Daffodil International University

Faculty of Humanities and Social Science => English => Topic started by: Nahid Kaiser on July 12, 2011, 12:55:31 PM

Title: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 12, 2011, 12:55:31 PM
Our subcontinent is rich in Literary creation. Here goes the brief introduction of some of the texts:
1.Meghduta :
A short poem of 111 stanzas, it is one of Kālidāsa's most famous works. It recounts how a yakṣa, a subject of King Kubera (the god of wealth), after being exiled for a year to Central India for neglecting his duties, convinces a passing cloud to take a message to his wife on Mount Kailāsa in the Himālaya mountains.[1] The yakṣa accomplishes this by describing the many beautiful sights the cloud will see on its northward course to the city of Alakā, where his wife awaits his return.
In Sanskrit literature, the poetic conceit used in the Meghaduta spawned the genre of sandesha kavya or messenger poems, most of which are modeled on the Meghaduta (and are often written in the Meghaduta's mandakranta metre). Examples include the Hamsa-sandesha, in which Rama asks a hamsa bird to carry a message to Sita, describing sights along the journey.
In 1813, the poem was first translated into English by Horace Hayman Wilson. Since then, it has been translated several times into various languages. As with the other major works of Sanskrit literature, the most famous traditional commentary on the poem is by Mallinātha.
Source: Wikipedia
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: shipra on July 12, 2011, 03:19:50 PM
Congratulations,madam.You have chosen a very rich topic.Continue.I'm very interested.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 12, 2011, 03:47:45 PM
2.Bishad Shindhu (Bangla:বিষাদ-সিন্ধু)is a poetic novel about the history of prophet Muhammad's grand son Hasan, especially Husayn's assassination, and the war for the throne of Khalifa (the supreme power of Muslims). It was written by Mir Mosarraf Hussain, one of the first modern Muslim Bengali writers.

Bishad Shindhu was written within 1888 to 1890. It is one of the best known works of Bengali literature. But it is not considered an authentic source for the history of Karbala, the location of Husayn's war front, and the place of his death.

Bishad Shindhu is written in an epic style. It contains much poetic language, and many dramatic sessions. At the time, Bengali novels were rarely written, and a few writers (including Mosarraf Hussain) were trying to establish the concept of novels in Bangla. It was written in Shadhubhasha, a Sanskritised form of Bengali.

Many Bengali Muslims view the novel as a religious book, and in rural areas, it is the most valuable book after the Quran and the Hadith which is a collection of sayings and actions of Prophet Muhammad.
[edit] Main characters

    Hasan ibn Ali, elder brother of Husayn, grandson of Prophet Muhammad, son of Khalifa Ali ibn Abu Talib and Fatima Zahra.
    Husayn ibn Ali, younger brother of Hasan, grandson of Prophet Muhammad, son of Khalifa Ali and Fatema.
    Yajid, son of Muabia (a companion of the Islamic prophet Muḥammad ), rival of Hasan and Husayn, fighting for the throne.
    Shimar, Husayn's killer.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 12, 2011, 03:57:35 PM
3. Some Poems by Kamala Das:


The Rain

We left that old ungainly house
When my dog died there, after
The burial, after the rose
Flowered twice, pulling it by its
Roots and carting it with our books,
Clothes and chairs in a hurry.
We live in a new house now,
And, the roofs do not leak, but, when
It rains here, I see the rain drench
That empty house, I hear it fall
Where my puppy now lies,
Alone..
(From Only The Soul Knows How To Sing)

The Dance Of The Eunuchs

It was hot, so hot, before the eunuchs came
To dance, wide skirts going round and round, cymbals
Richly clashing, and anklets jingling, jingling
Jingling… Beneath the fiery gulmohur, with
Long braids flying, dark eyes flashing, they danced and
They dance, oh, they danced till they bled… There were green
Tattoos on their cheeks, jasmines in their hair, some
Were dark and some were almost fair. Their voices
Were harsh, their songs melancholy; they sang of
Lovers dying and or children left unborn….
Some beat their drums; others beat their sorry breasts
And wailed, and writhed in vacant ecstasy. They
Were thin in limbs and dry; like half-burnt logs from
Funeral pyres, a drought and a rottenness
Were in each of them. Even the crows were so
Silent on trees, and the children wide-eyed, still;
All were watching these poor creatures’ convulsions
The sky crackled then, thunder came, and lightning
And rain, a meagre rain that smelt of dust in
Attics and the urine of lizards and mice….
(From Summer in Calcutta)

Love
Until I found you,
I wrote verse, drew pictures,
And, went out with friends
For walks…
Now that I love you,
Curled like an old mongrel
My life lies, content,
In you….
(From Summer in Calcutta)

Winter
It smelt of new rains and of tender
Shoots of plants- and its warmth was the warmth
Of earth groping for roots… even my
Soul, I thought, must send its roots somewhere
And, I loved his body without shame,
On winter evenings as cold winds
Chuckled against the white window-panes.
(From Summer in Calcutta)
The Stone Age

Fond husband, ancient settler in the mind,
Old fat spider, weaving webs of bewilderment,
Be kind. You turn me into a bird of stone, a granite
Dove, you build round me a shabby room,
And stroke my pitted face absent-mindedly while
You read. With loud talk you bruise my pre-morning sleep,
You stick a finger into my dreaming eye. And
Yet, on daydreams, strong men cast their shadows, they sink
Like white suns in the swell of my Dravidian blood,
Secretly flow the drains beneath sacred cities.
When you leave, I drive my blue battered car
Along the bluer sea. I run up the forty
Noisy steps to knock at another’s door.
Though peep-holes, the neighbours watch,
they watch me come
And go like rain. Ask me, everybody, ask me
What he sees in me, ask me why he is called a lion,
A libertine, ask me why his hand sways like a hooded snake
Before it clasps my pubis. Ask me why like
A great tree, felled, he slumps against my breasts,
And sleeps. Ask me why life is short and love is
Shorter still, ask me what is bliss and what its price….
(From The Old Playhouse and Other Poems)

The Maggots

At sunset, on the river ban, Krishna
Loved her for the last time and left…
That night in her husband’s arms, Radha felt
So dead that he asked, What is wrong,
Do you mind my kisses, love? And she said,
No, not at all, but thought, What is
It to the corpse if the maggots nip?
(From The Descendants)
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: shipra on July 14, 2011, 11:38:47 AM
 Dear Nahid Madam, before today, I didn't hear the name of Kamala Das.Now i feel happy to know about a new poet in our subcontinent.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 14, 2011, 11:56:23 AM
Thank you Shipra
This is why I am interested in this topic
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Bhowmik on July 14, 2011, 12:18:13 PM
Nahid Madam,
Good Job.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 14, 2011, 01:15:41 PM
Gitanjali (Bengali: গীতাঞ্জলি) is a collection of 103 English poems, largely translations, by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore. This volume became very famous in the West, and was widely translated.[1]
Gitanjali (গীতাঞ্জলি Gitanjoli) is also the title of an earlier Bengali volume (1910) of 157 mostly devotional songs. The word gitanjoli is composed from "git", song, and "anjoli", offering, and thus means - "An offering of songs"; but the word for offering, anjoli, has a strong devotional connotation, so the title may also be interpreted as "prayer offering of song".[1]
The English collection is not a translation of poems from the Bengali volume of the same name. While half the poems (52 out of 103) in the English text were selected from the Bengali volume, others were taken from these works (given with year and number of songs selected for the English text): Gitimallo (1914,17), Noibeddo (1901,15), Khea (1906,11) and a handful from other works. The translations were often radical, leaving out or altering large chunks of the poem and in one instance even fusing two separate poems (song 95, which unifies songs 89,90 of naivedya).
The translations were undertaken prior to a visit to England in 1912, where the poems were extremely well received. A slender volume was published in 1913, with an exhilarating preface by W. B. Yeats. In the same year, based on a corpus of three thin translations, Tagore became the first non-European to win the Nobel prize.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 14, 2011, 01:16:34 PM
A Golden Age is the first novel of the Bangladesh born writer Tahmima Anam. It tells the story of the Bangladesh War of Independence through the eyes of one family. The novel was awarded the prize for Best First Book in the Commonwealth Writers' Prize 2008. It was also shortlisted for the 2007 Guardian First Book Award. The first chapter of the novel appeared in the January 2007 edition of Granta magazine.The plot of the novel describes the true story of the writer's grandmother during the Bangladesh Liberation War. During the war her grandma helped the Freedom Fighters by protecting their ammunitions. Once when the army came to her house and threatened that they would take the youngest son of the family if she did not give them the information about the fighters, she somehow successfully tackled them. The person who portrays the character is named Rehana Haque. The story also covers the inner conflict of Rehana as she loses the custody of her children after her husband's death. Along with her desperate attempt to win the minds of her children, she tries to protect them as they get involved in the war.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 14, 2011, 01:17:47 PM
Kazi Nazrul Islam, our National poet ,reached the peak of fame with the publication of "Bidrohi" in 1922, which remains his most famous work, winning admiration of India's literary classes by his description of the rebel whose impact is fierce and ruthless even as its spirit is deep:.[7]
I am the unutterable grief,
I am the trembling first touch of the virgin,
I am the throbbing tenderness of her first stolen kiss.
I am the fleeting glance of the veiled beloved,
I am her constant surreptitious gaze...
...
I am the burning volcano in the bosom of the earth,
I am the wild fire of the woods,
I am Hell's mad terrific sea of wrath!
I ride on the wings of lightning with joy and profundity,
I scatter misery and fear all around,
I bring earth-quakes on this world! “(8th stanza)” I am the rebel eternal,
I raise my head beyond this world,
High, ever erect and alone! “(Last stanza)”[8] (English translation by Kabir Choudhary)

Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 14, 2011, 01:30:16 PM
"Sultana's Dream" is a classic work of Bengali science fiction and one of the first examples of feminist science fiction. This short story was written in 1905 by Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain, a Muslim feminist, writer and social reformer who lived in British India, in what is now Bangladesh. The word sultana here means a female sultan, i.e. a Muslim ruler.[1]
"Sultana's Dream" was originally published in English in The Indian Ladies Magazine of Madras, and is considered part of Bengali literature. It depicts a feminist utopia in which women run everything and men are secluded, in a mirror-image of the traditional practice of purdah. The women are aided by science fiction-esque "electrical" technology which enables labourless farming and flying cars; the female scientists have discovered how to trap solar power and control the weather. This results in "a sort of gender-based Planet of the Apes where the roles are reversed and the men are locked away in a technologically advanced future."[1]
Crime is eliminated, since men were responsible for all of it. The workday is only two hours long, since men used to waste six hours of each day in smoking. The religion is one of love and truth. Purity is held above all, such that the list of "sacred relations" (mahram) is widely extended.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 14, 2011, 01:31:30 PM
Ekattorer Dinguli (Bengali – একাত্তরের দিনগুলি) is a historical and autobiographical book based on 1971 liberation war of Bangladesh. Ekattorer Dinguli means ‘The days of 71′. The book is written by Jahanara Imam. She was popularly known as “Shaheed Janani” (Mother of Martyrs).  Download the pdf version of the book for free from the link given at the end of the post.Jahanara Imam’s son Rumi, a student, went out to fight against the Pakistani army in the urban regions, specially at Dhaka. This book contains Jahanara’s practical daily life as well as horrors.
The book concludes the fate of an unfortunate mother who lost her child as well as her dear husband during the war. She achieved the independence for such a great price that she had to sacrifice the life of her dear child Rumi and her husband.
Rumi was one of the most brilliant students of that time. He was supposed to go abroad for getting his degrees on Engineering. But due to the fate of his luck, the independence war of Bangladesh started and he himself rose for forward to become a volunteer for the “Mukti Bahini” (Freedom fighter). During the war once he was caught and taken away from his home. He no longer returned back.
Her husband Sharif was a banker. He had a heart attack during the war. But due to lack of electricity, the life saving machines could not be switched on as a result her husband faced death.
She got her independence but had to remain satisfied with her other son Jami. This book actually the cruelty of the war. It is also the auto-biography of the other thousands of mother of the war.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 14, 2011, 01:32:37 PM
Lajja (Bengali: লজ্জা Lôjja) (Shame) is a novel in Bengali by Taslima Nasrin, a writer of Bangladesh. The word lajja/lôjja means "shame" in Bengali and many other Indic languages. The book was first published in 1993 in the Bengali language, and was subsequently banned in Bangladesh,[1][2] and a few states of India. It nonetheless sold 50,000 copies in the six months after its publication,[3] though Taslima fled her native Bangladesh after death threats from Islamic radicals.[4]
Nasrin dedicated the book "to the people of the Indian subcontinent", beginning the text with the words, "let another name for religion be humanism." The novel is preceded by a preface and a chronology of events.
Lajja is a response of Taslima Nasrin to anti-Hindu riots which erupted in parts of Bangladesh, soon after the demolition of Babri Masjid in India on 6 December 1992. The book subtly indicates that communal feelings were on the rise, the Hindu minority of Bangladesh was not fairly treated, and secularism was under shadow.In a far off place in Ayodhya, in the state of Uttar Pradesh in India, on 6 December 1992, Babri Masjid is demolished, and the demolition has repercussions even in Bangladesh, a different country, and a far off place from Ayodhya. The fire of communal rioting erupts, and the Dutta family also feels and faces the heat of the communal hatred. Each member of the Dutta family feels about this in his / her own way.
Sudhamoy, the patriarch of the family, feels that Bangladesh, his motherland, shall never let him down. Kiranmayee as a faithful wife stands by her husband’s views. Suranjan, their son, believes that nationalism will be stronger than communalism, but is progressively disappointed and finds himself adopting communal reactions which contrast entirely with the ideology of patriotism he has always had faith in. Nilanjana curses her brother’s apathy and coaxes his brother to take the family to a Muslim friend’s house for safety. It is a story of metamorphosis, in which disastrous events create disillusionment, resulting in violence and resentment.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 16, 2011, 02:57:37 PM
জেলগেটে দেখা – আল মাহমুদ
0

সেলের তালা খোলা মাত্রই এক টুকরো রোদ এসে পড়লো ঘরের মধ্যে
আজ তুমি আসবে ।
সারা ঘরে আনন্দের শিহরণ খেলছে । যদিও উত্তরের বাতাস
হাড়েঁ কাঁপন ধরিয়ে দিয়ে বইছে , তবু আমি ঠান্ডা পানিতে
হাত মুখ ধুয়ে নিলাম। পাহারাদার সেন্ট্রিকে ডেকে বললাম,
আজ তুমি আসবে । সেন্ট্রি হাসতে হাসতে আমার সিগ্রেটে
আগুন ধরিয়ে দিল । বলল , বারান্দায় হেটেঁ ভুক বাড়িয়ে নিন
দেখবেন , বাড়ী থেকে মজাদার খাবার আসবে ।

দেখো , সবাই প্রথমে খাবারের কথা ভাবে ।
আমি জানি বাইরে এখন আকাল চলছে । ক্ষুধার্ত মানুষ
হন্যে হয়ে শহরের দিকে ছুটে আসছে । সংবাদপত্রগুলোও
না বলে পারছে না যে এ অকল্পনীয় ।
রাস্তায় রাস্তায় অনাহারী শিশুদের মৃতদেহের ছবি দেখে
আমি কতদিন আমার কারাকক্ষের লোহার জালি
চেপে ধরেছি ।
হায় স্বাধীনতা , অভুক্তদের রাজত্ব কায়েম করতেই কি আমরা
সর্বস্ব ত্যাগ করেছিলাম ।

আর আমাকে ওরা রেখেছে বন্দুক আর বিচারালয়ের মাঝামাঝি
যেখানে মানুষের আত্মা শুকিয়ে যায় । যাতে
আমি আমরা উৎস খুঁজে না পাই ।
কিন্তু তুমি তো জানো কবিদের উৎস কি ? আমি পাষাণ কারার
চৌহদ্দিতে আমার ফোয়ারাকে ফিরিয়ে আনি ।
শত দুর্দৈবের মধ্যেও আমরা যেমন আমাদের উৎসকে
জাগিয়ে রাখতাম ।

চড়ুই পাখির চিৎকারে বন্দীদের ঘুম ভাঙছে ।
আমি বারান্দা ছেড়ে বাগানে নামলাম।
এক চিলতে বাগান
ভেজা পাতার পানিতে আমার চটি আর পাজামা ভিজিয়ে
চন্দ্রমল্লিকার ঝোপ থেকে একগোছা শাদা আর হলুদ ফুল তুললাম ।
বাতাসে মাথা নাড়িয়ে লাল ডালিয়া গাছ আমাকে ডাকলো ।
তারপর গেলাম গোলাপের কাছে ।
জেলখানার গোলাপ , তবু কি সুন্দর গন্ধ !
আমার সহবন্দীরা কেউ ফুল ছিড়েঁ না , ছিঁড়তেও দেয় না
কিন্তু আমি তোমার জন্য তোড়া বাঁধলাম ।

আজ আর সময় কাটতে চায়না । দাড়ি কাটলাম । বই নিয়ে
নাড়াচাড়া করলাম । ওদিকে দেয়ালের ওপাশে শহর জেগে উঠছে ।
গাড়ীর ভেঁপু রিক্সার ঘন্টাধ্বনি কানে আসছে ।
চকের হোটেলগুলোতে নিশ্চয়ই এখন মাংসের কড়াই ফুটছে ।
আর মজাদার ঝোল ঢেলে দেওয়া হচ্ছে
গরীব খদ্দেরদের পাতে পাতে ।

না বাইরে এখন আকাল । মানুষ কি খেতে পায় ?
দিনমজুরদের পাত কি এখন আর নেহারির ঝোলে ভরে ওঠে ?
অথচ একটা অতিকায় দেয়াল কত ব্যবধানই না আনতে পারে ।
আ , পাখিরা কত স্বাধীন । কেমন অবলীলায় দেয়াল পেরিয়ে যাচ্ছে
জীবনে এই প্রথম আমি চড়ুই পাখির সৌভাগ্যে কাতর হলাম ।

আমাদের শহর নিশ্চয়ই এখন ভিখিরিতে ভরে গেছে ।
সারাদিন ভিক্ষুকের স্রোত সামাল দিতে হয় ।
আমি কতবার তোমাকে বলেছি , দেখো
মুষ্টি ভিক্ষায় দারিদ্র্য দূর হয় না ।
এর অন্য ব্যবস্হা দরকার , দরকার সামাজিক ন্যায়ের ।
দুঃখের শিকড় উপড়ে ফেলতে হবে ।
আ , যদি আমার কথা বুঝতে ।

প্রিয়তমা আমার ,
তোমার পবিত্র নাম নিয়ে আজ সূর্য উদিত হয়েছে । আর
উষ্ণ অধীর রশ্মির ফলা গারদের শিকের ওপর পিছলে যাচ্ছে ।
দেয়ালের ওপাশ থেকে ঘুমভাঙ্গা মানুষের কোলাহল ।
যারা অধিক রাতে ঘুমোয় আর জাগে সকলের আগে ।
যারা ঠেলে ।
চালায় ।
হানে ।
ঘোরায় ।
ওড়ায় ।
পেড়ায় ।
আর হাত মুঠো করে এগিয়ে যায় ।
সভ্যতার তলদেশে যাদের ঘামের অমোঘ নদী ।
কোনদিন শুকোয় না । শোনো , তাদের কলরব ।

বন্দীরা জেগে উঠছে । পাশের সেলে কাশির শব্দ
আমি ঘরে ঘরে তোমার না ঘোষণা করলাম
বললাম , আজ বারোটায় আমার ‘দেখা’ ।
খুশীতে সকলেই বিছানায় উঠে বসলো ।
সকলেরই আশা তুমি কোন না কোন সংবাদ নিয়ে আসবে ।
যেন তুমি সংবাদপত্র ! যেন তুমি
আজ সকালের কাড়জের প্রধান শিরোনামশিরা !

