Ramdeo Jha

[Ramdeo Jha was born in 1936 in village Sahora, Darbhanga district, Bihar. After attaining Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, he completed his Ph.D. in Shaiva Literature in Maithili, from Patna University, in 1970. He is a polyglot and well-versed in Maithili, Hindi, Sanskrit, English, Bengali, Nepali and Urdu. He had an extensive teaching career and retired as Professor, P.G. Department of Maithili, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Darbhanga. He is the author of several books dealing with the genre of short stories, poetry, plays, novels, songs, folk lore, book reviews, research and literary criticism, translations, and edited works. He is the recipient of several awards and important among them are the Sahitya Akademi Award (1991) for Pasijaitha Pathar (Melting stone), the Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize (1994) for Sagai (the Maithili translation of Ek Chadar Maili Si) and the Bal Sahitya Puraskar (2015) for Hansani Pan Aa Bajanta Supari. A list of his major works is appended[i]. His honors and awards include the following: Awarded Best Actor Award in the drama held on the occasion of All India Maithili Writers’ Meet (1956), Gold medalist in both B.A. (Hons) and M.A. in Maithili, University of Bihar, Member of Senate and Faculty of Arts, L.N.M.U. (1978-80), Member, Maithili Advisory Board, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi (1988-97), Sahitya Akademi Award (1991), Sahitya Akademi Translation Prize (1994), Member General Council and Convenor of Maithili Advisory Board, Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi (1998-2002), Honoured with Mithila Bibhuti Samman by ‘Vidyapati Sewa Sansthan’ (2004) & Bal Sahitya Puraskar (Sahitya Akademi, 2015)]

Vivekanand Jha (Vivek): How was your family background and childhood day?

Dr Ramdeo Jha (Ramdeo): My childhood days and student’s life were full of struggle and strife. My father was a devoted farmer. He has both ancestral and self-earned land and properties. Brethren of my father were very jealous. They were always looking for opportunities to dispossess my parents of their possessions. My mother suffered a stigma of infertility for a long. Ultimately her infertility was gone and she gave me birth as her first child at her parents’ home. Before my birth, my father’s blood brothers were happy that they would be inheritors of their assets if she continued to be issueless. But my birth poured cold water on their enthusiasm and I became a sore of their eyes. Their abhorrence for me and my parents further enhanced when my mother with new born baby in the lap revisited my father’s home. My mother realized that my survival might be at stake. She was afraid so much so that she decided to send her breast fed child to her father’s home for further upbringing through my maternal uncle who incidentally came there to inquire about our well-being. Thus my childhood days passed at my maternal home and I started to speak, toddle and learn alphabets there only.

Vivek: How was your adulthood and student life?

Ramdeo: During the period of stay at my maternal home, my parents were able to resolve many issues, to some extent, with their kith and kin. They got separated from combined family. After they established themselves independently and garnered some confidence, they decided to bring me back home and I was admitted to upper primary school of Khajasarai. After passing upper primary I was admitted into Middle English School Laheriasarai. I passed Middle Board Exam in 1948 and in Jan 1949 I was admitted to Saraswati High School (M.L. Academy, Laheriasarai). Suddenly I encountered a new crisis. Due to relentless persecution perpetuated by the shareholders of my father, he suffered from acute heart disease and turned bed ridden. Income from land farming and other sources were abruptly stopped. Our livelihood was at stake and I was at my wit’s ends. Situations turned so tense that I had to give up the school. I had to give up education even though I scored outstanding half yearly examination. Somehow or the others I restored my education again after working in a local press. After six years I got disturbed again when my father died on 30 Nov 1956. It’s a cursory glimpse only. An interview of few minutes is too short to make rooms for all the sorrows and sufferings that I underwent in my early life.

Vivek: How did you come in contact with and establish your close proximity with Chandra Nath Mishra ‘Amar’?

