In a certain perspective, Beauty is like a volatile poison. And before the poisonous vapors spread all over, Beauty should be, somewhat, engulfed. Thinking further in the same perspective, the best place to keep the Beauty of feminine voluptuousness is the warm caring embrace of her husband. I pronounce once again, that this is just in a certain perspective. Yet, a modern-day independent (beautiful) woman may not agree on this and the modern-day married woman hardly cares to think about this; but, decade ago, a married woman surely would have been able to tell the ill-effects of the existence of a lonely (beautiful) woman in the society.
Those days, in India, almost all women were married at some age or the other (mostly at thirteen or fourteen). So the only possibility of a woman becoming alone is her husband’s demise. And widow-remarriage was strongly opposed by the upper castes. Widows (mostly at ripe age) remained widows struggling between the social customs and their personal desires. Being a part of the Brahmo Samaj (a decade ago), Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay used his power of words to present essays and novels supporting widow-remarriage. His novel, Bishabriksha (The Poison Tree) illustrates the dire consequences of the existence of young widows in the society (a decade ago).
A Beautiful Innocence: Lines from the novel: “By the bedside, on a brick fallen from the house, stood an earthenware lamp, in need of oil; the lamp of life on the bed was also thus (indicating the dying old man on the bed). And also beside the bed was another lamp --- a beautiful, fair and graceful girl, as if full of tender light.” The girl’s name is: Kundanandini.
Kundanandini was thirteen when she witnessed her father pass away. That night, in her dream, her long-lost mother appeared and warned her from meeting two people in her future and showed their illusions to her. When I read further about Kundanandini, I remembered Eve going against God’s warning and eating the cursed apple.
The Beauty of a Dangerous Temptation: Nagendra Babu was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. He possessed all happiness right from birth. Good health, myriad wealth, good education, wise ness, comprehensive intelligence, faithful character and an affectionate wife: he is the rare man who has all these. Consequentially, he experienced an uncontrolled happiness. Since he had never known the lack of anything, he never fell into temptation. So he did not have the mental practice to control temptation. When he saw Kundanandini, he could not control his mind.
His wife, Suryamukhi, unable to bear the pain of seeing her husband’s struggle (after Kundanandini is widowed and is staying in their house), writes to her sister-in-law: “I do not blame him. He is virtuous…. I can see how he exerts every ounce of strength to control his mind. As far as he can he never casts his eyes in Kundanandini’s direction….. Why would he be so eager not to look at her? Why would he be so careful not to say her name? At meal times, with food in his hand, he cannot get it to his mouth…. As soon as he hears Kunda’s voice he starts to cram food into his mouth….. We have now a new maidservant: Kumud…. Sometimes instead of ‘Kumud’ he says ‘Kunda’. And he becomes very embarrassed. Why embarrassed?”
The Wise are Beautiful: Suryamukhi is fair, beautiful and wise. To tell about her is best in Nagendra’s words: “She is not just my wife. She is everything to me….. She is my help-mate in worldly affairs, the fortune in my house, the righteousness in my heart, the ornament of my body….”
She never went rude towards Kundanandini, even when she found that her husband was attracted to her. Instead she married her to her close relative. And when misfortune doomed on Kundanandini and she was widowed within three years, Suryamukhi took care of her in her own house.
Beautiful and Lovable: Nagendra’s sister and Suryamukhi’s sister-in-law, is the lovable Kamalamani. She is naughty, optimistic and caring. She is the one who consoles Suryamukhi, when the latter fears of losing her husband to Kunda. She is the one who understands and accepts Kunda’s love for Nagendra. She is the one who supports everyone: her son, her husband, her brother, her sister-in-law and Kunda. She dislikes only one person: the man who disguises himself as a woman and talks to innocent Kunda privately.
The Sweet Beauty of a Bitter Selfishness: Devendra, suffering from a bad marriage, profusely desired Kunda from the moment he saw her. He disguises himself as a Vaishnavi woman in order to meet Kunda. He uses his sweet voice and poetry to lure one of the servant-maids of the house, so as to take her help in getting hold of Kunda.
Beautiful, but Wicked: Hira is the second person whom Kunda’s mother warns her from meeting. She is the servant-maid. She is dark, yet beautiful, but wicked. She is a child-widow, who is jealous of the good fortune of her mistress, Suryamukhi and also, Kunda. Hira secretly loves Devendra, who everlastingly desires Kunda. In an effort to justify her wickedness, she blames her bad luck and God.
Beautiful Ideas in Captivating Words: In his ideas and perceptions, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee was well ahead of his times. He took into consideration the complex yet beautiful feelings of women with utmost care. The plots of his stories have enough space for women to expose their liberal thoughts. His female characters follow their own independent terms, which is a very daring act by an author in those days.
The style of writing is more inclined towards an interactive mode, where the author, in some chapters, directly speaks to the reader. The author indirectly guides the reader along the groove of his perception, than the reader relying on his own opinion.
The characterizations are clear, flawless, independent and identifiable. Even the most complex characters are given the precision of acknowledgement. The best part of the author’s comprehensiveness is the way he simulates human feelings with nature’s elements and further personifies of those elements.
The person who synchronized English to Bengali, or viceversa, is Marian Maddern. The language was beautiful and no where it seemed that the words were forced in. It is good to read beautiful ideas through captivating words from translators like these.
Does Beauty need recommendation?