Draft:Ram Singhsan Sahay Madhur

Shri Ramsinghasan Sahay 'Madhur' ji was a well known poet, advocate and freedom fighter. He was born in Sagarpali village of Ballia (U.P.) district on 24 November, 1903. His father Munshi Rajkumar Lal passed away when he was just two and a half years old. His mother Paramjyoti Devi was a very learned lady. She brought up the child with double affection.

He received his father's love from his two literary and journalist grandfathers, Munshi Bhuyudayal and Munshi Baijnath Sahay. Munshi Bhuyudayal, the author of Payane Yaar, who was a well-known writer of that time, was his special grandfather. He also received immense love from his second grandfather, Shri Baijnath Sahay. Baijnath Sahay's poetry collection Kanya Kaumudi had been published by Grihalakshmi (Allahabad). So Madhur ji inherited a natural interest in poetry and writing. This is the reason that the seeds of his literary inclinations were sown by the time he reached middle school. At the age of twenty-four, he got married to Sudama Devi, daughter of Munshi Havaldar Lal of Bans Thana (Ballia) in 1927. Later, he wrote and published some poems under the pseudonym of this Sudama Devi, but he did not consider it appropriate to collect such poems.

Education

Madhur received his primary education in Sagarpali Primary School. The headmaster of this school, Pt. Sachchidanand Pandey used to get a magazine called 'Saryuparin' which Madhur never missed a chance to flip through. From class five, he was in contact with famous linguist Dr. Udaynarayan Tiwari, poet and writer Shri Prasiddhanarayan Singh, teacher Shri Ram Iqbal Lal and leader Shri Ram Anant Pandey (former MLA). They completed their middle school education in Ballia Tehsil School. 'Saraswati' magazine used to come to the headmaster of the middle school, Munshi Bajrangi Lal. This magazine also helped in developing Madhur's literary interests and poetic skills. Assistant School Inspector of Varanasi Shri Sitaram was very impressed with the literary talent of Udaynarayan Tiwari and Madhur. He brought 14-15 books and gave them to him. He got leave from studies for a few days. The collection of prose and poetry prepared by these two middle school boys from those books was published under the name 'Gadya Padya Manjari'. During these days, Madhur ji had sent a secret communication in protest against the use of bricks and mortar in the school premises, which created a big uproar after it was published in Kanpur's Pratap newspaper. Madhur ji received the 'Mangalkosh' Granth Award in the essay competition on the subject of 'celibacy' in all the eight middle schools of the district. Hazari Prasad Dwivedi from his village school also participated in this competition. He passed his high school examination from District High School, Ballia in 1923. Nandlal Chandra was a Bengali headmaster. In those days Madhur ji's articles in 'Swadesh' and poems in Grihalakshmi were getting equal space. Udaynarayan Tiwari's first article 'History of sewing in India' was published in Grihalakshmi at this time with the help of Madhur ji.

His family had a natural religious, educational and literary environment. The person who had Padmavat, Akhravat and Ramayana in his house was greatly respected. People did not consider these texts as books but as a valuable asset. His grandfather used to keep Padmavat, Akhravat, Dariyadas and Ramayana-Khandan-Mandan. There was a tradition of Urdu-Persian in the family. But the lineage of those who read Urdu could not continue for three generations. Therefore, his elder brother was sent to study Hindi. Madhur ji also decided to study Hindi. There was also a feeling that Urdu speakers are drunkards and butchers. This also inclined him towards Hindi. He took Hindi and Sanskrit as subjects in high school. Madhurji thought that Sanskrit and Hindi language teachers have done a great disservice to their promotion by giving less marks to the students as compared to other subjects. Even then Madhurji used to be first or second in the class.

