Scripture on Stone

Book Review: RAJNI SINGH

Charu Sheel Singh. SCRIPTURE ON STONE. New Delhi: Adhyayan Publishers, 2007, pp. x +108, Price Rs. 95/-, ISBN 81-8435-019-8

Poetry in Indian English ought to express Indian ethos and sensibility as these are considered to be the important traits of Indian ness. Charu Sheel Singh as a poet, critic and creative writer has always tried to connect himself with the main trends and sensibility which has helped him find a place for himself under the umbrella of the present day Indian English poetry. Born in 1955 in Farookhabad, C.S.Singh is a critic and creative writer of international repute. His seventh volume of poems Scripture on Stone is a welcome publication to render one bemused at the first sight. His poems collected in this volume are a storehouse of rich heritage and have symbolic expressions and immaculate command of language.

The poems in this volume can be grouped under three categories-poems based on Indian mythological figures such as Ram, Shabari, Eklavya and Ganga; poems based on legendary figures like Gandhi, Meera, Buddha, Kabir and a poem based on historical subject-Taj Mahal. Although kaleidoscopic in nature, these poems get unified under the title ‘Scripture on Stone’-“a journey to the world beyond the word and the logos.”(p.vii)

Scripture on Stone opens with ‘Ram’ wherein Singh retells the entire story of Ram in a condensed manner. To the question’Who is Ram?’- a man/demi-god/god, the poet beautifully defines:

…. ‘Ra’ is the Sun which endlessly

substitutes itself while ‘ma’

makes the twin shores merge

into eternity. (12)

Ram’s infidelity to Sita is termed as ‘market fidelity’ by the poet. This ‘marketed fidelity’ becomes a source of Sita’s ordeal and Ram’s remorse.

… He

could not preach others

to put their houses in order;

He sold one of His own in

markets that never see the

light of the day. (19)

Ram’s ‘masterly wizardry’ over ‘twelve kalas’, ‘eight siddhis’and ‘nine nidhis’ could not help him escape from the wheel of karma. The poet towards the end of the poem raises a pertinent question and lays it bare for the reader to ponder over:

karmas though can also be imposed

and not necessarily bred; would

one answer this to inaugurate

a still gruesome new wisdom. (21)

The second poem ‘Ravidas’ focuses on the on- going debate of center /periphery, the powerful /powerless, the privileged /under -privileged; the rage of Parashuram that becomes a curse to Ravidas, putting his clan in the lowest hierarchy of caste system and his emergence as a ‘scriptural saint’.

‘Eklavya’, the fourth poem of this volume has an affinity to ‘Ravidas’ on the grounds of social structure of the society. Eklavya despite extraordinary merit becomes a victim to his sinuous origin. Drona’s ‘guru-dakshina’ is linked with the brutality of Shahjahan:

the one ordered butchery

while the other begged for it. (46)

Such sacrifices/butcheries that are half sung/unsung by history are ruptures in history.In his Foreword to the poems the poet says: “History’s interiors are defunct and the mainstream discourses are manipulative.”(p.vii)

In these two poems the poet with candidness expresses the anarchy/injustice that has been prevailing in the society since ages. Nonetheless, when Singh’s frustrations get coloured by anger; though veiled, he breaks forth:

Religion

is not a system but a living

tissue that we must all encase

and bathe in (31)

He even grabs the best opportunity to preach:

God

is one but forms multiple,

why not preserve them all

to get beyond the cradle? (30)

Singh’s feelings of patriotism find expression in ‘Gandhi”, the sixth poem of this volume:

India had less

identities and more differences;

the ‘other’ is a formula of

making differences as identities.

India is not a body but the ideation

of an idea; it is not to be

read or understood; it is

to be lived. (61)

Singh wishes to see his nation rising under the Gandhian ideologies:

If Gandhi is to survive as

a nation and a narration

we have to bury negations

into a new kind of quality summation.

Gandhi is the script as well as

scripting; let us live fictions as

reality where treachery and

difference go adrifting. (63)

The last poem of this volume ‘Ganga’recreates in a brief compass the well-known myth of the sacred river- the river that has the power to wash away the sins. The poem is a reflection on the socio-religious mentality of people. All these mythological /historical /legendary subjects that have been documented in history focus on the ruptures of time in history.

On the whole Scripture on Stone can be called a good example of tradition and individual talent wherein Singh recreates the myths faithfully and succinctly not because to explore its poetic possibility but to discover if it carries a relevance /significance even in the present times. Presumably, this is why the poet in his ‘foreword’ calls his collection “open ended since the poems try to re-live history in new- historicist modality of experience.”(p.vii)

Singh’s harking back to the traditional lore in these sumptuous poems has a dual role to play, first to project all our yesterdays and secondly to tell us where we are today. The book exhibits Singh’s deep knowledge of the Hindu scriptures. In the age of limericks, haiku and tanka, Singh keeps the flow of the language narrative alive and gives it new hues by employing images, symbols and words which essentially are Indian in tone.

A miniature epic at a fair price, Scripture on Stone would prove to be a treat to all poetry lovers.

Reviewed by:

Rajni Singh

Assistant Professor of English

Dept. of HSS

Indian School of Mines University

Dhanbad, India