Selected Short Stories

by Rabindranath Tagore

  Dashu Ray (Dāśu Rāy) 1806–57. Greatest writer of Bengali pcāli, a genre combining music, dance and poetry, telling stories of Radha and Krishna and other traditional subjects, often in an erotic, humorous or satirical way.

  Deś A light, night rāga, often combined with the Mallar or ‘monsoon’ group of rāgas to create composite ‘Deś-Mallar’ rāgas.

  Devanāgarī See Sarasvati.

  Dharma A key word in Hindu tradition, meaning such things as duty, law, justice, righteousness, piety, scriptural rules, morality, religion etc. See Selected Poems, Notes, pp. 175–6.

  Dhoti (dhuti) Traditional white loincloth worn by Hindu men. See p. 190, n. 1.

  Didi ‘Elder Sister’; abbreviated to ‘di’, it is often respectfully added to Bengali women’s names.

  Didimā Maternal grandmother or great-aunt.

  Dom One of the pañcama (‘fifth’) group of ‘untouchable’ castes outside the main Hindu castes. The Doms are traditionally scavengers, corpse-removers and suppliers of wood for burning the dead.

  Durbar (darbār) A formal levee or meeting in a royal court, when the monarch listens to petitions.

  Durga (Durgā) Bengal’s most popular goddess. As Shiva’s consort or śakti she dwells on Mount Kailas and is also known as Uma and Parvati (‘daughter of the mountain’). Durgā-pūjā in October–November is Bengal’s chief religious festival ending with the ritual immersion of the images of Durga made specially for it. The song that Uma hears in ‘Exercise-book’ is an example of the āgamanī songs that are sung to commemorate Durga’s arrival in her parents’ home at the beginning of the festival. The reference in ‘The Gift of Sight’ (p. 248) is to the third eye which Durga (like Shiva) has on her forehead.

  Gāmchā A kind of scarf or napkin, sometimes worn round the waist as a lungi or loincloth.

  Ganesh (Gaṇeśa) Elephant-headed god, son of Shiva and Parvati, bringer of good luck and prosperity. Gaṇeś-pūjā in April is observed by traders and shopkeepers.

  Gazal (gajal) Popular form of love poem or song, Arabic or Persian in origin, much favoured by Urdu poets.

  Ghāṭ See Introduction, pp. 21 f.

  Gītāgovinda See Jayadev.

  Gopī See Krishna.

  Govinda Das Medieval Bengali author of Vaishnava padābalī (songs about Radha and Krishna).

  Hanu See Manu.

  Haridas Hero of Haridāser guptakathā, an adaption by Bhubanchandra Mukhopadhyay of W. M. Reynolds’ novel Joseph Wilmot (1854). The book first appeared in serial form in 1871–73 and was popularly regarded as ‘adult’ reading for married couples, which is why Uma in ‘Exercise-book’ finds it under her brother’s wife’s pillow. There is further evidence of the popularity of Reynolds’ novels in Bengal, in ‘Taraprasanna’s Fame’, p. 73, where the reference is to London Mystery (8 vols, 1849–56).

  Hilsa (iliś) A fish farmed and eaten in Bengal, growing up to eighteen inches in length. It lives in the sea, but comes up the rivers to spawn.

  Hookah (hũkā) ‘Hubble-bubble’ or water-pipe which Persian influence introduced into Bengal; rarely seen today.

  Indra King of the gods in Vedic times; less important in classical Hinduism, but associated with thunder and rainbows (indradhanu, ‘Indra’s bow’). He drives a chariot drawn by two tawny horses, and also rides the prototypal divine elephant Airāvata.

  Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar 1820–91. Famous Principal of Sanskrit College in Calcutta, a major force in nineteenth-century Bengali educational and social reform, and a pioneering writer of Bengali prose. The first part of his barṇaparicay (primer) includes two boys, ‘Gopal’ and ‘Rakhal’, who have become proverbially associated with good behaviour and bad behaviour respectively. kathāmālā – a Bengali version of Aesop as told by Revd Thomas James – was another of his many books for schoolchildren (see ‘Exercise-book’, p. 140).

  Istadevatā Patron god that a Hindu chooses from the pantheon as the deity to whom he offers special prayers.

  Jamidār/Jamidāri See Zamindar.

