Selected Short Stories

by Rabindranath Tagore

  Rājā King; but it can mean just a landlord or zamindar (q.v.). Tagore would have been a rājā to his Shelidah tenants.

  Rām Rām (He Rām, etc.) Often said by Hindus as an imprecation or prayer. Gandhi died with ‘He Rām’ on his lips.

  Rama (Rāma) Hero of Valmiki’s great Sanskrit epic the Rāmāyaṇa, and a model of human goodness and prowess, just as his wife Sita represents perfect Hindu womanhood.

  Ramayana (Rāmāyaṇa) See Krittibas.

  Raybahadur (Rāybāhādur) Honorific title conferred on eminent Hindu citizens in pre-British (Moghul) and British India. Muslims were given the title Khanbahadur.

  Saheb (sāheb) ‘Sir’; a term of respect introduced in Moghul times, and still used when referring to Muslims. Cf. ‘Babu’, the Hindu equivalent. The British in India also came to be known as sāhebs or sahibs. A kālo sāheb or ‘brown sāheb’ is a derogatory term for an Anglicized Indian.

  Sakhī Female friend or confidante to a woman.

  Sāl A tall tree that grows in the dry climate of West Bengal or Bihar. It is valuable for its hardwood and resin, and sál-forests are now protected by law.

  Salaam (selām) Muslim greeting, accompanied by the bowing of the head and touching of the brow with the right hand.

  Śāmlā A kind of turban worn by clerks and pleaders in nineteenth-century Bengal – hence Pyarimohan’s jibe in ‘Exercise-book’ (p. 144).

  Sānāi Reed instrument traditionally associated with wedding festivities.

  Sandeś Very popular Bengali sweetmeat made from curdled milk.

  Sannyāsī A celibate Hindu holy man, fakir or ascetic; usually itinerant and dependent on alms; sometimes disreputably dealing in blessings, amulets, quack remedies, etc.

  Sannyāsinī A female sannyāsī.

  Sāraṅgī Musical instrument played with a bow like a violin.

  Sarasvati (Sarasvatī) Chief wife of Brahma (q.v.); goddess of wisdom and science, of speech and music, and deviser of the devanāgarī script for Sanskrit.

  Seer (ser) Traditional unit of weight (about 2 lbs); used for liquids (milk, etc.) as well as dry stuffs.

  Śephālī A tree with small white flowers on orange-coloured stalks. Its flowers bloom mainly in autumn; they open out at night, falling at dawn to form a white carpet under the tree. According to the Viṣṇu-purāṇa it was originally a princess called Parijat, who fell in love with the sun. When she was deserted by him, she was burnt and the tree grew out of her ashes. Krishna brought it from heaven to earth as a present for his wife Satyabhama.

  Shashti (Ṣaṣṭī) A Bengali local deity who protects and promotes babies. A child is born ‘through the grace of Shashti’ (see ‘Fool’s Gold’, p. 98).

  Shastra (śāstra) The Shastras are the smṛti (‘remembered’) scriptures of the Hindus in which all branches of knowledge are codified, as opposed to the śruti (‘heard’) texts normally known as the Veda (q.v.). They are humanly created works of doctrine and theology, or treatises on law, medicine, etc., rather than directly revealed Holy Writ.

  Shiva (Śiva) Major Hindu god, known as the ‘Destroyer’ – as opposed to Brahma the Creator and Vishnu the Preserver – but with a great range of often contradictory characteristics. In ‘Taraprasanna’s Fame’ (p. 75) Dakshayani speaks of her ‘Shiva-like’ husband because in Bengali popular tradition Shiva is seen as childlike, ignorant of the world’s complexities, easily pleased.

  Shudra (śudra) Fourth and ‘lowest’ of the four classical Hindu castes; traditionally labourers, cultivators, fishermen and servants. They have been subject to oppression, and some of them pursue trades regarded as ‘unclean’, such as oil-making and leather-working, but they have not been traditionally regarded as total ‘outcastes’. See om.

  Sita (Sītā) See Rama.

  Śiuli Another name for the śephālī-flower (q.v.).

  Śrābaṇ Bengali month; mid-July to mid-August; the second of the two monsoon months (see Āṣāṛh).

