Bal Sitaram Mardhekar (1 December 1909 – 20 March 1956) was a

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India **Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...

writer who brought about a radical shift of sensibility in

Marathi poetry Marathi poetry is a poetry written in the Marathi language, including its various dialects. The poet-saints Namdev (Devanagari: नामदेव) and Dnyaneshwar (Devanagari: ज्ञानेश्वर), from Maharashtra, India, wrote the ...

. He was born in a town called Faizpur in the

Khandesh Khandesh is a geographic region in Maharashtra, India. It was made up of present Jalgaon, Dhule and Nandurbar districts. It also said that Burhanpur District of Madhya Pradesh was also its part. The region have seen many geographical ch ...

region of

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

. He was educated in

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, and worked at

All India Radio All India Radio (AIR), also known as Akashvani (), is India's state-owned public broadcasting, public radio broadcaster. Founded in 1936, it operates under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broa ...

until his death. His earlier collection of poems, ''Shishiragam'' (शिशिरागम), was a product of ''Ravi Kiran Mandal'' poetry: sentimental and lyrical. But his later avant-garde poetry brought about a storm in the Marathi literary world. His poem with the title "पिपात मेले ओल्या उंदिर" (Mice Died in the Wet Barrel) appeared in ''Abhiruchi'' (अभिरुची) magazine in 1946. Similar to what Baudelaire did in French poetry, Mardhekar brought a decadent urban ethos into Marathi poetry. Marathi ''bhakti'' (भक्ति) poetry and the poetry of

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

and

W. H. Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry is noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in tone, ...

had an influence on him. In 1948, he was charged and tried for obscenity for some of his poems in ''Kahi Kavita''. He was declared innocent of these charges in 1952. Mardhekar was also an influential critic and an experimental novelist. He attempted to bring in the stream of consciousness technique in Marathi novels. He received in 1956

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

Sahitya Akademi Awards 1955-2007
for his work ''Saundarya ani Sahitya'' (''A study of aesthetics'') (सौंदर्य आणि साहित्य).

Published works

Poetry

* ''Shishiragam'' (1939) * ''Kahi Kavita'' (1947) * ''Aankhin Kahi Kavita'' (1951) * ''Kiti Tari Divsat'' * ''Ala Ashadh Shravan''

Novels

* ''Raatricha Divas'' (1942) * ''Tambdi Maati'' (1943) * ''Paani'' (1948) * ''Mardhekaranchya Kadambarya'' (1962)

Aesthetics and Criticism

* ''Arts and Man'' (1937) * ''Vangmaiyeen Mahaatmata'' (1941) * ''Two Lectures on an Aesthetic of Literature'' (1944) * ''Saundarya ani Sahitya'' (1955)

Plays

* ''Karna'' (1944) * ''Natashreshta'' (1944) * ''Sangam'' (1945) * ''Aukshan'' (1946) * ''Badakanche Gupit'' (1947)

Short stories

* ''Natashrestha Appasaheb Rele'' (1944)

References

Special Issues on Mardhekar

* Satyakatha May 1956 * Nabhowani. Year 1, Issue 9, March 1971

Translation of Mardhekar's Poetry

Dilip Chitre Dilip Purushottam Chitre (17 September 1938 – 10 December 2009) was one of the foremost Indian poets and critics to emerge in the post Independence India. Apart from being a notable bilingual writer, writing in Marathi and English, he was als ...

. An Anthology of Marathi Poetry (1945–1965) * Vilas Sarang. Poems of Mardhekar ( For Private Circulation) {{DEFAULTSORT:Mardhekar, Bal Sitaram Indian male poets Marathi-language poets Marathi people 1909 births 1956 deaths Indian literary critics Recipients of the Sahitya Akademi Award in Marathi All India Radio people 20th-century Indian poets Poets from Maharashtra 20th-century Indian male writers