HARIVANSHRAI BACHCHAN (27 NOV 1907-18 JAN 2003)--1

KN RAO

14 January 2008, 8:33 AM

On 18 January 2003 when the famous Hindi poet, Harivanshrai Bachchan, father of the
famous actor, Amitabh Bachchan died, and the next day some obituaries were written
remembering his days in Allahabad, particularly of the university days where he taught
English literature, an important fact not mentioned was that Allahabad university had the
rare distinction of having on its staff of English department two famous poets, Raghuvir
Sahai alias Firaq Gorakhpuri, the famous Urdu poet and Harivanshrai Bachchan, the famous
Hindi poet. The comparisons always made between these two have been that Firaq was a
great poet and Bachchan a popular one.
It was a strange experience of my life that while I was very intimate with Firaq saheb
because we met daily in the coffee house during lunch time, at the time of my posting in
Allahabad (1959 1962) and had very fine memories of him, the poet who had acquired
iconic status of a popular poet during my boyhood days, Harivanshrai Bachchan had left
Allahabad to accept a job with the government of India in 1952 or 1954 and was rarely
even talked of in the coffee house circles.
Yet, some people did remember in 2003 that his son Amitabh Bachchan was a great son
serving his father with such rare devotion.
There were others who talked of the dynamic role of his second wife, Teji, who is said to
have made full use of her Allahabad days in which she became intimate with Nehru family to
promote her husband and son. Perhaps this was the cause of so much heart burning in
some circles against the Bachchans.
Jealousies are common in any field, more so in literary circles particularly in the case of
Harivanshrai Bachchan whose unparalled popularity with audiences in Kavi Sammelans
(gathering of poets) did arouse the envy of many of his contemporaries.
Once in his literary career he was castigated most uncharitably by a writer for wanting to
become an Omar Khayyam of Hindi literature vainly. That jealousy increased more because
during the 15 August function of poets organized at Red Fort for many years, he was the
chief attraction and on public demand, he had to recite his poems which had created a new
literary genre in Hindi known as halavaad or the cult of wine.
Till the arrival of Harivanshrai Bachchan on the Hindi poetic scene in 1935 with his famous
Madhushala, it was the romantic poetry known as chayavaad that had fired the imagination
of lovers of Hindi literature. Writing about wine as Urdu poets do so profusely and frequently
was lessknown to Hindi literature read mostly by traditional Hindus who look upon madira
(wine) as a social evil. To eulogize drinking as Madhushala did may have appeared
outrageous to many who did not know that what Harivanshrai Bachchan was doing was
using the language of the people to create a new literary genre though he himself never
drank.
Chayavaad has become something of a shackle Hindi poetry had to get out of. It is
remarkable that at a time when two of the greatest masterpieces of Hindi literature
Kamayini of Jai Shankar Prasad and Godan the immortal novel of Prem Chand had created
great literary waves, his Madhushala held its unparalleled sway on the minds of listeners in
kavi sammelans and lovers of literature, particularly the youth. My own favourite was Jai
Shankar Prasad but a friend of mine, Girija Pant was full of Madhushala and Bachchan
always. He had a voracious memory for poetry and could reel off stanzas after stanzas from

the works of many poets.

I never met Harivansh Bachchan though I could have as his wife Mrs.Teji Bachchan came to
consult me astrologically three or four times and twice with her famous son, the actor
Amitabh Bachchan in 1982 January and February and later once in September of that year
also.
Pop culture being what it is, it was not surprising to learn that Amitabh the actor was better
known in India, in all Hindi and non-Hindi speaking areas than his famous poet father,
Harivanshrai Bachchan. I also heard from someone that sometimes Harivanshrai Bachchan
had to introduce himself to people as the father of Amitabh Bachchan!
In January 1982, when Mrs. Teji Bachchan came to meet me, she had given me the birth
details of her famous husband and more famous son, and also of the second son, Ajitabh
Bachchan. I remember that when all the three horoscopes were cast, it was the one of
Harivanshrai Bachchan which was attracting me about whose health Tejiji had asked some
question. There was no need to worry I had told her. It was about her actor son, Amitabh
that there was some worry I told. I have discussed it my book Ups and Downs in Career.
In July 1982, Amitabh was hurt seriously during the shooting of a film, Coolie, and was
nearly on his death bed. During this period, Harivanshrai Bachchan was in Bombay
attending to all the correspondence at Breach Kandy hospital when thousands of letters and
messages were pouring in everyday inquiring about the condition of Amitabh. I distinctly
remember that I was least interested in the horoscope of Amitabh Bachchan as I am not a
cinema fan. It was the poet father whose horoscope interested me but Teji was asking
questions more about her son Amitabh. It was only after Tejiji left, that I saw the horoscope
of Harivanshrai Bachchan more deeply but never wrote about it anytime.
The creeping shadows

