INFLUENCE OF SCIENCE ON MODERN TELUGU POETRY

D. LALITHAKUMARI

Along with the British, also came to India English literature reflecting their scientific and technological knowledge too, which influenced Indian mind and culture. And through English literature the new feature influenced modern literatures in the different Indian languages. Modern Telugu poetry also bears this influence. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate briefly that influence.

The English poet John Donne made use of natural science in his poetry. But he realized that the soul could not attain full knowledge of the world. So he tried to discover truth. Addressing the soul, he wrote:

Thou shalt not peep through lattices of eyes,

Nor hear through labyrinths of ears, nor learn

By circuit, or collections so discern,

In heaven thou straight know’st all concerning it,

And what concerns it not shall straight forget.

But john Milton thought that science would help acquire deep knowledge. He exclaimed:

O sacred, wise and wisdom-giving plant

Mother of science...

He admired the famous Italian astronomer Galileo, and made use of his discoveries to design the cosmological background for his epic Paradise Lost, and praised him as Tuscan Artist in Book I. Alexander Pope in The Essay on Criticism, referred to Newton’s prism.

False eloquence, like prismatic glass,

Its gaudy colours spread on ev’ry place

The race of Nature we no more survey,

All glares alike, without distinction gay

But true expression, like th’ unchanging Sun

Clears and improves whate’er it shines upon

It gilds all objects, but alters none.

William Wordsworth, In his Prelude (Book IV), referred to the importance of the relationship between science and imagination in life. P. B. Shelley also in The Cloud made use of the facts of natural science:

I am daughter of earth and water

And the nursling of the sky

I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores

I change, but I cannot die,

For after the rain, when with never a stain,

The pavilion or heaven is bare

And the winds and sunbeams with their convex gleans

Build up the blue dome of air

I silently laugh at my own cenotaph

And out of the caverns of rain.

In Queen Mab, Shelley mentions an astronomical fact:

Whilst round the Chariot’s way

Innumerable systems rolled.

James Thomas wrote an elegy in memory of Sir Isaac Newton and praised his laws of gravitation. William Blake too took advantage of his knowledge of Newton’s laws.

The poetry of the Victorian Age became a symbol of the influence of the new science and technology. Arthur Compton- Rickett wrote:

The geological discoveries of Sir Charles Lyell, the biological investigations of Robert Chambers, who prepared the way for The Origin of Species, or Charles Darwin, for Alfred Russel Wallace, Thomas Huxley, and the philosophic generalizations of Herbert Spencer; all these intellectual streams of thought flowed over into the literature of the age and profoundly influenced it.

He further said:

Tennyson treats Nature like an imaginative man of science; Robert Browning is often more like an analytical chemist than an artist; Matthew Arnold and Arthur Hugh Clough are largely occupied with the discrepancies between scientific discovery and religious faith; ...

Tennyson, in In Memorium, revealed his new scientific outlook. He felt that the old order would change giving place to the new one (of science and technology).

Modern Telugu poets, who read their poetry, began exploiting the new knowledge of science and technology to create poetic images, figures and symbolism.

Srirangam Narayana Babu (elder brother of Sri-Sri), in his book Rudhira Jyoti, employed new images like kankalamulu (skeleton) and kapalamulu (skulls). Sri-Sri is the originator of progressive poetry. Using his knowledge of science, he has made new coinages for the poetic images and pictures in big famous Mahaprasthanam, such as: saurakutumbamu (solar system), geleksila sutkes (galexies’ suitcase), tokacukkala tifinkeriyar (comets’ tiffin-carrier), bhaswarapu julu (phosphorus mane), etc. He has created new figures using scientific facts:

Like the earth revolving within itself

And rotating round the sun,

Inspiration is rotating round aspiration.

Puttaparti Narayanacharyulu too, in his Agniveena, has made use of scientific coinages such as: rudhirasrukanamulu (tears of blood,) cheekipoyina yemukalu (rotten bones), etc. Pathabhi, in his Fideluragala Dajan, employs new kind of expressions:

I am like lady’s parker pen;

I pour my own blood as ink.

And it is not strange if recent Telugu poets employ scientific images like: ‘fan’, ‘furniture’, ‘factory’; ‘radio’, ‘television’, ‘cinema’ ‘mind’, ‘backbone’, ‘heart’; ‘acid’, ‘ore’, ‘laboratory’; ‘atom’ ‘aeroplane’, ‘rocket’; ‘gravity’, ‘light-year’, ‘space’, etc and try to make their poetry ultra-modern.

Modern Telugu poets have also adopted the technique of symbolism to express their ideas through scientific, mathematical and technical terms. For example: Durganand, in his Antargolalu describes the decay of the world today in a symbolic way:

This world somebody

In nitric acid dipped.