সূর্য যখন অদৃশ্য রশ্মিমালায় আমাকে দোলাতে দোলাতে
মাঝ আকাশে টেনে আনলো
ঠিক তখুনি তুমি এলে ।
জেলগেটে পৌছেঁ দেখলাম , তুমি টিফিন কেরিয়ার সামনে নিয়ে
চুপচাপ বসে আছো ।
হাসলে , ম্লান , সচ্ছল ।
কোনো কুশল প্রশ্ন হলো না ।

সাক্ষাৎকারের চেয়ারে বসা মাত্রই তুমি খাবার দিতে শুরু করলে ।
মাছের কিমার একটা বল গড়িয়ে দিয়ে জানালে ,
আবরা ধরপাকড় শুরু হয়েছে ।
আমি মাথা নাড়লাম ।

মাগুর মাছের ঝোল ছড়িয়ে দিতে দিতে কানের কাছে মুখ আনলে ,
অমুক বিপ্লবী আর নেই
আমি মাথা নামালাম । বললে , ভেবোনা ,
আমরা সইতে পারবো । আল্লাহ , আমাদের শক্তি দিন ।
তারপর আমরা পরস্পরকে দেখতে লাগলাম ।

যতক্ষণ না পাহারাদারদের বুটের শব্দ এসে আমাদের
মাঝখানে থামলো ।
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 16, 2011, 03:24:21 PM
The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian is the autobiographical work of one of India's most controversial writers -- Nirad C. Chaudhuri. He wrote this when he was around fifty and records his life from his birth at 1897 in Kishorganj, a small town in present Bangladesh. The book relates his mental and intellectual development, his life and growth at Calcutta, his observations of Vanishing Landmarks, the connotation of this is dual—changing Indian situation and historical forces that was making exit of British from India an imminent affair.
Nirad, a self-professed Anglophile, is in any situation an explosive proposition and in the book he is at his best in observing as well as observing-at-a-distance and this dual perspective makes it a wonderful reading. His treatment of his childhood, his enchantment, disillusionment and gratitude to the colonial capital Calcutta is highly factual as well as artistic to the extent highly readable.
Arguably, his magnum opus considering his literary output that he could generate as late age as ninety years, Autobiography is not a single book, it is many. Consciously or unconsciously he has left traces of all his erudition, his spirit and learning. Declaring himself a cartographer of learning, the book is also a cartographic evidence of the author's mind and its varied geographies, of the map as well as of the mind.
The dedication of the book runs thus:
“   To the memory of the British Empire in India,
Which conferred subjecthood upon us,
But withheld citizenship.
To which yet every one of us threw out the challenge:
"Civis Britannicus sum"
Because all that was good and living within us
Was made, shaped and quickened
By the same British rule.   â€


 
This article about a biographical or autobiographical book is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 16, 2011, 03:26:04 PM
Kanthapura by Raja Rao : Book Review
Mabel Annie Chacko (India, 06/11/05)
 
Raja Rao's novel Kanthapura (1938) is the first major Indian novel in English. It is a fictional but realistic account of how the great majority of people in India lived their lives under British rule and how they responded to the ideas and ideals of Indian nationalism. The book has been considered by many to be the first classic modern Indian writing in English and is thought of as one of the best, if not the best, Gandhian novels in English.

Kanthapura - The Village:

'Kanthapura' portrays the participation of a small village of South India in the national struggle called for by Mahatma Gandhi. Imbued with nationalism, the villagers sacrifice all their material possessions in a triumph of the spirit, showing how in the Gandhian movement people shed their narrow prejudices and united in the common cause of the non-violent civil resistance to the British Raj.

This village is a microcosm of the traditional Indian society with its entrenched caste hierarchy. In Kanthapura there are Brahmin quarters, Sudra quarters and Pariah quarters. Despite stratification into castes, however, the villagers are mutually bound in various economic and social functions which maintain social harmony. The enduring quality of the Indian village is represented as ensuring an internal tenacity that resists external crises, its relationship to past contributing a sense of unity and continuity between the present and past generations. Kanthapura may appear isolated and removed from civilization, but it is compensated by an ever-enriching cycle of ceremonies, rituals, and festivals.

Rao depicts the regular involvement of the villagers in Sankara-Jayanthi, Kartik Purnima, Ganesh-Jayanthi, Dasara, and the Satyanarayana Puja with the intention of conveying a sense of the natural unity and cohesion of village society. Old Ramakrishnayya reads out the Sankara-Vijaya day after day and the villagers discuss Vedanta with him every afternoon. Religion, imparted through discourses and pujas (prayers), keeps alive in the natives a sense of the presence of God. Participation in a festival brings about the solidarity among them. The local deity Kenchamma protects the villagers "through famine and disease, death and despair". If the rains fail, you fall at her feet. Equally sacred is the river Himavathy which flows near Kanthapura.


The Strategic Setting of the Novel:

Rao's choice of this village setting is strategic in view of his Gandhian loyalties. Gandhi locates his politics in the villages of India where the majority of Indian's population resides. Rao maintains the sanctity of the village at an ideological level, but permits mobility and change to heighten the historical significance of the national struggle Gandhi conceptualized.

The time when the action of the novel is set is the 1920s and 1930s, the period when Mahatma Gandhi had become the pivotal figure in India's struggle for freedom. Rao treats the history of the freedom movement at the level of hostility between village folk and the British colonial authority at a time when colonialism had become intensely heavy-handed in its response to the Civil Disobedience Movement.

Kanthapura is an enchanting story of how the independence movement becomes a tragic reality in a tiny and secluded village in South India. The novel has the flavor of an epic as it emerges through the eyes of a delightful old woman who comments with wisdom and humor.


Telling of the Novel:

As far as the form and technique of the novel is concerned Rao makes a deliberate attempt to follow traditional Indian narrative technique and it is Indian sensibility that informs Kanthapura. In fact both the spirit and the narrative technique of Kanthapura are primarily those of the Indian Puranas, which may be described as a popular encyclopaedia of ancient and medieval Hinduism, religious, philosophical, historical and social. Rao at the outset describes his novel as a sthala-purana - legend of a place. The Puranas are a blend of narration, description, philosophical reflection, and religious teaching. The style is usually simple, flowing, and digressive.

Rao makes a highly innovative use of the English language to make it conform to the Kannada rhythm. In keeping with his theme in Kanthapura he experiments with language following the oral rhythms and narrative techniques of traditional models of writing. The emotional upheaval that shook Kanthapura is expressed by breaking the formal English syntax to suit the sudden changes of mood and sharp contrasts in tone. While the intuitive borrowing from language takes place at one level in the novel, at another interconnected level, "real" India is constructed by enshrining the novel in Gandhian ideology. It is a highly original style. The author's "Foreword" to the novel almost spells out the postcolonial cultural agenda:
The telling has not been easy. One has to convey in a language that is not one's own the spirit that is one's own. One has to convey the various shades and omissions of a certain though-movement that looks maltreated in an alien language. I use the word 'alien', yet English is not really an alien language to us. It is the language of our intellectual make-up-like Sanskrit or Persian was before- but not of our emotional make-up. We are all instinctively bilingual, many of us writing in our own language and in English. We cannot write like the English. We should not. We cannot write only as Indians.

Rao's novel is significant as a cultural tract which rewrites true history against the "inauthentic" historical accounts compiled by Europeans, and because it effects a cultural revival through the use of indigenous themes and motifs. Rao is also alive to the fact that religion has the potential to move people beyond dormancy - to display active political energy to the extent of sacrificing their lives. Kanthapura evokes a sense of community and freedom, construed as a spiritual quality which overcomes all bounds and crosses all barriers.

In order to allow an easy interchange between the world of men and the world of gods, between contemporaneity and antiquity, Rao thus equips his story with a protagonist whose role it is to enthuse the villagers into joining the political cause of India's struggle for freedom without reservation.

The tension between these two often contradictory levels of writing - the mythic/poetic and the political/prosaic - is the defining characteristic of the novel. As will be seen, this tension is both a strength and a weakness to the narrative; on the one hand enhancing its sheer readability as a story, and on the other hand blurring readers' understanding of the realities of the Indian Independence struggle.


