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Indian poet and writer

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Agyeya

Born	Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan (1911-03-07)7 March 1911 Kasia, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British India
Died	4 April 1987(1987-04-04) (aged 76) New Delhi, India
Pen name	Agyeya
Occupation	Writer, poet, novelist, literary critic, journalist, translator and revolutionary
Alma mater	Madras Christian College (1925–1927; Intermediate) Forman Christian College (1927–1929; B.Sc)
Literary movement	Nayi Kavita (New Poetry)
Notable works	Shekhar: Ek Jivani Trishanku Angan Ke Par Dwar Tar Saptak
Notable awards	Sahitya Akademi Award (1964) Jnanpith Award (1978) Golden Wreath Award (1983)
Spouse	Santosh Malik (m. 1940; div. 1945) Kapila Vatsyayan (m. 1956; div. 1969)
Relatives	Hiranand Sastri (father)
Signature

Sachchidananda Hirananda Vatsyayan (7 March 1911 – 4 April 1987), popularly known by his pen name Agyeya (also transliterated Ajneya, meaning 'the unknowable'), was an Indian writer, poet, novelist, literary critic, journalist, translator and revolutionary in Hindi language. He pioneered modern trends in Hindi poetry, as well as in fiction, criticism and journalism. He is regarded as the pioneer of the Prayogavaad (experimentalism) movement in modern Hindi literature.

Son of a renowned archaeologist Hiranand Sastri, Agyeya was born in Kasia, a small town near Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh. He took active part in the Indian freedom struggle and spent several years in prison for his revolutionary activities against British colonial rule.

He edited the Saptak series which gave rise a new trends in Hindi poetry, known as Nayi Kavita. He edited several literary journals, and launched his own Hindi language weekly Dinaman, which set new standard and trends in Hindi journalism. Agyeya translated some of his own works, as well as works of some other Indian authors to English. He also translated some books of world literature into Hindi.

Agyeya was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award (1964), Jnanpith Award (1978) and the internationally reputed Golden Wreath Award for poetry.

Early life and education

Agyeya was born as Sachchidananda Vatsyayan in Punjabi Brahmin family on 7 March 1911 in an archaeological camp near Kasia, Kushinagar district of Uttar Pradesh, where his father, Hiranand Sastri, an archaeologist, was positioned for an excavation. His mother was Vyantidevi (d. 1924) who was not much educated. Hiranand Sastri and Vyantidevi had 10 children, of whom Agyeya was the fourth. Agyeya spent his early childhood in Lucknow (1911–1915). Due to his father's professional appointment at various places, he had to shift to various places including Srinagar and Jammu (1915–1919), Patna (1920), Nalanda (1921) and the Ootacamund and Kotagiri (1921–1925). Due to this peripatetic lifestyle, Agyeya came into contact with different Indian languages and cultures. His father, and who was a scholar in Sanskrit, encouraged him to study Hindi and taught him some basic English. He was taught Sanskrit and Persian by Pandit and Maulavi in Jammu.

Forman Christian College in 1930; where Agyeya studied B.Sc

After passing his matriculation in 1925 from the University of Punjab, Agyeya moved to Madras, joined the Madras Christian College, and did Intermediate in Science in 1927, studying mathematics, physics and chemistry. In the same year, he joined the Forman Christian College in Lahore, where he studied Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and English, and received a Bachelor of Science in 1929, standing first in a class. Thereafter he enrolled for an M.A. in English, but dropped out, and joined the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army (HSRA), a revolutionary organisation, with a view to fight for Indian independence movement, and participated in rebellious activities against the British colonial government. In November 1930, he was arrested on account of his involvement in the attempt to help Bhagat Singh, a socialist revolutionary and leader of HSRA, to escape from jail in 1929. He was then sentenced on charge of sedition against British rule in India. He spent the next four years in jail in Lahore, Delhi and Amritsar. During these prison days, he started writing short stories, poems and the first draft of his novel Shekhar: Ek Jivani.

He was associated with the Progressive Writers Association (PWA) and, in 1942, he organised the All India Anti-Fascist Convention. During World War II in 1942, he joined the Indian army and was sent to the Kohima Front as a combatant officer. He left the army in 1946. He stayed at Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) for sometime and remained active in local literary groups. During this period, he published several translations into English of other writers, and a collection of his own poems, Prison Days and Other Poems.

Agyeya married Santosh Malik in 1940. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1945. He married Kapila Vatsyayan (née Malik) on 7 July 1956. They separated in 1969. He died on 4 April 1987, aged 76, in New Delhi. He was cremated at Nigambodh Ghat.

Career

After his release from jail in 1934, Agyeya worked as a journalist in Calcutta, and from 1939 for All India Radio.

Agyeya edited Sainik from Agra (1936–1937), Vishal Bharat from Calcutta (1937–1939), Prateek (1947) and Naya Prateek (1973) respectively from Allahabad and New Delhi. In English. he edited Vak (1951). He served as an editor of Jayprakash Narayan's Everyman's Weekly (1973–1974) and editor-in-chief of Hindi daily Navbharat Times (1977–1980) of the Times of India Group.

He travelled to Japan in 1957–58, where he learned about Zen Buddhism which influenced him and his writing style. In 1961, he joined the University of California, Berkeley as a visiting lecturer in Indian Literature and Civilization, and remained there until June 1964.

In 1965, he returned to India and became Founder Editor of the newsweekly Dinaman of the Times of India Group. When the members of the Hungry generation or Bhookhi Peerhi movement were arrested and prosecuted for their anti-establishment writings, Agyeya through Dinmaan relentlessly supported the young literary group of Culcutta till they were exonerated. His dispatches on Bihar's famous famine are considered milestones in pro-people reporting.

He remained in India till 1968, before embarking on a trip to Europe. In 1969 he returned to Berkeley as Regents Professor, and continued there until June 1970. In 1976, he had an 8-month stint at Heidelberg University, as a visiting professor. Later he joined University of Jodhpur, Rajasthan as Professor and Head of the Department of Comparative Literature.

Works

During the four years in prison, Agyeya started writing short stories and published them in Hans, edited by Premchand. He also started writing the first draft of his autobiographical novel Shekhar: Ek Jivani, followed by its second and third draft. His first collection of poems, Bhagnadutta, appeared in 1933. After his release from the jail, he published his first short story collection, Vipathga, in 1937, and in 1941, he published the first volume of Shekhar: Ek Jivani, followed by the second volume in 1944. Its third volume, though announced, was never published.

In 1943, he edited and published Tar Saptak, a collection of poems by seven young writers, whose poems were not published before. Considered the first anthology of modern Hindi poetry and a milestone in the history of Hindi literature, Tar Saptak gave rise to the Prayogvad (Experimentalism) in Hindi poetry, and established a new trends Hindi poetry, known as Nayi Kavita (New Poetry).

Poetry collections

Bhagndoot (1933)
Chinta (1942)
Ityalam (1946)
Hari ghaas par kshan-bhar (1949)
Baawra aheri (1954)
Indradhanu raunde hue ye (1957)
Ari o karuna prabhamaya (1959)
Angan Ke Par Dwar (1961)
Poorva (1965)
Sunahale Shaivaal (1965)
Kitni naavon mein kitni baar (1967)
Kyonki main usei jaanta hoon (1969)
Saagar-mudra (1970)
Pahle main sannata bunta hoon (1973)
Mahavriksha ke neeche (1977)
Nadi ki baank par chhaya (1982)
Sadanira-1 (1986)
Sadanira-2 (1986)
Aisa koi ghar aapne dekha hai (1986)
Maruthal (1995)
Sarjana ke kshan (Selection)
Thaur thikaane (Handwritten, circulated xeroxed)
Karaawas ke din (Trans. from English by Uday Shankar Shrivastava)
Kavishri ( Ed. Shiyaram Sharan Gupt)
Aaj ke lokpriy kavi (Ed. Vidya Niwas Mishra)
Kaavya-stabak ( Ed by Vidya Niwas Mishra & Ramesh Chandra Shah)
Sannate ka chhand (Ed by Ashok Vajpeyi)
Ajneya: Sanklit kavitayen (Ed by Namvar Singh)

