Jaishankar Prasad, a most celebrated personality related to the modern Hindi literature and Hindi theatre, was born at 30th January in the year 1889 and died at 14th January in the year 1937. He was a great Indian poet, novelist and dramatist, born in the simple madheshiya Teli Vaisya family of the Varanasi, UP, India. His father (named Babu Devki Prasad, also called as the Sunghani Sahu) has his own business related to the tobacco dealing.
Jaishankar Prasad had to face some financial problems in his family as he has lost his father in his young age. Because of such financial problems, he could not study further than 8th class. However, he was so keen to know many languages, past histories and Hindi literature, that’s why he continued his study at home. As he continued his study, he was influenced much from the Vedas which imitated him in the deep philosophical rival.
He has started writing poetry from his very early age. He was also fond of playing chess and doing gardening work at his home. He was interested in the Vedas to a great extent which influenced him extremely for writing his own poetry, plays, stories and novels. He has written his first book of poem collections known as the Chitraadhar in the Braj vernacular of Hindi which was widely used in Uttar Pradesh state at that time. His poems were liked too much by the people as they were heart touching, soft, simple language and emotional.
He had paid much attention towards the language of poems as well as the philosophic content. That’s why he is known as a world-class Hindi litterateur, philosopher and great writer. He wrote his poetry in a range of varieties from the romantic to the patriotic. His most prominent patriotic poem of his career is known as the ‘Himadri Tung Shring Se’ which he had written before the independence of country from the British.
He spent his middle career of his life by writing the novels, plays and poetries. He got himself exceedingly influenced by the Sanskrit and other languages related to the Sanskrit. He had written his some of the dramas in the Persian and Bengali languages.
Career
He has written his first poetry (known as the Chitradhar collection) into Braj language but soon after he has changed writing language to the Khadi and Sanskrit. He has started writing dramas into the Sanskrit language but later he has started writing dramas into the Bengali as well as Persian languages. Some of the famous dramas written by him are Chandragupta, Skandagupta and Dhruvaswamini.
He is the famous personality in the field of Hindi literature and Hindi theatre. He was the one who make the world romantic with his great and heart touching writings. He had mixed up the art and philosophy in his writings. He has chosen the title of his writings of different names which ranges from the romantic to the nationalistic. Through his great writings, he had described the essence of the classical Hindi poetry. ‘Himadri Tung Shring Se’ is the nationalistic poem written by him, became famous in the market which lead him to won so many awards in the period of Indian independence movement. Kamayani is another written poem by him which was also the best creation of him.
He has shown the life history of many great personalities and stories of the ancient India through his Dramas and other writings. His written dramas were proved to be the most pioneering ones in the Hindi. Around 1960s, his plays were selected by the ancient Indian Drama’s Professor, Shanta Gandhi for the modern Indian theatre. He has written the Skandagupta, his most important writing in the year 1928.
He also has written the many interesting short stories, titles of which are ranges from the historical to the mythological related to both contemporary and social. One of his short stories named, Mamta described the motherly love and the story of the Mughal Badshah. Another short story is the Chhota jadugar tells the life history of the child who has learned to earn the money by performing with small toys on the streets.
The Kamayani is a great and most popular poetry written by the Jaishanker Prasad. Kamayani is one of his best poem collections in the Hindi language. Kamayani is a mahakabya which is still liked by the poem lovers. This poem is written by him by mixing the knowledge, need and action which are the basic elements of the human life. The poem describes the history, culture evolution and the legendary story of the great flood through the characters like Manu, Ida and Shradha. When Kamayani was published in the year 1935, it has received a lot of popularity and critical appreciations by the people.
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