  Jayadev (Jayadeva) Twelfth-century Sanskrit poet, born in Bengal, famous for his Gītāgovinda, a dramatic poem about Radha and Krishna.

  Jhāu The tamarisk – an evergreen shrub or small tree, with feathery branches and thin leaves.

  Jobbā A long, loose, informal Persian-style robe.

  Jyaiṣṭha Bengali month; mid-May to mid-June; the second of the two summer months.

  Kabikankan (Kabikaṅkaṇ) Honorific title given to the great sixteenth-century Bengali poet Mukunduram Chakravarti. His caṇḍimaṅgal is regarded as the finest example of maṅgalkābya, a genre of Bengali narrative poem glorifying Bengal’s local deities – Chandi, Manasa, Dharma, Shitala and others.

  Kabirāj Physician following the traditional Indian Ayurvedic system of medicine.

  Kabuliwallah (kābulioyālā) A native of Afghanistan or Kabul – usually, in the Indian context, an itinerant trader or hawker.

  Kacu The taro – a coarse herbacious plant cultivated for its tubers.

  Kadamba A large tree with sweet-scented, yellow-orange flowers that bloom in the rainy season.

  Kailas (Kailāsa) See Durga.

  Kaistha (Kāystha) Hindu caste, known as ‘the writer caste’, who have traditionally been writers, scholars, lawyers and judges. They overlap with the two main caste divisions, being sometimes classed as Kṣatriyas, sometimes as Śudras (see Brahmin, Shudra, Dom).

  Kākimā (kākī) Aunt; wife of one’s father’s younger brother.

  Kāl-baiśākhī A strong wind that blows in the afternoons in the summer month of Baisākh, and sometimes causes sudden short storms.

  Kali The ‘age of Kali’ (kali-yūga) is the age of mankind in the sixth millennium of which we are at present living. It is the last of four yūgas that make up a kalpa or ‘day of Brahma’. The age of Kali is tragically degenerate compared to the satya-yūga (‘age of Truth’) which was the first of the four yūgas – hence the evils and sufferings in our present world. ‘Kali’ is not to be confused with the mother-goddess Kālī.

  Kalidasa (Kālidāsa) Foremost poet and dramatist of Sanskrit literature; often associated with the court of Chandra Gupta II (AD 375–414), though some scholars have placed him in the first or second century BC. His most famous works are the Meghadūta (‘Cloud-messenger’), a poem in which a yakṣa (see Kubera), absent from his beloved, asks a cloud to carry a message of love to her; Kumārasambhava, a poem about the begetting of Kartik (q.v.) to destroy the demon Taraka; and the greatest of all Sanskrit plays, Śakuntalā.

  Kalighat (Kālīghāt) Hindu temple in Calcutta dedicated to the bloodthirsty mother-goddess Kali (Kāli), and associated with animal sacrifice. Tagore’s famous play bisarjan (‘Sacrifice’) attacks the Kali cult.

  Kāminī A large shrub bearing bunches of sweet-smelling white flowers which bloom at night and are shed by morning. It blossoms mainly during the rain, and is often cut into shapes in ornamental gardens.

  Kapāṭi A game indigenous to India. Two teams stand on opposite sides of a line; a player crosses the line, and tries to touch an opposing player while holding his breath and uttering repetitive sounds such as ḍu-ḍu-ḍu-ḍu. If he touches an opponent before running out of breath, the opponent is declared ‘dead’; if the opposing players physically prevent him from returning to his side of the line, he is declared dead.

  Kartik (Kārtik, Kārtikeya) God of war and ruler of the planet Mars, son of Shiva and Parvati, created to destroy the demon Taraka (see Kalidasa). Also the name of the seventh Bengali month, mid-October to mid-November.

  Kashidas (Kāśirām Dās) Seventeenth-century Bengali poet known as the author and compiler of the most popular medieval Bengali version of the Mahābhārata, though his nephew Nanadaram and others had a hand in it.

  Kathāmālā See Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar.

  Kedārā Large Persian-style armchair.

  Kharia (Khaṛiyā, Khaṛe) Another name for the Jalangi river that runs into the Bhagarathi (Hooghly) west of Krishnanagar. Fu
rther north, the Bhairab connects it with the Padma (see Map, p. 323).

  Khokā An affectionate term for the youngest son in a Bengali family.

  Khuṛā Uncle; younger brother of one’s father.

