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| Home > Regional Literature > Gujarati Literature > Poetry in Gujarati Literature
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| | Poetry in Gujarati Literature
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In the medieval period, poetry was actually the means of expressing religious sentiments and the first poetry of the language was Bharateswara Bahubali Rasa.
It was composed by Shalibhadrasuri, a 7th century Jain monk. A number of Jain Sadhus followed his example and composed short story poems called Rasas till the end of the 18th century.
All this while in the 15th century, Narsingh Mehta was bringing in a new era of Vaishnava poetry. His poems portray Krishna as a playful child, a lover, a friend and the poet`s muse. He became a source of inspiration for his successors in composing not only similar poetry but also philosophical poems.
Raje, Raghunathdas, Pritam, Ratno and Muktananda were some of the great contributors to devotional poetry. In the 18th century, Vallabh left his artistic touch in devotional songs like Garbo and Garbi. They are popular even in today`s age.
Premananda, the greatest medieval poet introduced the famous `Akhyana`. He had a wonderful command over the language, treated the subject in an outstanding way and moreover had a great understanding of human nature. Jains and non-Jains have written narrative poems using Sanskrit as well as Prakrit fiction as the source. Nayasundar among the Jains and Samal amongst the non-Jains were popular narrators.
Narmad and Dalpat --The Poets Know During British Rule
With the advent of the British in the 19th century, poetic literature soared to new heights. Narmad and Dalpat were the pioneers of this age. In 1886, Narsingharao`s collection of lyrical poems Kusummala, was published.
Poetry was getting restricted to the elite class and Mahatma Gandhi urged poets to write for the masses. The noted poets of this century like Kalapi, Kant, Nanalal and Balavantrai Thakor were all greats in their respective style of writing. Literature produced under Gandhi`s influence is known as Gandhian literature and the era as Gandhian era.
Poetry Inclined Towards Patriotism
Poets of this time wrote about social order, the struggle for independence and especially about Gandhi himself. Umashankar, Sundaram, Shesh, Snehrasmi, Betai and many more were the principal poets of this era.
During the 40s, there was a rise in communistic poetry and this inspired a movement for progressive literature. Meghani, Bhogilal Gandhi, Swapnastha and others preached class conflict and hatred of religion through their writings.
Highly inspired by Tagore`s dialogue poems, Umashankar Joshi enriched the existing Gujrati literature by writing in the same manner. His two such poems are Prachina and Mahaprasthan.
Poetry of post-independence era is more subjective and brutal, discarding old imageries and symbols and replacing them with new ideas. The main representatives of this age are Suresh Joshi, Gulam Mohamed Sheikh, Harinder Dave, Chinu Modi, Nalin Raval, Adil Mansuri and others.
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