Syed Ali Mujtaba
Ram Temple is the talk of India right now; its consecration ceremony on January 22 is getting a lot of space all over various media outlets. However, two poems “Deeno Daan” (Destitute Donation) by Rabindranath Tagore written 123 years ago, and “Shav Vahini Ganga” (A Hearse Called Ganges) by Parul Khakhar, reflect on the contemporary that needs attention to review the narrative that’s built to eulogise the temple.
Tagore’s “Deeno Daan” is about a rich temple whose priest says it has no god. This poem is a dialogue between a king and a priest where the former is exuberant about the grandeur of the temple he has built to house the god. The priest argues that there is no god in the temple and with all the money and the pomp and glory, the temple is hollow. According to the priest, god does not reside in palatial houses but in the poverty-stricken puny miser who is without a shelter.
Parul Khakhar’s poem “Shav Vahini Ganga” was written in the backdrop of COVID-19 vagaries, where teeming millions were running helter and skelter for a cylinder of oxygen and the Ganges became full of corpses.
The essence of both poems is to separate religion from politics and to stress that the domain of the two cannot be entwined. The effort of both the poets is to remember god in moments of crisis and not to wait for money to afford the expenses of the temple rituals.
Both the poems are a sad commentary on contemporary India, though written in different timelines. They have identical messages: wrongs cannot be made right by the King Monarch or the Viswa-Guru.
Here are some of the excerpts from the original Bengali poem “Deeno Daan” translated in English by Sandipto Das Gupta.
“There is no God in that temple”, said the Saint.
The King was enraged; “No God?
Oh Saint, aren’t you speaking like an atheist?
On the throne studded with priceless gems,
Beams the golden idol, and yet,
You proclaim that’s empty?”
“It’s not empty; it’s rather full of
The royal pride. You have bestowed
Yourself, oh King, not the God of this world”, Remarked the saint.
The King frowned, “2 million golden coins
Were showered on that grand structure
That kisses the sky, I offered it to the
Gods after performing all the necessary rituals,
And you dare claim that in such a grand temple, There is no presence of God”?
The Saint calmly replied, “In the very year
In which, twenty million of your subjects
Were struck by a terrible drought;
The pauperised masses without any food or shelter,
Came begging at your door crying for help,
Only to be turned away, they were
Forced to take refuge in forests, caves, camping
Under roadside foliages, derelict old temples;
And in that very year when you spent
Two million gold coins to build that grand temple of yours,
That was the day when God pronounced:
“My eternal home is lit by everlasting lamps, amid an azure sky,
In my home the foundations are built with the values
Of Truth, Peace, Compassion, and Love.
The poverty-stricken puny miser,
Who could not provide shelter to his homeless subjects,
Does he fancy giving me a home?”
That is the day God left that Temple of yours
And joined the poor beside the roads, under the trees.
Like the emptiness of the froth in the vast seas,
Your mundane temple is as hollow.
It’s just a bubble of wealth and pride.’
The enraged King howled, “Oh you sham cretin of a person,
Leave my kingdom this instant’.
The Saint replied calmly, “The very place where you have exiled the Divine, Kindly banish the devout too”.
– Rabindranath Tagore, 20th of Shravan, 1307 (as per Bengali calendar)
Parul Khakhar’s poem describes Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a ‘naked king’ ruling a ‘Ram Rajya’ (kingdom of gods) where the sacred Ganga serves as a ‘hearse’ for corpses.
The 14-line poem was the voice of all Indians who were saddened by the tragedies wrought by the pandemic and angered by the government’s aloofness and mismanagement of the situation.
The poet describes a regime where the king’s aloofness with the citizens of his country has been exposed and there is helplessness, poverty, and mismanagement all around. The poem hits out not only at the government but also at the mainstream media, the opposition political parties, and others as they choose to remain silent and spineless under the reign of the ‘naked king’.
Here are excerpts of Parul Khakhar’s poem translated from Gujarati into English by Rita and Abhijit Kothari:
The corpses spoke in one voice: “All is well, sab kuchh changa-changa”
Lord, in your ideal realm the hearse is now the Ganga
Lord, your crematoriums are too few; fewer the wood for pyres
Lord, our pall-bearers are too few, fewer yet the mourners
Lord, in every home Yama performs the dance of macabre
Lord, in your ideal realm the hearse is now the Ganga
Lord, your smoke-belching chimneys now seek respite
Lord, our bangles are shattered, shattered are our hearts
The fiddle plays while the towns are ablaze, “Wah, Billa-Ranga”
Lord, in your ideal realm the hearse is now the Ganga
Lord, your clothes are divine, divine is your radiance
Lord, the town entirely sees you in your true form
If there be a real man here, come forward and say
“The emperor has no clothes”
Lord, in your ideal realm the hearse is now the Ganga.
—–
Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba2007@gmail.com
