ECOLOGICAL IMBALANCE IN A.K.RAMANUJAN’S “A RIVER”

By Sandip Kumar MishraPh.D Scholar in English

Roll-1481097,Guide-Dr. Namita Panda

Outline of SlidesIntroductionEnvironmental issuesRamanujan’s “A River”-the poem“A River”-an ecological studyHistory of the river ‘Vaikai’The SummerThe Rainy seasonOld poets on the riverNew poets on the riverEcocritical findingsConclusionsReferences

INTRODUCTIONIndian poetry in English emerged in the mid-twentieth

century from the main stream of English LiteratureMade its appearance as part of Indian LiteratureIndian in sensibility and content and English in

LanguagePost independence poetry- a new creative urgePoets more concerned with natural and environmental

influence

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Environmental IssuesBalance and imbalanceEcological balance - a natural phenomenonEcological imbalance – man madeMan in the name of culture pays little attention to

natural environmentResult-Ecological crisis

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Ramanujan’s ‘A River’-the poemA RiverIn Madurai,city of temples and poets,who sang of cities and temples,every summera river dries to a tricklein the sand,baring the sand ribs,straw and women's hairclogging the watergatesat the rusty barsunder the bridges with patchesof repair all over themthe wet stones glistening like sleepycrocodiles, the dry onesshaven water-buffaloes lounging in the sunThe poets only sang of the floods.

He was there for a daywhen they had the floods.People everywhere talkedof the inches rising,of the precise number of cobbled stepsrun over by the water, risingon the bathing places,and the way it carried off three village houses,one pregnant womanand a couple of cowsnamed Gopi and Brinda as usual.

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Cont... The new poets still quotedthe old poets, but no one spokein verseof the pregnant womandrowned, with perhaps twins in her,kicking at blank wallseven before birth.

He said:the river has water enoughto be poeticabout only once a yearand thenit carries awayin the first half-hourthree village houses,a couple of cowsnamed Gopi and Brindaand one pregnant womanexpecting identical twinswith no moles on their bodies,with different coloured diapersto tell them apart.

A River – an ecocritical studyMan – a part of NatureEcological imbalances and their impact on the frola

and fauna –matter of great concernRamanujan- Born in Mysore and university Education

in the westYet deep rooted feeling for his landRiver Vaigai- a seat of Tamil CultureUsefulness and relationship to manNow in a state of decedence

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History of Madurai and the VaigaiMadurai- a city of Temples-Spiritual significaneA place of great importanceA Sweet CityA center of Tamil Culture and LearningThe Vaigai river on whose bank the city stands – a

symbol of Power , Vitality and EnergyWater resource of the city

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Two Different Spectacles-Summer & The Rains The Summer The River Vaigai reduces to narrow

stream. It is almost empty. The ribs on the river beds are visible. The wet stones looks like resting

crocodiles. The dry stones look like shaven

buffaloes resting lazily in the sun.

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The Rains Rising of the river inch by inch.Stone steps of the bathing ghats submerged one by

one.In the first half hour Three village houses washed

away(symbolic),One pregnant woman became the victim of flood,Couple of cows-Gopi and Brinda washed away.The Vaikhai now a destroyer of life

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Old Poets On VaigaiRomanticisesThe River VaigaiIdealise or commercialise the situationNothing done to prevent the deatruction caused by

floodLack of realism in poetry

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New poets on The VaigaiImitating the old poetsNo sympathetic treatment of human sufferingLack of creativityA poetic decline

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Ecocsritical FindingMan’s selfish use of riversObstructing its natural flowThe river used as the sewer of the city as we find in

R.Parthasarathi’s River ,OnceRiver as a toiletGarbage in the river

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ConclusionThe poet is concerned with the practical aspects of

the river VaigaiFormerly man a part of Nature and now the exploiter

of her.Man’s unnatural treatment of Nature and its sad

consequencesRiver Vaigai once a water resource of the people of

Madurai; now a threat to themThe poem is a powerful message on ecological crisis

of river pollution

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ReferencesCoupe, Laurence, ed. The Green Studies Reader: From

Romanticism to Ecocriticism (Routledge, 2000).Print Glotfelty, Cheryll and Fromm, Harold, eds, The

Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology (University of Georgia Press, 1996).Print

King Bruce. “History and Publishing Circles” Modern Indian Poetry in English. New Delhi:Oxford University Press, 2001. Print

. Naik, M.K. “The Achievement of Indian English Poetry” Perspectives on Indian Fiction. NewDelhi: Abhinav Publications. 1984. (208-22) Print.

Peeradina, Saleem. Contemporary Indian Poetry in English. Madras: Macmillan India Limited.1972. Print.

Ramanujan A.K. The Collected Poems. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1995. Print.

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