On 16 January 2003 when I heard of his illness in television news I saw his horoscope and
noticed Saturn in Vrisha in the eighth house from his lagna and eighth house from the Moon
of Amitabh Bachchan. Mars from Vrischika was aspecting it and Moon was soon to transit
into Karka and cause fatal janma chandra. He was ninety six and that dasha was of Saturn
with the second lord Mars, the maraka and the antardasha of Venus in the second house.
The inevitable was near inspite of the best efforts of his son, Amitabh to make available to
his father best of medical facilities right in his ownhouse with nurses attending on his both
parents all the time. Now it is time to write about him after his very long life of ninety six
years has come to its inevitable terminus and he is no more.
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HARIVANSHRAI BACHCHAN (27 NOV 1907-18 JAN 2003)--2

KN RAO

14 January 2008, 9:12 AM

Features of the horoscope

Some features of the horoscope are striking here.
i. An excellent Gajakesari yoga in the tenth house with Mercury in lagna being in kendra,
and untainted exalted Jupiter and Moon in its own house had to give him literary
immortality.
ii. The horoscope becomes more striking if it is seen that from Karakamsha, which is Meena,
the fifth house of authorship has exalted Jupiter with Moon aspected by Venus and Sun and
Mars and Saturn.
iii. The fifth house with Saturn in his own house with Mars the second lord did show its
fullest effects by giving him two multi-millionare sons who seemed to have more than
compensated him in his later years after all the tribulations and financial difficulties he had
faced till he shifted to Delhi and got a better job with a better salary. Like a good father, he
made use of this income to give to his children good education in Sherwood College in
Nainital.

It was his Allahabad association with Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru

and his family which benefitted his entire family so immensely.
His wife Teji ji was intimate friend of Indira Gandhi, his son
Amitabh was a chum of both Rajiv and Sanjay. Teji was given
an important post in a film body which is said to have helped

her launch Amitabh into his film career after which he rose to his super stardom on merit.
Harivanshrai Bachchan got a government job, got nominated to Rajya Sabha and he was
better off compared to many indigent poets. His merit as a poet, as the father of a new
genre in Hindi poetry was often overlooked by his rivals and critics. Later, when his famous
son recited his poems and added also immensely to the financial prosperity of the family,
such jealousy had to grow intenser. Astrologers can see two planets in his second house
aspected by Jupiter and Saturn, the fifth lord to see the explanation for all this.
Dasha results
In the Venus dasha (1917 to 1937), the struggling poet came out in the antardasha of
Mercury his Madhushala after which his popularity only soared and this book went into
innumerable editions.
In the dasha of Mars (1953-1960) the second lord of increased income, he shifted to Delhi
and got a governmental job where he got better salary.
In the mahadasha of Rahu (1960-1978) in the ninth house he wrote his autobiography, a
rare literary masterpiece in a country where we are notoriously deficient in the writing of
biographies and autobiographies. If for lovers of poerty his Madhushala is an immortal
piece, the connoisseurs will remember him for his frank autobiography in which he poured
out his agonies and ecstacies as has rarely been done in India. His was a phenomenally long
writing career starting with 1933 and ending in 1995 when his dasha of Jupiter was ending
and his health and old age created problems.
Jupiter in the tenth house gave him rightly the job of a lecturer in the Allahabad University
in 1941 where he served till 1952 or 1954, when a helpful Jawaharlal Nehru offered him a
cosy job in Delhi solving his domestic and financial problems. His critics have always
accused him and his family of exploiting this Nehru contact to the hilt overlooking the innate
literary merit of his long career.
It was in the Rahu mahadasha that he wrote his inimitable autobiography giving it a poetic
title Kya Bhooloon Kya Yaad Karun meaning what to remember and what to forget
translated now in English as 'In the Afternoon of Time', by Dr.Rupert Snell of London
University and praised and well received.
But the irony of literary assessment will always be that it was Madhushala with its immense
popularity which launched him into the literary world hurting the orthodox sentiments of
Hindus as the following stanza, among many show :
Mere adharo par ho antim,
Vastu na tulasi-dal, pyala,
Meri jivha par ho antim,
Vastu na Gangajal, hala,
Mer shav ke peeche chalne valo,
Yaad ise rakhna,
R am nam hai satya na kahna
Kahna sacchi Madhushala
Meaning that at the time of death instead of the Tulsi leaves and the sacred water of the
Ganga (which Hindus) put on the tongue at the time of a mans death, it should be a cup of
wine and those in the funeral procession , instead of remembering Lord Rama and saying R
am naam satya hai should say that the truth is Madhushala.
Anyone who has read closely Madhushala of Bachchan and Rubaiyats of Omar Khayyam as

