Genre: Short Stories, Translations, Gujarati Short Stories Still, the short works that were written during their time were mostly fable- or folktale-like, or satirical, and had the primary goal of enabling sociopolitical change or providing simple entertainment.Translated from the Gujarati by Jenny Bhatt Publisher: HarperCollins India Before Dhumketu, writers like Dalpatram, Narmad (widely considered the founder of modern Gujarati literature), and a few others had studied Western literature closely to aid their own craft.
However, for a long time, both prose and verse forms of Gujarati literature were dominated by themes of religion or nationalism. Much of Indian literature across all regions was being influenced by or adapted from works from Europe, Russia and America during that time. The modern Gujarati short story owes a lot more to the European, Russian and American short story of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries than to those ancient epics. That most of these were written in verse form rather than prose means that they continue to be technically recognized as mostly poetry.
DHUMKETU GUJARATI BOOKS SERIES
Though not formally identified as such, our ancient mythological and religious texts have always been a series of short stories woven together into long multilayered epics. The short-story form has existed for a long time across the Indian subcontinent. The Evolution of the Gujarati Short Story Perhaps this translated volume of some of Dhumketu's finest short stories will go some distance towards building that reputation. Had this writer been more widely translated and read, his stature and skill as a pioneer of the literary short-story form in Gujarati would have been acknowledged as equal to that of Tolstoy, Chekhov, Tagore, and Premchand in their respective cultures and languages. This is also an apt description of Dhumketu's art and craft. Stefan Zweig once wrote about Tolstoy: 'One who sees so much and so well does not need to invent one who observes imaginatively does not need to create imagination.
What's indispensable is a deeply insightful observance of one's world with a superior technical skill for capturing the hidden, nuanced and unusual details. To accomplish so much through allusions or sparks, writers need more than imaginative invention in their short stories. Later, he released three more short-story collections with the same title. This last idea was so important to him that he titled his first collection Tankha, meaning 'sparks”. For him, the short story roused the imagination and emotions by saying what it must through only allusions or sparks. Beautifully translated for a wide new audience by Jenny Bhatt, these much-loved stories - like the finest literature - remain remarkable and relevant even today.ĭhumketu, one of the towering figures of Gujarati literature, often described the short-story form as an incomparable flower in the garden of literature, as delicate as the juhi, as exquisitely beautiful as a golden bird, as electrifying as a bolt of lightning. Ratno Dholi brings together the first substantial collection of Dhumketu's work to be available in English. Characterized by a fine sensitivity, deep humanism, perceptive observation, and an intimate knowledge of both rural and urban life, his fiction has provided entertainment and edification to generations of Gujarati readers and speakers. When Dhumketu's first collection of short stories, Tankha, came out in 1926, it revolutionized the genre in India.
The tragic love story of a village drummer and his dancer lover.Ī long-awaited letter that arrives too late.Ī tea-house near Darjeeling, run by a mysterious queen.
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