Novels:

Shekhar: Ek Jeevani I (1941)
Shekhar: Ek Jeevani II (1944)
Shekhar: Ek Jeevni III (Unpublished)
Nadi ke dweep (1952)
Apne-apne ajnabi (1961)
Barahkhambha (co-writer, 1987)
Chhaya mekhal (Incomplete, 2000)
Beenu bhagat (Incomplete, 2000)

Stories anthologies:

Vipathga (1937)
Parmpara (1944)
Kothri ki baat (1945)
Sharnaarthi (1948)
Jaydol (1951)
Amarvallari tatha anya kahaniyan(1954)
Kadiayan tatha anya kahaniyan (1957)
Acchute phool tatha anya kahaniyan (1960)
Ye tere pratiroop (1961)
Jigyasa tatha anya kahaniyan (1965)
Meri priy kahaniyan (Selection, 2004)
Chhorra hua rasta (Sampoorn kahanitan-1, 1975)
Lautti pagdandiyan (Sampoorn kahaniyan-2, 1975)
Sampoorn Kahaniyan (2005)
Adam Ki diary (Ed by Nand Kishore Acharya, 2002)

Play:

Uttar Priyadarshi

Travelogue:

Are Yayavar Rahega Yaad (1953)
Kirnon ki khoj mein (Selection, 1955)
Ek Boond Sahsa Uchhli (1960)

Criticism:

Trishanku
Hindi sahitya: Ek adhunik paridrishya
Atmanepad
Aatmparak
Aalwaal
Likhi kagad kore
Jog likhi
Adyatan
Samvatsar
Smriti ke paridrishya
Srot aur setu
Vyakti aur vyavastha
Yug-sandhiyon par
Dhaar aur kinaare
Bhartiya kala drishti
Smritichhanda
Kendra aur paridhi
Srijan: kyon air kaise
Kavi-Nikash
Kavi-drishti (Prefaces)
Tadbhav (Selection by Ashok Vajpeyi)
Lekhak ka Dayittva (Ed by Nand Kishore Acharya)
Khule Mein Khada Ped (Ed by Nand Kishore Acharya)

Light Essyas:

Sab rang
Sab rang aur kuchh raag
Kahan hai dwaraka
Chhaya ka jangal

Diary:

Bhavanti
Antara
Shaswati
Shesha
Kaviman (Ed by Ila Dalmia Koirala)

Memoirs:

Smriti-lekha
Smriti ke galiyaron se
Main kyun likhta hoon

Edited:

Tar Saptak
Doosra Saptak
Teesra Saptak
Chautha Saptak
Pushkarini
Naye ekanki
Nehru abhinandan granth (co-editor)
Roopambara (Sumitrnandan Pant abhinandan granth)
Homvati smarak granth
Sarjan aur sampreshan
Sahitya ka parivesh
Sahity aur samaj parivartan
Samajik yatharth aur katha-bhasha
Samkaleen kavita mein chhand
Bhavishya aur sahitya
Indian Poetic Tradition (With Vidya Niwas Mishra and Leonard Nathan)

Introducing:

Naye Sahitya Srishta-1 Raghuveer Sahay: Seedihiyon par dhoop mein
Naye Sahitya Srishta-2 Sarveshawar Dayal Saxena: Kaath ki ghantiyan
Naye Sahitya Srishta-3 Ajit Kumar: Ankit hone do
Naye Sahitya Srishta-4 Shanti Mehrotra

Conversations:

