A Rain of Rites by Jayanta Mahapatra – a detailed book review

Jayanta Mahapatra is a well-known poet among the readers of Indian English poetry. Though a person who entered the world of poetry writing very late in his life, the poet did not disappoint with a few unforgettable and notable contributions to the canon of Indian English literature. Often appreciated for his realism, imagination, and exhibition of the Indian themes and the landscape of Odisha, the poet got an occasional share of criticism from experts, scholars, and literary critics. Perhaps his most notable contribution to Indian English poetry, “The Rain of Rites,” still reverberates in the academic corridors of the Humanities sections of universities and colleges. The publication of this poetry collection helped Mahapatra set his foot on the shaky ground that held emerging English poets in India after the wave started by the likes of Nissim Ezekiel and A K Ramanujan. I will review Mahapatra’s “A Rain of Rites” in this article. Please read the article until the end and share your opinions in the comments.

Introduction
Jayanta Mahapatra’s A Rain of Rites (1976), published by the University of Georgia Press, is a seminal work in Indian English poetry, blending regional specificity with universal existential inquiry. This collection, comprising 47 poems, navigates Odisha’s cultural and spiritual landscapes while engaging with themes of mortality, memory, and postcolonial identity. Mahapatra’s bilingual sensibility—rooted in Odia traditions yet articulated in English—offers a unique lens to examine the tensions between local ethos and global modernity.

Content and Structure
The collection opens with “Dawn,” a poem that juxtaposes the mundane and the mystical, setting the tone for Mahapatra’s exploration of duality. Poems like “Village” and “Main Temple Street, Puri” immerse readers in rural and sacred spaces, where “red chillies spread on a reed mat” coexist with “cripples and mating mongrels” (7, 22). Thematically, the book oscillates between intimate reflections on personal history (“Old Palaces”) and stark social commentary (“The Whorehouse in a Calcutta Street”). The closing poem, “Now When We Think of Compromise,” circles back to existential ambiguity, framing human experience as a “tremor through our empty hands” (72). This structural symmetry underscores Mahapatra’s preoccupation with cyclical time and unresolved quests.

Style and Technique
Mahapatra’s poetry is marked by vivid sensory imagery and symbolic depth. In “Dawn at Puri,” the “skull on the holy sands” (37) becomes a metaphor for spiritual desolation amid ritualistic fervour. At the same time, “Hunger” juxtaposes the “white bone” of a fisherman’s desperation with the visceral exploitation of his daughter (55). His free verse, devoid of rigid meter, mirrors the fragmented nature of postcolonial identity, as seen in “A Rain of Rites”: “Like some shape of conscience I cannot look at” (15). Critics like Bruce King commend his ability to “acclimatise English to an indigenous tradition,” creating a hybrid idiom that challenges Anglo-American norms (King 194). However, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra critiques Mahapatra’s “muted brooding” as occasionally redundant, arguing that his elliptical syntax risks alienating readers (Mehrotra 56).

Themes and Critical Analysis

The collection’s central themes—mortality, memory, and silence—reflect Mahapatra’s profound engagement with Indian ethos, weaving together personal introspection and cultural critique. Mortality permeates the collection as a recurring motif, symbolising the transient nature of life and the inevitability of decay. In poems like “Dawn at Puri,” the “skull on the holy sands” (37) serves as a stark reminder of death amidst the rituals of salvation, while “A Dead Boy” laments the fragility of existence: “His angel waits across the tired watercourse” (35). Memory, too, plays a pivotal role, as Mahapatra excavates personal and collective histories to explore the interplay of past and present. In “Old Palaces,” he reflects on the “blood [that] grows softer, glossier, in the shadows” (9), evoking the lingering presence of bygone eras. Silence, however, emerges as the most potent theme, embodying absence and presence. In “Silence,” the poet personifies this absence, describing it as a force that “creep[s] into my bed like a furtive child” (36), symbolising the unspoken traumas and cultural voids that haunt postcolonial India. This silence is not merely an auditory phenomenon but a metaphor for the gaps in history, identity, and communication that define the human condition.

Mahapatra’s portrayal of Odisha’s spiritual landscape further deepens these themes, interrogating the dissonance between ritual and reality. In “Ikons,” he juxtaposes sacred symbols with the harshness of everyday life: “Black ikons: a museum of symbols silence the land” (51). Here, the “black ikons” represent the weight of tradition, while the “silence” suggests the failure of these symbols to address contemporary struggles. Similarly, in “Main Temple Street, Puri,” the temple’s “unending rhythm” contrasts with the “dusty street” where “nothing seems to go away from sight” (22), highlighting the tension between spiritual ideals and material realities. This critique extends to societal structures, as seen in “The Tattooed Taste,” where Mahapatra exposes the hypocrisy of a society that venerates ritual while ignoring suffering. The poem juxtaposes beggars with “good flaccid fathers” who “dol[e] out palmfuls of rice on holy Mondays” (68), revealing the moral contradictions embedded in cultural practices. Yet, as Syamsundar Padihari observes, Mahapatra’s focus on despair often overshadows moments of resilience, rendering his vision “monochromatic” (Padihari 173). While his unflinching portrayal of suffering is undeniably powerful, the absence of counterbalancing themes of hope or redemption risks reducing his work to a singular narrative of tragedy. This critique, however, does not diminish the significance of his thematic explorations; rather, it underscores the complexity of his engagement with Indian ethos, where the interplay of mortality, memory, and silence reveals both the beauty and the brokenness of human experience.

Postcolonial Sensibilities
Mahapatra’s work embodies postcolonial anxiety, grappling with India’s colonial legacy while asserting regional identity. Poems like “India” evoke “the Siva linga” and “rhythmic susurrus of chants” (61), reclaiming cultural symbols from orientalist narratives. His bilingualism, evident in Odia myths and English diction, reflects what Bijay Kumar Das terms a “voyage within” to reconcile fragmented selves (Das 24). However, his silence on events like the Kashmiri Pandit Exodus invites critique, revealing selective engagement with India’s socio-political fabric.

The Final Remarks
A Rain of Rites cements Mahapatra’s legacy as a pioneer of Indian English poetry. His fusion of Odia heritage with modernist techniques offers a profound meditation on identity and existence. While critiques of obscurity and redundancy persist, his contribution lies in articulating a “postcolonial identity distinct from Anglo-American norms” (King 194). This collection remains indispensable for understanding the interplay of regional and global currents in postcolonial literature, affirming Mahapatra’s place in the canon.

Works Cited

• Das, Bijay Kumar. Poetry of Jayanta Mahapatra. Atlantic Publishers, 2007.
• King, Bruce. Modern Indian Poetry in English. Oxford UP, 2001.
• Mehrotra, Arvind Krishna. An Illustrated History of Indian Literature in English. Permanent Black, 2003.
• Padihari, Syamsundar. “Jayanta Mahapatra: The Poet of the Soil.” Indian Literature, vol. 51, 2007.

Vyom