Prasad, Jayashankar

Born Jan. 10, 1889, in Benares; died there Nov. 15, 1937. Indian writer writing in Hindi.

Prasad’s writing considerably influenced the development of Indian poetry and drama. He was an ideologist of the Chhayavad romantic and symbolist trend in Indian poetry of the 1920’s and 1930’s. Prasad’s chief concerns were good and evil, man and nature, and reason and passion, all of which he examined from a religious, ethical, and philosophical standpoint. In his polemics with Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity, Prasad glorified love, which he considered the only true religion. He thought social evil eternal; hence the tragic view of existence permeating his work.

Prasad’s plays are mainly depictions of actual life. He created a form of psychological drama, relying principally on traditional Indian historical themes, in such plays as Ajatasatru (1922), Skandagupta (1928), and Chandragupta (1931).