Moorthy and other Characters - Raja Rao's Tools in Telling:

He focuses on two individual leaders and their beliefs; the actual and the mythicized figure of Gandhi, and his transmutation into Moorthy, the saintly hero of the novel. As the movement reaches Kanthapura, young Moorthy, son of a Brahmin woman, Narasamma, takes up the responsibility of spreading Gandhi's message. He brings about cultural awakening among the villages by organizing harikathas ("tales of gods"). By a subtle subversion the harikatha is turned into an allegory of India's struggle for freedom wherein the Gandhian saga is inscribed. Moorthy visits the city, and returns a "Gandhi man". He has become a spokesman for Gandhi, by submitting to his attitudes and beliefs. The villagers describe him as "our own Gandhi", yet interestingly he never has an actual meeting with Gandhi. He has only seen him in a "vision" addressing a public meeting with himself pushing his way through the crowd and joining the band of volunteers and receiving inspiration by a touch of Gandhi's hand. This enables Rao to turn the historical moment into a visionary experience, and opens a space for the possibility of assumed politics.

Moorthy preaches and practices ahimsa (non-violent resistance), the hallmark of Gandhi's appeal to the public, and evokes an overwhelming response among the villagers who unite in common cause, ready to break the British laws, picket toddy shops, and fight against social evils like untouchability.

Moorthy has several sympathetic souls with him: Rangamma, the kind lady and a patron for harikatha celebrations, Ratna, the young widowed daughter of Kamalamma, Rangamma's sister, Patel Range Gowda, the revenue collector, and others. But there are also sceptics, like the foul mouthed Venkamma. His own mother is much concerned about Moorthys mixing with the low caste pariahs. Indeed, when someone spreads the rumour that the Swami - the priest; upholder of dharma - has threatened the villagers with excommunication if Moorthy continues to go around with the pariahs, Naraamma is terribly upset; she sobs and shivers and soon dies.

He has to resist orthodoxy at the social level, and at the political level he has to fight the British authority symbolized by the Skeffington Coffee Estate and the police inspector Bade Khan who is out to suppress any undercurrent of Gandhian movement in Kanthapura. Moorthy's efforts bear fruit and the village changes. Rao is careful to point out that the transformation occurs through a complex dynamism negotiated through tradition and change, as the village affiliates itself to wider nationalistic cause.

The British find their ally in Swami, who supports them as upholders of dharma and is rewarded with "twelve hundred acres of wet land" by the Government. Meanwhile Moorthy's message spreads far and wide and several private temples are thrown open to the untouchables.

Rao does not marginalize the role of women in the freedom movement and highlights their individual contributions. Rangamma and Ratna form women's volunteer groups, despite opposition from the orthodox. Moorthy and his volunteers closely monitor the Mahatma's Dandi march and enact their own satyagraha in Kanthapura. They picket toddy shops, and are joined by more volunteers from the city, and by the coolies from the Skeffington Coffee Estate. Their march is opposed by the police who beat them up mercilessly. The police tell them to be loyal to the British Government, but the people say they know only the Government of the Mahatma. Moorthy and several others are arrested. As a result of the police atrocities the entire village is desolate and, in the end, "there remains neither man nor mosquito in Kanthapura".


Conclusion:

Kanthapura has been described as the most satisfying of all modern Indian novels. Recognized as a major landmark in Indian fiction, it is the story of how the Gandhian struggle for Independence came to one small village in south India.

Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: irina on July 16, 2011, 03:43:12 PM
Your posting is really worthwhile to read.
Thanks.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Antara11 on July 17, 2011, 10:26:52 AM
Great job Nahid Mam!!!!!!I am really happy to read all these.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 17, 2011, 12:37:19 PM
Irina Madam, I will be happy to get any suggestion to enrich it. I mean you can suggest an author or book you want to be added here.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 17, 2011, 12:52:08 PM
7.Nakshi Kathar Math
 â€˜Nakshikathar Maath’ (The Field of an Embroidered Quilt)
is a long narrative poem. It is about two young persons: Rupai and Shajoo. Rupai lives in one village and Shaju in another. One day Rupai went to collect bamboo (bamboo is an important construction material in rural Bengal) and then he saw Shajoo and Shajoo saw Rupai. They fall in love with each other and eventually gets married. Then one day Rupai gets involved in a serious fight with a group of people in the conflict he killed one and on that night he came to see his wife, Shajoo. After that Shajoo waited for her husband to return but he never returns.

Shajoo loved her husband deeply and not seeing him for all theseyeas made her very sad. She gave up eating and started to grow ill.

The she decides to make a quilt. On the quilt she draws her house where she used to live with her husband and the beautiful field near the house. By the time she finished the quilt she died. Before death she tells her mother to hang the quilt on a bamboo near her grave. Then after few months people of the village saw another old person lying on that grave. The whole story is very beautifully narrated. It is divided in chapters and each chapter starts with a Murhsidi song. This poem was translated into English by Mrs. Milford. Jasimuddin loved the rural Bengal and all his life he wrote for them.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: shipra on July 17, 2011, 02:35:57 PM
All the things are very important.The students of English Literature should know about these literary pieces to understand literature.More than that,as a Bangali, they have to know their existence which lies in their own literature.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 19, 2011, 01:45:04 PM
Thank you Shipra, actually I've started the topic with this view in mind.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: shipra on July 19, 2011, 03:18:35 PM
Thank You,Madam.So,carry on.From Classical to contemporary writers,you have given importance to both.That's great.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: shamsi on July 25, 2011, 11:32:57 AM
Dear Nahid,

Thanks for enriching our forum with the information of such wonderful texts.I have started reading and found it adventurous.

Great job.Keep it up.

Shamsi
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 30, 2011, 10:43:54 AM
Graet pleasure Shamsi madam
but many of our resourceful poets like Chandidas, Viddyapati are absent from internet. I am trying to include them as well.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 30, 2011, 10:44:42 AM
Maimansingha gitika or Môemonshingha gitika is a collection of folk ballads from the region of Mymensingh, Bangladesh. They were published in English as Eastern Bengal Ballads. The primary theme of the ballads is love in its different aspects: pre-nuptial love, marital love and extra-marital love and the resultant family and social conflicts.
Chandra Kumar De and Dinesh Chandra Sen collected the songs, and Dinesh Chandra Sen was the editor; the collection was published by the University of Calcutta, along with another similar publication named Purbabanga-gitika.
It is assumed that some of the songs were composed between the late 16th century and early 18th century. In the course of time, the ballads underwent some transformation. The increasing use of Arabic and Persian vocabulary in some ballads indicate their periods of composition. Mansur Bayati, the Muslim poet among the composers, is believed to have composed "Dewan Madina" around the 18th century.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 30, 2011, 10:45:35 AM
Maimansingha Gitika compilation of folk ballads by Dinesh Chandra Sen. Chandra Kumar De of NETROKONA collected a large number of ballads or narrative songs from greater Mymensingh. Dineshchandra edited the ballads which were published by Calcutta University as Maimansingha Gitika and PURBABANGA-GITIKA (1923-1932). They were published in English as Eastern Bengal Ballads.
Of the 21 ballads collected by Chandra Kumar De, Mahuya', 'Maluya', 'Chandravati', 'Dasyu Kenaram', 'Kamala', 'Rupavati', 'Kanka O Lila', 'Dewan Madina', and 'Dhopar Pat' were included in Maimansingha Gitika, while the rest were included in Purbabanga-Gitika. The primary theme of the ballads is love in its different aspects: pre-nuptial love, marital love and extra-marital love and the resultant family and social conflicts. It is assumed that 'Kenaram', 'Mahuya', 'Kanka O Leela', and 'Chandravati' were composed between the late 16th century to the early 18th century. The composer of 'Maluya' is unknown but some think it was CHANDRAVATI. In course of time, the ballads underwent some transformation. The increasing use of Arabic and Persian vocabulary in some ballads indicate their periods of composition. MANSUR BAYATI, the Muslim poet among the composers, is believed to have composed 'Dewan Madina' around the 18th century.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on July 30, 2011, 10:46:31 AM
Maimansingha Gitika
`Maimansingha gitika` or ` Môemonshingha gitika` is a collection of folk ballads from the region of Mymensingh and around of Bangladesh.Chandra Kumar De and Dinesh Chandra Sen were the collectors and editors; the collection was published from Calcutta University, along with another similar publicat...
Found on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimansingh
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 11:25:55 AM
Selina Hossain is one of the most important women writers of Bangladesh. She has published twenty-one novels, seven collections of short stories, four collections of prose writings and four collections of stories for children. Her works are a moving account of the contemporary social and political crises and conflicts as well as the recurrent cycles of the life of the struggling masses. Quite a few of her novels have been translated into Indian regional languages and into French, Russian and English. Commenting on the war of liberation in Bangladeshi novels, Kabir Chowdhury wrote that Selina Hosain's, Hangara, Nadi, Greneda (Shark, River and Grenade), "set in a remote riverine rural area of southern Bangladesh, dealing with illiterate common men and women, achieves a commendable integration of theme and style and brilliantly highlights the essence of all that is heroic, noble and glorious in our liberation war." Critic Syed Akram Hossain recalls Selina's Pokamakorera gharabasati and comments, "Her portrayal of life of a particular community living on the south-east coast of Bangladesh is informed by a deep awareness of life which transcends regionalism."

Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 11:27:01 AM
Parul’s Motherhood
Parul calculated that it had been around six months since the man had disappeared. Some said he had drowned at sea, some that he had gone to Dhaka for work. Parul didn't care where the hell he went, but why did he leave without telling her? Would she have stopped him if he had told her? Would she have started crying? No, she would have done neither. She would have allowed whoever wanted to leave, leave. If there was any pain in her heart, it would have been her own. Why did the man run away then? He had fled because he couldn't understand Parul, was that it? Or did he think that if he did not escape, it would have been too hard to leave her?
Her head spun whenever she thought these things. She could never stand indifference from anyone, certainly not from someone so close-her socially "I do"-ed husband. Whose name was Abbas Ali, village Thanar Hat, district Noakhali. Not much income, he was a day laborer, spending their days any old how with whatever they could scrounge together. When she entered his household, poverty was what Parul saw around her mostly, so she put her energy to earning, working house to house, getting rice, vegetables, whatever she managed to get served for meals. She had put up with the poverty. She had no complaints against Abbas Ali. In fact, she had rather liked the strong young man. She would fall asleep late at night talking of her sorrows and her joys. Why did the man not like this household? Parul's anger was focused on this question, but it remained unanswered. When people questioned her, she never felt embarrassed; instead her blood would begin to boil.
Her head would pound when she returned home after work and sat in the veranda at midday-the raucous songs of the boatmen from the shores of Hatiya floated in her skull. They were going to Narayanganj with the salt-earth they had collected. Salt would be manufactured at Bhuiyan's factory in Narayanganj.
Some day the hands of people somewhere would be eaten away from washing the salt earth, bringing out the crystal white salt. They would not know that Parul was a girl of the salt lands-whose empty skull spoke, asked questions, and answered them. A hard question rang through her empty skull: When does a person's need for another person end? Why did the man leave? Why should he leave? These whys encircled her empty skull like a rope-a tough rope, bringing out welts in white or black skin. At some point, the welts would crack, blood spurting from those wounds. When she felt like scratching at something, she would grab the bamboo pole and shake it. The roof of the rickety house would shudder. Parul would stare at the shuddering roof. The thatch had shifted in places, creating gaps-the bamboo leaves were about to fall off, something needed to be done before the rainy season. The roof needed to be mended. This need had a meaning, it was not necessary to search for a meaning for this need. The man must have left in search of some other need-what did that mean? Then her empty skull questioned: When does a husband stop needing his wife?
Her belly replies: When she cannot give him food.
The question arises again: When does a husband stop needing his wife?
Her loins answer: When she cannot provide her flesh.
Her whole body shrieks, I could do everything. Why did he run away?
Then it felt as if she has no hunger, thirst, or sexual desire. The shores of Hatiya lay all around her. The tidewater brought in the salt-earth. Her empty skull said, never had the keening for food reverberated around the horizons of her household. The urges to love never fell flat on the rainbow hued fields. Then why did he leave? Why does her skull languish empty among the dirt, the mud, the weeds, the trash? When her heart burns out, her eyes catch fire. Does living life mean counting the hours for the one person? The person who had a socially accepted role in her life? The person with whom if she went to bed, whose child she could carry in her belly without society saying anything? Parul quivered. Her body tautened. She kept thinking, her skull emptying with the thought that for no reason at all the man was indifferent to her female self. This insult burned her with an intense heat. She accepted a tremor within her tense body and cursed the void in a strong voice.
She protested with her voice and gestures. She didn't want this life. She wanted laughter, pleasure, desperation, a life that could kick society in the ass. She pulled out the gamccha tucked into the fence and ran to the pond, jumping in. Romping against the water, frolicking within the water-she tried to wash away the insult. But the feeling of humiliation would not go away.
She started work on the road two days after that. The road needed to be filled up. The Upazila Parishad was having it done-they would get wheat for the work. Others shoveled the earth into a basket, she carried it on her head to deposit it on the road. The intense sun was cooking her flesh and her bones. She tired and stopped awhile to rest. Tara's mother came near and proffered her the bidi held in her hand-Go on, have a drag.
But I don't smoke.
Don't smoke, my ass, try it, girl. It'll give you strength.
Parul hesitated before accepting the bidi. She dragged on it and coughed. After coughing several times she began to like it. That day after work, as she returned from the Upazila office with her wheat, she bought a pack of bidis from Qashem's store. After returning home, taking her bath, she fried up some wheat in a clay wok. That day she crunched on fried wheat till late at night, dragging endlessly on bidis and humming different songs. After a long time everything seemed to be mighty fine.
A few days later Alam Chacha of the village gave her the news in front of the Upazila Parishad office. Said: "Your husband's cutting paddy at Monpura Char. He's married too."
"Married!"
At first her eyes widened. Then she started giggling and said, "Quite right too."
But her insides burned at this humiliation of her womanhood. Burning,- burning - vivid like the flicker of a bidi in the darkness.
Irritated, Alam Chacha said, "Whatcha laughing for then, huh? What's so funny?"
Still she tried to say with a bright smile, "Marriage is good news. Why shouldn't I laugh?"
When Alam Chacha left with a "Stupid girl," she realized that there was pain within that laughter-sorrow does not always mean tears. Her empty skull began to speak-she wanted to forget her sorrow. When her empty skull began to speak she became certain of what she must do. She felt no indecision in her mind. She realized that what is most difficult is to ascertain a target. Inability to make decisions was the biggest problem in living life. Once this difficult problem was resolved, then time flowed fluidly, and did not become a burden to the mind.
Two months later she became pregnant. When it became clear to her another three months later, she felt joy within. I'm going to be a mother? She twirled inside her house like a madwoman. It took some time for her to settle down. Once settled down, her insides kept flooding in a deluge of joy. Whether it was good or bad to be a mother without a husband was not a thought that entered her head. She's a mother, this feeling turned her into a wealthy woman. It became the single most important thing to her to hold on to this feeling.
One day, standing in her yard, Tara's mother threw a look at her and said, "Hey Paruilla, have you got something in your oven then?"
She nodded with a shy smile.
"What! You don't have a husband."
"Do you really need a husband to get a bun in your oven?"
She looked at her in amusement. As if Tara's mother had just said something enormously funny. It didn't seem to her that such a response was ready in her mouth. The answer came out quite spontaneously. She wagged her finger at Tara's mother and repeated her remark.
Tara's mother snapped at her, "You shameless girl . . ."
"Don't curse me, you'll regret it."
"Won't the baby need a dad, then?"
"What would it need a dad for? I'm its dad, I'm its mom."
Tara's mother grumbled, "The girl's gone mad."
Word of Parul's strange behavior spread throughout the village. Women crowded her house asking curious questions. Sometimes Parul answered them, sometimes she didn't. She would look away or go down to the pond. She would swim in the pond as long as she felt like it. It wasn't as if all the men in the village came to her; it wasn't as if she liked all the men She encouraged whomever she liked in order to satisfy the cravings of her flesh. Her joy was in whomever's company she enjoyed-the paternity of her child was not important to her. She didn't even want to give them the rights of fatherhood. She would say directly, "I will bring up the child. I'll feed *Šñem, I'll clothe *Šñem, what would I do with a dad? There's Aiton, her husband's run off leaving her with two kids. What's the difference? Don't kids who don't have dads turn out all right?"
Some nodded at Parul's unarguable logic, some argued back. She would grow tired of arguing and would let it go. But she never suffered defeat. Tired of arguing, she would stop. Girls who had been abandoned by their husbands with two or three children would praise her in secret. They would tell her, "You've done the right thing, Parul. Now those pigs can't talk back at us."
When she would hear this, that "Why" question of Parul's would remain unmoving in her empty skull. A balm of sympathy was smoothed over the burns of humiliation. A strength worked within her telling her that she would never lose.
She would sit in her veranda, sewing linen for her baby from used clothing. Some of the girls came in secret to give her old saris. Sometimes someone would give her food. She didn't really need these, but the small gifts made her glad. Now she was immersed in the dreams of motherhood-her body felt no sexual urges. She was a woman-now she was on her knees in front of nature. Vast nature had fulfilled her self, her identity with pride and glory-she would reap the rewards.
Sometimes there would be scrabbling sounds at the fence in the darkness. Someone would call to her in a whisper, Paru, oh Paruilla . . . She didn't answer. Didn't get up. She needed no one now. She would of course open her door when she would need someone.
One day, mid afternoon. She had just finished bathing and was standing in the middle of her yard. The man of the first day arrived. With hurried footsteps, fearful that someone would see him here. The man placed one hand on his chest and asked quickly, "Am I the father of your son?"
She beat her hair with her gamccha as she replied impassively, "No."
"Then who is the man?"
"Why do you want to know? What do you need to know that for?"
There was pleading in the man's voice, "Come on Parul, tell."
"Tell you what? I told you, it's not you."
She spread the gamccha on the clothesline and went into the house. In the evening came another man. "Parul you have to tell me who the father of your son is. Isn't it me?"
"No." Parul's voice is somber. "What do you want to know that for? What's it to you?"
"Such arrogance will do you no good, Parul."
Parul breaks down in helpless laughter. The Azaan floats on the evening air. The man waits no longer. Late at night comes another one. Silently. Whispers, "Parul."
"Why're you here? To be the father of my child? You're not my baby's dad. Now go."
Finally she is annoyed. The men just want the authority of fatherhood. Nothing else. They wouldn't take care of the child, wouldn't take the child in, wouldn't even acknowledge it in public. All any of them wanted to do was feel pleased at the thought that it was his child in Parul's womb. Oh men! Then Parul's empty skull speaks, I don't sell my flesh. I don't ask for money from anyone, this isn't my trade. I enjoy for my own pleasure-whoever I want-whenever I want.
Parul tidies her bed and goes to sleep. Even before her head touches the pillow she hears footsteps outside. She sits up again. Who were they that they wanted rights over the child? Who were they? They were only one kind of people. That was their nature but no one will know whose child I am mother to-only I, only I am God.
Then the call comes in a loud voice from the other side of the door, "Paru, Paruilla . . ."
She chortles loudly and says, "You're not my baby's father."
The darkness shatters with the sound of that laughter.
Copyright © by Selina Hossain. Published by arrangement with the author. Translation copyright © 2005 by Shabnam Nadiya. All rights reserved.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 11:27:43 AM
Syed Shamsul Haq was born in a small town called Kurigram (now a district town) on 27 December in 1935. His father was Syed Siddique Husain a homeopathic physician and mother Halima Khatun. His father came to Kurigram to pursue in the practice of medicine. Traditionally they were a peer (saint) family but Haq's father breaking the family tradition studied in the main stream course of English education and then took up Medicine. Haq's grandfather Syed Raisuddin was furious at this audacity of his son.
Haq passed his childhood in Kurigram. During his childhood he observed the harshness of Second World War.
Haq married Dr. Anwara Syed Haq (also an outstanding writer in her own right.) They have one daughter, Bidita Sadiq and one son, Ditio Syed Haq. Bidita teaches English literature at higher school level. Ditio, an IT specialist, writes stories, lyrics and music.
An author:
Syed Shamsul Haq writes poetry, fiction, plays- mostly in verse and essays. He is recognized as the leading poet of Bangladesh. In all the medium mentioned above he has broken new grounds. His experiments with forms and the language have given a new direction to Bangla literature.
Works :
Nurul Diner Shara Jibon is one of the best works by Syed Haq.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 11:28:23 AM
Story-line: “Nurul Din was a poor indigo farmer during the British rule in Bengal, when Indigo cultivators were being tortured by the British agents and local landlords. One day, he takes his his young son to till the Indigo field, where he works.
“Since Nurul has no oxes to till the land - because of the landlords’ meanness- he tells his son to hold the ploughshare while he becomes the human ox to drag it down the field. Weak and hungry, Nurul collapses under the weight of the ploughshare. His son watches in horror as Nurul slowly metamorphoses into an ox and moos in agony in a rather Kafkaesque (Franz Kafka’s ‘Metamorphosis’) manner,”

Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:39:51 PM
Nasreen Jahan was born and brought up in Mymensingh. She joined the Chander Hat, a national children's and juvenile organizaiton in 1974 and started to write rhymes and short stories in the children's page of daily newspaper Doinik Bangla. She was profusely encouraged by Literary Editor Late Ahsan Habib who was also a top-brass poet of Bangladesh. Later she concentrated on short stories and published in all leading literary papers and magazines of the country including the Kishore Bangla. She is married to poet Ashraf Ahmed and has only daughter Orchi Otondrila.
Her novel Urukku, published in 1993, became a hit after it was awarded the Philips Literary Award in 1994. For a brief period in 1993-94, she worked for the Banglabazaar Patrika published for its weekly literary supplement. Since late 1990s, she has been working as the editor of the literature section of weekly Anyadin. She a feminist, who believes in women's freedom without disrespect for tradition and social norms.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:40:37 PM
She has distinguished herself with her poetic prose and psychological approach to human behaviour. She is capable of handling intricate human mind with dexterity. She is prone to focus on man-woman relationship in the backdrop of social fabric and examine its intricacies. Nasreen Jahan has candidly treated sex as a theme and went ahead of time by refelcting on homosexuality her short stories and novels. Her writing separately exhibits realism, surrealism, also magic realism. Her works are never erotic in nature.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:41:29 PM
Ahmed Sofa (June 30, 1943 – July 28, 2001) was a well-known writer, critic and intellectual from Bangladesh. He wrote novels, poetry and non-fiction essays. He also translated the writings of others. Ahmed Sofa was renowned for his intellectual righteousness as well as his radical approach to the understanding of social dynamics and international politics.
Sofa helped establish the anti-communalist Bangladesh Lekhak Shibir (Bangladesh Writers' Camp) in 1970 to "organise liberal writers in order to further the cause of the progressive movement".hmed Sofa's outspoken personality and bold self-expression brought him into the limelight. At the same time, he was very affectionate towards the younger generation, who gathered around him. He was never seen hankering after fame in a trivial sense. He hardly practised religion, but his religious belief was unquestionable.
Sofa's views, such as his position against Taslima Nasrin, are considered controversial, even questionable, by some. This criticism did not dissuade Sofa from speaking his mind.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:41:57 PM
Surya Tumi Sathi
Surya Tumi Sathi was composed when Sofa was in his early 20s. The novel centres around Hashim, a youth whose father converted from Hinduism to Islam. The religious conflict of Bangladeshi society was vividly painted in the book. Hashim's grandmother rises above the orthodox rituals and thoughts of her society by taking responsibility for Hashem’s newly-born baby. Living in a society where a Hindu does not even take food from a Muslim neighbour, Poddar Ginni, an aged, ordinary-minded, pious woman, does not hesitate to come see the dead body of her grandson’s wife. The whole story was narrated in a very conventional way, but despite that, the book was acclaimed for its characterization and the novelist's sincerity in the analysis of social values.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:42:37 PM
Onkar
In Onkar, Sofa achieved his own individual qualities as a novelist in the context of form and content. The 24-page novel assimilates an extraordinary theme in a simple story.
Due to his father’s unwise activities, the narrator is forced to marry a mute girl. Having no other alternative to save his own family, he has to do it. The mischievous father-in-law arranges a job for him. His sister, who resides with him in his town house in Dhaka, practises songs with a harmonium. It is discovered that his speechless wife is trying to make sounds with that musical instrument. This makes the narrator-husband more sympathetic to his wife, and it inspires the woman to try even harder to speak. One day after the death of Asad in 1969, while a procession passes by their house, the housewife goes out to the veranda and tries to voice the slogans, but only blood flows out of her throat and she dies. In the novel, the socio-political condition of the society as well as the socio-familial environment has been delineated very minutely and skillfully.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:43:17 PM
Onkar
In Onkar, Sofa achieved his own individual qualities as a novelist in the context of form and content. The 24-page novel assimilates an extraordinary theme in a simple story.
Due to his father’s unwise activities, the narrator is forced to marry a mute girl. Having no other alternative to save his own family, he has to do it. The mischievous father-in-law arranges a job for him. His sister, who resides with him in his town house in Dhaka, practises songs with a harmonium. It is discovered that his speechless wife is trying to make sounds with that musical instrument. This makes the narrator-husband more sympathetic to his wife, and it inspires the woman to try even harder to speak. One day after the death of Asad in 1969, while a procession passes by their house, the housewife goes out to the veranda and tries to voice the slogans, but only blood flows out of her throat and she dies. In the novel, the socio-political condition of the society as well as the socio-familial environment has been delineated very minutely and skillfully.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:43:52 PM
Alat Chakra
In Alat Chakra, Liberation-time helpless Bangladesh in Kolkata is the focal point of the story. The story of the narrator, Daniel, and his lover-friend Tayeba works as a thread of loosely-related episodes, though in the same scenario. Different viewpoints about the liberation of Bangladesh, its possibility, and its way to success have been moulded into the work. On December 3, 1971, when India declared war against Pakistan and the independence of Bangladesh became certain, Tayeba, a cancer patient, passes away in the blackout night.
[edit] Aali Kenan
Sofa created an existentialist character in Aali Kenan in a very true Bangladeshi context. The political scenes, from Ayub Khan to Sheikh Mujib, have also been portrayed vividly.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:44:26 PM
] Death in Maran Bilash
Maran Bilash is about the spontaneous talks of a minister at his deathbed. From 12:13 a.m. until dawn, the minister opens his mind to his attendant-cum-political follower Moula Box. In these episodes, the whole life of the minister has been pictured—from his boyhood to his maturity. All the misdeeds of his life as the minister are revealed here, one after another. The novel exposes a society where immorality is the only ladder for a politician to climb the top. The minister's hateful activities include such misdeeds as poisoning his younger brother, having a sexual relationship with a woman of his mother’s age, and burning the headmaster in his house.
[edit] Gaavi Bittano
Sofa has placed the supreme institution of Bangladesh, the Dhaka University, in a satiric milieu in Gaavi Bittano. Sofa ridiculed Bangladeshi society by making caricatures of the people of this highest education centre.

Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:51:59 PM
Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay (Bengali: বঙ্কিমচন্দ্র চট্টোপাধ্যায় Bôngkim Chôndro Chôţţopaddhae)[1] (27 June 1838 [2] – 8 April 1894) was a Bengali a famous writer, poet and journalist.[3] He was the composer of India’s national song Vande Mataram, originally a Sanskrit stotra personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring the activists during the Indian Freedom Movement. Bankim Chandra wrote 13 novels and several ‘serious, serio-comic, satirical, scientific and critical treaties’ in Bengali. His works were widely translated into other regional languages of India as well as in English.
Bankim Chandra was born to an orthodox Brahmin family at Kanthalpara, North 24 Parganas. He was educated at Hoogly College and Presidency College, Calcutta. He was one of the first graduates of the University of Calcutta. From 1858, until his retirement in 1891, he served as a deputy magistrate and deputy collector in the Government of British India.
Chatterjee is widely regarded as a key figure in literary renaissance of Bengal as well as India.[3] He is still held to be one of the timeless and brightest figures of not only Bengal, but also of the entire literati of India. Some of his writings, including novels, essays and commentaries, were a breakaway from traditional verse-oriented Indian writings, and provided an inspiration for authors across India.[3]
When Bipin Chandra Pal decided to start a patriotic journal in August 1906, he named it Bande Mataram, after Chatterjee's song. Lala Lajpat Rai also published a journal of the same name.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:53:36 PM
Anandamath (Bangla: আনন্দমঠ Anondomôţh. First English publication title: The Abbey of Bliss) is a Bengali novel, written by Bankim Chandra Chatterji and published in 1882. Set in the background of the Sannyasi Rebellion in the late 18th century, it is considered one of the most important novels in the history of Bengali and Indian literature.[1] Its importance is heightened by the fact that it became synonymous with the struggle for Indian independence from the British Empire. The novel was banned by the British. The ban was lifted later by the Government of India after independence.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:54:33 PM
Plot summary
The book is set during famine in Bengal (see Famine in India, for more information about famine in India under the British regime). Kalyani, a housewife, is fleeing through the forest with her infant, trying to escape from man-hunters who will sell her for food. After a long chase, she loses consciousness at the bank of a river. A Hindu monk, stumbles upon her and the baby, but before he can help her, he is arrested by the British soldiers, because other priests were fueling revolt against the British rule. While being dragged away he spots another priest who is not wearing his distinctive robes and sings,
"In mild breeze, by the bank of the river,
In the forest, resides a respectable lady."
The other priest deciphers the song, rescues Kalyani and the baby, taking them to a rebel priest hideout. Concurrently, Kalyani's husband, Mahendra, is also given shelter by the priests, and they are reunited. The leader of the rebels indoctrinates Mahendra by showing him the three faces of Bharat-Mata (Mother India) as three goddess idols being worshipped in three consecutive rooms:
1.   What Mother Was - An idol of Goddess Jagaddhatri
2.   What Mother Has Become - An idol of Goddess Kali
3.   What Mother Will Be - An idol of Goddess Durga
Gradually, the rebel influence grows and their ranks swell. Emboldened, they shift their headquarter to a small brick fort. The British attacks the fort with a large force. The rebels blockade the bridge over the nearby river, but they lack any artillery or military training. In the fighting, the British makes a tactical retreat over the bridge. The Sannyasis undisciplined army, and lacking military experience, chase the British into the trap. Once the bridge is full of rebels, British artillery opens fire, inflicting severe casualties.
However, some rebels manage to capture some of the cannons, and turn the fire back on to the British lines. The British are forced to fall back, the rebels winning their first battle. The story ends with Mahendra and Kalyani building a home again, with Mahendra continuing to support the rebels.
[edit] Commentary
The plot background was loosely based on the devastating Bengal famine of 1770 and unsuccessful Sannyasi Rebellion. Bankim Chandra dreams of an India rid of the British. In this dream, he romantically imagined untrained Sannyasi soldiers fighting beating the highly experienced Royal Army. Despite the romanticism, the novel patriotism was a significant voice amidst the oppression and the struggle for independence. The novel's prose has been quoted by many writers talking about Indian independence.[cita
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:55:15 PM
The Bhagavad Gītā (Sanskrit: भगवद्गीता, IPA: [ˈbʱəɡəʋəd̪ ɡiːˈt̪aː], Song of God), also more simply known as Gita, is a 700-verse Hindu scripture that is part of the ancient Hindu epic, the Mahabharata, but is frequently treated as a freestanding text, and in particular, as an Upanishad in its own right, one of the several books that comprise the more general Vedic tradition. It is a very comprehensive compendium of the whole Vedic tradition, and an introduction to the text states that the book is considered among the most important texts in the history of literature and philosophy.[1] The teacher of the Bhagavad Gita is Lord Krishna, who is revered by Hindus as a manifestation of God (Parabrahman) Himself,[1] and is referred to within as Bhagavan, the Divine One.[2]
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:55:47 PM
The context of the Gita is a conversation between Lord Krishna and the Pandava prince Arjuna taking place on the battlefield before the start of the Kurukshetra War. Responding to Arjuna's confusion and moral dilemma about fighting his own cousins who command a tyranny imposed on a captured State, Lord Krishna explains to Arjuna his duties as a warrior and prince, and elaborates on different Yogic[3] and Vedantic philosophies, with examples and analogies. This has led to the Gita often being described as a concise guide to Hindu theology and also as a practical, self-contained guide to life. During the discourse, Lord Krishna reveals His identity as the Supreme Being Himself (Svayam Bhagavan), blessing Arjuna with an awe-inspiring vision of His divine universal form.
The direct audience to Lord Krishna’s discourse of the Bhagavad Gita included Arjuna (addressee), Sanjaya (using Divya Drishti (or divine vision) gifted by the sage Veda Vyasa to watch the war and narrate the events to Dhritarashtra), Lord Hanuman (perched atop Arjuna’s chariot) and Barbarika, son of Ghatotkacha, who also witnessed the complete 18 days of action at Kurukshetra.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:56:20 PM
The Bhagavad Gita is also called Gītopaniṣad, implying its having the status of an Upanishad, i.e. a Vedantic scripture.[4] Since the Gita is drawn from the Mahabharata, it is classified as a Smṛiti text. However, those branches of Hinduism that give it the status of an Upanishad also consider it a śruti or "revealed" text.[5][6] As it is taken to represent a summary of the Upanishadic teachings, it is also called "the Upanishad of the Upanishads".[7] Another title is mokṣaśāstra, or "Scripture of Liberation".[8]
It has been highly praised by not only prominent Indians such as Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi but also Aldous Huxley, Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer,[9] Ralph Waldo Emerson, Carl Jung and Herman Hesse.[7][10]
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:56:57 PM
The Bhagavad Gita occurs in the Bhishma Parva of the Mahabharata and comprises 18 chapters from the 25th through 42nd and consists of 700 verses.[11] Its authorship is traditionally ascribed to Vyasa, the compiler of the Mahabharata.[12][13] Because of differences in recensions, the verses of the Gita may be numbered in the full text of the Mahabharata as chapters 6.25–42 or as chapters 6.23–40.[14] According to the recension of the Gita commented on by Shankaracharya, the number of verses is 700, but there is evidence to show that old manuscripts had 745 verses.[15] The verses themselves, using the range and style of Sanskrit meter (chhandas) with similes and metaphors, are written in a poetic form that is traditionally chanted.[citation needed]
As with all of the Mahabharata, the text of the Gītā cannot be dated with certainty. Astrologers calculate the Bhagavad Gita traditionally being given circa 3000 BCE based purely on Sri Krishna's horoscope .[16][17][18] The entire epic went through a lengthy process of accumulation and redaction during roughly the 5th century BCE to the 5th century CE. Some scholars have placed the composition of the Gītā in the earlier phase of this period, between roughly the 5th and the 2nd century BCE.[12][19][20] The mainstream assumption of a pre-Christian date has been widely repeated, e.g. by Indian President Radhakrishnan.[12] Recently it has been speculated to date around early centuries of the Common Era instead. Thius, John Brockington (1998) argues that the Gītā can be placed in the first century CE.[21] Based on claims of differences in the poetic styles, some scholars like Jinarajadasa have argued that the Bhagavad Gītā was added to the Mahābhārata at a later date.[22][23]
Within the text of the Bhagavad Gītā itself, Lord Krishna states that the knowledge of Yoga contained in the Gītā was first instructed to mankind at the very beginning of their existence.[24] Therefore, the history and choronology of Bhagavad Gita may be taken to be clear from the text itself, by its adherents. Although it may seem to some that the original date of composition of the Bhagavad Gita is not clear, its teachings are considered timeless and the exact time of revelation of the scripture is considered of little spiritual significance by religiously-motivated scholars such as Bansi Pandit, and Juan Mascaro.[7][25] Swami Vivekananda dismisses concerns about differences of opinion regarding the historical events as unimportant for study of the Gita from the point of acquirement of Dharma.[26]
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:58:01 PM
The Mahabharata centers on the exploits of the Pandavas and the Kauravas, two families of royal cousins descended from two brothers, Pandu and Dhritarashtra, respectively. Because Dhritarashtra was born blind, Pandu inherited the ancestral kingdom, comprising
a part of northern India around modern Delhi. The Pandava brothers were Yudhishthira the eldest, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, and Sahadeva. The Kaurava brothers were one hundred in number, Duryodhana being the eldest. When Pandu died at an early age, his young children were placed under the care of their uncle Dhritarashtra who ascended the throne since the Pandavas were minors.[27][28]
The Pandavas and the Kauravas were brought up together in the same household and had the same teachers, the most notable of whom were Bhishma and Dronacharya.[28] Bhishma, the wise grandsire, acted as their chief guardian, and the Brahmin Drona was their military instructor. The Pandavas were endowed with righteousness, self-control, nobility, and many other knightly traits. On the other hand, the hundred sons of Dhritarashtra, especially Duryodhana, were endowed with negative qualities and were cruel, unrighteous, unscrupulous, greedy, and lustful. Duryodhana, jealous of his five cousins, contrived various means to destroy them.[29]
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:58:37 PM
When the time came to crown Yudhisthira, eldest of the Pandavas, as prince, Duryodhana, through a fixed game of dice, exiled the Pandavas into the forest.[28] On their return from banishment the Pandavas demanded the return of their legitimate kingdom. Duryodhana, who had consolidated his power by many alliances, refused to restore their legal and moral rights. Attempts by elders and Krishna, who was a friend of the Pandavas and also a well wisher of the Kauravas, to resolve the issue failed. Nothing would satisfy Duryodhana's inordinate greed.[30][31]
War became inevitable. Both Duryodhana and Arjuna requested Krishna to support them in the war, since he possessed the strongest army, and was revered as the wisest teacher and the greatest yogi. Krishna offered to give his vast army to one of them and to become a charioteer and counselor for the other, but he would not touch any weapon nor participate in the battle in any manner.[30] While Duryodhana chose Krishna's vast army, Arjuna preferred to have Krishna as his charioteer.[32] The whole realm responded to the call of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The kings, princes, and knights of India with their armies assembled on the sacred plain of Kurukshetra.[30] The blind king Dhritarashtra wished to follow the progress of the battle. The sage Vyasa offered to endow him with supernatural sight, but the king refused the boon, for he felt that the sight of the destruction of those near and dear to him would be too much to bear. Thereupon, Vyasa bestowed supernatural sight on Sanjaya, who was to act as reporter to Dhritarashtra. The Gita opens with the question of the blind king to Sanjaya regarding what happened on the battlefield when the two armies faced each other in battle array.[33]
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:59:17 PM
The Bhagavad Gita begins before the start of the climactic battle at Kurukshetra, with the Pandava prince Arjuna becoming filled with doubt on the battlefield. Realizing that his enemies are his own relatives, beloved friends, and revered teachers, he turns to his charioteer and guide, Krishna, for advice.
In summary the main philosophical subject matter of the Bhagavad Gita is the explanation of five basic concepts or "truths":[34]
•   Ishvara (The Supreme Controller)
•   Jiva (Living beings/the individualized soul)
•   Prakrti (Nature/Matter)
•   Dharma (Duty in accordance with Divine law)
•   Kaala (Time)
Krishna counsels Arjuna on the greater idea of dharma, or universal harmony and duty. He begins with the tenet that the soul (Atman) is eternal and immortal.[35] Any 'death' on the battlefield would involve only the shedding of the body, whereas the soul is permanent. Arjuna's hesitation stems from a lack of accurate understanding of the 'nature of things,' the privileging of the unreal over the real. His fear and hesitance become impediments to the proper balancing of the universal dharmic order. Essentially, Arjuna wishes to abandon the battle, to abstain from action; Krishna warns, however, that without action, the cosmos would fall out of order and truth would be obscured.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 12:59:54 PM
In order to clarify his point, Krishna expounds the various Yoga processes and understanding of the true nature of the universe. Krishna describes the yogic paths of devotional service,[36] action,[37] meditation[38] and knowledge.[39] Fundamentally, the Bhagavad Gita proposes that true enlightenment comes from growing beyond identification with the temporal ego, the 'False Self', the ephemeral world, so that one identifies with the truth of the immortal self, the absolute soul or Atman. Through detachment from the material sense of ego, the Yogi, or follower of a particular path of Yoga, is able to transcend his/her illusory mortality and attachment to the material world and enter the realm of the Supreme.[40]
Krishna does not propose that the physical world must be forgotten or neglected. Rather, one's life on Earth must be lived in accordance with greater laws and truths, one must embrace one's temporal duties whilst remaining mindful of timeless reality, acting for the sake of service without consideration for the results thereof. Such a life would naturally lead towards stability, happiness and, ultimately, enlightenment.
To demonstrate his divine nature, Krishna grants Arjuna the boon of cosmic vision (albeit temporary) and allows the prince to see his 'Universal Form' (this occurs in the eleventh chapter).[41] He reveals that he is fundamentally both the ultimate essence of Being in the universe and also its material body, called the Vishvarupa ('Universal Form').
In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna refers to the war about to take place as 'Dharma Yuddha', meaning a righteous war for the purpose of justice. In Chapter 4, Krishna states that he incarnates in each age (yuga) to establish righteousness in the world.[42]
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 01:00:36 PM
There are many who regard the story of the Gita as an allegory; Swami Nikhilananda, for example, takes Arjuna as an allegory of Ātman, Krishna as an allegory of Brahman, Arjuna's chariot as the body, etc.[43]
Mahatma Gandhi, in his commentary on the Gita,[44] interpreted the battle as "an allegory in which the battlefield is the soul and Arjuna, man's higher impulses struggling against evil."[45] Swami Vivekananda also said that the first discourse in the Gita related to war can be taken allegorically.[46] Vivekananda further remarks, "this Kurukshetra War is only an allegory. When we sum up its esoteric significance, it means the war which is constantly going on within man between the tendencies of good and evil."[13]
In Sri Aurobindo's view, Krishna was a historical figure, but his significance in the Gita is as a "symbol of the divine dealings with humanity",[47] while Arjuna typifies a "struggling human soul."[48] However, Aurobindo rejects the interpretation that the Gita, and the Mahabharata by extension, is "an allegory of the inner life, and has nothing to do with our outward human life and actions":[48]
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on August 21, 2011, 01:01:17 PM
The Gita consists of eighteen chapters in total:
1.   Arjuna requests Krishna to move his chariot between the two armies. When Arjuna sees his relatives on the opposing army side of the Kurus, he loses morale and decides not to fight.
2.   After asking Krishna for help, Arjuna is instructed that only the body may be killed, as he was worried if it would become a sin to kill people (including his gurus and relatives), while the eternal self is immortal. Krishna appeals to Arjuna that, as a warrior, he has a duty to uphold the path of dharma through warfare.
3.   Arjuna asks why he should engage in fighting if knowledge is more important than action. Krishna stresses to Arjuna that performing his duties for the greater good, but without attachment to results, is the appropriate course of action.
4.   Krishna reveals that he has lived through many births, always teaching Yoga for the protection of the pious and the destruction of the impious and stresses the importance of accepting a guru.
5.   Arjuna asks Krishna if it is better to forgo action or to act ("renunciation or discipline of action"[49]). Krishna answers that both ways may be beneficent, but that acting in Karma Yoga is superior.
6.   Krishna describes the correct posture for meditation and the process of how to achieve Samādhi.
7.   Krishna teaches the path of knowledge (Jnana Yoga).
8.   Krishna defines the terms brahman, adhyatma, karma, atman, adhibhuta and adhidaiva and explains how one can remember him at the time of death and attain his supreme abode.
9.   Krishna explains panentheism, "all beings are in me" as a way of remembering him in all circumstances.
10.   Krishna describes how he is the ultimate source of all material and spiritual worlds. Arjuna accepts Krishna as the Supreme Being, quoting great sages who have also done so.
11.   On Arjuna's request, Krishna displays his "universal form" (Viśvarūpa), a theophany of a being facing every way and emitting the radiance of a thousand suns, containing all other beings and material in existence.
12.   Krishna describes the process of devotional service (Bhakti Yoga).
13.   Krishna describes nature (prakrti), the enjoyer (purusha) and consciousness.
14.   Krishna explains the three modes (gunas) of material nature.
15.   Krishna describes a symbolic tree (representing material existence), its roots in the heavens and its foliage on earth. Krishna explains that this tree should be felled with the "axe of detachment", after which one can go beyond to his supreme abode.
16.   Krishna tells of the human traits of the divine and the demonic natures. He counsels that to attain the supreme destination one must give up lust, anger and greed, discern between right and wrong action by discernment through Buddhi and evidence from scripture and thus act correctly.
17.   Krishna tells of three divisions of faith and the thoughts, deeds and even eating habits corresponding to the three gunas.
18.   In conclusion, Krishna asks Arjuna to abandon all forms of dharma and simply surrender unto him. He describes this as the ultimate perfection of life.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: shipra on August 23, 2011, 10:00:39 AM
Nice,Madam.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: sethy on September 29, 2011, 11:25:37 AM
Thank you for the post. I think it is a nice job to bring out the nice and famous literary texts .
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Antara11 on November 14, 2011, 02:48:15 PM
Dear Madam,

