Jjuri By Arun Kuratkar Analysis

In the postmodern age, when no more ‘metanarratives’ are to be believed, the glorious heritage of the golden past appears incredulous to the current generation. The current trend of poetry, which boasts itself of sceptically questioning the roots and traditions, where the motif of ‘emancipation’ is not needed, as the worth of human life itself is enquired, though is different from our ancient noble trend of poetry, yet still it manages to help man by making him search for his new identity; an identity which is never founded upon the mercy of social, historical, political and ideological forces. In this latter trend, comes the poetry of Arun Kolatkar who through his postmodern classic Jejuri tried to search for an identity conducive for the man who belonged to the age of mechanization and globalization. Arun Balkrishna Kolatkar (1932-2004) is
His poems in English and Marathi caught the attention of critics and readers at National and International levels. His collection of poems Jejuri published in 1976, won the Commonwealth Poetry Prize in 1977 (Patil 4; ch. 1.1). It is a long collection consisting of thirty-one poems. It is based on Jejuri, a small town at a distance of thirty miles from Pune. It is pilgrim place of Khandoba and other gods carved out of stones and cast in bronze. Maharashtrians have deep faith in the miraculous powers of Khandoba. Most of the poems are based on the legends and myths of Khandoba and other deities. At Jejuri, people from all sections of Hindu community, especially from Maharashtra and North Karnataka visit the holy shrine of Khandoba throughout the year. Khandoba is the god of nomadic and pastoral tribes. Khandoba has gradually evolved from the status of a folk