translated by Fitzerland can contrast and see the superior philosophical quality in Omar
Khayyam who gave to his admirers a question they have not been able to answer
themselves: was he a fatalist or a mystic. Bachchan wrote his Madhushala when his lifes
experience was not rich enough with all those frustrations which Khayyam seemed to have
suffered before he wrote his Rubaiyats. In many places, Madhushala is shallow, many of the
verses are artificially contrived, overstretched attempts to evoke a quick response from a
callow adult than an expression of some innately felt emotion.
Yet, it is Madhushala on which Harivanshrai Bachchan built his reputation as a poet and his
notoriety too as some of his very famous and great contemporaries like Mahadevi Varma
dismissed his work as mere Halavad (the cult of the bottle) and some poets of Bihar are
said to have threatened to get him beaten if he set foot in Patna. It is said that some of the
Kavi Sammelans he attended were disturbed and one in Varanasi had to be held under
police protection. Yet, his rising popularity, derided as cheap and vulgar by many, continued
for so many decades.
Some of the poems Harivanshrai Bachchan wrote later in life, possibly in the dasha of Rahu
and Jupiter raise the same question but more in the tones of existential philosophers, not as
an epicure who must disregard the Beyond that lies after death. It is also to this period that
his masterpiece, his autobiography belongs. Earlier when writing Madhushala he had
constrained his poetic style but sticking to some rigid prosodic style and rhymes and kept
himself away totally from free verse. It was after his stay in Cambridge that he chose to
write some poems in free verse and produced the most exquisite poetry of his life.
Yet, he is remembered for Madhushala also because the famous singer Manna De sang
them to the accompaniment of some light instrumental music beautifully. No Hindi poet, for
that matter, no Indian poet ever was so lucky as Harivanshrai Bachchan. He was
tremendously popular from 1935 till death because he wrote poetry in the language of the
people and wrote on the subject like drinks contemptuously kept out by literary men and
poets who dealt with sublime subjects in exquisite poetic style and language. Bachchan
broke that tradition and appeared to many to be a poet of a very lower category with
immense popularity almost an upstart flaunting his inspiration borrowed from
Omar Khayyam with none of the depth of philosophy of Rubaiyats, the encircling pathos of a
dying evening,
the frightening inevitability of death, the uncertain knowledge about what lies Beyond, after
ones death. Khayyam wrote his pieces after a life of glorious achievements and suffering
the eclipse of all that he was identified with as a genius, a distinguished astronomer,
mathematician, courtier with rich patronage and friends some of whom betrayed him to
make him ponder on lifes vicissitudes.
Bachchan on the other hand wrote his Madhushala when he was only an inexperienced adult
more anxious to distinguish himself with some new ideas, innovations. He made a stormy
entry in the Hindi literary world just as decades later his son Amitabh did in Indian films
with sex and crime thrillers with the image of an angry young man. Both son and father
portrayed, one in his poetry and the other in his cinema roles, defiance of accepted social
norms, literary tastes, defiling the middle class values and morality. Those who read both
Omar Khayyam in English and Madhushala in Hindi never found anything in Madhushala to
even echo the mysticism of stanza like:
Before the phantom of False morning died, 0
Me thought a Voice within the Tavern cried,
W hen all the Temple is prepared within,
W hy nods the drowsy Worshipper outside?
All the early poems of Bachchan particularly Is Paar Priye series were echoes from Khayyam

