Katha Bharati Series (The Library of Indian Literary Classic): Dhorai Charit Manas

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Dhorai Charit Manas: "In the room, Dhorai bows in worship before the white box and drops the letter inside it. Dhanya ho! Praise be to the glory of Mahatmaji! Dhanya ho Kangriss bolunteer, whose mercy has given the insignificant Dhorai an opportunity to participate in the task of establishing Ramrajya and make his squirrel's contribution to this great enterprise. His heart bursts with sorrow; if he knew how to write, he would have written to Mahatmaji in his own hand. Through this letter, people from one end of the land can reach Mahatmaji at the other end of the land, all together, all at once."

In this subtle exploration of the warp and weft of life in a society finely meshed together with caste, class and religious belief, Rama and Gandhi form the two enduring ideals that frame the story of Dhorai, of the untouchable Tatma caste. Set in the Purnea district of Bihar during the civil disobedience movement and the violence of undercover militancy, the narrative of Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas forms the structural model of this story. In these areas where the Ramcharitmanas is a text recited and sung, the poor harijan Dhorai is the Rama prototype. The power of the Mahatma's movement touches him deeply, but so do the incipient fissures that are inherited by the new India. As Dhorai merges with every man in this time and place, his story continues, in all it's hopes and promises, despair and deception, in India's life today. 200

Satinath Bhaduri (1906-1965) shot to fame when he wrote Jagari (1946), for which he received the very first Rabindra Puraskar in 1950. He also wrote a travelogue, Satyi Bhraman Kahini (1951), about his experiences in Paris. His other noteworthy works include Gananayak (1948), Chitragupter File (1949), Achin Ragini (1954), Aparichita (1954), Sangkat (1957) and Alok Drsti (1964).

Ipshita Chanda teaches Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. She has translated Mahasweta Devi and Sukumar Ray's work.

The Teller of/and the Tale

Thus does Phaniswarnath "Renu", the noted Hindi writer, also a native of Purnea district in Bihar, describe the milieu into which Satinath Bhaduri was born, lived and worked. As the son of a middle class peasant in the rural part of Purnea, Renu's father was familiar with all the lawyers and advocates in the town kutcherry. Satinath's father, Indubhushan Bhaduri, originally from a well-known, established family in Krishnanagar in Bengal, but settled as a 'pravasi' or non resident Bengali in Bihar was among those who, in Renu's words, 'ruled' over Purnea. Son of a well-to-do barrister (what the Tatma would call 'ballister') Satinath spent a lonely childhood in his own house - his mother died young, his father was acutely conscious of his status as a much sought-after professional, and made sure that this consciousness was imprinted on the entire household's daily dealings with locals. The arrogance of Bijon Babu vakil when he makes the powerful landowner Jayasri Chaudhury wait for consultation and the rage with which he throws the latter's papers, may not be autobiographical, but Satinath had occasion to perceive his father's dealings as a superior Bengali professional, who felt himself more civilised than the people he had settled among to fulfill his ambitions of making an ostentatious living. That the 'Bangali babubhaiya' occupied all the lucrative professions is stated in the very first chapter of Dhorai Charit Manas. Satinath seemed cowed down by his father's imperious assertion of his stature. But the nature of his reaction was not exactly atypical - in such circumstances, in a place which his father insisted should be treated as a means (to securing the future) rather than as a habitation, Satinath reacted by quietly and firmly doing the opposite of what Indubhushan desired. He acquired a world in its entirety, where people like his father, 'pravasi' or non resident Bengalis, had a marginal though typical role to play, as a community and as individuals.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages