Indian poet (born 1930)
Rajkumari Indira Devi Dhanrajgir
|
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/cb/Indira_Devi_Dhanrajgir.png/220px-Indira_Devi_Dhanrajgir.png) |
Born
| (
1930-08-17
)
August 17, 1930
(age 93)
Hyderabad
,
Telangana
,
British Raj
|
---|
Occupation
| Princess
|
---|
Nationality
| Indian
|
---|
Notable works
| Return Eternity
(1965)
Partings in Mimosa
(1968)
Memories of the Deccan
(2008)
|
---|
Spouse
| Gunturu Seshendra Sarma
|
---|
Indira Devi Dhanrajgir
(born 17 August 1930), better known as
Rajkumari Indira Devi
,
[1]
is an
Indo-Anglian
poet and photography enthusiast from
Hyderabad
, India. She was nominated for the
1973 Nobel Prize in Literature
.
[2]
[3]
Biography
[
edit
]
Early life
[
edit
]
Indira was born to Raja Dhanrajgirji Bahadur, a philanthropist, and his wife, Rani Premila Devi.
[1]
Her father was noted for having introduced many Western ideas and the game
cricket
in
Hyderabad
, and was of service to the court of
Mir Osman Ali Khan
, the
Nizam of Hyderabad
.
[1]
She was the oldest daughter of four and was tutored at home by an English governess.
[4]
Her paternal grandfather, Raja Saheb Narsinghji Bahadur, was regarded "as the Rockefeller of the South."
[4]
The Dhanrajgirs owned palaces in
Bombay
, Hyderabad, and
Poona
.
[4]
[5]
At a young age, Indira met influential people: she played
carrom
with
Kishen Pershad
who served twice as
Prime Minister of Hyderabad
,
Mir Yousuf Ali Khan, Salar Jung III
gifted her a
Shetland pony
on her first birthday, and listened to recitations of noted poet
Allama Iqbal
which inspired her to engage herself with
poetry
.
[4]
[5]
Literary career
[
edit
]
Rajkumari Indira taught herself how to
type
and started composing
couplets
in
Urdu
on the lawns of Gyan Bagh Palace, having been inspired by the works of
Allama Iqbal
,
Ghalib
and
Sri Aurobindo
.
[4]
Since her teenage years, Indira was also a photography enthusiast and started making good collection of
photographs
, which she says, are worth being shared in the book.
[1]
In 1964, her first volume of poetry was published under the title
The Apostle
, followed later on by
Return Eternity
and
Yearnings and Other Poems
in 1965 and 1966 respectively.
[1]
During these times, she created a group of poets around her and turned the Gyan Bagh Palace a place for local poets, which included her future husband
Gunturu Seshendra Sarma
,
Aziz Qaisi
,
Makhdoom Mohiuddin
and
Jwalamukhi
, to meet, read, discuss and translate poetry.
[6]
Excerpt from
Partings in Mimosa
Time, a singing continuity, sings it way,
Cutting back at unhealed wounds. Into this
Wounded dawn we sigh a pain,
To be lifted by the arms of a summer madness
And watch the echo retract, renunciate,
Disclaim and give up bordering away from proximity
Into the yesterday...
She later gained recognition among literary circles with her fourth publication,
Partings in Mimosa
. Literary critic Usharbudh Arya described it as "a really promising talent demonstrably conscious of the restraint which the use of
free verse
demands... [she] gives to her 483 lines a sense of enactive rhythm, a lingering, thoughtful gusto, [and] a corresponding control of structure."
[7]
At a time of increasing literary success, she suddenly gave up writing poetry after marrying
Gunturu Seshendra Sarma
in 1970. She did this, affirming: "There can't be two poets in one family."
[4]
For that,
Osmania University
professor Kousar Azam said of her "as a poet belonging to the Aurobindo School of Poetry, she received some critical attention but now remains known, sadly, only to a select few."
[6]
The latest publication she wrote was a
coffee table book
about her family and the palace titled
Memories of the Deccan
which was dedicated to the eighth Nizam, Prince
Mukarram Jah
on his 7th birthday and Princess
Esra Birgen
, Princes
Azmet Jah
and Shehkar, in October 2008.