Aparoksh, Ramesh Chandra Shah & others
Rachna: Kyon aur kinke beech, Sharad Kumar, Geeti Sen & Others
Agyeya Apne bare mein (AIR Archives), Raghuveer Sahay & Gopal Das
Kavi Nayak Ajneya, Ila Dalmia & Neelima Mathur

In English:

Prison days and other poems (Poetry)
A sense of time (Essays)

Selection (general): Sanchayita (Ed Nand Kishore Acharya)

Translations:

Shrikant (Sharat Chandra, from Bengali, 1944)
Gora (Rabindranath Thakur, from Bengali)
Raja (Rabindranath Thakur, from Bengali)
Vivekanand (With Raghuvir Sahay, from Bengali)
The resignation (Jainendra Kumar, into English)
The seventh horse of the sun (Dharmveer Bharti, into English)
The Silent waters (Poems of Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena, in 'Thought')
Vazir ka Feela (Ivo Andric, from English)
Mahayatra (Pär Lagerkvist's trilogy, from English)

Self-translated works:

Islands in the stream (Nadi ke dweep, into English)
To each his stranger (Apne apne ajnabi, into English)
The unmastered lute and other poems (Asadhya Veena and other poems into English, Ed by Pritish Nandy)
The revolving rock and other poems (Chakrant Shila and other poems into English, Ed Pritish Nandy)
First Person, Second Person (Poems, into English with Leonard Nathan)
Signs and silences (Poems, into English with Leonard Nathan)
Nilambari (Poems, into English)
Truculent clay (Bhavanti, into English with Manas Mukul Das)
Preparing the ground (Antara, into English with Manas Mukul Das)

Translations in other languages: (Indian languages list too long)

German: Sekh Ktoratien (By Lothar Lutze)
: Stand-orte (By Lothar Lutze)
Swedish : Den arket (By orten Al Bud)
Servo-Croatian: Catoetien
: prvo liche drugo liche
:Vsak ima svoyega tuicha (By Tregoslav Andrich)

Films on Ajneya:

Sarswat Van Ka Bavra Aheri, Producer Durgavati Singh, Doordarshan, New Delhi
Sannate ka Chhand, Dir. Pramod & Neelima Mathur, Vatsal Nidhi, New Delhi
Deep Akela, Dir. Pramod Mathur, MGAHVV, Wardha
Kavi Bharti, Bharat Bhawan, Bhopal

Reception

Agyeya was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1964 for his collection of poems Angan Ke Par Dwar, and the Jnanpith Award in 1978 for Kitni Naavon Mein Kitni Baar. He was also awarded the Bharatbharati Award and the Golden Wreath Award for poetry in 1983.

Agyeya is considered to be one of the most influential Hindi writers of the 20th-century and is seen as the founder of ādhuniktā (modernism) in Hindi literature. He is considered 'the most westernised' among the Hindi writers between the 1940s and the 1960s. He was often criticised for his excessive use of intellectualism and individualism in his writings.

The scholar Sushil Kumar Phull calls Agyeya an 'intellectual giant' and 'pundit of language' (master of language), and compares him with English poet Robert Browning for his obscure and condense language which he used in his poetry.

Dramatic productions

His verse play Uttar Priyadarshi, about the redemption of King Ashoka was first staged in 1966 at Triveni open-air theatre in Delhi in presence of the writer. Later it was adapted to Manipuri, by theatre director, Ratan Thiyam in 1996, and since been performed by his group, in various parts of the world.

