CHALLENGE TO FATE: A PERSPECTIVE

ON DARUWALLA’S “FIRE - HYMN”

 

V.L.V.N. NARENDRA KUMAR

 

Some natural sorrow, loss or pain That has been, and may be again? - Wordsworth,

“The Solitary Reaper”.

 

            Among the Parsee poets who made sig­nal contribution to the growth of Indian English verse, Keki Daruwalla stands out like a colos­sus. He is truly “one of the most substantial of modern Indian English poets” as Prof. Naik points out.1 In Daruwalla’s case, poetry be­comes the vantage point from where he views the Indian scene with absolute objectivity. At certain points of experience, the Indian land­scape sears his eye and becomes an inseparable part of his consciousness. If Ezekiel is a ‘natural outsider’ whose circumstances and decisions relate him to India, Daruwalla is an alien - in­sider whose ethos is always in harmony with the millieu. For him, “poetry is first personal-ex­ploratory, at times therapeutic and an aid in com­ing to terms with one’s interior world”.2 Some­times a dominant image is fused to the structure of the poem and is indistinguishable from it. “Fire – Hymn” is a shining illustration of this mode.

 

            The poem commences with a cognitive image which expands and undergoes symbolic elaboration. This gives the poet more leeway. The opening lines describe the perception of an infant:

 

            The burning ghat erupted phosphorescence: and wandering ghost-lights frightened passersby as noon light scuttled among the bones.

 

            Daruwalla starts with a direct reference to the fire and moves outward to create a complex of responses and meanings. The movement in the poem is centrifugal as the poet starts at the centre. Fire, an element of nature, is to Daruwalla what West Wind is to Shelley. It performs the function of an objective correlative. The infan­tile experience depicted in the poem is signifi­cant as it gives the poet an insight into the ulti­mate reality, Death. The tone of his father in this context is ironical and irreverent:

 

            You see those half-burnt fingers

            and bone-stubs? The fire at times forgets its dead:

 

            This remark is typical of a fire-worship­per. The “half-cooked limbs” which bear witness to the ‘fire’s debauchery’ sicken the poet. He, his ‘child-fingers clenched into a little knot of pain’ swears to ‘serve fire from the sin of for­getfulness’. In this connection, it would not be out of place to remember Prof. Walsh’s words: “Violence, framed and controlled, is the theme of several of Daruwalla’s best poems whether it be natural violence or human violence......” 3

 

            However, he fails to perform his vow. Twenty years later, he consigns the body of his first-born to the flames. This act becomes inevitable as the nearest Dokhma (Tower of silence) is a thousand miles away. The fire - hymn then makes a provocative proclamation:

 

You stand forgiven.

 

            He is broken but rebellious and swears again:

            I swore this time to save it from the sin of forgiv­ing.

 

            The concluding lines of the poem are re­flective of his intense desire to go to the Dokhma after death. His agony can be felt only when the situation portrayed in the poem is looked at from an anthropological perspective.

 

            Parsees still stick to the ancient method of disposal of dead bodies. There is explicit prohi­bition against cremation or burial underground because defilement of fire or earth (and waste of precious earth in constructing tombs) is a sin. Fire is the most ethereal and subtle principle. It is said that he who brings impurities to the fire, the same recoils on him.4 The method of dis­posal of dead bodies by the Parsees is the speedi­est. It is free whereas others systems are costly. One of the salient features of this system is equal­ity, Death is truly a leveler in this method. It is the most hygienic system according to Zoroas­trianism, and death is regarded as an inevitable phenomenon of Nature. However, it is not primitive. Speaking of the exellence of the sys­tem, Dastmji Khurshed S. Dabu observes: “A Parsi’s last act on earth is this donation of his dead body to hungry birds that are Nature’s appointed scavengers. The useless physical ves­ture, being now mere decaying flesh serves to feed other creatures, as a charitable contribu­tion”.5 Fire is pure, no doubt, but when some impure decomposed matter is burnt on it, the resulting effects are impure.

 

            According to Zoroastrianism, fire is an emblem of the Divine. It stands for Ahura Mazda, the Light and the Truth. Says Khorshed Adi Sethna: It represents purity because physi­cally fire burns up any filth flung into it but itself remains pure and unaffected.6 Majority among the Parsee community believe that they have no right over bodies which belong to nature and therefore the vultures have a right to them. Hence, it is a grievous sin to cremate a dead body.

 

            Commenting on Daruwalla’s sensitivity, Parthasarathy observes: “Like Ezekiel, Daruwalla is intensely aware of his environment. He tries to restore order in the chaos he finds around him with the healing touch of irony”. 7 The tone in “Fire – Hymn” is bitter but not as ironic as in the following lines:

 

            Throw him to the birds and he will surrender flesh like an ascetic. (“Ruminations”)

 

            The confrontation commences when his invincible spirit clashes with the inexorable fate. His perception as a child is critical, almost on the brink of scepticism. It is accompanied him by the death of his first born. The cremation of the child chastens. The shadow of nostalgia falls on the poet and grows and he begins to doubt his own integrity as a Zoroastrian. Yet, he endures and his determination to go to Dokhma after death strengthens and it eventually becomes a redeeming principle.

 

            Speaking of Daruwalla’s poetry, Prof. Bruce King observes: “Yet for all its involvement with Indian life it seems to be written from the outside rather than, like Shiv. K Kumar’s, from the inside. Daruwalla’s poetry seems pri­vate, personal”.8 However, “Fire – Hymn” is not merely an expression of the poet’s inmost wish; it voices the aspiration of a “diminishing community”.

 

References:

 

1 M . K. Naik, History of Indian En­glish Literature. Sahitya Akademi, 1982, P. 205

2 As quoted by Prof. Srinivas Iyengar, Indian Writing in English. Sterling, 1984, p. 142

3 William Walsh, Indian literature in English Longman, 1990, P. 142.

4 Yasna, XXXVI 1

5 Dasturji Khurshed. S. Dabu, Mes­sage of Zarathustra. New Book Co. Ltd., P. 102.

6 Khurshed Adi Sethna, Madame Bhikaji Rustom Cama: Builders of Modem India Series, Publications Division, 1987, P. 25.

7 R. Parthasarathy, Ten Twentieth Cen­tury Indian poets, O. U. P., 1981, P. 6.

8 Bruce King, Modem Indian Poetry in English, O.U.P., 1989, P. 126.

 

 

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