Modes of Water Representation: From Classic to Modern Indian Poetry

Abstract

To overcome the difficulty in representation, poets resort to certain images of the material objects which are readily available in the world around them. Water has been such an objective reality in the Indian poetry, from the classical periods onwards.But owing to the varieties of subjective assimilations, its modes of representation tends to vary in various contexts.Water itself was a unique experience for the people of each epoch and the images built around it was so numerous and various that it had the capability to convey the experiences of the particular era. When the poetic language becomes imbued with images and symbols that are newly constructed around this accustomed material objectivity, they provide the poetical manipulations ,a plethora of symbolic representations  with which they would unlock new realms of experiences.In the course of time they multiply themselves and new images and symbols are constructed around them and this process itself creates new material realities and new linguistic realms which are further utilized in the creation and appreciation of poetry.This paper is an attempt to ascertain the various modes of water representation in Indian literature  starting from the classic literature and folk literature to the modern Malayalam poetry and Indian English poetry.