Forms of Poetic Enunciation in Ghananand

Ghanshyam Sharma (1, 2)

1 LabEx EFL - LabEx Empirical Foundations of Linguistics
2 Mondes Iranien et Indien - UMR 7528

As we have seen in the last pages, it is the distinct use of poetic enunciation that gives Ghananand’s poetry its uniqueness. Other elements of his poetry, i.e. myths, themes, motifs etc. do not differ greatly from those of his contemporaries, except for his excellent use of the theme of love. Nevertheless, Ghananand did not make use of popular themes and motifs just for the sake of using them. In his poetry they become an integral part of the poetic structure of the stanzas, giving implicit meaning to utterances. His poetry does not arise merely from an amalgamation of myths and themes, as was the case in the work of most riti poets, in relation to which Thakur has made a strongly-worded attack: सीख लीन्हों मीनमृग खंजन कमल नैन, सीख लीन्हों यश औ प्रताप को कहानौ है। सीख लीन्हों कल्पवृक्ष कामधेनु चन्तामणि, सीख लीन्हों मेर औ कुबेर गिरि आनो है। ठाकुर कहत याकी बड़ी है कठिन बात, याको नहीं भूलि कहूँ बाँधियत बानो है। डेल सो बनाय आय मेलत सभा के बीच, लेगन कबित कीबौ खेल करि जानो है। (ठाकुर ठसक, १२ मनोहरलाल गौड़ (१९५८) पृष्ठ २८७ से उद्धृत) [They have learnt to say eyes as of a fish, deer, wagtail and lotus They have learnt tales of fame and glory They have learnt to say kalpavrksa (the tree of all desires), kamadhenu (the cow of desires), cintamani (the jewel of desires) They have learnt of the Mount Meru (the mythological golden mountain) and Mount Kuvera (the God of wealth) Says Thakur, its (poetry’s) subject is very difficult Speech can never ever (even) determine it by mistake They come to the gatherings having made it into a lump They consider writing poetry like playing a game!] Certainly these attacks are not directed at Ghananand’s poetic work. It would be a biased approach to value Ghananand’s poetry by simply comparing it with the work of his contemporaries, for, though akin to their poetry as far as the poetical conventions of that time are concerned, his is a poetry extremely rich in the form of poetic enunciation. It is the incomparable quality of his poetic enunciation that makes his poetry unique in medieval Hindi literature.

Mots clés: classical Hindi literature; Ghananad

Domaines: Littératures

Ghanshyam Sharma. Forms of Poetic Enunciation in Ghananand. Mariola Offredi. The Banyan Tree (Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Early Literature in New Indo Aryan Languages), 2, Manohar Publications, pp.539 - 556, 2000. ⟨hal-01388561⟩