In Grihalakshmi

After passing the high school examination, he went to Allahabad for intermediate education. He was already in touch with Grihalakshmi through his writings. He abandoned the idea of ​​studying and started working in Grihalakshmi. At the same time, he got an appointment in the High Court. He was again associated with the editorial department in the magazine 'Chand'. At this time, Madhur ji edited Gurubhakt Singh 'Bhakt's 48-line poem titled 'Sindoor' into 16 lines and published it in Grihalakshmi. He had acquired the idea of ​​an editor in middle school itself. In class 6, the first half of a two-page book titled 'Vartaman Vidyarthi' was written by Madhur ji and the verse titled Upmanyu was written by Udaynarayan Tiwari. The review of this small book was published in the famous English magazine 'Modern Review' published from Calcutta. During his stay in Allahabad, Madhur ji was appointed as a part-time teacher by Rajarshi Purushottamdas Tandon at a small honorarium to teach Hindi to students from South India at the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan.

Ramkumar Verma used to come to the 'Chand' office. Ramrakh Singh Sehgal was the editor. These magazines had a large circulation. Grihalakshmi alone used to print 3600 copies. Many young men wanted to see their works published in newspapers and magazines. Madhur ji became friends with Bismil Allahabadi's poems published in Hindi script in 'Abhyudaya'. Ram-kumar Verma, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan, Mahadevi Verma, Sumitra Nandan Pant, all of them used to write like student writers. Contact with Shrighar Pathak, Lakshmidhar Bajpai, Lala Bhagwan Deen 'Deen' and Maithilisharan Gupt etc. increased here. With the publication of the poem 'Atyachari Ka Ant' in 'Karmaveer', he came in contact with Pandit Makhan Lal Chaturvedi. Madhurji's first meeting with him took place in the Kashi session of the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan.

Despite being associated with all the above-mentioned literary institutions and personalities, Madhurji made good use of his job in the High Court. In March 1925, after completing his legal education (Mukhtaarship), he returned to Ballia. On 10 August 1925, he started his legal practice on the same day with Shri Parshuram Chaturvedi and Shri Baleshwar Singh.

Inspiration for writing

When Madhur ji was a middle school student, Maithilisharan Gupt's books 'Jaydrath Vadh' and 'Bharat Bharti' were becoming very popular. But they had to face the wrath of the British government. 'Bharat Bharti' was confiscated and burnt. These books definitely had an impact on Madhur ji's mind. His writing started with editing the prose-poetry-manjari in prose education. After this, in protest against making students carry bricks and mortar in the school premises, he published a dialogue in 'Pratap (Kanpur) under the name of Gupt against the District School Inspector Shri Jagannath Mishra. From here onwards, his interest in writing gradually increased - first in prose, then completely in verse. Articles kept getting published regularly in 'Swadesh' and 'Vartaman' (Kanpur). In Swadesh (Gaurakhpur), a satirical dialogue article on Pandit ji and Parikh Desh and Samaj was published which was much discussed. The tone of the articles used to be patriotic and satirical. Why did he quit prose writing? In answer, he told that prose writing requires sufficient time and extensive study, only emotions are not enough in prose writing. Due to lack of time, he had to give up prose writing. He left the prose genre and adopted the poetry genre but did not give up the tone of patriotism and satire. His second or third poem 'Priyatam ki Pehchaan' was first published in Prabha (Kanpur). By then, the composition 'Pushp Ka Paschatcha' had been published in 'Baand'. After this, the powerful stream of national poems started flowing from his pen, and many poets became jealous of his poetic talent. 'Tyagbhoomi (Ajmer), Madhuri (Lucknow), Prabha (Kanpur), Vidyarthi (Prayag), Balak (Laheriya Sarai), 'Desh' (Patna), 'Tarun Bharat' (Patna itself), 'Sangharsh' (Calcutta), 'Grihalakshmi and 'Chand' (Prayag) and 'Karmabhoomi' (Khandwa, M.P.) published many of his compositions with respect from time to time, many of which have not yet been collected in his poetry collections.

