Vasudevasaran Agrawala
Padmavat Sanjivani Vyakhya
(Sahitya Sadan, Jhansi; 1955)
(Sahitya Academy Awardee-Hindi-1956)
Vasudevasaran Agrawala's significant work Padmavat Sanjiani Vyakhya makes use of the possibilities of philosophical and cultural interpretation of a literary work.
The preface of the book is a revealing example of appreciative and scholastic criticism. After Ramachandra Shukla, Vasudevasaran Agrawala alone has discussed the poetic meaning, philosophical and cultural motives and images in Padmavat with such scholarship and insight. While explaining the linguistic approach towards textual criticism, Agrawala has tried to evaluate Avadhi language in a living historical tradition. Discussing the tradition of the epic-form, significance of a love-story in the Sufi pattern, Jayasi's philosophical vision, his attachment to the sensibility of the masses, Agrawala poses the problem of the validity of an old text like Padmavat. Comparing several texts of the same work he has explained some of his critical observations in detail. Vasudevasaran Agrawala has also discussed the time, life and tradition of the great Sufi poet. Above all, he has underlined the historical sensibility, cultural awareness and art-references working behind the vocabulary of this rich epic poem. Thus Padmavat Sanjival1i Vyakhya excels as an attempt towards textual criticism in a cultural historical linguistic perspective. Scholars may differ about certain findings of Vasudevasaran Agrawala but they will appreciate this work for a wider range of literary criticism.
Parmanad Srivastava
(Source: Sahitya Academy Awards – Books and Writers – 1955-1978
Published by Sahitya Academy. ISBN 81 7201 014 1)
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