References

^ Malinar, Angelika (2019). "Chapter 34 : Sachchidanand Hiranand Vatsyayan ["Ajneya"/"Agyeya" ('Unknowable')]". In Wagner-Egelhaaf, Martina (ed.). Handbook of Autobiography / Autofiction. De Gruyter Handbook. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter. pp. 1762–1776. ISBN 978-3-11-038148-1.
Datta, Amaresh, ed. (1987). Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: A-Devo. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. pp. 103–104. ISBN 978-81-260-1803-1.
^ "S. H. Vatsyayan: A Chronology". Mahfil. 2 (1). Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University: 1–2. 1965. JSTOR 43644819.
^ Nair, Sheeba A (2000). "Chapter 1: Agyeya : Life and Works" (PDF). अज्ञेय के उपन्यासों में वैयत्त्किकता [Individuality in the Novels of Agyeya] (PHD thesis) (in Hindi). Thiruvananthapuram: University of Kerala. p. 2–5. hdl:10603/160771 – via Shodhganga.
Sonavane, Chandrabhanu Sitaram; Raṇasubhe, Sūryanārāyaṇa (1994). कहानीकार अज्ञेय : संदर्भ और प्रकृति Kahānikāra Ajñeya : Sandarbha aura Prakr̥ti [Critical study of the fictional works of Agyeya] (in Hindi). Vikasa Prakashan. p. 163. OCLC 31899798.
Trivedi, Harish (January–February 2011). "Agyeya — and his "Shekhar" The Second Greatest Novel in Hindi?". Indian Literature. 55 (1). New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi: 81. JSTOR 23341824.
Kumar, Kuldeep (18 March 2016). "A rebel in life and work". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 10 July 2019. Retrieved 15 April 2017.
"Sachchidanand Hiranand Vatsyayan". Contemporary Authors Online. Detroit, MI: Gale. 2003.
Ajneya; Kumar, Sharat; Sen, Geeti (December 1983). "Interview with Ajneya (S.H. Vatsyayan)". India International Centre Quarterly. 10 (4). India International Centre: 528. JSTOR 23001392.
Sinh, Bachchan (2007). आधुनिक हिन्दी साहित्य का इतिहास Aadhunik Hindi Sahitya Ka Itihas [History of Modern Hindi Literature] (in Hindi). Ilahabad: Lokbharti Prakashan. p. 256. ISBN 978-81-8031-101-7.
Acharya, Nand Kishore (1997). "Amgan Ke Par Dvara". In George, K. M. (ed.). Masterpieces of Indian Literature. Vol. 1. New Delhi: National Book Trust. p. 375. ISBN 81-237-1978-7.
Satyendra, Kush (2000). Dictionary of Hindu Literature. New Delhi: Sarup & Sons. pp. 132–133. ISBN 978-81-7625-159-4.
Jnanpith Laureates Archived 18 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine Bharatiya Jnanpith website.
Golden Wreath Award
Bruijn, Thomas De (2009). "Under Indian Eyes: Characterization an Dialogism in Modern Hindi Fiction". In Jedamski, Doris (ed.). Chewing Over the West: Occidental Narratives in Non-Western Readings. Amsterdam: Rodopi. p. 232. ISBN 978-90-420-2783-1.
Miążek, Teresa (2015). ""...kahāniyā͂ ākhir bantῑ kaise hai͂?!" ("…how, after all, do stories originate?!"). The Clash between Indian and Western Literary Traditions in Ajñeya's Short Stories". Cracow Indological Studies. 17 (17): 169–211. doi:10.12797/CIS.17.2015.17.10. ISSN 1732-0917.
Phull, Sushil Kumar (September–October 1981). "Agyeya: A Moving Force of Modern Hindi Literature". Indian Literature. 24 (5). New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi: 164–168. JSTOR 23331095.
Review: Uttarpriyadarshi Archived 5 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine by Renee Renouf, ballet magazine, December 2000,
Margo Jefferson (27 October 2000). "Next Wave Festival Review; In Stirring Ritual Steps, Past and Present Unfold". New York Times.

