akademi and became an in ...

, revived interest in Jaishankar Prasad's plays for modern

Indian theatre Theatre of India is one of the most ancient forms of theatre and it features a detailed textual, sculptural, and dramatic effects which emerged in mid first millennium BC. Like in the areas of music and dance, the Indian theatre is also defin ...

, by successfully staging his most important play ''Skanda Gupta'' written in 1928, with little changes to the original script.

Major works

Poetry

* Kānan kusum (The Forest Flower)(1913) * Mahārānā kā mahatv (The Maharana's greatness)(1914) * Jharnā (The Waterfall)(1918) * Ānsū (The tear)(1925) * Lahar (The wave)(1933) * Kāmāyanī (an epic about

Manu Manu may refer to: Geography * Manú Province, a province of Peru, in the Madre de Dios Region **Manú National Park, Peru ** Manú River, in southeastern Peru * Manu River (Tripura), which originates in India and flows into Bangladesh *Manu Tem ...

and the flood)(1935/36) * Prem pathik (The Love Wanderer)(1914) * Aatmkathya (Autobiography)

Drama

* Ek Ghoont (A sip) * Skandagupta (On Emperor

Skandagupta Skandagupta ( Gupta script: ''Ska-nda-gu-pta'', r. c. 455-467) was a Gupta Emperor of India. His Bhitari pillar inscription suggests that he restored the Gupta power by defeating his enemies, who may have been rebels or foreign invaders. He ...

) * Chandragupta (On Emperor

Chandragupta Maurya Chandragupta Maurya (350-295 BCE) was a ruler in Ancient India who expanded a geographically-extensive kingdom based in Magadha and founded the Maurya dynasty. He reigned from 320 BCE to 298 BCE. The Maurya kingdom expanded to become an emp ...

) * Dhruvasvāminī * Rajyashrī (Royal Bliss) *

Ajatashatru Ajatasattu (Pāli ) or Ajatashatru (Sanskrit ) in Buddhist tradition, or Kunika () and Kuniya () in the Jain histories, (c. 492 to 460 BCE or early 5th century BCE) was one of the most important kings of the Haryanka dynasty of Magadha in East ...

* Janmejay ka Naag-Yagy

Story collections

* Aandhī * Pratidhvani (The Echo) * Akashdeep (Internal Lamp) * Indrajāl (Hypnosis) * Sandeh (Doubt) * Daasi (Maid) * Chitra Mandir

Novels

* Kankal (The Skeleton) * Titli (The Butterfly) * Iravati ( not completed)

Poetic drama

* Karunalay

Legacy

Neo-romanticism in Hindi Literature

Jaishankar Prasad's Kamayani (Hindi: कामायनी) (1936), a Hindi classic poem is considered as an important magnum opus of this school. The poem belongs to the Chhayavadi school of Hindi poetry.Kamayani By Jaishankar Prasad
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Critical reception

In her glowing tribute to Jai Shankar Prasad, the poet- critic Mahadevi Verma said: "Whenever I remember our great poet, Prasad a particular image comes to my mind. A fir tree stands on the slope of the Himalaya, straight and tall as the proud mountain peaks themselves. Its lofty head braves the assaults of the snow, the rain, and the blazing heat of the sun. Violent storms shake its spreading branches, while a thin stream of water plays hide-and-seek amongst its root. Even under the most heavy snowfall, the most fierce heat, and the torrential rain, the fir tree holds its head high. Even in the midst of the worst thunderstorm and blizzards, it remains steady and unflinching.” Regarding his influence in Indian literature, the late scholar David Rubin wrote in ''The Return of Sarasvati'' (Oxford, 1993):- "To Jayshankar Prasad belongs the credit of making the first successful leap forward in the development of a genuine poetic art in ''khari boli'' Hindi and giving it, in ''Ansu'', its first masterpiece." Rubin felt his lyrics regarding nature and human love helped to define the ''Chhayavad'' movement, and that his reflective nature and deep love of reading and music heavily influenced his work.

References

Sources

* http://www.jaishankarprasad.com/biography/ * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prasad, Jaishankar 1889 births 1937 deaths Hindi-language writers Hindi-language poets Indian male novelists Writers from Varanasi Hindi dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Indian novelists 20th-century Indian dramatists and playwrights Novelists from Uttar Pradesh Indian male dramatists and playwrights Poets from Uttar Pradesh 20th-century Indian poets Dramatists and playwrights from Uttar Pradesh 20th-century Indian male writers