RABINTHRANATH TAGORE AND SYMBOLISM: A STUDY

Dissertation Submitted to

Periyar EVR College (Autonomous), Tiruchi – 23

(Affiliated to Bharathidasan University)

in partial fulfillment of the requirements

for the award of the Degree of

Master of Philosophy in English

Submitted by

V. KAMALAKANNAN

Reg.No. 11MFEL01

Under the Guidance of

Prof. A. WILLIAMS JOHN BOSCO M.A., M.Phil.

Associate Professor

PG & Research Department of English

PERIYAR EVR COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS)

TIRUCHI - 23.

December 2012

V. Kamalakannan

Reg.No. 11MFEL01

PG & Research Department of English

Periyar EVR College (Autonomous)

Tiruchi - 23.

Declaration

I, V. Kamalakannan (Reg.No.11MFEL01), hereby declare that the

Dissertation entitled Rabinthranath Tagore and Symbolism: A Study

submitted to the Department of English, Periyar E.V.R. College, Tiruchi – 23

affiliated to Bharathidasan University is my original work and the

Dissertation has not formed the basis for the award of any degree, diploma,

associate ship, fellowship or similar other titles. It has not been submitted to any

other University or Institution for the award of any degree or diploma.

Signature of the Candidate

Place: Tiruchirappalli

Date:

Prof. A. Williams John Bosco M.A., M.Phil.,

Associate Professor of English

Periyar E.V.R. College (Autonomous)

Tiruchirappalli-620 023.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Date:

Certificate

This is to certify that the project work entitled “Rabinthranath Tagore

and Symbolism: A Study of His Select Plays” submitted by

V.Kamalakannan (Reg. No. 11MFEL01) in Partial fulfillment of the

requirements of the Master of Philosophy in English Literature course of

Periyar E.V.R. College (Autonomous), Tiruchirappalli-23, for the academic

period 2011-2012 in the subject English is the original work of the Candidate.

Signature of the Candidate Signature of the Guide

Signature of the Head of the Department

Acknowledgement

I wish to record my deep sense of gratitude to my lovable guide Prof. A.

William John Bosco M.A., M.Phil., Associate Professor, PG & Research

Department of English, Periyar EVR College (Autonomous), Tiruchi – 23

who meticulously steered this research work. I am thankful to him for sparing

his time for guiding me.

It is a privilege to acknowledge my sincere thanks to the Head of the

Department of English Dr. A. Padmavathy, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., and other

faculty members for their counseling and co-operation.

I express my deep sense of gratitude to Dr. T. Jayakumar, M.A.,

M.Phil., B.Ed., Ph.D., Associate Professor Department of English for giving

me the required books for thesis writing.

My thanks are due to my Friends and Classmates members for their

encouragement and kind co-operation during the preparation of my thesis. I

would like to thank Subashree Computer Centre, Trichy-20 for executing the

typing work with perfection.

Place: Tiruchirappalli

Date:

(V. Kamalakannan)

Contents

Chapters Title Page No.

I Introduction 1

II Symbolism in Chitra 14

III Symbolism in The Post Office 33

IV Symbolism in Tagore’s Chandalika 48

V Conclusion 56

Works Cited 68

Chapter I

Introduction

English language is used as a link language between the natives and the foreigners.

K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar has commented that an Indian writing in English was rather like an

animal imitating the footprints of another. According to Naik, Indian English literature was

not a “Hesperian Hybrid nurtured in a Hindustani hot house” (158). It was rather a slender

twig of that Banyan tree termed Indian Literature, ancient and multi-faceted.

Indian English literature has shown “spring timer fervor” and has attained “autumnal

ripeness‟ (Preface VII) in the recent years. Although Hirankumar Sanyal has pointed out that

drama is „a literature that walks and talks‟ (233), it was just a plant of meager growth in the

house of Indian English Literature, but it has been advancing, rather limping during the last

four decades. It was almost a non-entity and it could not be matched with other genres in this

literature like fiction and poetry.

There were several factors responsible for this stunned growth of drama and the

foremost problem was the indissoluble relation between drama and the theatre. Drama, a

mimetic representation of life is a composite art in which the written word attains artistic

realization when spoken by the actor on the stage and reciprocated by the audience. A play in

order to communicate fully must become a live dramatic experience and so it needs real

theatre and alive audience. According to Naik, a true dramatist has to “communicate or he

will die” (181). It was precisely the lack of these essentials that had hamstrung Indian drama

in English all along.

One silver lining was that in the recent Indian drama in English language had „fared

sumptuously and put on flesh‟ (155). Drama was the fifth Veda for the ancient Hindus and

Indian classical drama which flourished for ten centuries or more could now safely challenge

comparison with other genres in Indian writhing.