Ramdeo: I was studying in M. L. Academy School Darbhanga. That time Pandit Chandranath Mishra ‘Amar’ was teacher of Maithili and Hindi. He was a synonym of strict discipline and punctuality. He was also spearheading several cultural literary festivals in the school. I was a prospective and disciplined student. I never missed my class and his searching eyes fell on me. Owing to my cultural consciousness and crave for literature, I secured my position in his good book. I actively began taking participation in every function and festival of the school. Under the leadership of Amar Jee I got an opportunity to develop special fascination and passion for sacrificing my lock, stock and barrel for Maithili.

Vivek: Share your experience as a researcher of Maithili language and literature.

Ramdeo: I have had interest in research from childhood itself. To begin with I started to collect Maithili songs, tales, proverbs, quotes etc. that I used to hear from the elderly women. These researches proved to be very helpful in writings of my own as well as those of others.

Vivek: When and how did you start your college teaching career?

Ramdeo: I began my teaching career as a lecturer of Maithili in S P College Dumaka under Bhagal University in the year 1961. My two years of stay at Dumaka taught me what you can do for Maithili by being local, you can’t do being an outsider. I have had in my mind to live among people and pupils of Mithila and raise awareness for expansion and development of Maithili. I was selected for both Bihar and Patna University after facing the interview board of Bihar Public Service Commission. In respect of quality and popularity, Patna University was considered superior to Bihar University. Opting for either of them was difficult. Ultimately, due to my deep devotion to Mithila and Maithili, I chose Bihar University and joined C M College Darbhanga. Soon I established my image there as a learned lecturer and disciplined scholar of Maithili.

Vivek: What are the major literary institutions and bodies you have been associated with?

Ramdeo: I have been associated with numerous literary institutions pertaining to Maithili. Prominent among them are Sahitya Pustkalay, Vidyapati Goshathi, Maithili Chhatra Parishad, Maithili Sahitya Parishad, Mithila Research Society, Sankalp Lok, Maithili Akademi and Sahitya Akademi.

Vivek: Which other writers did influence your creative writings?

Ramdeo: I am influenced by none. I imitated none. I kept carving my way on my own and continued following it. I have always had a respect for personality and scholarship of my seniors but they didn’t affect anyway on the style, technique and theme of my writings.

Vivek: How did you develop yourself as a writer of Maithili?

Ramdeo: I developed a gradual interest in literature. In my adolescence, I began living in my village Kabilpur. There was a library named ‘Sahitya Pustakalay’. This library consists of a great number of important literary books. I developed a passion for reading the books. Several literary festivals and anniversaries were organized in its premises.  I witnessed active participation in them. The condition was very favourable for developing the literary skills. This library also used to publish a magazine ‘Sankranti’. It was primarily meant for Hindi. I too was persuaded to write something for it but I told them that I would write in Maithili only. My first story came out in this hand written magazine. Thereafter I showed my writings to Amar Jee and Suman Jee and they encouraged me publishing few of them in the then prestigious journal Mithila Mihir.

Vivek: What has been central theme of your writings?

Ramdeo: My writings are not based on any central themes whatsoever nor own any particular point. They are not inferred from any jealousy and prejudice. They bear the yardsticks of impartiality and neutrality. I never followed any faction, party and partition. I never did flatter any one. I never keep myself confined to progressive, digressive, leftist or rightist ideas. My writings bear the stamp of universality. They contain emotions, feelings, sentiments, problems, sufferings or sorrows of the poor, marginalised, dispossessed and common populace. My stories are by and large consummate. They are carefully crafted and I publish them only when I get fully satisfied with their narratives. I believe more in quality than in quantity.

Vivek: What do you owe the real people and situations upon whom you base your characters?

Ramdeo: The occurrences and incidents of childhood predominately feature in most of my writings. The affections and affinities that I used to get from my mother and maternal grand-ma irresistibly find expression in my writings. They always weighed heavier than all other experiences, memories, successes and failures of my subsequent lives. 

