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It was hot at Padachina even for a summer day. In this village were many houses, but not a soul could be seen anywhere. The bazaar was full of shops and the lanes were lined with houses built either of brick or of mud. Every house was quiet. The shops were closed, and no one knew where the shopkeepers had gone. Even the street beggars were absent. The weavers wove no more. The merchants had no business. Philanthropic persons had nothing to give. Teachers closed their schools. Things had come to such a pass that children were even afraid to cry. The streets were empty. There were no bathers in the river. There were no human beings about the houses, no birds in the trees, no cattle in the past...
THERE is a small village on the river Madhumati. On account of its being the residence of wealthy zemindars it is regarded as a village of importance. One Chaitra afternoon the summer heat was gradually abating with the weakening of the once keen rays of the sun; a gentle breeze was blowing; it began to dry the perspiring brow of the peasant in the field and play with the moist locks of village women just risen from their siesta. It was after such a siesta that a woman of about thirty was engaged in her toilet in a humble thatched cottage. She took very little time to finish the process usually so elaborate with womankind; a dish of water, a tin-framed looking-glass three inches wide, and a ...
Kapalkundala is a Bengali romance novel by Indian writer Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay. Published in 1866, it is a story of a forest-dwelling girl named Kapalkundala, who fell in love with and married Nabakumar, a young gentleman from Saptagram. Eventually, she finds herself unable to adjust to city life.
'Durgeshnandini' is the first novel of Bankim Chandra. It refers to the beloved daughter of the master of Fort Mandaran, Birendra Singh. Fort Mandaran was an estate near Bishnupur of United Bengal, constructed by Pathan Sultan Hussain Shah's commander-in-chief Ismail Ghazi. After the Pathans were driven away by Mughal Emperor Akbar, by turn of historical events, the estate came under the control of Hindu commander Jaidhar Singh. Birendra was his natural heir, who before taking it over, had served in Akbar's army as a commander himself. The novel unfolds a saga of Pathan Sultan Katlu Khan's repeat attempts to enter and conquer the Banga province. To crush him and his ambition, Emperor Akbar h...
This book is a short, critical biography of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (1838-94), a major Bengali novelist and thinker, who, in many ways, determined the intellectual and cultural content of modern Indian nationalism, and modern Hinduism. Bankim Chandra was a successful civil servant andalso the first graduate to pass out from a modern Indian university. More importantly, however, he meaningfully contributed to the critical self-reflection of the English-educated Indian middle classes in response to the moral and intellectual challenges posed by the West. In doing so, BankimChandra shaped the nascent movement for Indian nationhood.The author, Amiya Sen, presents a lucid reading of Bankim C...
This study argues that the Bengali novelist Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay produced some of the most searching critical reflections on modernity in colonial India. It rejects assumptions that Bankim was a conservative, claiming that his art must be seen in a different, historical context.
One of the most popular Indian novels of all ages, 'Ananda Math' was translated innumerable times into Indian and English languages. Five editions were published in Bengali and Hindi during the author's lifetime, the first in 1882. The novel has the backdrop of the 18th century famine in Bengal, infamous as "Chhiyattorer Manvantar" (famine of 76th Bengali year, 1276), to narrate the saga of armed uprising of the ascetics and their disciples against the pillaging East India Company rulers. The uprising is historically known as 'Santan Vidroha', the ascetics being the children of Goddess Jagadambe. The saga of 'Ananda Math' is thrilling and best epitomised in the patriotic mass-puller song "Ba...
The first volume of this collector's edition brings together five of Bankimchandra's best-known works in English translation. Set in the Bengal of Emperor Jehangir's time, Kapalkundala tells the story of Nabakumar, a young woman named Kapalkundala whom he rescues from a tantric intent on human sacrifice, and the beautiful Lutfunnisa who has sold her heart on marrying him. In Bishabriksha (The Poison Tree), set in Bankimchandra's own time, Nagendra is torn between his devoted wife Suryamukhi and the bewitching young widow Kundanandini. Unable to prioritize either of the women he cares for, Nagendra ends up losing both. Indira is a lighthearted tale of playful intrigues: Upendra does not realize that his wife Indira is now working as a cook in his friend's house, and is given a royal run-around by Indira and Subhasini, her employer. Krishnakanta's Will is a tragedy of lust, infidelity, greed and death revolving around Govindalal, his wife Bhramar, the attractive widow Rohini, and a stolen will. psychologically taut tale; it is the first Indian novel where characters narrate their stories in the first person.