B. S. Mardhekar

Who was B. S. Mardhekar?

Bal Sitaram Mardhekar was a Marathi writer who brought about a radical shift of sensibility in Marathi poetry. He was born in a town called Faizpur in the Khandesh region of Maharashtra.

He was educated in Pune and London, and worked at All India Radio until his death. His earlier collection of poems, Shishiragam, was a product of Ravi Kiran Mandal poetry: sentimental and lyrical. But his later avant-garde poetry brought about a storm in Marathi literary world. His poem with the title "पिपात मेले ओल्या उंदिर" appeared in Abhiruchi magazine in 1946.

Similar to what Baudelaire did in French poetry, Mardhekar brought decadent urban ethos in Marathi poetry. Marathi bhakti poetry and the poetry of T. S. Eliot and W. H. Auden had an influence on him.

In 1948, he was charged and tried for obscenity for some of his poems in ' Kahi Kavita'. He was declared innocent of these charges in 1952.

Mardhekar was also an influential crictic and an experimental novelist. He attempted to bring in the consciousness technique in Marathi novels.

He received in 1956 Sahitya Akademi Award for his work Saundarya ani Sahitya.