The Poet and the Map of Hadoti in Premji Prem’s Poetic Structure Mhari Kavitavan

Abstract

Late Premji Prem was a regional poet of the Hadoti belt, geographically comprising Kota, Bundi, Baran and Jhalawar districts of today. Nature is benign here with scenic beauty; it has mineral wealth and legendary historical monuments, palaces and fortresses. Premji Prem, as a poet of the masses, concentrated on the underdog- the Adivasis, the downtrodden and the Dalits. He was not a poet of the bourgeois and aristocratic elite of Hadoti. He showed his major concern with the suffering, backward, hardworking untouchables. He exposed the diabolic orthodox psyche of the upper castes of Hadoti. Literature and its fictional spaces might serve as a fine example (but one could also think of soundscapes or emotions). Doubtlessly, the realm of fiction is defined by different ‘rules’ to the geography that cartography customarily addresses.