  Kīrtan In Bengal a kīrtan is usually a simple religious song or bhajan (hymn), with none of the complexity of classical vocal music.

  Koel (kokil) Bird with a characteristic shrill call, rising up the scale, ending with a gentler cooing sound; very commonly heard in Bengal. Often (misleadingly) translated as ‘cuckoo’ because it belongs to the same order (cuculiformes).

  Krishna (Kṛṣṇa) Much-loved incarnation of Vishnu, famous for his childhood in Vraj, his flute-playing, his sporting with milkmaids (gopīs) in Vrindavan on the banks of the Yamuna, his love-affair with Radha, and his heroic role in the Mahābhārata. His life story is told in the tenth book of the thirteenth-century Bhāgavata-purāṇa. Radha’s love for him is the main focus of Bengali Vaishnava devotion, and inspired numerous padābalī (‘lyrics’) in medieval Bengal. In dramatic versions of the Radha–Krishna story the mānbhañjan is the ‘breaking’ (bhañjan, i.e. appeasement or placation) of Radha’s ‘pique’ (mān) at Krishna’s neglectful behaviour. Tagore’s story ‘Fury Appeased’ alludes to this both in its title and its content. A ‘Krishna-rosary’ (jap-mālā) is carried by pious Vaishnavas as an aid to prayer (see ‘A Problem Solved’, p. 138).

  Krittibas (Kṛttibās) Celebrated poet, born in the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century, compiler and author of the medieval Bengali Rāmāyaṇa, the most popular of all medieval Bengali poems.

  Kubera Originally a Vedic lord of evil spirits whom Brahma made one of the guardian deities of the world. He is lord of all gold, silver and gems, and is served by the yakṣas – a class of elemental beings, mostly benevolent though sometimes evil. The chief yakṣas guard Kubera’s treasure-hoards (cf. ‘Wealth Surrendered’) in Alaka in the Himalayas; and it is a yakṣa who is the speaker in Kalidasa’s celebrated Meghadūta (see Kalidasa).

  Kulin (Kulīn) Brahmin sub-caste whose practice of polygamy was notorious. Parents would marry their daughters to Kulins as an act of religious merit, and the Kulins would profit from the dowries. Kulin polygamy was never forbidden by law, but in response to changing social conditions – and campaigns against it – it died out early in the twentieth century.

  Kumārasambhava See Kartik and Kalidasa.

  Kuri Strictly speaking, a caste associated with bird-catching, but also a synonym for the Mayara or Madhukuri ‘confectioner caste’ of Bengal, who as suppliers of sweets to Brahmins are high or ‘clean’ Shudra castes (q.v.). The Rui brothers in ‘Punishment’ are landless labourers – showing how the identification of a caste with a particular trade has been much eroded in modern India.

  Kurta (kortā) Indian shirt with long sleeves and collarless neck, cut long to hang down below the hips.

  Kush and Lab (Kuśa and Lava) Twin sons of Rama and Sita who were brought into the ashram of Valmiki, author of the Rāmāyaṇa. In the last section of the epic, they are taught to sing the story of Rama, so kuś-laber gān are songs telling the story of Rama sung by Kush and Lab.

  Lagi A long pole, normally of bamboo, used to punt or steer a traditional Bengali river-boat.

  Lakh (lākh, lakṣa) A hundred thousand; generally used in the subcontinent when referring to large numbers.

  Lāthi Stick used as a baton or truncheon.

  Lāṭhiyāl Guard or bodyguard carrying a lāṭhi, or a person skilled in fighting with lāṭhis.

  Mā ‘Mother’; used also to address married women with a rural or peasant background; also used as an imprecation (‘Mā! Mā!’) because the Mother-goddess is commonly worshipped in Bengal. See Durga.

  Madan (Madana) Name for Kama, the Hindu god of love; equivalent to Cupid or Eros.

  Madanmohan Tarkalankar 1817–58. Bengali poet with an ornate Sanskritic style, some of whose poems became well-known anthology pieces.

  Mādhabī Creeper with pink or red or pale flowers that bloom from February to September.

  Māgh Bengali month; mid-January to mid-February.

  Mahabharata (Mahābhārata) Great classical epic of India, attributed to the poet Vyāsā, but probably created over many generations. See Kashidas and Krishna.

  Mallar See Deś.

