Arun Kolatkar’s Jejuri: A Conflict between Myth and Reality, Faith and Scepticism

Abstract

Myth and mythical association with different gods and goddesses play a significant role in Indian English literature. Arun Kolatkar’s Jejuri is a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize winning collection of poems about a pilgrim place of the same name in Maharashtra and mythical stories associated with the local god Khandoba. Kolatkar tries to exploit the age old theme of a religious pilgrimage through his poetic persona, Monahar, who is a modern urban sceptic. To him Jejuri does not appear to be a spiritual place or a sacred place of worshipping God. Rather it is a barren, desolated and ruined place. This paper aims to analyze the conflict between the mythical association of the place and the god Khandoba and the socio-cultural and economic reality of the place; between the blind faith of the local people and the pilgrims who visit there and the sceptic attitude of an urban tourist with an objective eye and rational mind.

Keywords

• pilgrimage
• faith
• scepticism
• myth
• conflict