Rationality of Devkota's lunatic

The task of introducing Laxmi Prasad Devkota (1905-1959 B.S.) is a tremendous challenge. For his imaginative breadth, intellectual insight, romantic flair and incisive thoughts, Laxmi Prasad Devkota has won for the most covetous appellation of Mahakavi. Devkota’s assorted writings pulsate in every vein. Being a prolific writer, Devkota has shown his acumen in almost all genres of literature.



Among Devkota’s numerous literary writings, “The Lunatic”, inspired from his personal life as well as his relationship with contemporary society, continues to elicit social and biographical readings. However, we can interpret the poem for its use of persona as a strategic tool and rhetorical device to incisively examine the overall contemporary social scenario of his time.



In “The Lunatic”, the persona serves three main functions. First, it exposes society’s faulty observation, limitation of human knowledge and lack of aesthetic sense. Basically, the poet’s lunatic differentiates between two modes of perception - the superficial and the profound. The people belonging to the first mode are normal, who stick to shallow observations of natural beauty. As opposed to this, the persona belongs to the second mode as he transcends superficiality and sees “a flower in the stone”. For the normal people, a rose is a commonplace object; but, for the lunatic, the same flower gives off the fragrance of “Padmini and Helen”.







In terms of knowledge system, the lunatic lampoons the rigidity of mathematical formulas within which normal people must function, whereas the lunatic’s fluid mathematics enjoys an unparalleled freedom in which “one minus one is always one”. In other words, the poet’s mathematics do not function within the confines of a rigid formula which demands strict compliance and inflexible accuracy. Thus, the lunatic, possessing the gift of the sixth sense, rises above the physical world and “visualize(s) the sound” and “hear(s) the visible”.



Likewise, owing to partial knowledge, for the normal people mountains are “mute”, but the lunatic’s extraordinary perception attributes them with the quality of matchless eloquence and “oratory”. As against the constricting nature of human knowledge, the poet’s insane self is empowered with the vibrancy of insanity, and transcends this mundane world to commune with the invisible and the ungraspable.




that’s just the way I am.The second function of the poet’s persona examines injustice, exploitation and spiritual poverty by creating a topsy-turvy situation. The persona visualizes exploitation in “Nawab’s wine”, poverty in “the king”, and imperialism and expansionism in “Alexander the Great”. With a lunatic’s incision and insight, he overturns the dearly-held value systems of society. Mocking the austerity and spiritualism of the “Cave-Penancer”, the lunatic calls him “the deserter of humanity”.



The contemplative self of the insane poet takes him beyond the mundane to the spiritual realm where he muses on the question of life and death. If, on the one hand, the poet is dismayed by “the first streak of frost on a lady’s tresses,” on the other hand, he joyfully drinks the elixir of the “notes of the harbinger of the spring”. For the lunatic, the world’s sufferings and sorrows afflict his soul of which the rational people are extremely insensitive and indifferent.



Normal people in society denominate him as “possessed,” “crazy” and “distraught”, and, since he is a potential danger to social norms and propriety, he is “dispatched” to Ranchi. However, the poet’s insane persona clearly visualizes society’s moral bankruptcy coupled with spiritual disintegration and mental fogginess. If social oppressions and spiritual poverty dismay the lunatic, political dishonesty and journalistic corruption prick his conscience with equal intensity.



Furthermore, the images of the tiger attacking “the innocent deer” and “the big fish after the small ones” reinforce the idea of social injustice and oppression. Hence, the persona wishes to revive in him the strength of “Dadhichi” to wipe out the entire social perversions and anomalies from society.



After examining the social problems and lack of spiritual uprightness, the persona finally wishes to rescue the ignorant from their ignorance. In short and sharp sentences that release his inner restlessness and ferocity, the poet directs his scathing criticism at “this inhuman human world” and wishes to “devour the world immense”. To uproot all the social injustices and disparities, the lunatic desires to possess the strength of Dadhichi and the impact of “thunderbolt”. The full-fledged wrath of the persona erupts in the form of “volcano” and blazes “like a forest fire”, indicating the lunatic’s inner restlessness to cleanse society of all manner of impurity.



Devkota’s quick, jerky words and unpredictable sentence turns and twists show the rage and restlessness that intertwine in the persona’s consciousness. This appears to be an attempt on the part of the persona to purge and rescue society from its longstanding malpractice and unscrupulous behavior. Making an attempt to warn innocent people against the rampant chicanery and the canker of lies that have inundated society, the poet exuberates with humane madness, which he celebrates in this poem.



Hence, the poet puts on the persona of insanity to scrutinize intellectual emptiness, social corruption, and spiritual decadence. With the help of his insanity, the poet makes a groundbreaking and realistic observation of the exploitation gnawing at society. By adopting the persona of lunacy, he subjects the time-revered knowledge and value system of society to his severe examination. Insanity is the vantage-point from which the poet looks at society pointedly, and makes close, valid and realistic observations.



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