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Gayatri Viswanath

Exploring the themes of Arun Kolatkar’s Jejuri

The poem describes the poet’s visit to Jejuri, a place of pilgrimage, a few kilometres
away from the city of Pune which is the hill temple of Lord Khandoba, an avatar of Lord
Shiva. The poet’s visit to Jejuri has in many instances been referred to as ‘touristy’. The
visit is completed in ‘half a revolution of the sun’, beginning at sunrise and ending at
sunset. The experience of the poet is ‘non-secularised’1. The visitor is deliberately non-
involved, which gives an ‘objective’ element to it. This unbiased and distant attitude
increases the credibility of the poet’s attitudes and outlook about the ‘institutionalisation’,
‘ritualisation’, ‘materialisation’ and ‘commercialisation’ of the spiritualism in religion.

This essay aims to ascertain various themes of Jejuri and how Kolatkar’s style reinforces
these themes.

The reflection of T.S. Eliot’s style is very apparent and strongly enhancing the themes of
‘Jejuri’.The allusion to a pilgrimage seems like an influence of T.S.Eliot’s pilgrimage
allusion to Chaucer’s Canterbury tales in Wasteland. Further, the poem is fragmented into
31sections. Each section talks about a different thing. As we read the poem, different
images are imprinted in our memory which is incoherent. And, like in Wasteland, there is
an element which provides coherence to it- the idea of a journey represented by the bus
and the train or the pilgrimage itself. [This is also representative of the stream of
consciousness]This idea is consistent with the opening and closing of the wings of the
butterfly. References to a barren land, a virtual wasteland, no harvest, dry land is once
again reminiscent of Eliot’s Wasteland.

The Bus
‘The Bus’ introduces all the themes of the poem. Imperviousness is the idea that is
implied by the phrase, ‘you don’t step inside the old man’s head’, i.e., the visitor is
blatantly non-involved and impervious to the sense of devotion, which generally brings
thousands of pilgrims throughout the year to visit Jejuri. This reveals the objectivity and
distance with which the poet looks at religion. The poet in spite of being an Indian comes
across as an alien, someone foreign. This detachment reinforces the theme of alienation
of a modern pilgrim from an ignorant stated of ‘heightened religious sensibility’ [Ezekiel
in Enterprise].
The significance of light through camera feature is very fascinating. Coming from the
advertising and photography field, strong visual imageries are not a surprise. But
interesting is the integration of the idea of camera as an instrument of giving
‘progression’ to the poem and developing images. These images are recurrent in Jejuri.
The Bus introduces with the strong imageries marked by the visual eye of Kolatkar one
of the major techniques used in Jejuri. The Bus is a symbol of a camera; camera which

1
‘ Scratch a Rock and a Legend Springs’ – Arun Kolatkar, Five English-Indian Poets, Shirish Chindaade

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has its roots in the Latin words, camera obscura means a dark chamber. The bus is a
camera because of the tarpaulin buttoned down creates an image of a dark chamber. The
‘eyelet’ of the tarpaulin serves as the opening aperture of the camera and the old man’s
glasses and the bus’s rear end mirrors as the lenses. The two lenses could refer to myopic
[short-sightedness] and hyperopic [Larger domain, therefore, more open to different
perspectives].He chooses not to use the myopic lenses [you don’t step in the old man’s
head] and here, Kolatkar’s camera eye begins to roll.
The camera eye is very significant to Jejuri. Camera captures moments which becomes a
part of out memory. This aspect of memory has a thematic significance in Jejuri, which is
characteristic of Kolatkar’s style of ‘surrealism’. Surrealism was meant to be always in
fluctuation. Hence, there is a lot of movement in the poem. (The cold wind keeps
whipping and slapping, the bus journey, move continually forward etc.).Here, it is crucial
to mention that there are lot of movements, but the movements are found only in nature.
The use of surrealistic devices like odd juxtapositions of objects, free, floating forms,
automatic writing, and Freud’s influence of the unconscious and vivid images which are
symbolic in nature like dreams supports the argument. These juxtapositions also function
as dichotomies which are: old man and the urban young traveller, the old man ‘well
defined by the caste-mark’ and the traveller’ ‘beyond the caste-mark’, mongrel bitch and
idol of Maruti, god and stone, stone and flowers, grapes and stones etc.
The impersonal approach is progressively reinforced by the used of phrases like ‘you
look down”, “your own divided face”, “your elbow”, “you get off the bus” etc. The poet
also forebodes dehumanization in The Bus indicated by the use of transferred epithets:
roaring road, cold wind slapping etc.

