UGC National Seminar
Impact of Haiku on Indian Literature

29-31 March, 1999 Institute of Asian Studies, Chennai

From time immemorial, vernacular poetry in India has drawn inspiration from our hoary history, rich myths and rituals, colorful religious and cultural practices and many other sources of widely divergent. Indian poets have shown a remarkable power of accommodation and resilience in their capacity for exploiting our rich linguistic resources. From poetry of devotional fervor set in lofty diction down to the use of vernacular language in daily life, our poets have been most creative in their use of the poetic medium. There is, however, the poetic form haiku prevalent in Japan with which India has cultural ties, which has entered the poetic consciousness of our latter- day poets resulting in a rich variety of newer forms of lyrical verse.

The history of the Japanese haiku dates back to the 16th century when it attained a form of its own. Even today it remains probably the most attractive and popular form of Japanese poetry. The compactness of its formal features and the startling response it evokes in the reader is responsible for its widespread impact on many countries of the world. It consists of 17 syllables, in three metrical units of 5, 7 and 5 syllables respectively. Several schools developed in course of time among the experimentalists of haiku poetry. The uniting factor among them was to regard the haiku as an instrument for probing into man's essential nature. Asian countries have a shared culture

The greatest observable uniting mode being art, identifiable features between Japanese poetry and Indian poetry in different languages have not escaped the attention of our cultural historians. The Tamil poet Subramania Bharati wrote an essay on haiku poetry as early as 1912. The poets of Bengal and Oriya had modelled their verses trying to catch the magical cadence of the Japanese Haiku. The seasonal element, the prime poetic motif in the traditional haiku tradition came to be replaced by other aspects.

The brevity of the haiku form has been exploited by a great many modern poets. A few have been able to endow it with an air of freshness and delight by using haiku to remove the film of familiarity and reveal the dazzling variety of the world.

We invite papers of interdisciplinary nature on the theme Impact of Haiku on Indian Languages. Papers must be in English and may address points for discussion such as the following.

• What subjects can be treated in Indian haikus?
• What form should an Indian haiku take?
• Should the Indian haiku follow the Japanese model, or can it evolve amidst the Indian poetic context?
• What has been the result of this impact on our poetry to date?
• Has it modified our tradition?
• Has haiku affected our poetic languages and content/ form of poetry?
• Is it an alien mode transplanted on the native soil? What is it survival value?
• Does it further the range of our poetry in terms of rhythm, metrical virtuosity , etc..?
• How much of a compelling force is haiku? How far has it enriched our native poetry?

This three-day seminar will draw together poets, translators, scholars, and linguists, for a face to face debate on the Impact of haiku on poetry Indian languages.

Japanese participant-evaluators in the Haiku Seminar include:

See the full schedule of Haiku Seminar events