  Subhadra Sister of Krishna (q.v.). Arjuna, third of the Pandava princes in the great epic of India, the Mahābhārata, fell in love with her when he visited Krishna in his kingdom of Dvaraka. Krishna’s brother Balaram wanted her to marry Duryodhana, who was a Kaurava and thus an enemy of the Pandavas; but Krishna encouraged Arjuna to abduct her. Indraprastha was the famous capital city that the Pandavas built on the banks of the Yamuna. The reference in ‘Skeleton’ (p. 86) is to a moment of the battle of Kurukshetra when Subhadra appeared in a chariot to rescue Arjuna from the fray.

  Śvaśur-bāṛi ‘Father-in-law’s house’, where a bride goes to live. It is also used as a word for prison; so a pun is intended in ‘Kabuliwallah’ (p. 117).

  Śyālikā ‘Sister-in-law’. The words for brother-in-law and sister-in-law are terms of mild abuse in Bengali; there is also traditionally a bantering relationship between husband and his wife’s sister. Marrying a sister-in-law is permissible for a widower, and a sister-in-law is often jokingly called an ‘additional wife’. Thus when Mini in ‘Kabuliwallah’ (p. 113) asks her father what relation her mother is to him, ‘sister-in-law’ is the only one he can suggest. Other relationships (uncle/niece, nephew/aunt etc.) would be taboo.

  Tatya Tope (Ramchandra Pandurang) 1813–59. Commander-in-chief of the rebel forces during the Indian Mutiny. After defeat in the battle of Gwalior (19 June 1857) he took to guerrilla warfare in central India, eluding capture for nearly two years. He was hanged by the British on 18 April 1859, and is remembered as a great patriot and military genius.

  Thākur ‘Lord’; a term used to address a Brahmin, or a (male) deity or idol. ‘Tagore’ is an Anglicized form of thākur.

  hākurdā Paternal grandfather; also used to address any old man, in a jocular or slightly patronizing way, as in the story ‘hākurdā’.

  Thākurmā Paternal grandmother or a respectful way of addressing an elderly Brahmin lady.

  Thumri A love-song, frequently light and popular in character; often used in dance and theatrical shows. A ‘Lucknow ṭhuṃri’ (‘Guest’, p. 201) might well be subject to Perso-Arabic influences.

  Ṭol Traditional Indian grammar school, where Sanskrit would be learnt from a Brahmin pundit.

  Uma (Umā) See Durga

  Vaishnava (Vaiṣṇava) A follower of Vaishnavism, the religion that was the main expression in Bengal of the bhakti (devotional) tendency in Hinduism that developed in India in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. See Krishna.

  Varuna (Varuna) Vedic god who sustained the moral order of the cosmos; he was later dethroned by Indra to become the Hindu god of the sea, worshipped by fishermen.

  Veda The primary scriptures of Hinduism, regarded as divine in origin: they include the Mantras (q.v.) used in rituals, the Brāhmaṇa (priestly manuals), the Āraṇyaka (treatises for hermits and saints), and the Upaniṣads (general philosophic treatises).

  Vedanta (vedānta) One of the six orthodox systems of Hindu philosophy, founded on the Upanisads (see Veda). It was first formulated by the philosopher Bādarāyaṇa, and is also known as uttara-mīmāṃsā (Later Mīmāṃsā) to distinguish it from pūrva-mīmāṃsā (Early Mīmāṃsā) – another philosophic school.

  Vidya (Vidyā) The heroine of the Vidyāsundara, a narrative poem by the eighteenth-century Bengali poet Bharatchandra Ray. Her sakhī or confidante became a popular character in yātrā performances of the story.

  Vraj (Vraja) See Krishna.

  Vrindavan (Vṛndāvana) See Krishna.

  Yaksa See Kubera and Kalidasa.

  Yama Vedic and Hindu god of death, and punisher of souls after death, whose city Yamapuri is the Indian Hades.

  Yamuna (Yamunā, Jumna) North Indian tributary of the Ganges; Delhi and Krishna’s Vrindavan are situated on its banks, and it joins the Ganges at the sacred saṅgam (confluence) at Allahabad.

  Yātrā Popular form of dramatic entertainment in Bengal, traditionally performed by travelling troupes of players and presenting in song, speech and dance traditional stories mixed with topical comment or sa
tire.

  Yogī Hindu mystic; seeker of samādhi or communion with the godhead through the various systems of yoga.

  Yoginī A female yogī.

