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136 pages

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Krishna Charitra is a famous Bengali classic where Bankim Chandra endeavours to discover Sri Krishna, the real person, behind centuries of myths and legends. Written in 1886, this was the first instance where the character of Krishna is studied from a pragmatic and questioning perspective. Like his novel Ananda Math, Krishna Charitra originates from Bankim Chandra's passionate feeling of patriotism. He wanted to uphold Sri Krishna as not just a mythological figure, but an ideal Indian character, whom other Indians could look up to. Sri Aurobindo says, Bankim Chandra poured over the Bhagavad Gita and the Vedas striving to catch the deeper and sacred sense of those profound writings. To give that to his countrymen was the strenuous aim of Krishna Charitra. In this translation of Krishna Charitra, several passages of Bankim's academic discussions have been omitted, so as to make it easier for the common reader. Also deleted are the criticisms on the European people that Bankim Chandra includes in his book from time to time. Otherwise, the text strictly follows the structure and the content of the original dissertation.

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Philosophie et théologie

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Publié par	V & S Publishers
Date de parution	01 avril 2012
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9789381384879
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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The Essence of Bankim Chandra’s
Krishina Charitra
Translated from Bengali by Alo Shome
Published by:

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© Copyright: Author
ISBN 978-93-813848-7-9
Edition: April 2011
The Copyright of this book, as well as all matter contained herein (including illustrations) rests with the Publishers. No person shall copy the name of the book, its title design, matter and illustrations in any form and in any language, totally or partially or in any distorted form. Anybody doing so shall face legal action and will be responsible for damages.