Vivek: What is the theme of your Sahitya Akademi Award winning book ‘Pasijhait Pathar’ (The Melting Stone)?

Ramdeo: ‘Pasijhait Pathar’ is a collection of seven one-act- plays. Many of them are problem plays. I have a special interest in drama, acting and stagecraft. This collection has historical, mythical and contemporary themes. I have raised several burning issues in it. Several issues pertaining to national integrity and social consciousness have been depicted into it. Several points and questions related to society have also been displayed. The title play was first staged at Chetna Samiti Patna in 1976. Its first scene has a play within a play.

Vivek: Share your experience about your novel, ‘Hansani Pan A Bajanta Supari’ which won for you Bal Sahitya Puraskar - 2015 from Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.

Ramdeo: It is a recreation of a fashionable folktale widespread across Mithila. Its plot is based on a prince who overcomes undefeatable barriers and ultimately achieves his aims. The novel is replete with adventure, righteousness, dutifulness, and gratitude.

Vivek: How do you see vulgarities in one’s writings and how do you treat them in your own?

Ramdeo: I don’t believe in giving unnecessary emphasis on private and physical relationship in narratives. They are in my writings too but with certain limitations. They are not allowed to cross the barriers of modesty. They do respect the dignity of civil and cultural society of Mithila in which we live. In my story ‘Ek Khira: Teen Phank’ (A Cucumber Sliced Thrice) you will find plot in which a woman is having physical relation with three men but narratives doesn’t have any vulgarity. I don’t believe in depicting a sex with a dead body. I don’t want to portray my characters in naked from. We can’t separate ourselves from the society and culture to which we owe our upbringing. Like others I too have daughters, nieces, daughters-in-law, relatives and numerous students. If I write such a vulgar, naked and porn story what impressions they will create on all of them.

Vivek: Maithili has been victims of several conspiracies and many attempts have been made to obliterate it from historical, social and literary scenes. What were your struggles and contributions in safeguarding its cultural legacy and tradition?

Ramdeo: Yes, you are true. Both political and non-political factions left no stone unturned to obliterate it from historical, social and literary scenes. I have been an active participant of many movements which were meant for fighting against these injustices meted out to Maithili. I had to suffer in my school for keeping Maithili as mother tongue despite being a student of science. At that time it was customary for science students to prefer Hindi as mother tongue. In college, with my few friends I persuaded several other students to study Maithili. Being lecturer of Maithili at S P College Dumaka, I expanded the horizon of Maithili in non-Maithil land too. I promoted staging of drama in Maithili. Hoisted the flag of Maithili in Imphal. Initiated postcard campaign for inclusion of Maithili in Sahitya Akademi. In 1977, Janata Party came to power. They excluded Maithili as a mother tongue from Matriculation. I wrote slogans and memoranda against this exclusion. These are only a small list of actions that I could initiate for Maithili. There are many more and I devoted myself to Maithili more than I worshipped god. At the same time Maithili gave me more than what I did for her.

Vivek: What was your contribution to Maithili Literature being its Convener at Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi?

Ramdeo: I tried my utmost to bring activities of Sahitya Akademi among common people. And I think it has been the biggest achievements of mine being the representative of Maithili. My predecessors too have worked in this direction but during my tenure it got new momentum, energy, vigour, form and direction. My tenure witnessed several seminars, poetic conferences and workshops of translation. I organized ‘Meet the Author’ program too. Many works of Maithili began to be translated into other languages especially into English. The books of Maithili Literature published by Sahitya Akademi were listed with description. Several books under different genres and schemes were published. There may be many more achievements which I am unable to remember right now.

Vivek: How do you deal with negative criticism?

