A Paean to the Doyen: The Syndrome of Nativity in Jayanta Mahapatra's Poetry.

This paper shall make a modest attempt to focus on the poetic vision of Jayanta Mahapatra, the legendary Indian English poet vis-vis his obsession to depict the socio-cultural milieu of his native land Odisha. His whole repertoire of poetry revolves around a golden quadrangle of Cuttack, Puri, Konark and Bhubaneswar with nostalgic description of past glorious legacy and painful narration of the present decadence. With Introvert and withdrawn syndromes explicitly visible in his personality, Jayanta Mahapatra is a keen observer of society in its myriad manifestations. It may be the emotionally shocking revelation of the Fisher man willing to push his daughter into prostitution or the waiting by the widows to be cremated at Puri or of lost chivalry of Kalinga (Odia) soldiers who valiantly fought in Historic Kalinga war to turn ruthless king Ashok into a spiritual person embracing Buddhism. The shocking depiction of his grandfather Chintamani Mahapatra's helplessness during the great Famine of 1866 to embrace Christianity speaks volumes about his regret to spurn Hinduism and switch over to Christianity under duress. His recurrent images 'rain', 'door', 'sleep', 'silence', 'mouth', 'dream,' 'memory' etc. obviously refer to his unhappiness with the present decadent culture. The entire spectrum of Mahapatra's poetry resonates with the native syndrome and the juxtaposition of lost legacy and prevalent decadence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]