Dedicated to
The memory of my grandparents Sri Nalin Bihari Dutt
& Smt Salila Bala Dutt
Acknowledgements
Sincere thanks to Sri Ram Avtar Gupta, Chairman, PustakMahal, for supporting my project and encouraging me to complete it.
My homage to Mahamahopadhyaya Anantalal Thakur for translating Bankim Chandra’s Sanskrit passages into English for my use.
Thanks to Manjushree Choudhary for her gracious assistance.
My gratitude to Sri Samir Kumar Shome, my husband, for his support, appreciation, encouragement and love.
Affection to my children and to other relatives and friends for their constant goodwill and understanding.
Special thanks to Sri Subas Maitra for his kind and optimistic appraisals, his steady guidance and insightful editorial skills.
Declaration
Bankim Chandra hadurritten his book, Krishna Charitra, in the first person. Allthe interpretations in the book are Bankim Chandras own. The translator does not take any credit for the opinions expressed in the narration, even when they are stated as ‘Ifeel’or ‘in my opinion .
The translator’s individual comments appear only in footnotes, Translator’s Notes and Translator’s Epilogue .
Contents
Life and Personality of Bankim Chandra
Introduction to Bankim Chandra’s Krishna Charitra
Section I - The Beginning
The Purpose of My Work
How to Find the Real Krishna
The Mahabharata from Historical Point of View
The Pandavas
Interpolations and Distortions in the Mahabharata
The Unnatural and the Supernatural in the Mahabharata
Section II — Vrindavana
Yaduvansha (Sri Krishna’s Ancestry)
Sri Krishna’s Birth
Sri Krishna’s Childhood
Sri Krishna’s Adolescence
The Gopis ofVraja
SriRadha
Closing of Vrindavana Lila
Section III — Mathura to Dwaraka
The Slaying of Kansa
Sri Krishna’s Education
Jarasandha
Life in Dwaraka
Sri Krishna’s Consorts
Section IV — Indraprastha
Draupadi’s Swayamvara
Report of Krishna’s Meeting with Yudhisthira
The Harana of Subhadra
Fire in the Khandava Forest
Krishna, the Humanitarian
Krishna’s Advice to Kill Jarasandha
Account of Krishna’s Meeting with Jarasandha
The Duel of Bhima and Jarasandha
The Ritual of Honouring the Best Person in the Assembly
The Slaying of Shishupala
Exile of the Pandavas
Section V — Upaplavya
Warriors Choose their Sides
Sanjaya’s Mission
Proposal of Krishna’s Visit to Hastinapura
The Journey
Day One in Hastinapura
Day Two in Hastinapura
Krishna’s Meeting with Kama
Section VI — Kurukshetra
Bhishma in Battle
Jayadratha Killed
Understanding the Work of the Later Poets
The Fall of Ghatotkacha
The Fall of Drona
The Religion that Krishna Preached
The Fall of Kama
The Fall of Duryodhana
The Last Days of the War
Setting up a Legislation
Sermons on Desire
Last Meeting with the Pandavas
Section VII - The Incidents in Prabhasha
Annihilation of the Yadus
Conclusion
Translator’s Epilogue
Translator’s Notes A. The Mahabharata and its Time
Translator’s Notes B. The Caste System in India
Translator’s Notes C. The Status of Women in Sri Krishna’s Time
Translator’s Notes D. How Bhakti was Perceived in Mahabharata s Time
Translator’s Notes E. Some Critical Comments on Bankim Chandra’s Krishna Charitra
Appendix A. Rabindranath Tagore’s Criticism of Bankim Chandra’s Krishna Charitra
Appendix B. Bankim Chandra’s Defence against Tagore’s Criticism
Appendix C Bankim Chandra’s Study of Sri Krishna in Literature
Life and Personality of Bankim Chandra
B ankim Chandra was the youngest of three sons of Durgasundari Devi and Jadav Chandra Chattopadhyaya. He was born in Kanthalapara, near Kolkata, on 26 th June 1838. Jadav Chandra was a Deputy Magistrate and a man of culture. Sanjeev Chandra, one of Bankim’s elder brothers, was a renowned writer, specially remembered for his fascinating travelogue, Palamou .
After a rigorous schooling in a convent school in Medinipur till July 1856, Bankim entered the Calcutta Presidency College to study law. In 18 57, he took the very first entrance examination held by Calcutta University, clearing it in the first division. He appeared for the BA examination in 1858 but failed to clear one out of six papers — Bengali! Both he and Jadunath Basu were awarded the degree, however, as the first graduates of the University after being given seven grace marks each in Bengali. The examiner was Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar.
After his studies, Bankim Chandra served the government as Deputy Magistrate and Deputy Collector and showed considerable proficiency in his work in spite of his periodic conflicts with the bureaucracy.
According to the custom in his time, he was married to a five-year-old girl when he himself was eleven. A decade later, one year after the death of his first wife, he married Rajlakshmi Devi, who became his true life partner.
Bankim’s first novel, Rajmohan’s Wife (1864), was in English. His first novel in Bengali, Durgesh Nandani , was published in 1865- Some of his other masterpieces are Kapal Kundala, Mrinalini, Devi Chaudharani and Ananda Math . Throughout his writing career, Bankim contributed excellent articles to various newspapers and magazines. His work covered many subjects — politics, economics, social sciences, religion, philosophy and popular science.
In 1891, Bankim took premature retirement from service on health reasons and devoted the rest of his life mainly to the study of religious subjects. He died on 8 th April 1894 at the age of fifty-six.
Paying tribute to Bankim Chandra, Tagore said that he did not write for fame… but to express the noblest and the most beautiful thoughts of a cultured mind in the finest of words.
Introduction to Bankim Chandra’s Krishna Charitra
S ri Aurobindo had called Bankim Chandra a rishi .
In 1882, Reverend Hastie, a Scottish missionary, began to publish severe criticisms on Hinduism in The Statesman . Bankim decided to challenge his accusations. Under the pseudonym of Ram Chandra, he replied with vigour to the missionary’s charges in the columns of the same paper. Until then, Bankim had made his name as a literary stylist. But from that time onwards, he turned more and more into a spiritual thinker. He devoted the last years of his life to examining the essence of religion and putting them in writing.
Sri Krishna is an enormous Indian icon for more than three thousand years. He represents love, devotion, wisdom and beauty. Bankim Chandra eagerly took up the study of Sri Krishna in India’s vast cosmology. Bankim Chandra’s Krishna Charitra is the longest and the most famous of his works in this category.
Krishna Charitra is a wonderful classic and a great work that showcases intense erudition. While translating, however, I have left out certain portions, some small and some large, ofthat wonderful effort, as I felt that, for the readers I have in mind, they would be too lengthy and obscure.
Bankim Chandra has been exceedingly thorough in his undertaking. He discusses roots of words at length to seek out their real meanings, compares statements by Sanskrit scholars, declares his own judgements on them, and reflects on philosophical concepts. He does all this to defend his thesis. Moreover, he simultaneously deals with the difficult task of convincing a large readership of 19th century Bengal, immersed in Krishna-bhakti , of the validity of his search for Sri Krishna, the real person, hidden behind centuries of myths and legends.
As it should be, Bankim explains his methodology in detail in Section I of his book. Here, he also discusses the sources of his research material. Section I is divided into seventeen chapters. I have specifically chosen to cut short this part (rephrased as Section I in this book) to reduce the overload of data which, I reiterate, a genuine thesis would need, but would be of little interest to the common readers. The other chapters of the book (from Section II to Section VII), however, have been translated in greater detail.
Then, in the course of his work, Bankim Chandra has often expressed his exasperation with the European people. These outbursts, however, are quite irrelevant after six decades of India’s independence. So, most of such passages have also been omitted.
It is said that making a translation is like serving two masters at the same time. Languages do differ in their grammatical and syntactical structures. And, a translator must meet the demands of the receiving language, while remaining true to the source language. I dare to think that I have not made many compromises. The primary purpose of my effort is to present to the readers a specimen of Bankim’s robust power of reasoning and to show what truth he found about his beloved deity. A comprehensive review of Bankim Chandra’s Krishna Charitra by RabindranathTagore (in translation) and a few of my short notes have been attached to the present work to put the study in the right perspective.
A longer English translation of Bankim’s Krishna Charitra (stretching up to 371 pages), done by Pradip Bhattacharya in 1991 and published by The M P Birla Foundation under the series ‘Classics of the East’, is recommended