Poet's flourish

Everyone writes poetry, but only a few have a poet's heart. Madhur ji has the heart of a true poet. Poetry is written with skill and also with ease. Spontaneous poetry is not written, it is written. Skillful poetry is often burdened with the gravity of poetry. In such poems, the lack of the frank and unpretentious language of Urdu poets is seen. In reality, poetry is that which penetrates and enters the heart of the sensitive person with the harmony of emotion and uniqueness of expression and leaves a permanent impression. This quality can only be found in natural poetry. While a clever poem has the mild fragrance of Champak, a natural poem is soaked in the charming intoxication of lotus pollen. The pheasant runs away from the Champak, but automatically gets bound in the lotus's bud. Madhur's creations have blossomed naturally and have been delighting and illuminating readers and listeners for years. Due to this simplicity and lack of effort, at some places in Madhur ji's poetry, the tightness of language is not visible in some lines, which would have made the poem even more beautiful. Due to this simplicity, Dinkar was surprised, 'Who is this poet who writes so well and so carelessly?' This 'carelessness' is the ornament of Madhur ji's poetry. He has not been able to give the time to decorate his creations which he deserves. The truth is that he has caught the diamond of poetry. Then no matter how and where the poem is written, there is no need to worry. They have the grasp of poetry, the understanding of expression, the truth of narration and the keen eye to go deep into the subject matter simultaneously.

Role in freedom struggle

'Madhur' ji did not directly take part in the freedom struggle, but the role he played as a poet of national awakening is more important than the role of any freedom fighter who 'becomes a treasurer after grinding flour'. During the freedom movement, there used to be a secret second line of defence which was ready to provide all kinds of help to the front line. He was in touch with 'Azad' and Rajguru in Prayag. In those days, 'Azad' was still considered a brave (Student Leader). 'Azad' was fond of listening to poetry and accepted the important role of poets in the national movement. Once 'Azad' also got ready to go to a kavi sammelan with 'Madhur' ji. 'Madhur' ji jokingly said- 'Brother, you go separately, trouble may come because of you.' "What is the question of trouble? If his eyes fall on me first, I will sleep with Bamatul Bukhara," was Azad's reply. He expressed curiosity, "What is this Bamatul Bukhara?" In the meantime, Azad lifted his tehmad (lungi), seeing the pistol hanging from his waist, it did not take long for Madhur to understand that the revolutionary was calling this pistol 'Bamatul Bukhara'. Azad's other hand was on the other pistol in his shirt pocket. Madhur said, "Then why don't you say that I will sleep with 'Sajni'." Since then, Azad used to call his pistol by the name 'Sajni'.

Madhur ji has also helped the revolutionaries in Ballia on many occasions in the capacity of a lawyer. He had talked to Feroze Gandhi, secretly, under a tree on the other side of the road in front of his residence, because it was not safe to talk to revolutionaries in homes.

