Dimbeswar Neog : The Indradhenu Poet of Assam
We share this tribute to Dimbeswar Neog on the occasion of his death anniversary which is on the 11th of November. His literary contributions span multiple genres, including poetry, history, and cultural criticism. Despite life’s challenges, Neog’s commitment to his homeland and mother tongue shines through in his works.
In his eyes i find loneliness let out a whisper
In his smile there’s benediction that exerts thoughts
And in his speech that is pruned with humor
I find the pen that’s eager to write and say…
“You live life, you just don’t visit it.”
NNC
Do we ever try to understand emotions that lie at the root of all those somersaults life takes? Although such dealings with fate may sound menacing, yet the dynamics of the life of the poet-scholar Dimbeswar Neog (7 Aug 1899- 11 Nov 1966) holds the unique compendium of an interview of his life and works. As the eldest son of a middle-class family of the village of Kamarphadiya, in Sibsagar, he had merged himself with the air that gripped the young intellectuals of his time. His life and engagements did not hold that watch-tower syndrome but sought to bring his mother tongue, his homeland, and his village into prominence with love and honour. His poem rests on every Assamese lips. He refers to his small village with awe and reverence as Brahmandar khudro tangoron, where his life had begun all dew fresh, with a sparkle! It was meant more to be a realistic assertion than a romantic’s pride.
Throughout life, his pen did write on and on and Assam bequeathed on him the honour of being the Indradhenu Kobi. Beyond that, his pen worked at every literary genre…short story, novel, drama, poetry, history, criticism, culture and folk literature, and poetry, and rested on Saint Sankaradeva, in his book titled Yug Nayak.
His youth was a period when all hearts in Assam were swept as Michael Madhusudan Dutt’s was in Bengal, by English verses of Byron, Milton, Shelley, and Keats. And yet the Assamese youths were also loyal adherents to their lands literature, that had suffered a cruel beating due to the colonial interference.
Dimbeswar Neog’s poems were sentinels of his life’s legacy. There was a warm flow of nature and music, soft and amiable, with a vibe that took his prose writings way ahead as it did his poetry.
It is an amazing truth that from that same household, his younger brother Dr Maheswar Neog leaped right through the loop, not only in academic excellence but also to reign supreme as Assam’s prominent scholar and to be heralded by Dr Hiren Gohain as ‘The Monarch of Learning’ and by Ranjit Dev Goswami as a Pratahsmarania blessing for the land of Assam.
“Arise, awake and accept
That which is yours.”
Life though was a rough storm for Dimbeswar Neog as he lost his wife even when his seven children were all young. Here again, it was his calm and benign personality that saw him through. He managed the home, his children, his writings, and his numerous meetings with utmost patience. Beyond that, he had constructed homes in Jorhat and Guwahati; and unlike his younger brother, Dr Maheswar Neog who left the homestead to be totally seen and managed by his wife Nirmala Neog, Dimbeswar Neog opened his Gyan Ashram, to provide education for his children within a framed curriculum. The syllabus was routine and detailed. Such was his strength of mind and focus.
Dimbeswar Neog’s generous contribution made towards the people of Assam to cherish, are his 98 books. I learnt about this from Google and felt amazed, not because of his immense scholarly prowess but because of the fact that beyond his two books…’New Light in the History of Assamese Literature’ and ‘Yug Nayak’, which are a treasure chest for research scholars, and a few books of poems, not much of his writings are seen to be published. Neither are they ever seen on the bookshelves of bookshops. This is a grave injustice done to the scholar’s memory and his works. The fact that despite the travails of his life, he was cognizant of his great responsibility as a scholar and had worked his dynamic energy with a scholarly determination. The government ought to heed to this fact and knowledge. After all, a great man belongs to his people.
All empirical and pragmatic, leavened with the passionate zeal of the scholar, he was a simple man. He did not choose writing, rather he was the chosen one. His was the most prolific voice and he advanced on in life with the intense zeal of a crusader. The 67 years of his life was an intense experience before he surrendered to the grip of cancer, and his fiercely independent nature made him break the glass ceiling and embrace fame as one of Assam’s famed being: the Indradhenu poet. (Love to remember him ..Bordeuta…again and yet again on his death anniversary every year, ever since he left us behind. Grateful always for his love and compassion. Om Shanti!)
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