Sambodhi 1993 Vol 18

Author(s): J B Shah, N M Kansara
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

Page 66

59
Vol. XVIII, 92-93
In short, if religion was the focal point of social life in the pre-modern society as it is to some extent, even to day, what was its true nature ? How was it to be realized ? Akho pointed out in his own way what he considered to be the true nature of religionwhich he called self-realization. His emphasis was on self-awakening, without which dream and the world would not disappear. (Jāgyā vinā jāye nahi. ek sapana ne samsāra). Therefore, he was not running away from the life as such, but was exposing various avanues of escapement in the name of worldly wisdom and religious ceremonies. Though an average man in the society knew this in his heart, poets like Akho articulated their innermost feeling. This has not been fully appreciated by those scholars whose epistemological approach is quite different to understand the spirit of pre-modern society. It may not be wrong to say that the pre-modern society had developed a cultural feedback system which kept the society nourishing, when apparently, the stream o life-force seemed to be on the verge of being dried out. Poets like Akho as a symbol of this cultual life-force kept the stream flowing. FOOT NOTES : 1. K. M. Munshi, Gujarat and its Literature, 2nd ed., Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bombay, 1954,
pp. 224, 225., Rasiklal Parikh, Hariprasad Shastri (ed.) Gujarātano Rājakiya Ane Samskrtika Itihasa (Gujarati), Vol: VI., B. J. Institute of learning & Research, Ahmedabad, 1979, pp. 265-267; Refer for details, Makrand Mchta, Indian Merchants and Enterpreneurs in Historical
Perspective, Academic Foundation, Delhi 1991. 2. K. M. Munshi., Op.cit., p.225. 3. Ibid., p. 229. 4. Refer for details, Dāmodar Samnyāsi, Pakhandadharma-khandana-Nātaka (Sanskrit),
Samvat 1693, translated edition in Gujarati, Ahmedabad, 1931, 5. Umashankar Joshi, Akho : Eka Adhyayan (Gujarati) Revised Edition, Ahmedabad, 1973, pp.
17, 18, 19; K. M. Munshi, Op.cit., P. 230 6. K. M. Munshi, Op. Cit. pp-230, 231; Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi, The Classical
Poets of Gujarat, 3rd edition, N. M. Tripathi pvt. ltd. Bombay, 1958, P. 26. 7. Narmadashankar Devshankar Mehta (ed.), Akho-Krata Kāvyo, Part I (Gujjarati), Gujart
Vernacular Society, Ahmedabad, 1931, p. 18. 8. Goverdhanram Tripathi, op. cit., p. 26; Jhaveri Krishnalal Mohanlal, Milestones in Gujarati
literature, 2nd edition, The Gujarati printing press, Bombay 1938, pp. 81-83. 9. Umashankar Joshi, op.cit. p. 24, 10. Umashankar Joshi (ed.) Akhānā Chāppă (Gujarati), Ahmedabad, 1953, p.3. 11. Ibid., p. 16. 12. Umashanker Joshi, Akho: Eka Adhyayana, p. 107. 13. Umashankar Joshi, Akhānä сhäppä, p. 116