BLiterature

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So, Bharat is an artist of fun and laughter. He is a Classicist like Dryden and
Pope, and is one of the all time’s best poets of Shaiva-Shakta literature. His diction
and style are entirely his own, and he is the master of the tradition that was carried
on by Narayandev, Bijoy Gupta, Sheikh Faizullah, Rameswar and Ghanaram. His
poetic style is totally different from that of the medieval Radha-Krishna Padabali.
His dealing with Shiva and Durga had an impact on Nazrul two centuries later.
In fact, Bharat can be called a Nazrul of the 18 th century, as a clear observation of
his works makes his deities appear as rebels against the injustice, exploitation and
luxuries made by the 18 th -century aristocrats.
His Kalikamangal (The Psalm of Devi Kali) or Bidya-Sundar (Bidya and
Sundar) is another admired work for its ornamental accomplishment. This poem is
noted for its rich diction, narrative style and overall beauty. It tops the list of romance
poems written in the 17 th and 18 th centuries.
Bharat experimented with words, which became a trend of the 20 th -century
poets. Sometimes his poetic features claim his status for the first modern poet. He
was indeed the supreme literary craftsman of the Nawabi era.
Kamalakanta Vattacharya (1769?-1821)
Through the journey of civilization, man has imagined the supreme deity in
multifarious forms. God has in different times been regarded as a despotic ruler, a
moralist king, a lover, or even as a father. In ancient India, some devoted
practitioners began to regard the supreme deity as a divine mother. She has different
names like Shakti, Parvati, Jagaddhatri, Durga and Kali.
Kali is imagined as a wild goddess, who out of her trance, terrorizes the world
with her mission of destruction. While sin and oppression reigns the world, she
appears, and destroys anarchy, vice and ignorance. This myth signifies the coexistence
of love and cruelty in the divine nature.
The followers of the goddess are called Shakta (= worshipper of power). In
the 18 th -century literature, Shakta Padabali reigned, which was a sumptuous genre
of poetry. The Shakta poets offered their love for own mother to the divine epitome of
motherhood. Theologists claim their songs to belong to Tantric worship
comprehensible to the ascetics only. Ramprasad and Kamalakanta are regarded as
the founders and developers of this genre.
In many respects, Kamalakanta seems the better of the two. His songs have
better diction, rhyme and vision, and they are more urban and artful. Ramprasad’s
poems are replete with emotionally sounding words, incoherent and ludicrous
themes, rusticity and sentimentalism. Kamalakanta’s songs are not only free of these
problems but also they represent Shakta literature most eligibly.
His divine mother is variedly affectionate, calm, wild and ferocious from time
to time. The poet, her son, addresses her with childish innocence and a sense of
fear. The mother goddess moves the world with her barbaric atrocities. She dances
and claps her hands out of her joy for destruction. But inwardly she wishes a fertile
and enlightened earth.