Dawn at Puri - Jayanta Mahapatra

Dawn at Puri - Jayanta Mahapatra

Poem:-

Endless crow noises

A skull in the holy sands

tilts its empty country towards hunger.


White-clad widowed Women

past the centers of their lives

are waiting to enter the Great Temple


Their austere eyes

stare like those caught in a net

hanging by the dawn's shining strands of faith.


The fail early light catches

ruined, leprous shells leaning against one another,

a mass of crouched faces without names,


and suddenly breaks out of my hide

into the smoky blaze of a sullen solitary pyre

that fills my aging mother:


her last wish to be cremated here

twisting uncertainly like light

on the shifting sands


Description of the poem

Jayanta Mahapatra is a major Indian English poet. He was given the Sahitya Academy Award in 1981. Jayanta Mahapatra has a number of volumes of verse to his credit. To name a few are - Close to the Sky, Ten by Ten, A Rain of Rites, Relationship and many more. His poetry is perfect in craftsmanship and mainly lyrical in nature. The poetry is marked by realism but is covered by a morbid approach to life.

His brooding vision shifts from the beauty of life and turns it into poetic.

  1. Regards poetry and the poetry of his wonder.

  2. Own Mahapatra said, “What appears to disturb me is the triumph of silence in the mind..”

  3. He says, ‘A poem makes me see out of it in all directions like a sieve, and I am almost relieved at that all-important thought.’


His poems are regarded as classics in modern Indian English Literature. The poem ‘Dawn at Puri’ is set in the town of Puri, situated in Orissa. The poet in this poem talks of the hollowness of the rites and rituals of the common Indian society. The poem contains 6 stanzas, each having 3 lines. The poem is symbolic and metaphorical, there is no rhyme scheme. The poet is near a famous Hindu temple situated on the bank of a river. There are crows crowing which does not sound pleasant at all. There is a skull in the holy sands. It seems the crows went to eat the dead body. 

            The tone of the poem is very sad. The very word ‘Holy’ is ironic. The cremated body is turned to ash. The skull symbolises an empty picture of poverty also. Here the city ‘Puri’ symbolizes India. The poet moves on to the white-widowed woman. What a dismay, irrespective of age women need to be white-cladded after the death of their husbands. They have to give up all worldly pleasures. 

  1. Now they have no purpose in life.

  2. As their husbands were “the center of their of their lives”.

  3. And now without them, they have no identity and purpose to live.

  4. They are waiting to enter the great temple.

It seems reaching the ‘Great Temple’ would give peace to these ‘white classed women. These women have no desire, no purpose their “austere eyes stare like those caught in a net”. They have lost the freedom of their mind and body. They are now just waiting to enter the ‘Great Temple’. The poet pointed out the crude reality of the rituals of India ‘What is Holy’ about it? The poet seems to ask. 

     The low caste are not allowed to enter the temple. This discrimination is very ironical “The smoky blaze of the sullen solitary pyre” reminds him of his old mother. His mother’s wish was to be cremated here. 

   Here is ‘Dawn’, not physical but metaphorical also. There is uncertainty. The belief is hollow like “twisting uncertainty like light on the shifting sands.”


These are from the website "Poem Analysis" to understand the

poem better its not a part of (Homework)



‘Dawn at Puri’ by Jayanta Mahapatra is a poem of Modern Indian Writing in English. Along with A.K. Ramanujan, Mahapatra is remembered as one of the pioneers of modernist writing in India. In the poem, the poet presents a picture of the Puri sea beach at dawn and its resemblance to the people living there. Puri is a famous tourist spot in India, located in Odisha. It is also famous for its Jagannath Temple. Jagannath is an avatar of Lord Vishnu and the state observes a huge religious gathering for Lord Jagannath during the season of Monsoon.



Summary of Dawn at Puri

In ‘Dawn at Puri’ Mahapatra uses the imagery of the sea beach to portray its proximity to life. 


‘Dawn at Puri’ by Jayanta Mahapatra presents a picturesque description of the seashore and the pilgrims visiting each day to visit the famous temple of Jagannath. At the beach, there are numerous crows gathering here and there. In this noisy ambiance, the poet observes a skull resembling the poor and hungry millions of our country. Thereafter the poet shifts his vision and looks at the temple where “white-clad widowed Women” are waiting to enter the “Great Temple”. The poet sees a deep religious yearning in their eyes.