  Zamindar (jamidār) Under the Moghul system Bengali zamindars were landholders and revenue-collectors, but under the controversial ‘Permanent Settlement’ of Lord Cornwallis in 1793 they were transformed into landowners, and the Government’s land-revenue demand was permanently fixed. In Muslim East Bengal most zamindars (like the Tagores) were Hindus, with houses in Calcutta, and were therefore often absent from their jamidāris. This was brought to an end by Partition in 1947, and successive land reforms have removed the zamindari system from West Bengal and Bangladesh.

  Zenana A ‘harem’ in a Muslim palace, but in a smaller household equivalent to the antaḥpur or inner quarters where women lived in varying degrees of purdah (pardā – the word means ‘curtain’). This practice was (and is) observed in Muslim households, and as a legacy of Persian influence in Moghul times was also common in nineteenth-century Hindu households. Loosely the antaḥpur is simply the more private part of a house, closed to strangers.

  1. Later published as one volume, kathā o kāhinī (1908), with some narrative poems from earlier books added.

  1. Tagore’s father Debendranath was ācārya (‘Minister’) of the Brahmo Samaj, the Reformed Hindu Church founded by Rammohan Roy. Following a schism in 1866, Debendranath’s branch of the Samaj was known as the Adi (‘Original’) Brahmo Samaj. Rabindranath was its Secretary from 1884 to 1912.

  2. Letter of 22 October 1895 to Thakurdas Mukhopadhyay, quoted by Prasanta Kumar Paul, rabijībanī, Vol. IV (Calcutta, 1988), p. 77.

  1. These comments were collected by Pulinbihari Sen, bibliographer of Tagore. They can also be found in the Appendix to Pramathanath Bisi’s study of Tagore’s short stories, rabīndranāther choṭa galpa (Calcutta, 1954).

  2. Conversation with Jitendralal Bandyopadhyay, May 1909.

  1. The interview was published in Forward magazine, 23 February 1935.

  2. chinnapatrābalī, Letter No. 24, June 1891.

  1. Ibid., Letter No. 17, February 1891.

  2. He used Baul patterns and tunes in the patriotic songs he wrote for the svadeśī campaign against Curzon’s partition of Bengal in 1905. Close study of the Baul songs did not, however, come till the Gitanjali period and after (1914 onwards). See Ghulam Murshid, rabīndrabiśver pūrbabaṅga pūrbabaṅge rabīnd-racarcā (Dhaka, 1981), pp. 78, 137–41.

  1. See Appendix B, Letter No. 1.

  2. ‘Shelidah’ is an Anglicized form. In Bengali it is śilāidaha.

  1. See Appendix B, Letter No. 2.

  2. Letter to Pramatha Chaudhuri, ciṭhipatra, Vol. V, p. 154.

  3. Glimpses of Bengal, an abridged English translation by Surendranath Tagore of some of the letters, was published by Macmillan in 1921. chinnapatrābalī, a fuller edition of Tagore’s letters to Indira Devi, was published by Visva-Bharati in 1960.

  1. The venture was never very successful, and was eventually wound up in 1901, leaving Tagore with heavy debts.

  2. Rathindranath Tagore, On the Edges of Time (Calcutta, 1958), p. 23.

  1. Letter to Mrinalini Devi, ciṭhipatra, Vol. I, p. 96.

  1. His objectivity may derive from his non-Bengali origins (he was a North Indian Muslim), though his mastery of Bengali was complete.

  1. See Glossary.

  1. galpaguccha, Vol. IV, granthaparicay, pp. 306–7.

  2. Buddhaeva Bose, prabana saṃkalan (Calcutta, 1966), p. 60.

  1. galpaguccha, Vol. IV, granthaparicay, p. 306.

  2. The three essays which later made up his book lok-sāhitya (‘Folk-literature’) were published in sādhanā (1894 and 1895) and bhāratī (1899).

  3. When Muslims do appear, however, they are treated with respect: Achimaddi and his mother in ‘A Problem Solved’, for example, or the ‘old Muslim’ who comes for medical treatment in ‘The Gift of Sight’. In ‘The Hungry Stones’ and ‘False Hope’ we find romantic fascination with pre-British Islamic culture in India.

  1. See p. 4, n. 1.

  2. chinnapatrābalī, Letter No. 93, 2 May 1893.

  1. Ibid., Letter No. 128, 6 July 1894.

  2. This was almost the first time any of them had appeared in print. Their very first appearance was in Mohitchandra Sen’s Introduction to the second edition of kābya-grantha (‘Collected Poems’, 1903) where two ‘unpublished letters’ are quoted.