Heart of Ruin
The ironic theme of ‘Heart of Ruin’, well implied in the title itself talks about how in the
‘heart of ruin’, there is so much vitality. In spite of the fact that the temple is not
maintained and the idol of Maruti left to deterioration, a mongrel bitch finds perfect
shelter for herself and her puppies. This is one of the moments that Kolatkar captures.
Words like ‘ruin’, ‘cluttered’ , ‘broken-tiles’, ‘tumble’, ‘strike terror’ bring out the
dilapidated condition on the temple. This reveals the uncaring attitude of the priests and
devotees who seem to be oblivious to the ruined condition of the temple.

However, here we are introduced to de-familiarization. Kolatkar finds life and vitality in
the small, trivial events: like the tumbling of the puppies over their mother, the ‘dung
beetle’ running to find safety under a box and says that this heart of ruin is nothing less
than the house of god. He sees divinity in these trivial things. The dividing line between
the centre of the temple as the ‘house of god [stone of Maruti]’ and ‘shelter for the bitch
and her puppies’ is very thin, just like the thin line differencing God and stone. This idea
is re-iterated throughout the poem. According to Kolatkar, divinity is not in something
non-living which has been glorified and celebrated by mere commercialization,
institutionalized by religion, but in living things, even though very insignificant. The
reference to the money box further emphasizes the commercialization of religion, and the
fact that is ‘broken’ says that clearly, it’s the priest or the temple authorities who have

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taken the money or its been robbed. It pronounces the ‘emptiness’ of faith or a sense of
spirituality in religion.

Chaitanya Poems
The three Chaitanya poems iterate the same them. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was one of the
Bhakti saints of the Bhakti movement who preached that one could give up the burden of
rituals and sacrifice and absorb the complex philosophy of god and instead just express
her/his love for God in which every medium he/she wished. They referred to God as a
friend, a guide, a lover and not as someone whom one has to ‘fear’ and ‘please’ by
offering burdening rituals and sacrifices. Also Chaitanya means ‘life force’ which
exposes one of the themes of this poem.

The friendly tone of the speaker in Chaitanya 1 brings the Bhakti aspect in Kolatkar’s
poem. The speaker also talks as a critic by asking God to wipe off the red paint for ‘I
don’t think the colour suits you’.

Colouring of the ‘religious’ stones of which an extension could be the gold plated or
silver plated idols of god is another form of commercialization. People use this ‘red
paint’ either as a ‘caste-mark’ or priests make money by selling it as ‘Prasad’. This brings
out two things: the caste-mark talks about the non-secular attitude which affirms a
political stand and the priest making money, yet, again, the same exploitation of people
under the banner of religion- an integral part of politics. This establishes the link between
religion, politics and economics and how each reinforces the other – however, in this
power play of these social structures, the essence of spirituality- is totally lost. Kolatkar is
searching for ‘it’.

In the three Chaitanya poems there is an ironic contrast between the faith of the Bhakti
Poets and the faith of the pilgrims who flock to Jejuri.
Sweet as grapes
Are the stones of Jejuri
Said Chaitanya He popped up a stone
In his mouth
And spat out gods
This again talks about the ‘scratch a rock and a legend springs’ phenomenon. It uncovers
the unquestioning, blind-faith of the pilgrims to buy any idea or belief given to them.
This poem is tinctured with mockery. If the grapes were sweet, why did he spit it? The
grapes were sour. This probably refers to the unattainable goal of the pilgrims of finding
spirituality or Kolatkar’s search to find spirituality in ‘stones’. The imagery of mouth is
reminiscent of lord Krishna’s mouth in which one could see the whole universe.
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu was an ardent devotee of Lord Krishna.
Herd which refers to cattle, cows reflects the herd-mentality of the pilgrims who accept
everything what others tell and do without a sense of questioning. Fortunately, we have
the speaker and the poet to complement that with the constant scepticism, sarcasm and
mockery.

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Herd of legends refers to the gods- how any rock or stone can become a legend – how the
stones like cattle get passed on from generation to generation ‘ grazing in the same field’
(referring to the same activity of believing in these shallow rituals, ideas) without
questioning them. It is an inherited concept like property.
The activity of grazing described in the poem does not create an image of movement.
But, once Chaitanya passes by, the cows look up from its crazing, the cow-bell tinkles’.
There is movement. Thus, this dynamism of the Bhakti saints is contrasted with the
boring static life in Jejuri.