                 In the next section of ‘Dawn at Puri’, Mahapatra shifts again to the seashore and now he rather sees empty shells lying there instead of crows. It is actually an instance of symbolism that will be discussed later in the analysis section. In the landscape suddenly a heap of smoke seeks the attention of the poet. It is actually coming out of a cremation pyre. The poem ends with the wish of the poet’s aging mother. She wants to be cremated at her native place like the mentioned pyre on the seashore.


Literary Devices in ‘Dawn at Puri’

Let us look at the literary devices used in each stanza of ‘Dawn at Puri’ by Jayanta Mahapatra.


  • Stanza 1 – In the first line of the poem, “Endless crow noises” is a hyperbole. In the second line “skull” is a metaphor of poverty and hunger. These problems still haunt the lower section of Indian society. In the third line, “empty country” is a metonym for the people living in India. Here the poor people of India are hungry or their belly is empty for the need for food.

  • Stanza 2 – In the first line of this stanza, “White-clad” is a metaphor for the white saree worn by Hindu widowed women. In this stanza “past the centers of their lives” is another metaphor. It means that the widows have passed the age of 50. In the last line, the “Great Temple” is a symbol of the famous Jagannath Temple of Odisha.

  • Stanza 3 – In this stanza, the “austere eyes” is an example of synecdoche. Here the poet associates the widows with only their eyes. Readers can treat the word “austere” as a transferred epithet or hypallage. This quality actually belongs to the “widowed Woman” in the poem. In the next section, readers can find a simile. Here the poet compares the widows’ eyes to the eyes of the fish caught in a net. In the last line “dawn’s shining strands of faith” is a metaphor. Here the sunlight at dawn is like a ray of faith to the poet.

  • Stanza 4 – In the fourth stanza of ‘Dawn at Puri’, Mahapatra personifies the early light of the dawn and compares it to a woman. The “leprous shells” in the poem is an example of a personal metaphor. By this phrase, the poet tries to compare the old widows to the shells lying on the shore.

  • Stanza 5 – In this stanza, the “sullen solitary pyre” is the use of personification or readers can say it is an example of a personal metaphor.

  • Stanza 6 – In the last stanza of the poem Mahapatra compares the twisting of her to the “light on the shifting sands”. Here the poet uses the literary device called a simile.

Analysis of ‘Dawn at Puri’

Stanzas 1 and 2

Endless crow noises

A skull in the holy sands

tilts its empty country towards hunger.


White-clad widowed Women

past the centers of their lives

are waiting to enter the Great Temple


In the first two stanzas of ‘Dawn at Puri’, Jayanta Mahapatra presents two images to the readers. The former tells the readers about the ambiance of Puri sea beach at dawn. The latter reminds us of the pilgrims gathering around the Jagannath Temple before sunrise. Apart from the broad images depicted in the poem, there are some minor images that are of no less importance. One such image is of the human skull. The poet mentions this in the poem to make the readers aware of the problem of hunger and poverty prevalent in rural India.

In the second stanza of the poem, Mahapatra presents the imagery of the widow women waiting to enter the “Great Temple” of Lord Jagannath. At this stage of their lives, only faith and devotion to the almighty can keep their spirit of living alive.

Stanzas 3 and 4

Their austere eyes

stare like those caught in a net

hanging by the dawn's shining strands of faith.


The fail early light catches

ruined, leprous shells leaning against one another,

a mass of crouched faces without names,


This section of ‘Dawn at Puri’ contains another set of images like the previous section. In this section, Jayanta Mahapatra brings the image of the fish caught by a net into the light. It is one of the familiar images of the people who have already visited Puri. The poet compares the eyes of those fishes showing the last hope of life and liberty, to the eyes of the widows. Their condition is similar to those of fishes; both caught by the net of life and struggling.

In the next section, the poet uses the image of the “shells” to compare the lonely and hopeless state of the widows. Like the shells leaning against each other on the shore, the widows also gather at the temple and sit there in the manner of the shells. According to the poet they have “crouched faces without names”. There is no need to differentiate them by their names. Their condition makes them an entity of loneliness and hopelessness. In this way, the poet tries to depict their short but simple annals of life.

Stanzas 5 and 6

and suddenly breaks out of my hide

into the smoky blaze of a sullen solitary pyre

that fills my aging mother:


her last wish to be cremated here

twisting uncertainly like light

on the shifting sands


Jayanta Mahapatra in the last section of ‘Dawn at Puri’ depicts the last stage of life by producing the image of the “sullen solitary pyre”. The smell of pyre makes the poet’s mother aware of her mortality. Her attitude towards death is significant in the poem. Instead of fearing her approaching death, she welcomes it. She wishes to die in her native land with which her bond is deep and unbroken.




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