As mentioned in the preface, Sundaram was asked by Gujarat Vernacular Society to write a history of Gujarati poetry written during 1845 to 1945.[2] Sundaram consulted the works of about 350 poets, and out of these he assessed 250 poets and their work in this book.[3] The book was first published in 1946. Its third edition was published in 1965 by Gujarat Vidhya Sabha.[1][2]
Content
The book presents an outline of the history of modern Gujarati poetry, and deals with the main currents of modern Gujarati poetry as it developed during a period of eighty years (1845–1945).[1][4] The poems evaluated here are divided into two sections: new current and old current.[3]
The appendix includes information about translations from Sanskrit, English, Bengali, Hindi, Urdu; and about some collection of ghazals, folk-songs and devotional songs, Rasa, patriotic poems and songs. An index of books and authors is given at the end of the book.[1]
Reception
Since it publication, Arvachin Kavita remained as the most significant critical landmark of Gujarati literature. It has been described as 'classic' and 'monumental' work.[5][6][7] It was awarded Mahida Prize in 1946.[6]
Gujarati poet and critic Mansukhlal Jhaveri called it 'unique and unparalleled in Gujarati literature'.[4]Chandrakant Topiwala acclaimed the book and wrote that, "...this is a trustworthy historical study of modern Gujarati poetry conducted with close reading and careful analysis of the texts".[3]Babu Suthar, a critic of new generation, noted in one of his articles that Arvachin Kavita is a kind of history that satisfies the conditions of Encyclopedic history and Narrative history.[2]
^ abcSuthar, Babu (February 2008). Bhogayata, Jayesh (ed.). "સાહિત્યના ઈતિહાસની વિભાવના: 'અર્વાચીન કવિતા'ના આધારે" [The Concept of History of Literature: On the base of 'Arvācīna Kavitā']. Tathapi (in Gujarati) (10). Vadodara: 62–73.