A Low Temple
A Low temple is a very interesting poem which like The Bus brings out most of the
major features of the poem. The photographic eye of Kolatkar finds continuity here with
the light and dark image. There is economy of words and repetition (stance, lost, one,
gesture, eight-arm goddess, and priest) which make the language crisp and strengthen the
themes. The words like gods, legends, stones, priests repeat in every poem: this
symbolises the boring and mechanical activity, there is no exuberance in Jejuri as a place
of worship for which it is famous for, which these symbols represent).The irony in the
poem lies in the fact that gods are found in the ‘dark’ and ‘low’ and one needs ‘light’ to
see the god.
Once again, one observes immense use of transferred epithets to show the process of
dehumanization implicitly by humanizing non-living things. This is a method of
mockery. ‘Amused Bronze’, ‘Smiling Stone’, ‘a sceptic matchstick coughs’. Further, the
lighting of the charminar- a cigarette shows the speaker’s rejection of religious traditions,
an act of rebellion, a gesture of revolt and irreverence.

The Butterfly
The oscillatory movement of the butterfly is another moment captured by Kolatkar. He
finds vitality in the movements of its wings. This is contrasted with the hollow,
commercialised stories of the Jejuri Gods. There is no story behind this butterfly- the
butterfly’s life is extremely short- just about few days- but that does not matter, the
present is what that matters. The pun on present is interesting, reminding us of the phrase,
‘Don’t think about the past or the future. Think about the current moment. It is a gift and
that is why it is called the present’. The momentary divinity found in the opening and
shutting of the wings of the ‘yellow’ (yellow is a colour of vitality) butterfly is what that
matters.
It ends ambiguously.-Where is it. It could be the questioning attitude of the speaker but
the missing punctuation [ which would also reflect the economy of words and rebelling
against normal conventions of grammar] indicates that Kolatkar’s thirst for finding
‘divinity’ is being fulfilled. Throughout the poem, ‘it’ refers to the ‘yellow butterfly’.
This says that the butterfly is divine.

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A Scratch
The ever-growing legend of gods is compared metaphorically to the harvesting of crop.
When a farmer harvests his crop, he gets food and money. When the priests and others
‘spit or gods’ or ‘scratch gods’, they get money. However, the priests are more
privileged than the farmers. This is because for farmers, harvesting is not seasonal
[happens once a year and sometimes, insufficient due to lack of rains, there is a reference
to barren land, ‘bad earth’ and ‘hard rock’].The same hard rocks are exploited by the
priests to make money by commercializing religion. These barren images are reminiscent
of T.S.Eliot Wasteland. Crack, scratch, barren, no crop and further the act of striking
Khandoba wife by Khandoba created images of Wasteland which connects with the idea
of ‘infertility’, therefore, lifelessness. There is no vitality.

Between Jejuri and the Railway Station

When the speaker leaves Jejuri, all he has is statistics in place of a sense of divinity which
‘pilgrims’ from every flock to Jejuri for. The speaker does not feel ‘divine’.
In this, one is introduced to the other vices of the priests of being involved with the
prostitutes. Commercialisation of religion has been found her where shops use the name
of God to sell their products- Gorakhnath Hair Cutting Salon. All these detailing appears
like a tourist making various entries in his journal. He still has few ‘questions knocking’
[Where is ‘it’]. Amidst this disgruntlement and dissatisfaction, suddenly, something very
trivial ‘freezes him’ and there he finds ‘it’. It takes his breath away. It is an up and down
movement of hens and cocks trying to pick up grains from the Jowar field. His eyes have
captured the moment. Here, Kolatkar uses a very interesting postmodern technique of
using visual poetry. The movement of hens is transposed at the level of the text and its
typographical arrangement where each alternating word is at a different level. This helps
in conveying the intended effect.

Thus we see how Kolatkar using different techniques exposes religion as a

commercialised and institutionalised system which lacks ‘divinity’.

Bibliography
1. http://ketkar.blogspot.com/2008/06/third-way-of-reading-kolatkar-beyond.html

2. ‘Scratch a Rock and a Legend Springs’ – Arun Kolatkar, Five English-Indian Poets, Shirish
Chindaade