External links

Agyeya at Penguin India
Agyeya at Gadya Kosh [hi]
Agyeya Archived 3 November 2016 at the Wayback Machine at Kavita Kosh [hi]
Agyeya's biography at Bharat Darshan [hi]

v t e Laureates of the Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath
Robert Rozhdestvensky (1966) Bulat Okudzhava (1967) László Nagy (1968) Mak Dizdar (1969) Miodrag Pavlović (1970) W. H. Auden (1971) Pablo Neruda (1972) Eugenio Montale (1973) Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca (1974) Léopold Sédar Senghor (1975) Eugène Guillevic (1976) Artur Lundkvist (1977) Rafael Alberti (1978) Miroslav Krleža (1979) Hans Magnus Enzensberger (1980) Blaže Koneski (1981) Nichita Stănescu (1982) Sachchidananda Vatsyayan 'Ajneya' (1983) Andrei Voznesensky (1984) Yiannis Ritsos (1985) Allen Ginsberg (1986) Tadeusz Różewicz (1987) Desanka Maksimović (1988) Thomas Shapcott (1989) Justo Jorge Padrón (1990) Joseph Brodsky (1991) Ferenc Juhász (1992) Gennadiy Aygi (1993) Ted Hughes (1994) Yehuda Amichai (1995) Makoto Ooka (1996) Adunis (1997) Liu Banjiu (1998) Yves Bonnefoy (1999) Edoardo Sanguineti (2000) Seamus Heaney (2001) Slavko Mihalić (2002) Tomas Tranströmer (2003) Vasco Graça Moura (2004) William S. Merwin (2005) Nancy Morejón (2006) Mahmoud Darwish (2007) Fatos Arapi (2008) Tomaž Šalamun (2009) Lyubomir Levchev (2010) Mateja Matevski (2011) Mongane Wally Serote (2012) José Emilio Pacheco (2013) Ko Un (2014) Bei Dao (2015) Margaret Atwood (2016) Charles Simic (2017) Adam Zagajewski (2018) Ana Blandiana (2019) Amir Or (2020) Carol Ann Duffy (2021) Shuntarō Tanikawa (2022) Vlada Urošević (2023) Jean-Pierre Siméon (2024)

Laureates of the Struga Poetry Evenings Golden Wreath

Robert Rozhdestvensky (1966)
Bulat Okudzhava (1967)
László Nagy (1968)
Mak Dizdar (1969)
Miodrag Pavlović (1970)
W. H. Auden (1971)
Pablo Neruda (1972)
Eugenio Montale (1973)
Fazıl Hüsnü Dağlarca (1974)
Léopold Sédar Senghor (1975)
Eugène Guillevic (1976)
Artur Lundkvist (1977)
Rafael Alberti (1978)
Miroslav Krleža (1979)
Hans Magnus Enzensberger (1980)
Blaže Koneski (1981)
Nichita Stănescu (1982)
Sachchidananda Vatsyayan 'Ajneya' (1983)
Andrei Voznesensky (1984)
Yiannis Ritsos (1985)
Allen Ginsberg (1986)
Tadeusz Różewicz (1987)
Desanka Maksimović (1988)
Thomas Shapcott (1989)
Justo Jorge Padrón (1990)
Joseph Brodsky (1991)
Ferenc Juhász (1992)
Gennadiy Aygi (1993)
Ted Hughes (1994)
Yehuda Amichai (1995)
Makoto Ooka (1996)
Adunis (1997)
Liu Banjiu (1998)
Yves Bonnefoy (1999)
Edoardo Sanguineti (2000)
Seamus Heaney (2001)
Slavko Mihalić (2002)
Tomas Tranströmer (2003)
Vasco Graça Moura (2004)
William S. Merwin (2005)
Nancy Morejón (2006)
Mahmoud Darwish (2007)
Fatos Arapi (2008)
Tomaž Šalamun (2009)
Lyubomir Levchev (2010)
Mateja Matevski (2011)
Mongane Wally Serote (2012)
José Emilio Pacheco (2013)
Ko Un (2014)
Bei Dao (2015)
Margaret Atwood (2016)
Charles Simic (2017)
Adam Zagajewski (2018)
Ana Blandiana (2019)
Amir Or (2020)
Carol Ann Duffy (2021)
Shuntarō Tanikawa (2022)
Vlada Urošević (2023)
Jean-Pierre Siméon (2024)

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