Drama in Indian writing has had and glorious tradition. The contemporary dramatist

Girish Karnad has said in The Fire and the Rain that “Brahma, the Lord of all creations

extracted the requisite element from the four Vedas‟ (Prologue 2). He culled out the text from

Rig Veda, songs from Sama Veda, the art of acting from the Yajur Veda and Rasa (aesthetic

experience) from the Atharvana Veda and combined them into a fifth Veda “Natya Veda”

and thus gave birth to the art of drama. He then handed it over to his son, Lord Indra, the

supreme God of Gods. But Indra, Lord of Gods realized that Gods were unfit to the new form

and passed it on to the human preceptor Bharata who organizes a troupe with his hundred

sons and twenty-five Apsaras. Narada and others were engaged as musicians. Gods and

demons became the spectators; Nandhi and anukrati were the commentators.

The first open air performance was held on the occasion of Banner festival, Indra-

dhvaja festival, to celebrate Indra‟s victory in a battle over demons which is symbolic of the

conflict between Gods and demons in the heave, good doer and evil doer on the earth. Indra

Nath Choudhuri has pointed out that

Bharata in his Natyashastra explained that theatre is a playing (Kridaniyakam)

– a kind of diversion from day-to-day drudgery of life. So it involves the

conventions of the representational world (Lokadharmita). (173).

It was highlighted that the audience were not watching real life, but only a theatre.

Traditional Indian theatre through the presentational form created the reality of the theatric

universe on the stage. The primary aim of drama was not only to entertain but also to arouse a

personal response in the mind of the spectator. Saryug Yadav affirms that “. . .all emotions

including grief, terror and disgust are depicted; the Sanskrit drama never allows a tragic

catastrophe to cause a painful impression on the minds of the audience (3-4).

Classical Sanskrit theatre, ritual theatre and folk theatre comprise the traditional

Indian theatre. Classical Sanskrit theatre drew support from the works such as Natyashastra,

Abinaya Darpana and Sangitha Rathakara; ritual theatre portrayed a wide range of casts and

communities, while folk theatre was secular in spirit.

Sanskrit literature is classified into Drishya (that can be seen or exhibited) and the

Sravya (that can be heard or recited). Drama falls under the former category. Drama in

Sanskrit literature belongs to the „Umberalla of Rupaka‟ which means depiction of life in its

various aspects represented in form by actions assumed by various characters. The Rupaka

has ten classifications and the prominent component is Nataka.

Sanskrit drama develops around there primary constituents, namely Vaster (plot),

Neta (hero) and Rava (sentiment). Each play consist of a prologue introduce by an invocation

and a formal ushering in of the plot. This is followed by the theme presented in equally

divided parts of five or ten acts. Every act is conclused by the exist of all the characters and

the stage is left empty. The incidents like journey, killings and wars are never enacted but are

only suggested. The surviving Sanskrit dramas are numerous and vary from short one act

play to very long plays. The exponent dramatists were Asvaghose, Bhasa, Kalidasa,

Bhavabhuti and Sudra.

There are various kinds of dramatic presentation. Edward cites the concept of drama

as defined by Bharata. As he observes drama has to deal with „the imitation of things done in

former times by Gods, and men, by Kings and the great ones of the world‟ (88), and this was

followed by the ancient playwrights and theorists. The dramatist draws on the subject matter

from the epics and puranas. The actor is aware that he is enacting a drama, and it is the stage

presentation which distinguishes drama from premoderns western drama. The classical Indian

drama is episodic and narrative is structure and it does not build up a climax as Aristotelian

drama does.

Indian English drama saw the first light of the day when Krishna Mohan Banerjee

wrote The Persecuted in 1931. It is however, pertinent to note that the real journey of Indian

English drama begins with Michael Madhusudan Dutt‟s Is this called Civilization? Published

in 1981.

In the Pre-independence phase, the major playwrights were Sri Aurobindo,

Rabindranath Tagore, Kailasam, Harindranatha Chattopadhya and Bharati Sarabai. Among

them Sri Aurobindo and Rabindranath Tagore, the two great divine poets, were the first

Indian dramatists to become prominent in Indian English Literature.

Sri Aurobindo, a born „Lord of language‟ was an outstanding writer in Indian English

Literature. He wrote five complete blank verse plays besides his six incomplete plays. His

incomplete verse play are Perseus the Deliverer (1943), Rodogune (1958), The Viziers of

Bassora (1957), Eric (1960), and Vasavadutta (1957). The implied theme of Perseus the

Deliverer is the evolution of man from the state of ignorance of that of enlightened

humanism. The play also presents the dramatist‟s vision of an ideal world where man will be

broadminded and kind in sprit which may lead him to perfection, so as to become one with

God. The purification of the human soul through suffering is the theme of Rodogune.