like:
And, as the Cock crew, those who stood before
The Tavern shouted O pen then the Door!
You know how little while we have to stay,
A nd, once departed, may return no more. Or see this
Strange, is it not? that of the myriads who
Before us passd the door of Darkness through Not
one returns to tell us of the Road, Which to
discover we must travel too.
In later years, when Bhagwati Charan Varma wrote his Chitralekha in Hindi he too gained
immense popularity though those who read Thais of Anatole France could see in the much
discussed novel no original thought or inspiration but only literary artistry. How many will
remember him as a literary giant? Many regard him as a successful literary craftsman of the
age of puritanism of 1935. Most will remember him as the father of Amitabh Bachchan. Yet
there are many who remember him as a personwho was lucky to have had life long contact
with Indias most influential family of the Nehrus which benefitted him immensely.
Known Incidents in the life Harivanshrai Bachchan
1934 First Marriage with Shyama (Venus-Mercury)(Kumbha-Tula (DK in Kumbha)
1934-36 Madhushala and his great fame ((Kumbha-Tula)
1936-11-17 Wife Shyama died (Venus-Ketu) (Kumbha-Kumbha with DK in it)
1938 M.A. from Allahabad University (Sun-Mars) (Meena-Mesha)
1940 Lecturer at Allahabad University (Sun- Saturn) (Meena-Karka)
1942 Second Marriage with Teji Sun-Venus) (Meena-Tula) (Teji pregnant with Amitabh.)
1942-10-10 His father died.( Meena-Vrischika with Sun also Gnathikaraka in it.)
1942-10-11 Amitabh Bachchan born (First Son). (Sun-Venus)
Bachchan senior regarded this son of his to be the reincarnation of his father who had died
only twenty four hours before.
1966 Rajya Sabha (Rahu-Saturn). (Karka-Mithuna/Vrisha)
1947-5-18 Ajitabh was born (Moon-Jupiter) (Mesha-Mithuna)
1954 to 1956 Ph.D. Cambridge University (Mars-Rahu to Mars-Mercury) (Vrisha-Kumbha)
1973-6-3 Amitabh married Jaya Bhaduri (Rahu-Venus) (Karka-Vrischika)
1973 Dec. Ajitabh married (Rahu-Venus)(Karka-Tula)
1974-3-14 Shweta daughter of Amitabh was born (Rahu-Venus) (Karka-Tula)
1976-2-5 Abhishek son of Amitabh was born (Rahu-Moon) (Karka-Simha)
2003-1-19 death (Saturn-Venus-Jupiter)(Dhanu-Tula)
Awards won

1967 Sahitya Academy Award (Rahu-Saturn) (Karka-Vrisha)

1967 January 23 Padma Bhushan (Rahu-Saturn)(Karka-Vrisha)
1992 Saraswati Samman (Jupiter-Rahu)(Kanya-Mesha)
1994 Yash Bharati Award of the government of Uttar Pradesh (Saturn-Saturn) (KanyaMithuna)
Chara Dasha Sequence
Tula 1907-1908
Vrischika 1908-1911
Dhanu 1911-1918
Makara 1918-1929
Kumbha 1929-1937 (See Amatyakaraka
here and his golden period)
Meena 1937-1945
Mesha 1945-1955
Vrisha 1955-1961
Mithuna 1961-1965
Karka 1965-1977 (The tenth house with PK. The father became a member of Rajya Sabha
while son Amitabh rose in his career in Bombay films.)
Simha 1977-1986
Kanya 1986-1997
Tula 1997-1998
Vrischika 1998-2001
Dhanu-Tula 2002 June 26 to 26 January 2003 (Dhanu the rashi of accidents and Tula which
is eighth from Karakamsha which is Meena)
Died on 19 January 2003
In Sthira dasha it was Tula-Simha when he died one eighth from Karakamsha and the other
sixth. Transits on the day of death Saturn and Rahu were in the eighth house from the
lagna aspected by Mars and Moon was in Karka causing Janma Chandra.