Rahi, doyen of Kashmiri literature, no more

Samaan Lateef

Srinagar, January 9

Kashmir’s renowned poet and Jnanpith awardee Professor Rehman Rahi (98) passed away at his Vicharnag residence in Srinagar on Monday morning. People from different sections of society, especially the literary circle, expressed condolences over his death. He was laid to rest at his ancestral graveyard at Vicharnag locality in Srinagar.

Jnanpith awardee

• Prof Rahi was the first Kashmiri writer to get Jnanpith award for his poetic collection ‘Siyah Rood Jaeren Manz’.
• He got Sahitya Akademi Award for ‘Nauroz-i-Saba’ in 1961 and Padma Shri in 2000.

Born in Srinagar in 1925, his original name was Abdur Rehman Mir. He did his schooling at Islamia High School, Srinagar, and his first postgraduation in Persian and the second one in English literature from the University of Kashmir. He was appointed lecturer in a government college. A few years later, Rahi joined the Department of Persian at the University of Kashmir. In 1977, he joined the newly established Department of Kashmiri at the university where he taught till his retirement.

In his early poetry work, he comes off as an idealist romantic, aspiring for a perfect world where all his young passions would find fulfilment.

His poetic collection Nouroz-i-Saba bears the imprint of mix of progressive ideology and romantic aspirations. “This is quite visible in his poetry of this period which not only helps in tracing the evolution of Rahi as a poet but also in understanding his everlasting engagement with the pursuit of art in its purest sense. This compounding of the romance with his passion for pure art is visible in many of his poems, including Sheayir (The poet), Husn-e lazawal (The immortal beauty) and above all in Fann baraye fann (Art for art’s sake). The last one celebrates art as an attitude which in itself is sufficient to survive in life,” said Dr Abid Ahmed, a literary critic.

“In his search for his own diction, Rahi fundamentally changed the idiom of Kashmiri poetry, thereby changing the traditional perceptions in Kashmir’s cultural constructs,” he says.

In 1961, Prof Rahi was awarded the Sahitya Akademi Award for his poetry collection Nauroz-i-Saba, the Padma Shri in 2000 and was the first Kashmiri writer to be awarded the Jnanpith for his poetic collection ‘Siyah Rood Jaeren Manz’ (in black drizzle) in 2007 (for the year 2004).

From being a celebrated poet to a trend-setting critic and literary theorist, Rahi remains one of the most influencing persons on Kashmiri culture and literature.

“His artistic accomplishments have expanded the imaginative and poetic world of the Kashmir language in an unprecedented way,” Ahmed added.

Through his creative expressions, Rahi literally created a fresh worldview that was more suitable for and more accommodating of the contemporary sensibility and contemporary realities. The result was poetry that has enriched the Kashmiri imagination, expression and idiom in an unparalleled way.

Ex-CM Omar Abdullah said Rahi’s death was a great loss to the Kashmiri language and literature. “He will be remembered for his contribution as a poet and as a critic enriching Kashmiri language and literature in a profound manner,” he added.