Many of Viyogi’s contemporaries have found the poet’s work historic in more than one way. Many feel that the poet not only innovated and perfected the exposition of Sonnet adaptation in his native language, but experimented with the rhyme scheme. He justified the structure and encapsulated his imagination in the concise form of fourteen lines.
He brought forth the pathos and joy of a romantic, ferocity of a social reformist, wisdom of gentle soul bouncing through the turbulent waters of life, magnanimity of true artist who expanded the form to include pen portraits, tributes and acknowledgements to various literary doyens of Dogri, the prominent being Prof Ramnath Shastri, Ved Rahi, Narinder Khajuria among others.
The poet not only imported a form that is foreign to the Dogri literature but attempted it in a language that was foreign to the form. He reveals the same awareness in his sonnets where he articulates how within the established norms and canons of the established writers he is trying his innovations and experimentation.
Ved Rahi, renowned Dogri writer, who reviewed Kunwar Viyogi’s Pehliyaan Banga in 1988 calls it an original piece of work of a genius poet. According to Rahi, the fluency with which the poet had written the sonnets is commendable, especially where he uses unique metaphors to convey his thoughts on multiple aspects.
Sahitya Akademi award-winning writer and former President of Dogri Sanstha, Jammu Chhatrapal credits Kunwar Viyogi with introducing sonnets in Dogri literature. Terming it as historic, the noted writer says that Viyogi created a world record by penning 600 sonnets, which no one has accomplished till date. He also credits the poet with being the only Dogri writer to have written 200 sonnets in Dogri. As Chhatrapal put it, ‘there has been no Dogri writer before or after Kunwar Viyogi to have penned as many sonnets in Dogri which are original and rare.”
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