KING PORUS FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM; A POETIC VIEW

KING PORUS FOUGHT FOR FREEDOM; A POETIC VIEW

Indian poet Michael Madhusudan Dutt looks at Maharaja Porus as a legendary freedom fighter of Inida.  A great scholar who was as good 

a writer in English and Persian as in his mother tongue Bengali.  Dutt was born on 25^th January 1824 in Jessore District of Bangladesh and passed away on June 29, 1873 in Kolkata.  He served as a teacher of English in Madras.  He was also known by his nickname Timothy Penpoem.

          Dutt was a revolutionary poet.  He had modernistic mindset, interested in throwing away some of the old social baggage which kept people superstitious and cowardly.  He was a great patriot and it is because o f this personal quality own that he profoundly  admires Maharaja Porus and calls him ---- A Legendary Hero --- in his poem entitled  King Porus.

          Dutt believes that Maharaja Porus fought for Freedom: “Loudly the midnight tempest sang. /Ah! It was thy dirge, fair Liberty!”

          The hero of Dutt’s poem is undoubtedly a valorous king.  Describing the invasion of Alexander and the readiness of Maharaja Porus to defend himself and his soldiers and territory, Dutt says:

          Then lion-king, each warrior brave

          Rushed on the coming foe,

          To strike for freedom – or the grave.

Thousands of soldiers lost their lives in this battle.  But, says Dutt, before the Macedonians driven’ fell India’s hardy sons,’ Proud mountain oaks by thunders driven, that for their country’s freedom bled – and made on gore their glorious bed!

How did Maharaja Porus conduct himself in this terribly destructive battle? According to Dutt: King Porus stood there dauntlessly, towering ‘midst the fore’, like a Himala-peak, with its eternal crown of snow, and on his brow did shine the jewell’d regal diadem.  His milk-white elephant was deck’d with many a brilliant gem.

Unfortunately Maharaja Porus got wounded and started bleeding. Alexander noticed it and quite generously ordered his men to “Desist-desist!” and also magnanimously exclaimed: “Such noble blood should not be shed!”

The words that follow hint at the beginning of peace and exemplary patriotism of Porus.  He stood, ‘midst the dying’ and the dead, boldly, undismayed: Says Dutt ‘Hail, brave and warlike prince!’ thy generous rival bids thee cease – behold! there flies the flag that lulls dread war, and wakens peace!”

Maharaja Porus is arrested but boldly appears at the place where ‘midst the gay and flittering crowd, sat god-like Alexander. Michael Madhusudan Dutt uses this scene to highlight the indomitable spirit of Porus that shunned slavery and made the strongest possible plea for freedom.  In Michael’s words: “While ‘round’ Earth’s mightiest monarchs bow’d, King Porus was no slave; he stooped not – bent not there his knee , but stood, as stands an oak in Himalayan majesty and when asked by Alexander how he should be treated, Porus replied: “As a King”.

          Modern India should be grateful to Michael Maduhusudan Dutt for interpreting the war between Porus and Alexander as India’s ancient war for freedom against a foreign invader.