  Mantra A sacred verse of scripture, or any spell or formula used in Hindu worship and ritual.

  Manu Known as the Lawgiver, mythical author of a canonical Hindu code of law and jurisprudence; identified with the first of fourteen ‘Manus’ or semi-divine progenitors of mankind. The ‘sons of Manu’ therefore means those people who are law-abiding, as opposed to those whom Tagore, in ‘The Editor’ (p. 123), wittily calls the ‘sons of Hanu’, i.e. people with the capacity for subversion and havoc associated with the monkey-chief Hanuman. (In fact Hanuman had no children: Tagore is playing with words.)

  Māsī Aunt; mother’s sister or cousin-sister.

  Māṣṭārmaśāy ‘Master-sir’ – a common name or term of address for a teacher or tutor.

  Māṭhākrun A term that might be used by a servant addressing the (Brahmin) mistress of the house where he is employed.

  Meghnadūta See Kalidasa.

  Meghnād-badh kābya ‘The poem of the slaying of Meghnād’ – a brilliantly original epic based on the Rāmāyaṇa, but distorting its traditional values, by Michael Madusūdan Datta (1824–73), the founder of modern Bengali poetry and drama. The difficulty of Madusūdan’s language and the epic’s classic status had tended to make it something of a grind for Bengali students. Tagore himself disliked it when he was young.

  Memsāheb The term by which the wives of British sāhebs (q.v.) were generally known in British India.

  Mohanbhog A sort of porridge made by boiling cornflour in milk.

  Mohar Gold coin used in Moghul times, and also struck by the East India Company; phased out as a currency by the British in the 1840s, but preserved in treasure-hordes (see ‘Wealth Surrendered’, p. 81).

  Moktār (mukhtar) A legally appointed representative or attorney.

  Mudrā Any kind of coin, generally thought of as gold and/or obsolete (see ‘The Hungry Stones’, p. 240).

  Munsiff (munseph) A Moghul judge, but under the legal system established by the British in India an officer trying suits in the lowest civil court.

  Nala and Damayanti (Damayantī) Famous star-crossed lovers whose story is included in the Makābhārata. When Nala, king of Nishadha, first heard of Damayanti’s beauty, he sent a swan (whose life he had once saved) to find her (see ‘Unwanted’, p. 169).

  Nāmābali A scarf with the names of deities printed on it, worn by Vaishnavas and other pious Hindus.

  Namaskār Hindu greeting, accompanied by the folding of the hands in a prayer-like position; equivalent to the Muslim salaam (q.v.).

  Nim tree The margosa – a large tree with beautifully clustered narrow leaves.

  Pcāli See Dashu Ray.

  Padābalī See Govinda Das and Krishna.

  Paisa Small coin/unit of currency; now (since 1957) a cent of a rupee, though formerly there were 16 annas and 64 paisa to a rupee.

  Pān Leaf of the betel-pepper plant, commonly chewed in India with betel-nut (from the betel palm, a different tree) and shell-lime, and spices added to taste.

  Parvati (Pārvatī) See Durga.

  Peepul (aśvattha) A large tree, related to the banyan; also known as bodhi-taru (‘perfect-knowledge tree’) or bo tree, because it was under it that Gautama became the Buddha (‘enlightened one’).

  Peon (piyan) See Chaprassi.

  Pisimā Aunt; father’s sister.

  Praṇām Hindu obeisance, an expression of deep respect in which one ‘takes the dust of a person’s feet’ – i.e., one touches a person’s feet and then one’s forehead with one’s right hand.

  Pugree (pāgṛi) A piece of cloth worn round the head; a turban.

  Pūjā Hindu worship: anything from an offering of flowers to a deity or a ritual perfor
med to honour a particular god or goddess on a special day, to a full-scale religious festival. See Durga and Ganesh.

  Pundit (Paṇḍit) A learned Sanskrit teacher, or a scholar of language and literature; used in English now for any kind of self-appointed expert; also a term applied honorifically to Brahmins, who are traditionally the only people permitted to teach Sanskrit.

  Puṇyaha A special day on which a landlord solemnly collects rents from tenants for the ensuing year.

  Radha (Rādhā) See Krishna.

  Rāga (rāg) In Indian music, a rāga is a group of notes, usually associated with a particular mood, time, season or deity, around which a singer or instrumentalist improvises.