Ramdeo: Negative criticism further strengthens my determination and devotion that I have had for Maithili. It further chiseled and sharpened my writings. Maithili has always been suffering from some sort of irony and predicament. An organized group keeps on working against it. Many of them are from the land of Mithila only. They always spread negative propaganda about Maithili and also about them who worked for it sincerely and diligently. I too have been victim of such groups and malicious people. Someone tells that he is writing stories not keeping with time. Someone alleges that his story doesn’t have any touch of sex, physical relationship, amorous love or nakedness. Many attempts have been made to obliterate my name from the list of story writers. Someone says that he is a researcher but not a story writer. Someone proclaims that his writing is based on the line of RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh). These are small lists of adverse criticisms. There are many more and I don’t care a whit about them. I listen to the voice of my soul.

Vivek: What is your opinion on new poets and the kind of poetry they wrote?

Ramdeo: The condition of Maithili poetry is very pathetic and deploring. The poets are growing like weeds and creepers but in them essential quality of poetry is missing. They just write few lines, stand on the stage, just read them and call themselves the poets. They don’t have any knowledge of prosody. They don’t know rhyme, rhythm and sound used in poetry. They are unaware of the patterns of stress and intonation in the poetry.

Vivek: You are on the verge of completing 85. How do you deal with age old diseases and disabilities?

Ramdeo: I suffered an acute illness in 2008. My throat chocked up due to cold and cough. On medical investigation, a small tumor was found in the throat. First I consulted the doctors of Darbhanga but I didn’t get the relief I required for. I got referred to Patna for adequate treatment. My health improved to some extent and since then I have been visiting there frequently for medical and clinical reviews. I can’t eat solid and hard food. I am surviving on liquid diet. If I need to speak for long, I have to take liquid several times in the course of speech. And this fact you might have noticed during my conversation with you.

Vivek: Thank you, sir, for sparing your valuable and hard pressed time. I know how much difficult it is for an octogenarian to speak for an hour or so at a stretch.

Ramdeo: Thank you for your visit. My blessings are always with you. 

Endnotes 

[i] Ramdeo Jha: List of his Major Works

Story-Collections: Ek Khira: Teen Phank (1965), Manuk Santan (1966), Dharati Mata (1985) and Aaji Ma (2009).

Novels: Ijotee Rani (1967), Angrejee Phulak Chitthee (2002), Bahinak Birog (2002), Ramjori Kagtak Pankhi Par (2002).

Memoir: Sa Cha Mein Priyah (On Maya Nand Mishra).

Children’s Fiction: Hansani Pan A Bajanta Supari (2013).

Plays: Pasijhait Pathar (1889).

Folklore: Maithili Loksahitya: Swaroop O Saundarya (2002).

Research & Criticism: Sakuntala Natak: Ek Adhyayan (1959), Parvati Parinaya Natak: Ek Adhyayan (1960), Maithili Shaiva Sahitya (1979), Umapati (1980), Maithili Shaiva Sahityak Bhumika (1982), Jagatprakashmalla (1990), Jagajjyotirmalla (1995), Janardan Jha Jansidan (1998), Maithili Loksahitya: Swarup and Saundarya (2002), Subhadra Jha (2010),  Jeevan Jha (Under Publication).

Translation: Banabhatta (1998), Sagai (1992).

Words Collection: Maithili Sabd-Sanchay (2014).

Edited Works: Nandipati Geetimala (1965), Ramvijay Natak O Vargeet (1967), Hargaurivivah Natak (1971), Nepalak Shilotkrim Maithili Geet (1972), Kunjabihar Natak (1976), Maithili Bhasa Sarita (1984), Dashavatar Nrityam O Khodas Geetam (1988), Maithili Prachin Geet Manjari (1991), Durgacharit Natak (1996), Maithili Prachin Geetavali (1977), Kavivar Jeevan Jha Rachanvali (1980), Vidyapati Geetsanchaya (1999), Maithili Katha: Satabdi Sanchaya (2010), Maha Mahopadhyay Parameshwar Jha Krit Simantini Akhyayika (2011), Muditkuvalyashwanatak (2013).