According to Aurobindo, suffering in the hands of the divine will is and instrument

for perfecting the soul of mankind. In The Viziers of Bassora, the playwright reveals a bright

future for mankind and the ultimate victory of the forces of good over the force of evil.

Through this play, the dramatist visualizes the higher possibilities. In this new society lies the

dramatist‟s vision of man‟s aspirations for establishing an ideal world in this mundane earth.

Sinha sums up the theme of the play Eric as „the trinity of glorious manhood can be

completed only when strength in nature and wisdom in the mind are combined with the love

in the heart. „(202).

Love becomes the evolving force in Eric, and the vision that is portrayed by the

dramatist is the vision of a blissful state not only for individuals like Eric, but for all those

who experience the magic charm of love. If an individual is guided by his instincts, he will

attain peace and perfection. This concept has formed the basis and theme of his play

Vasavadutta.

The plays of Aurobindo deal with the concept of love as its basis since love has

become the greatest solvent of most forms of evil. Apart from all these, his incomplete plays

are The Witch of Elni, Achab and Esarhaddon, The Maid in the Mill, The House of Brut, The

birth of Sin and Prince of Edur. The length of these plays varies from one scene of fifty two

lined to three acts.

The most striking features of Sri Aurobindo‟s plays is that portray different culture

and countries in different epochs with a variety of characters, moods and sentiments. As cited

by Prema Nandakumar, K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar observes that Aurobindo‟s plays deal with the

„drama‟s of life and love, of conflict and change‟ (33). This is true as Perseus the Deliver is

grounded on the ancient Greek myth of Perseus Vasavadutta is a romantic tale of ancient

India.

The fable is from Somadeva‟s Kathasaritsagara and Sri Aurobindo has also followed

Bhasa‟s Pratiyana Yavugandharvana in planning his dramatic action. Rodogune is the only

tragedy attempted by Sri Aurobindo, and the source was Corneille‟s famous tragedy,

Rodogune. In this tragedy, the alliance between poetry and tragedy is as ancient as

Aeschylus. The dramatic romance Eric, the King of Norway, leads us to ancient Norway as

the dramatist has taken his fable from the lives of Old Norwegian sages. Through this play,

the dramatist has glorified the supremacy of love as it overcomes bitterness and murderous

revenge.

All the characters in Aurobindo‟s plays realize the value of love which is the „hoop of

god‟s, hearts combine‟ (Prema Nandakumar 36). The play Viziers of Bassora is mainly based

on the „Tale of the Beautiful Sweet Friend‟ a delightful story by Shahrazed to king Sharayar

during the thirty-second night in the Arabian night Entertainments. The drama has a fairy-tale

ending eighth Haroun-AI-Rahsed, the legendary Caliph, setting matters tight. But whether the

theme is ancient, medieval or modern, Sri Aurobindo weaves adroitly plots and characters

and use language to a high creative purpose. Hence the dramatic world of Sri Aurobindo is a

world of heroism and romance, of tears an smiles, of insights and epiphanies. There is almost

a global coverage in the total content of Sri Aurobindo‟s dramatic literature and the method

adopted by Aurobindo is to pick up only brief outline and relevant points out of the different

sources so as to build up a unified and harmonious new structure that bears the stamp of his

personality. Aurobindo through his imaginative skill has transformed the temporal materials

into rich varied art forms.

With respect to plot construction and characterization, Aurobindo‟s indebtedness to

Elizabethan drama is undeniable. He has followed the footpath of Shakespeare by not

adhering to the three unities of drama. The use of English blank verse was flawless in his

plays. He was also motivated by the impact of Sanskrit playwrights. As a part of dramatic

design, this multi-faced genius strove to present the exposition form exposition to the rise of

crises is smooth, natural and logical. The dramatic has employed the principle of contrast,

juxtaposition and suspense as chief structural forcese. In order to expose the inner recessed of

the mind, the playwright effectively used soliloquy in Vasavandutta and in Perseus the

deliverer, and asides in The Witch of Elni and Eric, the king of Norway.

The study of drama is half-literary and half-sociological because drama comedy

strictly in contact with the people, literate as well as illiterate, through stage production.

Though Aurobindo was a supreme artist, dramatic companies never staged his plays, because

he has failed to evolve a language quite appropriate to the dramatic medium. Though this

penetrating literary critic is known for his felicitous use of blank, his lengthy speech

suppressed the action of his plays. Aurobindo‟s emphasis on the general principles of

dramatic design is definitely a paramount achievement in the field of Indian English drama

but it is a regrettable fact that he could not cater to the demands of the stage.

