Rite of Passage single work   poetry   "this stony mythological passage"
Issue Details: First known date: 2022... 2022 Rite of Passage
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Notes

  • Author's note: This poem was written after visiting Ahalyasthan and Gautam Kund, 25 kms North of Darbhanga Town in North Bihar, during the religious festival of Dusshera 2012. Ahalyasthan is a place that has significance in Hinduism, because of the story of the sage Rishi Gautam and his wife Ahalya. The story states that while Gautam was away, Indra – the god of rain and the heavens – seduced Ahalya and had intercourse with her. Gautam later caught them in the act, which led him to curse both of them. As a result Indra’s penis fell off and Ahalya was turned to stone, until the seventh avatar of the supreme deity Vishnu -Ram- released her from her curse. Ahalya was then redeemed and reunited with her husband.

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  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Teesta Review : A Journal of Poetry Interliminal Encounters : Indian and Australian Writers in Po(i)etic Dialogue vol. 5 no. 2 November 2022 25715269 2022 periodical issue '‘Let us flow like the river’, I read frequently in the email signatures of my esteemed colleague and Editor-in-Chief of Teesta Journal, Jaydeep Sarangi. No matter how many times I see these words, I never tire of them, and never fail to feel myself smile as I read them. They evoke thought of the mighty Teesta River, which courses through such diverse terrains, feeding and connecting many otherwise very different people and cultures. The river as symbol says so much about what poetry at its best can be, and of the reasons why it matters. In multiple senses, poetry flows, and allows us to flow. It flows both from and towards – from experiences, emotions, thoughts, situations, responses, and often other poems; and towards new insights, connections, possibilities, and actions, including actions of inspiring or creating more poems.' (Editorial introduction) 2022
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Last amended 25 Jan 2023 11:55:26
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