[1]
Personal life
[
edit
]
In 1970, she was married to
Gunturu Seshendra Sarma
, a
Telugu
poet.
[1]
She currently resides at the
Gyan Bagh Palace
.
Honors
[
edit
]
She became the first President and Chairperson of Hindi Academy Government of Andhra Pradesh, and vice-president of the Telugu Writers Conference in 1968.
[1]
She has been also on the advisory panel of the Sahitya Academy, Urdu Committee, Andhra Pradesh and State Handicrafts Board, Government of Andhra Pradesh.
[1]
In 1973, she was nominated for the
Nobel Prize in Literature
by
Krishna Srinivas
, president of the World Poetry Society Intercontinental (WPSI).
[2]
She was the first Indian woman to receive such honor.
In November 2019, the Rajkumari Indira Devi Hall (originally the
Golden Threshold
) at
University of Hyderabad
was inaugurated in her honor, transforming it into a cultural and literary hub.
[8]
[9]
[10]
Publications
[
edit
]
Poetry collections
[
edit
]
- The Apostle
(Ajoykumar Mitra, 1964)
- Return Eternity
(Ajoykumar Mitra, 1965)
- Yearnings and Other Poems
(N.P., 1966)
- Partings in Mimosa
(M.L. Dhawan, 1968)
[11]
- Poems of My National Memory
(Indian Languages Forum, 1976)
- Wind Blows from the Scaffold
(N.P., 1976)
Private distributions
[
edit
]
- Commitment
(1969)
[a]
- Tide
(1974)
[a]
Non-fiction
[
edit
]
- Memories of the Deccan
(Visual Quest India, 2008)
Translations
[
edit
]
- Seshajyotsna: Telugu Modern Indian Classic
by Gu???ru ????ndra?arma (Indian Languages Forum, 1974)
[13]
(translated into English)
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Commitment
and
Tide
were published for private distribution only.
[12]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
h
i
Manjulatha Kalanidhi (21 March 2020).
"Rare glimpses of Hyderabad, as seen by Rajkumari Indira"
.
The New Indian Express
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
a
b
"Nobelarkivet-1973"
(PDF)
.
svenskaakademien.se
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
"Nomination Archive - Indira Devi Dhanrajgir"
.
NobelPrize.org
. March 2024
. Retrieved
14 March
2024
.
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Zeenath Khan (20 November 2022).
"Exploring a royal past: In conversation with a Princess"
.
The Siasat Daily
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
a
b
Swati Sharma (8 May 2020).
"We had cooks, guards, butlers, says Rajkumari Indira Devi Dhanrajgir"
.
Deccan Chronicle
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
a
b
Kousar J. Azam (ed.).
"Language and Literary Cultures in Hyderabad"
(PDF)
. Routledge
. Retrieved
3 January
2024
.
- ^
"Mahfil Vol. 6, No. 4 (Winter 1970)"
.
JSTOR
. Asian Studies Center of Michigan State University. pp. 80-83 (4 pages)
. Retrieved
3 January
2024
.
- ^
"UoH to convert Golden Threshold into cultural hub"
.
The Times of India
. 6 November 2019
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
Saima Afreen (7 November 2019).
"Cultural and literary Hub at Golden Threshold"
.
The New Indian Express
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
"UoH to convert Golden Threshold into culture hub"
.
The Hindu
. 7 November 2019
. Retrieved
2 January
2024
.
- ^
Naik, M. K.,
Perspectives on Indian poetry in English
, p. 230, (published by Abhinav Publications, 1984,
ISBN
0-391-03286-0
,
ISBN
978-0-391-03286-6
), retrieved via Google Books, 3 January 2024
- ^
"Bibliographies for South Asian Studies: Poetry Written by South Asian Women"
.
University Libraries | University of Washington
. Retrieved
3 January
2024
.
- ^
Dhanrajgir, Indira Devi,
Seshajyotsna: Telugu Modern Indian Classic; English-Telugu Text ? Gu???ru ????ndra?arma
(published by Indian Languages Forum, 1974), retrieved via Google Books, 3 January 2024