Toru Dutt is the first Indian woman poet, rather any poet writing in English from India in the nineteenth century to be the voice of India. She is the soul of Hindustan and a window to the west. The Ancient Ballads and Legends (of Hindustan 1882) contains a galaxy of Indian myths and legends and represents the best ideals of sacrifice, devotion, dedication, faithfulness the idealism by the illustrious sons and daughters of India.
 |
| Toru Dutt’s Indianness in Her Poetry |
The ideals of Dhruva, Savitri and Sita are presented before the eyes of the readers through supple and poetic English. This work was originally entitled A Sheaf Gleaned in Sanskrit Fields, and thus speaks of her love for India's glorious past. To her friend, Mary Martin, with whom she had attended the higher lectures for woman in Cambridge, Toru wrote that she “has gathered the Indian ears for two years”, and a letter to Clarisse Bader whose French book, Women in Ancient India (La Femme das I Indo Antique) had influenced her greatly, that there could not be a more touching and lovable heroine than Sita. Hindu ideal of womanhood appeals to Toru most. She eulogizes it in Savitri. Lakshman gives us the ideal of Hindu brother. Lakshman loves Rama from the core of his heart. He is perfectly obedient to the elder brother seeking glory in faithful service, “in life - long loyalty and truth”. He is forced by the unwarranted and unkind insinuations of his brother's wife, the heroine of the Ramayana, to leave her alone in the forest and go to the help of Rama. He first tries to convince her of Rama's indomitable power, and asks:
“What being of demonian birth
Could ever brave his mighty arms?
Is there a creature on the earth
That dares to work our hero harm?”
As mentioned by C. Paul Verghese, as a poetess Toru Dutt reveals “to the West the soul of India through the medium of poetry by narrating stories sung in divine poetry thousands of years ago.” She glorified the ideal of Indian womanhood in Savitri by glorifying the glory of Savitri's character:
“Though in a lovely home she dwelt
Her conduct as a wife was such
As to illumine all the place;
She sickened not, nor sighed, nor pined,
But with simplicity and grace
Discharged each household duty kind.”
The Vedantic philosophy of the evanescence of worldly possessions and achievements is described in “Savitri";
“I know that in this transient world
All is delusion, — nothing true;
I know its shows are mists unfurled
To please and vanish, to renew
Its bubble joys, be magic bound
In Maya's network frail and fair,
Is not my aim! the gladsome sound
Of husband, brother, friend in air.”
Sindhu is an ideal son who sacrifices his life for the sake of his parents. Buttoo is an obedient pupil who worships Dronacharya's image and attains extraordinary skill in archery. He gives his right thumb to Dronacharya as gurudakshina. Dhruva, who was slighted by his stepmother Suruchee, attains a place “far, far above the highest of this earth.” Prahlad forbears his father's cruelties and vindicates “the glory of the living God” Lakshman is an ideal and self - sacrificing brother. All these are typically Indian ideals. Toru concludes the legend about Dhruva with these lines:
“By prayer and penance Dhruva gained at last
The highest heavens, and there he shines a star!
Nightly men see him in the firmament."
Though a Christian, Toru is a Hindu in spirit. Even Vedantic ideas find expression in her poem. To cite a few examples:
1. I know in such a world as this
No one can gain his heart's desire,
Or pass the years in perfect bliss;
Like gold we must be tried by fire. —Savitri
2. And I shall do my best to gain
The science that man will not teach,
For life is as an utmost goal we reach
To which the soul print ............... —Buttoo
Even the doctrine of Karma has been highlighted by the poetess on a number of occasions, e.g.
1. And each shall suffer as he acts
And thinks, his own and burden bear:
No friends can help, — his sins are facts
That nothing can annul or square,
And he must bear their consequence.
2. The sins of previous lives must bear fruit:
The ivory throne, the umbrella of gold,
The best steed and the royal elephant
Rich caparisoned, must be his by right
Who has deserved them by his virtuous acts
3. In the ballad Sindhu tells Dasarath that he is now dying “a bloody death” (p.135) because in the previous birth he had killed, a male dove with his sling and ball.
The bhakti cult and unshakable belief in God which is the hope and health of numerous Indians is the theme of Prahlad in which the poetess makes the hero utter:
“.... …………………………In him I trust.
He can protect me if He will,
And if this body turn to dust,
He can new life again instil.”
Thus Toru is a bridge between East and West. As mentioned by Fisher, “So in the midst of the profuse splendours of the East her thoughts continually reach out to that other home beyond the Ocean, which travel and study had made so dear to her ........ In the long history of the contact and interfusion of East and West. I doubt whether there is a figure more encouraging or significant.” T.O.D. Dunn, summing up Toru's poetical greatness writes: “For the first time in literature, there is struck a genuinely Indian note, and through the medium of a perfect English expression, there is conveyed something of the singularity of mind proud of the intellectual traditions of its native land.”
To conclude, Toru's poetry is essentially of her race and her land. She was fully aware of Hindu myths and legends. She aptly interpreted the culture of her country to foreign lands. Many Hindu ideals find an outlet in her poetry. As a young girl of open heart and broad mind, Toru gave utterance to her soft feelings towards France and England. But she remained an Indian at heart, and Ancient Ballads are steeped in Hindu thought and tradition. Though a converted Christian, she had a profound respect for Hindu gods and goddess heroes and heroines’; she never felt, as Sir Edmund Gosse supposes, that Vishnu and Shiva were childish things. Sir Edmund Gosse himself acknowledges that Toru's ballads “breathe a Vedic solemnity and simplicity of temper, and are singularly devoid of ... littleness and frivolity.” Suffice to say that Ancient Ballads is a pen - picture of Indian life and society. It is an exposition of various ideals held aloft in Indian life: The poems in this volume express various facts of Indian philosophy. For instance, Savitri is a marvellous piece of Vedantic philosophy.