(Photo Source: Internet)
Padamshri Padma Sachdev is a prominent modern poet of Dogri literature from Jammu. She was born in 1940 in Purmandal Town (located on the banks of the sacred river Devak) some 39 Kms from Jammu and is the eldest of three children of Prof. Jai Dev Baru who was a Sanskrit scholar. Padma Sachdev is a delightful and endearing women, full of home-spun fun and laughter (rather loud laughter for the more cultured ears). She was also a lovable person with all the homely qualities of a good housewife - an excellent cook, an entertaining hostess and an interesting talker. She was a successful writer with wide readership among a specific section of the society. All these mutually supportive elements, especially combined with a joy for living, a positive attitude, strong will power, dedication and tremendous energy to produce, to carve out a name for herself. Despite her health complications, she made significant contribution in dogri language and also take various initiatives to make dogri dialect famous worldwide.
Writing in both her mother tongue, Dogri, and the national language, Hindi, she has published six collections of Dogri poetry, eight books of Hindi prose, including two novels, one collection of short stories, an autobiography, a travelogue, and more than half a dozen translations. She also writes an occasional article in Hindi for newspapers and journals. She is quite an achiever, with several awards like the Sahitya Akademi Award at the young age of thirty for her first collection of Dogri poetry, Soviet Land Nehru Award, Hindi Academy Puraskar, U.P. Hindi Academy Pruaskar, Raja Ram Mohan Roy Puraskar, Joshua Poetry Award, and the Jammu & Kashmir Government's Robe of Honour. Padma ji writes in Hindi as well. And apart from poetry, she has also written some Novels and a collection of short stories.
In 1969, she published her first collection of poems with an introduction by Ram Dhari Singh Dinkar, who was a well known Hindi poet. He wrote:
“Padma ki kavita sun kar mujhe laga mein apni kalam phaink doon kyoonki jo batein Padma kahati hai, wahi asli kavita hai”.
(Reading the poems of Padma, I felt I should throw away my pen because the things Padma says is real poetry.)
Thereafter she published five more collections of her poems at regular intervals - Tawi Te Chanhaan in 1976, Nehriyan Galiyan in 1982, Pota Pota Nimbal in 1987, Uttarbaihni in 1992 and Tainthiyaan in 1999. The titles of her books are emblematic and noteworthy. Padma ji can also understand and speak kashmiri.
During her first year in college, she became the first poetess of Dogri when she joined established Dogri poets in sharing a stage and reciting a song she had composed in a kavi sammelan at Jammu in front of a large and distinguished audience which included Jammu and Kashmir's Chief Minister. The next morning, her song was published in a local Urdu page Sandesh, edited by Ved Pal Deep, the foremost Dogri poet, who was also twelve years her senior. They fell in love and married against both families' objections. Padma was the romantic age of 16 at that time. A few months later, she contracted her first major illness, tuberculosis of the intestines, which entailed almost three years of hospitalization between the Srinagar hospital and home. But before that happened, she had already established herself with her poetry, Raja Diyan Mandiyan, which she wrote at age fourteen.
This poem is noteworthy for its technical ability, subject matter, tone, and texture, especially since a young girl composed it. Through the figure of an old woman, it embodies the sensibility of the downtrodden and neglected poor against the inhumanity and indifference of those in power. Almost all anthologies of Dogri poetry cite this poem, and it holds an important position in Padma’s oeuvre. This poem and the seven smaller poems were printed for the first time in 1959 in a selection of Dogri poetry from the most promising young poets entitled Madhukan, published by the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages. Its editor, Prof. Ram Nath Shastri, remarked on her spirit of revolt, courage, sensitivity, intensity of experience, and sweetness of language. Lata Mangeshkar has sung her poems and she is fond of her. She has also won prestigious Sahitya Academy award along with many other awards such as the Soviet land Nehru award and UP state Hindi academy Puruskar etc etc.
Her private life has been nothing but struggle against adversities. A fight against Tuberculosis for which she got admitted in Chest and Diseases Hospital In Drogjan Dalgate (Kashmir) for three years and then her failed marriage with Ved Pal Deep eminent Dogri Poet and editor of Urdu daily newspaper SANDESH, which is published from Jammu. A letter from Bakshi Ghulam Mohd the then chief Minister of J&K got her a job of Dogri News reader in All India Radio New Delhi and then her marriage with classical singer Sardar Surrinder Singh Sachdev (Singh Bandhus) who also served as Duty officer AIR New Delhi.
Sachdev is popularly known as the ‘mother of modern Dogri', but she actually belongs to a family of Sanskrit scholars. She made a constant effort to fight against former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for the recognition of her native language. When Dogri was finally introduced in the eighth Schedule of the Constitution in 2003, 'it was the happiest day for me, as the language was given its own identity and was not just taken for a dialect'.
Padma ji was still indeed the much talked about poetess of her times and the Dogra heartland of Jammu was evidently enriched for the same. Undoubtedly her social personality, the haunting ghosts of her traumatic first marriage with the legendary Dogri poet Ved Pal Deep, the legendary closeness to an iconic film artist like Lata Mangeshkar; she would always remain an important part of Dogri folklore today and for times to come. She leaves behind her poetry which is timeless, emotionally bonded and rhythmically lyrical. She was more than a poet and writer; she was a cultural emblem for Dogri language and sustenance of cultural traditions whether regionally, nationally or internationally. Padma Sachdev passed away on 4 August 2021, but she leaves behind a legacy of memory and emotion that will surely inspire generations of scribes, writers and poets of the Dogri language and culture.
(Writer: Vivek Koul)
Link to some older posts:-
1. https://vivekkoulinsights.blogspot.com/2025/01/harud-harvesting-cum-beautiful-season.html?m=1
2. https://vivekkoulinsights.blogspot.com/2024/12/samovar-persian-gift-to-kashmir.html
3. https://vivekkoulinsights.blogspot.com/2025/03/sarthal-hidden-gem-in-kathua-district.html
Comments
Post a Comment