Tag Archives: Hindi literature
The Poetry of Nagarjun Posted by Rachael on Aug 9, 2019
This week, I’ll be discussing a Hindi and Maithili writer (लेखक/lekhak) who is not well-known (नामी/naami) outside of India but certainly should be. The author known as “Baba Nagarjun” (बाबा नागार्जुन) and “Yatri,” (यात्री) whose real name was Vaidyanath Mishra (वैद्यनाथ मिश्र) (~1911-1998), was born in the village (गाँव/gaanv) of Satlakha in Bihar (बिहार). It…
Learning Hindi through Poetry Posted by Rachael on Mar 7, 2019
Literature can be a powerful way to learn a new language. Although, at the most basic levels of language learning, the student may at first focus on simple vocabulary and grammatical structures, these are not what gives a language its depth and vibrancy. Particularly in South Asian culture, which has a rich oral and literary…
The Poetry of Parveen Shakir Posted by Rachael on Feb 27, 2019
For this week’s blog, I thought it would be interesting to delve into the world of Hindi-Urdu poetry, in the form of a ghazal by Parveen Shakir (1952-1994). As you may remember, I wrote a blog post about this poet previously, where you can learn more about her life and contributions to Urdu poetry. Below…
Figures from Hindi Literary History: Shivrani Devi Premchand Posted by Rachael on Jan 12, 2019
Although many acquainted with the Hindi literary world (हिंदी साहित्यिक क्षेत्र/Hindi saahityik kshetra) are familiar with the name Munshi Premchand/मुंशी प्रेमचंद (his real name was Dhanpat Rai Shrivastav), a prolific author (लेखक/lekhak) who expressed his passion for social justice (सामाजिक न्याय/saamaajik nyaay) in his fiction, many people may not be familiar with his wife, Shivrani…
Ghosts, Ghouls and Goblins Posted by Rachael on Oct 29, 2018
All over the world, each culture has its own ways of making sense of death (मृत्यु or मौत), the afterlife and supernatural phenomena. India, of course, is no exception. In my last blog, I discussed the tales from Baital Pachisi (बेताल पच्चीसी), a collection of stories about the mythical king Vikramaditya and his quest to…
Vikram and The Vampire / विक्रम और बेताल Posted by Rachael on Oct 27, 2018
As Halloween is one of my favorite holidays (मनपसंद त्योहार/manpasand tyohaar), and I’ve been fascinated with ghost stories since I was a child, I thought I would share an Indian “ghost story,” if you will, in honor of the upcoming (आनेवाला/aanevaalaa) holiday. When I was a teenager, I came across a collection of tales (कथाएँ/kathaaen…
Padmavati Posted by Rachael on Feb 1, 2018
As many of you may be aware, the recently-released film, Padmaavat (पदमावत), by well-known director (निर्देशक/nirdeshak) Sanjay Leela Bhansali, has kicked up a bit of controversy (विवाद/vivaad, masc. noun). Without going too much into the controversy, I wanted to devote this blog to the text that inspired this film: the epic poem (महाकाव्य/mahaakaavya, fem. noun) Padmavat…