When Madhur ji became a courtier

An officer in Ballia court was looking for a suitable Hindustani synonym for the English word 'Recruiting Office'. Different people suggested different synonyms. The same question was posed to Madhur ji. He suggested 'Rankrut Daftar' instead of 'Recruiting Office'. The officer, commenting on the lack of knowledge of Hindi among Indians, rejected this synonym as well. His Hindi ego was hurt a lot. To give a suitable answer, he started looking for a suitable opportunity. He had acquired the vision of translation while working in 'Chand' and High Court. Therefore, Shri Krishnarai 'Hridayesh' of Ghazipur and Shri Ramsinghasan Sahay 'Madhur' of Ballia were appointed Hony. Astt. Publicity Officers. Madhur Ji worked on this post from 7 September 1936 to 1946 for which the government had approved an honorarium of Rs. 100 per month but Madhur Ji did not accept it. During this time, in December 1941, in the 57th issue of the Sunday Telegraph published from London, England's national poet William Ogilvy's poem 'How many miles to Moscow' was published. The poem was written during the Second World War in relation to Hitler's attack on Russia. How the Russians, under the 'Scorch Policy', set their fields on fire, ruined their homes, and retreated 600 miles to Stalingrad to allow Hitler to advance. After gaining full control, the Russians surrounded Hitler and captured him at home. This war poem was discussed all over the world. Madhur ji translated this poem into Hindi as 'Moscow is far away, how far?' After completing the title, it was sent to the British government. There was an Indian programme officer named Lord Ha Ha in the Hindi service of BBC. BBC approved and certified this translation. The Home Department of the British Government ordered the Viceroy of India to give a suitable reward to Madhur ji for this translation. On behalf of the Viceroy, the Collector of Ballia, Mr. J. Nigam organized a grand court on 10 March 1942. All the courtiers of the district were present in silk sherwani, churidar pyjama and cap turban. Madhur ji was respectfully invited. He was asked - should your total land revenue of Rs. 23 be waived as a reward? He refused. He also expressed his inability to accept any other award. Then that day, despite his reluctance, he was declared the 41st or 42nd courtier of the district. With this literary honour, he had answered the issue of 'Rank Office'. He never used this declared award. How could he? How could he use the award given by the British, whose pen always heated up the national movement against the British! Since we are talking about translations, it would not be irrelevant to discuss a couple of other translations of 'Madhur' ji. He has translated the Malayalam lullaby sung in Kerala. He has also translated some rubais of Omar Khayyam from English to Hindi.

Introduction to 'Dinkar'

Generally, there seems to be no difference whether 'Madhur' ji got acquainted with 'Dinkar' or 'Dinkar' got acquainted with 'Madhur' ji. But the reality is that 'Dinkar' was the first one to get acquainted and get influenced by 'Madhur' ji.

Late national poet Ramdhari Singh 'Dinkar' first got introduced to 'Madhur' ji through his works. The truth is that 'Madhur' ji's first work 'Madhur Lahari' played a special inspiring role in the formation of Dinkar's moods. 'Dinkar' has accepted this fact very honestly in the preface of 'Madhur' ji's second poetry collection 'Madhuvindu'. He writes, "I remember that in 1928(the publication year of Madhur-Bindu is 1926) I saw a small booklet of his named 'Madhur Lahari' in which about fifteen-twenty small poems were collected and the preface of which was written by Pandit Makhanlal Chaturvedi himself. In those days, I was looking for a new way of expression for myself (the search for which is probably not over yet) and whatever I found with some newness, I used to read it with great interest. This small strange book had a great impact on the formation of my mood and I got a good inspiration from it to discover or create what I called a new path. 'Madhur Lahari' appeared to me as if descending from a new horizon, so I started looking with deep fascination towards the direction towards which his poems had pointed."

Again, during the Tripuri Congress, Mahatma Gandhi had done a satyagraha against Darbar-Birbala in Rajkot. After a long time, Dinkar got to read the poem 'Rajaon se' written by 'Madhur' ji in 'Karmabhoomi', targeting Gandhi ji's fast.

'Dinkar' ji expresses his reaction to this poem in these words, "......... I was startled at once by the last line of the poem, as if someone had shown a lamp to my imagination, as if my own life-gift had shone on someone else's tongue. The memory of 'Madhura Lahari' once again became moist and filled my mind and I again started wondering who is this person who writes so carelessly and so well. Since then till today I have been constantly trying to establish contact with 'Madhur' ji in some way, but, (due to many reasons, one of which is that 'Madhur' ji rarely replies to letters) till recently I have been unsuccessful."

