Bhaskar Ramchandra Tambe (1873–1941) 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 ...
poet from
Bombay Presidency,
British India
The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...
.
Tambe was born on October 27, 1873, in the town of Mugawali near
Gwalior
Gwalior (Hindi: , ) is a major city in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh; It is known as the Music City of India having oldest Gwalior gharana, musical gharana in existence. It is a major sports, cultural, industrial, and political c ...
.
In 1893, he passed his high school matriculation examination conducted by
Allahabad University
The University of Allahabad is a Central University located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. It was established on 23 September 1887 by an act of Parliament and is recognised as an Institute of National Importance (INI). It is the 4th oldest mode ...
. He then started his college education in
Agra
Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...
; however, he terminated it without graduating in order to support his brother's education by accepting a position as a teacher in the
princely state of
Dewas
Dewas is a city in the Malwa region of the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh. The municipality was formerly the seat of two 15-Gun Salute state princely states during the British Raj, Dewas Junior state and Dewas Senior state, ruled by the Pa ...
. Subsequently, he acquired the position of the tutor for the young prince of Dewas. This appointment fortuitously provided him easy access to the ruler's personal library.
A few years later, he became the personal secretary for the Dewas ruler. Still later, he served for some years as a judge in a small town. In 1926, he settled in the princely state of Gwalior until his death on December 7, 1941.
In 1932, Tambe presided over the "poetry" section of
Marathi Sahitya Sammelan
Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (All India Marathi Literary Conference) is an annual conference for literary discussions by Marathi writers. Marathi is the official language of Maharashtra State. The first Marathi Sahitya Sammelan was ...
which was held that year in
Kolhapur
Kolhapur () is a city on the banks of the Panchganga River in the southern part of the Indian state of Maharashtra.
Kolhapur is one of the most significant cities in South Maharashtra and has been a hub of historical, religious, and cultural a ...
. Tambe retired from active duty in 1937. The same year the rule of Gwalior honored him by naming him as the state's Princely Poet (राजकवि).
During 1890-1941, Tambe wrote about 225 poems. Poet Vasudeo Govind Maydeo (वासुदेव गोविंद मायदेव) compiled in 1920 a collection of Tambe's 75 poems under the title "भास्कर रामचंद्र तांबे यांची कविता". In 1935, Dr. Madhavrao Patwardhan published a more complete anthology, "तांबे यांची समग्र कविता". This has undergone several important revisions and remains in print, a tribute to the continued popularity of his poetry, many of whose poems have been made into still-popular songs sung by Bollywood playback singers Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle.
A majority of Tambe's poetry is about love, including conjugal love, though love of Nature is a close second. But among all Marathi poets of his generation, Tambe stands alone in displaying through his poetry enormous empathy toward women, especially toward child widows. These poems implicitly disparaged the social mores of his time whereby old men married teenaged girls who were sometimes left widowed and were essentially left to spend their entire adult lives without a partner.
References
External links
* http://www.dainikgomantak.com/Gomantak/04132009/NT00089D22.htm
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tambe, Bhaskar Ramchandra
Marathi-language writers
1941 deaths
1873 births
Poets from Bombay Presidency