Echoes of the Upaniṣads in the Poetry of Krishna Srinivas : A Study of ‘Fire’, the Third Section of Five Elements

Abstract

In the present scenario of de- intellectualisation when our native frameworks are replaced by alien frameworks, decolonizing the mind becomes a task. Interaction with other cultures and with other 
intellectual traditions proves positive and fruitful only when one is rooted in one’s own tradition. Unfortunately, the present shape of intellectual scapes is such where we have forgotten our own tradition and “ tradition” is regarded as opposed to “modern”. Reintellectualisation is needed for regeneration of India. The Tamil poet Krishna Srinivas [20-6-1913 to14-12-2007] was seriously involved in the great task of cultural reassertion. His epical work The Five Elements is a transcreation of the Upaniṣadic 
knowledge. In the third part of his epic Krishna Srinivas talks of ‘fire” at three levels-spiritual, universal and human. The five fires- the universe fire, the cloud fire, the earth fire , man fire and woman fire symbolize the concatenation of causes that are behind all creation. The Chāndogya and the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣads explain these five fires. The paper concentrates on “fire” as the triple streams of religion, philosophy and science in Krishna Srinivas’s poem where these merge into the harmony of 
poetic rhythm.