In Twamevaham, Arudra uses Pythagoras’s Theorem to explain socialism. He says that the base (ants) is a symbol of the working class; the perpendicular (snakes) is a symbol of the aristocratic class; and the diagonal represents the difference between the two. The rupture between the two classes is like the area of the square on the diagonal which is equal to the total area of the squares on the base and the perpendicular. It symbolizes the rise of bourgeois class as the result of the clash between thesis and anti-thesis, or the working class and the aristocratic class. Hence his plea for socialism. In another poem, he employs ‘flower’ to symbolize society. Calyx symbolizes the hungry working class; the all corolla symbolizes opportunists; androecium stands for philanthropists; and gynoecium with its stigma represents the profit-making business community which is ultimately benefited. Similarly in Tadhasthu, he employs copper for labour class, zinc for middle class, and iron for business class. Copper and zinc produce electricity which charges iron with magnetism (profits). So he suggests that the working and middle classes should unite for a revolution to establish social equality for the progress of the State.

Duvvuri Ramireddy has written story poems, using scientific aspects as characters in a romantic maener. Kavi-Ravi is written as the Sun narrating for the poet the process of evolution. Adishakti, Goddess of Power, first created egg-like fiery spheres. One of them was split up into bits which occupied scattered positions in the sky. The smallest of them, the Sun, emitted from its body the planets. One of them, the Earth, gave birth to the Moon. Similarly arose the stars which occupied scattered positions in the sky. It takes many light-years for their light to reach the Earth. In due course of many centuries, chemical elements, corals, and living beings evolved. Nature gradually gave rise to vertebrates like fish, birds, monkeys, and finally humans. The poet describes the process of evolution pleasingly. Thus evolution 18 the theme of the book. His Jaladangana is another charming work of art. This book is an allegoric representation of a scientific truth. Natural objects like sea, earth, sun, lotus, wind, and cloud are conceived as characters. The cloud is imagined as a lady. Jaladangana, who narrates her story to the poet (or reader). She had her birth first as the Sea. Earth became her dear friend. Sun married Sea. He married Earth also. So he transformed the soul of Sea (water) with his heat into Vapour. Vapour rose wards the arms of Sun in the sky. In the way, cold wind converted her into Cloud. She then understood that Sun also loved Lotus. Dejected, she went to commit suicide in the Himalayas. But she became Ice and lay static on the cold peaks. Sun took pity and comforted her with his warmth and changed her into Water. But she ran down the slopes and marched through rivers protected by her friend Earth. Happily, she attained her oceanic stature finally. The apparent theme of the book is the cyclic metamorphoses of water. But the real theme is the movement of the soul through the cycle of births and rebirths till it reaches the bosom of God finally. It is revealed in the form of dhwani indirectly.

Kotikalapudi Kurmanatham is “a romantic poet among progressive poets and a progressive poet among romantic poets.” He is also a devotional poet and a new movement. Simplicity, music, depth, and modernism are the chief qualities of his poetry. He is unique in exploiting scientific knowledge for the technical framework of his books, especially his recent Saptagirulu. Solar rays refracting through tiny water-drops split up into the Seven colours and appear as the beautiful rainbow in the sky. God is Light which manifests as the cosmic spectrum. Man must transcend the maya of colours and attain the power to see that Light to reach God. This is the central philosophy of his poetic art. He says in the key song:

Seven colours unite and become white,

Over seven hills prevails Thy Light:

Transcending six enemies leads to Salvation,

Traversing six mountains leads to Thee

Through bhaktayoga one can see His Light. But the humans are entangled in the maya of colours. They cannot see the Light of God. The book is punctuated into seven sections: Srisailadri, Seshadri, Garudadri, Vrishadri, Vrishabhadri, Narayanadri and Venkatadri. They are symbols of the seven colours–red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Like the gradation of the seven hills leading to the Lord, the seven sections sing of the gradation of bhakti. Together they constitute the bhaktiyoga of the poet. On behalf of humanity, the poet transcends the colourful hurdles, sees Light, and prays to God (Venkateswara) for the salvation of humanity. The poet is an optimist. At the end of the book, he pronounces that humanity shall attain salvation on the earth by the grace of the Lord. That is why jammulamadaka Madhavarama Sarma in his introduction to the book writes: “In the light of the book, it is to be observed that Lord Venkateswara shines as the Soul of humanity. To attain that Soul within, the seven-fold power of Monarch is essential. Hence all seekers should accept this as the soul-enlightening book.”

Thus modern Telugu poets reflect their knowledge of science and technology in their poetry like the English poets. Hence Telugu poetry has achieved new values. Science secured a place in poetry. Literature has become rich with scientific terms and realism. Scientific techniques have come into Telugu literature. Yet the progress is not sufficient. The great Indo-Anglian poet, Sri Aurobindo, has employed modern scientific and technological knowledge in a masterly manner, and created the world’s greatest epic poem–Savitri. Modern Telugu poets have yet to reach such heights to keep up the prestige of Telugu literature.

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