It's really appreciating work. It's nice to know these large literary works in a nutshell.

Antara
Lecturer
Dept. of English
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: shamsi on November 30, 2011, 09:33:51 AM
Dear Nahid,

You are in fact doing a very good job.The way you have reviewed Nirod Chowdhury's 'The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian',I can't resist myself from reading it.I think,like me, there are many of us in the forum who will be inspired to venture the real texts.

I wish you all the best.

Shamsi
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Antara11 on February 02, 2013, 09:48:25 AM
Really nice madam. Sometimes I feel like reading poetry but don't get some rich ones.
You provided some selected poetry.

Thank you

Antara Basak
Lecturer
Dept of English
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: sushmita on February 08, 2012, 05:53:58 PM
really there are a lot of things to know from this post.Thank you,Nahid apu.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Nahid Kaiser on June 23, 2012, 12:31:50 PM
Thank you dear Susmita. I ask my students to view it, you can also tell your ones.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: irina on June 24, 2012, 04:12:04 PM
Dear Nahid
You are an Informed teacher, I see.
Thank you.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: Real on June 25, 2012, 01:28:54 AM
Thank you Mam.......for your post......

Md. Mehedi Hassan (Real)
19th Batch
Dept. of English
Daffodil International University
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: nafrin on September 12, 2012, 12:55:41 PM
apu, I liked it and already copied
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: nafrin on September 12, 2012, 02:21:09 PM
Fond husband, ancient settler in the mind,
Old fat spider, weaving webs of bewilderment,



I love k das. apu wow wonderful post
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: nafrin on September 12, 2012, 02:56:39 PM
I have found a recorded piece by Kamala das.there she recited her own poem, where she added some extra words and line, which are absnt in your copy what u posted.I think let us check out abt the extra pieces of words..
such like in The old play house..
 here y put..' a shabby room', but Kamala das uttered 'drawing' before room.
then, 'A libertine, ask me the flavor of his mouth, this bolded portion is missing here.could u say something about this?
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: shipra on September 25, 2012, 11:49:06 AM
Nahid mam, please carry on.
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: shipra on November 17, 2012, 12:04:04 PM
Nice post,mam, you have started again...
Title: Re: Famous Literary texts of the Subcontinent
Post by: fatema_diu on November 18, 2012, 12:25:24 AM
Kamala Das's expressions are so bold!