The truth in his mind went one step further. So that people do not think that it has become a trend to write eulogies in prefaces, Dinkar did not limit the entire preface of Madhubindu to this poetry collection but included it in his voluminous book Ardhanarishwar. The cordial relationship between the two established by 'Madhur' Lahari made their literary and personal relations sweeter and one day (in November, 1948) Dinkar himself had to come to Ballia, when he sat down and compiled Madhur's other compositions and planned the publication of 'Madhur-Bindu'. At that time, it was the occasion of Dadri fair, in which he also participated in the kavi sammelan. He was so impressed with Madhur that he has either given detailed or relevant descriptions about him at least at fourteen places in his literature. On many occasions, he also felt proud by reciting Madhur's compositions in front of the audience. He recited the above mentioned poem titled 'Rajaon Se' in Rajkot itself. Later, due to his efforts, Madhur's second poetry collection 'Madhu-Bindu' was published from Ajanta Press, Patna, whose advisor was Loknayak Jayaprakash Narayan. Once Madhur ji reached Patna to meet Dinkar ji at his residence. The servant told him, "Sahib is locked inside, he will not meet anyone." Actually, at that time he was sitting in his room and preparing the manuscript of 'Urvashi'. Madhur ji said, "Since when is Dinkar ji gone? Who has locked him up?" Hearing the voice, Dinkar himself came out laughing. He said, "Look, what a coincidence, I wrote Kurukshetra in five months and I have been working on 'Urvashi' for five years, but I am not able to find a chance to publish it." On 11 February 1956, at that time, Dinkar read out 'Urvashi' to Madhur ji. The first canto of 'Urvashi' was related to Urvashi's childhood. After listening to the entire recitation, 'Madhur' ji expressed his first reaction, "Brother Dinkar! A prostitute has no childhood and no one tries to know her." 'Dinkar' agreed to remove the first canto written earlier and 'Urvashi' was published by adding two-four new verses in the beginning.

'Dinkar' ji was as fast in writing letters to Madhur ji as 'Madhur' ji was slow. 'Madhur' ji has many of his letters with him. These letters throw ample light on their sweet relationship. Dinkar's thoughts expressed in these letters given below also indicate his affection and feelings towards Madhur ji.

'Madhur' ji had relations and contact with many eminent litterateurs. It would be appropriate to mention here some of them, who had visited him in Ballia. Mahapandit Rahul Sankrityayan came here twice, first time in 1936 as a monk and second time in 1946 as the President of Janpad Hindi Pracharini Sabha. Regarding his second visit, he had become a different person. Meanwhile, he received a telegram from Madhurji, "Gates are being built to welcome you. The porters are at work." In reply, he sent a telegram informing him of his arrival. On the initiative of Puaal, he also stayed overnight at Madhurji's place in the comfort of intimacy.

The second person to visit his place is Acharya Kshitimohan Sen. He had come here in connection with his research on saint literature. 'Madhur' ji jokingly told him, "Brother, I have no access to this field. Yes, there is a gentleman here who does the work of digging up the buried dead. I will introduce you to him." He was referring to late Acharya Parshuram Chaturvedi. It is worth mentioning that this 'digger', by digging up the buried dead, wrote the 'Saint Tradition of North India', which brought to light many forgotten saints and their literature.

Another friend of his was the famous Bhojpuri poet Principal Manoranjan Babu, due to whose inspiration 'Madhur' ji's poetic talent was inclined towards children's literature. The letter he wrote to him in Bhojpur poetry on Bhatri Dwitiya, 20 October 1971, just four days before his death, reveals the intimacy between the two poets. And also reveals Manoranjan Babu's thoughts about the mortality of this body. He writes -

Blessed is our fate May all the sadness and sorrow go away, Madhur ji! We will always remember our own words, 'Kings and queens fly on the pages of history, these bodies are the manure of the world, Madhur ji!

Literary work

When and why did you adopt the nickname 'Madhura'? In response to this, 'Madhura' ji said that the national movement was badly defeated in 1924-26. There was sadness all around in the country. Political activists were getting dejected. In this time of sadness, a special responsibility fell on the shoulders of poets and litterateurs. During these days, after not finding any new composition of 'Madhura' ji, 'Karmaveer' editor Pt. Makhanlal Chaturvedi wrote to him, "Silence does not seem appropriate in such moments." He expected from him, 'The desire for sweetness will always remain.' Probably from this 'sweetness' he chose his name 'Madhura', which was first used in 'Karmaveer'. Madhura ji kept writing continuously in 'Karmaveer' from 1925 to 1947.

