The Master and the Disciple: Jayanta Mahapatra and Niranjan Mohanty

This paper highlights Jayanta Mahapatra and Niranjan Mohanty as two signatures of Indian Poetry in English. The relationship between them is of master and disciple. Mohanty has learnt from Mahapatra and attempted his best to imbibe him though he differs from him in approach. Both the poets are well-aware of the present state of the country which is in the grip of monsters like corruption, population-explosion, unemployment, pollution and terrorism. Both the poets have depicted hunger—of belly and loin realistically. Mohanty is much influenced by Mahapatra in the beginning but with the passage of time, he fuses all the influences which, with the play of imagination, result in an idiom which certainly differs from his master Jayanta Mahapatra.