  3. ātma-paricay (‘About Myself’, Visva-Bharati, 1969), pp. 7–8, a collection of autobiographical pieces taken from various sources.

  1. In 1901 Tagore was persuaded by the publisher Shrishchandra Majumdar to edit a revived series of baṅgadarśan. Bankim’s journal had come to an end in 1883. The revived series ran for thirteen years; Tagore was editor till 1906.

  1. chinnapatrābalī, Letter No. 57, 21 June 1892.

  1. Ibid., Letter No. 96, 11 May 1893.

  1. Ibid., Letter No. 26, 4 July 1891.

  2. See galpaguccha, Vol. IV, granthaparicay, p. 321. C. F. Andrews’ translation of samāpti can be found in The Runaway and Other Stories (1958).

  3. See rabīndrajībanī, Vol. I (Calcutta, rev. edn 1946), pp. 318–19.

  1. The English word is used.

  2. chinnapatrābalī, Letter No. 23, 23 June 1891.

  3. Ibid., Letter No. 142, 10 August 1894.

  1. Op. cit., p. 17.

  2. My Reminiscences (London, 1917), p. 238.

  1. Mary Lago, Rabindranath Tagore (Boston, 1976), Ch. 3.

  1. For a characteristically extreme account of Tagore’s journey from rejection by his countrymen to worship by them as ‘a fetish… the holy mascot of Bengali provincial vanity’, see Nirad C. Chaudhuri, Thy Hand Great Anarch! India 1921–1952 (London, 1987), Bk. VII, Ch. 5.

  2. sāmayikpatre rabīndraprasanga: sāhitya, ed. Nandarani Chaudhuri (Calcutta, 1970), p. 16. The review appeared in the Phālgun (Feburary–March) issue of sāhitya in 1894.

  1. galpaguccha, Vol. IV, granthaparicay, p. 307.

  2. For the history of the Bengali short story, see Sisir Kumar Das, bāṃlā choṭagalpa (Calcutta, 1963).

  1. See Pratap Narayan Bisvas, rabīndranāther rahasya galpa o anyānya prabandha (Calcutta, 1984).

  1. denāpāonā in Bengali, meaning ‘debit and credit’ or ‘investment and return’, but also a deal, claim, transaction etc.

  2. ‘Peerless one’.

  1. banamālī means ‘woodland gardener’ or ‘wearing a garland of wild flowers’, and is a name for Krishna.

  1. dayāmaya, lit., ‘full of kindness’, a name for God.

  1. Kīrti, ‘feat’, ‘accomplishment’, but also used to mean fame or renown.

  1. Laws of Manu V.56. Manu’s caveat actually relates to ‘eating, liquor-drinking and sexual intercourse’. See Manu in the Glossary.

  1. See Glossary, p. 309.

  1. ‘Destroyer of sacrifice’ as opposed to ‘lord of sacrifice’ (Yajnanath).

  1. ‘Golden deer’ (svarṇamṛg) in Bengali, which has come to be the equivalent of ‘fool’s gold’ because of the famous episode in the Rāmāyaṇa when Ravana’s minister Maricha takes the form of a golden deer to entice Rama away from his forest hermitage, so that Ravana can abduct Sita.

  1. Lit. ‘In my mind I said “sister-in-law”.’ See śyālikā in the Glossary.

  1. abhimān: there is no single English word for this emotion. It includes hurt pride, bruised feelings, and rejection by someone we love. Chandara is abhimān incarnate.

  1. ‘maraṇ!’ Lit. ‘death!’ – a common ironic expression particularly among village-women. The complex implications here include Chandara’s rejection of the husband she still loves, the abhimān that prevents her from backing down, and a shy reluctance to display her true marital feelings in public.

  1. The English word is used.

  1. See Ishvarchandra Vidyasagar in the Glossary.

  1. The first line of a popular poem by Madanmohan Tarkalankar. See Glossary.
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  1. Sarasvati. See Glossary.

  1. See Durga in the Glossary.

  1 A pun on pati, which means both ‘husband’ and ‘master’.

  1. There is a pun here on dvija, which can mean either a Brahmin or a bird, because both are ‘twice-born’: a Brahmin through the sacred-thread ceremony in adolescence, a bird when it hatches from an egg.

  1. i.e., ‘Didi’ and ‘Didimā’. See Glossary.