In fact, Madhur ji had compiled 'Gadya-Padya Manjari' with the help of Udaynarayan Tiwari in middle school itself. He had edited another similar book 'Mahila Manorama' at the age of 21. Mahila Manorama is a collection of prose and poetry written by Madhur ji's grandfather, Munshi Baijnath Sahay, the author of Kanya Kaumudi. By looking at the first composition of this book 'Prarthana', one can easily guess the role of this poet in the initial formation of Hindi. Pure Tatsam words have been used in the poems. There is almost no mixing in the language. His original works are as follows -

1. Madhur Lahari - This is the same poetry collection which played an important role in the formation of 'Dinkar's' moods. It was published in the year 1926 by Govind Press, Ballia. For this, the preface has been written by Pandit Makhanlal Chaturvedi and the introduction has been written by Thakur Prasiddhanarayan Singh. It contains 26 compositions published in magazines like 'Karmaveer', 'Chand', 'Grahlakshmi', 'Prabha' and 'Madhuri', among which 'Priyatam Ki Pehchaan', 'Atyachari Ka Ant', 'Kurukshetra', 'Pralayabindu', 'Gaurav-Gaan', 'Karmabhoomi', 'Domin', 'Tootegi Hathkadiyan', 'Pushp Ka Paschat' and 'Parampita Ka Pata' etc. are especially noteworthy. In the poems of this collection, the sweet feelings of the poet have found rhythm themselves. A natural beauty is visible everywhere in the unique grace of words and the language of the poem. Its reviews were published in 10-12 newspapers and magazines of U.P., M.P., Orissa and Lahore etc. 'Madhura Lahari' is such a work that had charmed the 'Indian soul' and had shaken the national poet.

2. Madhu-Bindu Being moved and inspired by the sweet waves, the national poet 'Dinkar' himself implemented the plan of publishing Madhu-Bindu. It was published in the year 2008 by Ajanta Press, Nayatola, Patna. The introduction of this collection has been written by 'Dinkar' himself. The book is dedicated to Pandit Makhanlal Chaturvedi in these lines.

Dev, I dedicate the love accumulated over ages to your footsteps. I dedicate a garland of flowers that bloomed on the horizon.

In this compilation, a total of 50 poems written by 'Madhura' ji between 1920 and 1947 are collected, out of which 'Madhubind', 'Chhaliya, Jalbala, Hariyale Din', 'Mandir Mein', 'Meri Holi', 'Shringar', Nirdhanta', 'Dharam Ki Jai', 'Bharatendu Ke Prati', 'Gram-Gaurav', 'Halwaha', 'Dom and Chhu-Mantar on Untouchability' etc. are especially noteworthy. Some compositions of 'Madhura Lahari' have also been given place in this. In this compilation, those two lines are also collected, which the national poet presented in the Indian Parliament, giving a realistic and touching depiction of the shameful degradation of Hindi in this country, and shook the whole country. The lines are as follows-

Today the country has become independent, we are the farmers and laborers.

You are asking in Delhi itself, how far is Delhi?

This poem was written by Madhur ji on 15th August 1947. On the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of 'Saraswati', 'Dinkar' recited this poem for the second time under the chairmanship of national poet Maithili Sharan Gupt, the reporting of which was published in headlines in 'Aaj' of 14th January, 1962.

Apart from the national poems of Madhur ji, poems of affection, compassion, love, faith and mystery are also represented in 'Madhuvindu'. The craft and style of the compositions are exactly like those of Madhur Lahari.

Death Shri Ramsinghasan Sahay Madhur died on 8 June 1990 at Ballia, Uttar Pradesh.