Overview
For A.K. Ramanujan, who infused his diverse knowledge of Indian literatures and traditions into his poetry, the idea of Soma, the mysterious plant used by Vedic priests to extract ambrosia, fed his creativity.
Sifting through Ramanujanās archives, the editors discovered a series of unpublished āSoma poemsā whose style and theme set them apart from his earlier work. This volume includes these poems beside essays and an interview that contextualizes them. It also contains a foreword written by the poet and critic A.K. Mehrotra.
Krishna Ramanujanās essay āHummelās Miracle: The Search for Somaā explores the connections between the poems and the quest for the plantās identity from the 1960s to the present. āThe āOrdinary Mysteryā Trip: Soma in A.K. Ramanujanās Poetryā by Guillermo Rodriguez dives deep into Ramanujanās layered perspective on Soma. āThe Post-Vedic History of the Soma Plantā, by Wendy Doniger, which influenced Ramanujanās perception of Soma, originally published in 1968, is reprinted here with a special preface. The interview conducted in Chicago in 1982 between Malayali poet K. Ayyappa Paniker and Ramanujan offers a peek into Ramanujanās perspectives on poetry and translation.
While Soma focuses on A.K. Ramanujanās experimental poems and his creative mindset as an expatriate in America in the 1970s and early 1980s, it also provides a glimpse into a fascinating period in Western Indology when Indian philosophies and traditions were debated, some of which became so ingrained that they influence contemporary culture to this day.
This book title, Soma (Poems by A.K. Ramanujan), ISBN: 9780670098040, by Krishna Ramanujan, Guillermo Rodriguez, published by Penguin Random House India Pvt. Ltd (September 10, 2024) is available in hardcover. Our minimum order quantity is 25 copies. All standard bulk book orders ship FREE in the continental USA and delivered in 4-10 business days.
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