Akshaya Mukul spills the beans about author Agyeya in his new biography

Akshaya Mukul, who bagged a number of non-fiction awards with his book Gita Press and the Making of Hindu India (2015), speaks proudly and passionately about his new book Writer, Rebel, Soldier, Lover: The Many Lives of Agyeya (2022). Published by Vintage, it is a biography of a man who is remembered not only as a stalwart of Hindi literature but also for his contributions to India’s freedom struggle, and his beleaguered but colourful love life.

Excerpts from the interview:

What, according to you, are Agyeya’s most significant contributions to Hindi literature?

Agyeya came on the literary scene when Chhayavaad (romanticism) was on the decline. He heralded the arrival of Prayogvaad (experimentalism). He is particularly known for the Nayi Kavita movement, which was modernist in style. The Marxists attacked Agyeya for his emphasis on individualism but he did not pay much heed to them. He did his own thing. His creativity flourished during years spent in jail for revolutionary activities against the British.

Do you consider your book not only a biography but also a work of translation? While you have not translated Agyeya’s writing per se, you have brought alive for people who read only/mainly in English the life and personality of a Hindi writer. Your thoughts?

That is an interesting way of looking at my book. I am going to give you a long-winded answer. I hope that’s okay with you. Agyeya was not a typical Hindi heartland author. He was a Punjabi man who spent his childhood and youth in Lucknow, Srinagar, Patna, Nalanda, Madras (now Chennai), Ooty, Lahore, and many other places. He was comfortable with English but he wrote poems, essays, novels and travelogues in Hindi because he saw English as the colonizer’s language. His private papers tell another story. His correspondence with his younger brother, some of his lovers, and his literary contemporaries was mostly in English.

Though he was almost chauvinistic about Hindi, he wanted to be translated into English so that he would be read widely outside India. In fact, his novels Nadi Ke Dvip and Apne Apne Ajnabi, and many of his poems, were translated into English during his lifetime. In addition to this, Agyeya translated a lot of his own poems. I did not want to produce a work of translation but I agree with you that I have ended up deconstructing Agyeya for the English-speaking world. I was lucky to have support from Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, Ranjit Hoskote, Trisha Gupta and Akhil Katyal in translating some untranslated Agyeya poems for my book.

Your book opens with Kushinagar, the site of Shakyamuni Buddha’s mahaparinirvana and also the birthplace of Agyeya. Did you visit the place while working on this book?

Yes, I did. Kushinagar had a formative influence in Agyeya’s life, especially because his father Hiranand Sastri used to work with the Archaeological Survey of India. Agyeya used to accompany his father on archaeological expeditions. He was fascinated with the sculptures, inscriptions and coins that were excavated from there. When he was a child, some Buddhist lamas had approached his parents because they wanted to adopt him and train him as a monk. It was difficult for them to let go of him. Agyeya was his father’s favourite child. Agyeya spoke about this phase of childhood publicly when he was invited to Kushinagar in the 1960s.

Agyeya studied at Forman Christian College in Lahore. Did you go there for research?

Going to Lahore for archival work is almost impossible because of political tensions between India and Pakistan, and the difficulty of obtaining a visa for research purposes. I relied on the generosity of scholars who live in Pakistan to locate information and fill in some gaps. I checked out archives in Allahabad and Chicago, and I visited Agyeya’s houses in Delhi.

Would you have had a different approach to this biography if Agyeya were alive today?

I would not have taken up this project if I had been asked to write a controlled biography. Yes, he is a colossal figure of Hindi literature from the 20^th century but he is also a human being. I despise biographies where men come out with flying colours all the time. I did not want to write such a hagiography. I like to bring out secrets, struggles, foibles and failures.

During Agyeya’s lifetime, Ram Kamal Rai wrote a biography titled Shikhar Se Sagar Tak based on interviews with Agyeya and his contemporaries. It had the makings of an authorized biography. I did not want Agyeya’s stamp of approval or his permission while writing this book. I wanted to treat him as a protagonist, and tell his story as truthfully as possible.

Agyeya’s romance with Kripa Sen is one of the highlights of your book, and it’s great to see you write about her with the same dignity that is accorded to his wives Santosh Malik and Kapila Vatsyayan. How would describe Kripa Sen’s role in Agyeya’s life?

They had a stormy relationship but she made a huge impression on him. When I saw Agyeya’s private papers, I realized that Nadi Ke Dvip is more autobiographical than I had imagined. Their relationship was intense and all-encompassing. Kripa was a passionate woman, and extremely well-read. She was educated in England. She was proficient in Persian and Bengali in addition to English. She moved among the social elite of her time. She was completely besotted with Agyeya. Sometimes, she would write four love letters in a day.

Kripa was a real match for him. If he gave her the silent treatment, she would have none of it. She used to persuade him and compel him to talk. She would not let him walk all over her. They were going to have a child together. She had to abort the child. I wrote about their relationship only because Agyeya never wanted to forget it. If he wanted to hide it, he would not have kept Kripa’s letters along with his private papers even after he got married to Kapila. Excluding Kripa from my biography of Agyeya would have been blasphemous.

Your book also mentions that Agyeya was “emotionally involved” with his cousin, and had some homosexual encounters during his college days. What sources did you use?

My thumb rule was to write an evidence-based biography and avoid gossip at all costs. There is enough material available about Agyeya’s emotional entanglement with his cousin Indumati. His first wife Santosh was outraged when she saw Indumati wearing her wedding ring but later suggested that she was open to living with Agyeya and Indumati under the same roof. Kripa was quite aghast when she learnt about the closeness between Agyeya and Indumati. What I have written about Agyeya’s homosexual encounters is based on the dream journals that he kept, and his book Shekhar: Ek Jivani that draws from his personal life.

Is it true that Agyeya was also a photographer?

Yes, Agyeya loved taking photographs of his lovers, nature, and children. When Gandhiji was assassinated, and his ashes were scattered all over India, Agyeya took photographs to document the moment when the ashes were thrown into the Sangam in Allahabad (now Prayagraj). Apart from being a photographer, Agyeya was also a great cook, tailor and carpenter. He was deeply interested in physics, dance and music. He was knowledgeable about plants and trees. He also made and kept designs of furniture, underwear, and teapots. He had a curious, expansive mind, which was always occupied with something or the other.

Chintan Girish Modi is a writer, journalist and educator who tweets @chintan_writing

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