Rabindranath Tagore, the epitome of Indian spiritual heritage, was a pioneer in the

Indian dramatic scenario. Many cities have crowned him as the father of Indian stagecraft. He

saved his fellowmen fruitfully and characteristically by assuming the roles of an interpreter

and mediator between the civilizations of the east and the west. Tagore combined the Indian

and western traditions to bring a synthesis between the east and the west.

He has written abundantly and his plays encompass all the known categories- five act

plays based on the Elizabethan models. One act plays, poignant tragedies and rollicking

comedies, chards, farces, satires, dramatic dialogue in verse, lyrical dramas, symbolical plays

and plays predominating in metaphysical and contemporary problems. He has written more

than forty plays of all kinds using myths, legends, symbols and allegory in large proportion to

express his views on love, religion and death. He wrote primarily in Bengali but he himself

has translated almost all his plays into English. The protagonists in his plays realize the value

of compassion and self-sacrifice. In all his plays, the heroes strive hard to relieve the

sufferings of humanity from the clutches of the material world. His major plays are

impregnated with the spirit of Buddhism and through his characters he has crystallized the

meaning and substance of the play.

Rabindranath Tagore, son of Maharishi Devendranath Tagore was born on 6th

may

1861. The story of his early life has been vividly pictured by him in his Reminiscences. He

writes somewhat critically and disapprovingly of his early life, even through he did not have

much to complain of. His real education observes Edward Thompson, „came from the

circumstances of his life and from his environment‟ (119). He lived in a palatial house in a

crowded locality of Calcutta where he could witness, the bustling activities of the common

people around him. His experiences with the external world motivated him to write his first

long poem, The Poet’s Story which was published in his brother‟s Bengali magazine called

the Bharati.

Tagore was so captivated by the dramatic genre, that he began his career as a

dramatist in the early twenties; he composed the Opera, Valmiki-Prathiba and a full pledged

drama Rudra-Chanda and Malini in verse form. But his first full blooded drama, Raja-O-

Rani was published when he was twenty and the theme of his play is that of love and

patriotism.

His important plays are Sanyasi or Ascetic (1884), Nalini (1884), Mayarkhela or The

Play of Illusions (1888), Raja-O-Rani or The King and the Queen (1990), Visarajan or

Sacrifice (1890), Chitra (1894), Gandhari’s prayer (1897), Karna and Kunti (1897),

Bhashikaran or Captivation (1901), Vyangakautuk or Fun and Mockery (1907), Hasyautuk

or Fun and Laughter (1909), Malini (1896), Raja or The King of the Dark Chamber (1910),

Dakghar or The Post Office (1912), Mukta-Dhara (1922), Red Oleanders (1925), Natir Puja

(1926), Seshvarshan (1926), Natraj (1927), Chandalika (1933) and The Way of Deliverance

(1938), The plays are firmly rooted in the Indian ethos in theory character and treatment.

The plays of Rabindranath Tagore may roughly be classified into two classed as non-

symbolic dramas such as Sacrifice and The King and the Queen and symbolic dramas such as

The post Office, The Cycle of Spring, Red O’Leanders, King of the Dark Chamber, Chitra

and Chandalika Rabindranath Tagore‟s four symbolist dramas, The Cycle of Spring and Red

O’Leanders are pre dominantly allegorical while the other two- The Post Office and King of

the Dark Chamber belong to the genre of the symbolic drama proper.

Prof. K.R. Srinivasa Iyengar aptly comments on the nature of Tagore‟s dramas as

follows:

When Tagore applied his mind to a current problem- social, political,

economic – the head agreed with the heart; and the heart in its turn, beat in

response to abiding intuitions, not the restrictive formulas of creed, caste or

custom. The light of the soul‟s illumination led him, not to the will-o-wisp of

agonizing dialectics. Whatever may be the problem Tagore leapt from the

circumference to the center and seized it in terms of universality. The Poet

sees clear than others, further than others (26).

Tagore‟s plays are plays of symbols than of characters and incidents. Most of the

characters are shadowy featureless. They are important only is so far as they stand for an idea

or a feeling. They symbolically express a philosophy. „ It is not the logic of careful plotting,

but the music of ideas and symbols which is the soul of this drama‟ ( K.R.S Iyenger 26).

Even the titles of plays and names of characters are symbolic.

The images employed by Tagore not only appeal to our eye, ear and heart they also

touch the soul. On the other hand, a symbol expresses two levels of meaning. Primarily

symbolic words refer to something which suggests a different range of reference beyond

itself. Secondly a symbol works through association of suggestion.

The Plays Chitra, The Post Office and Chandalika are highly symbolic. In these plays

the unfolding of character and action is carried out through many symbols. The play

Chandalika is the shortest but it is the most powerful play. It is poetic drama. Imagery and

symbols play a vital role and all the conflict tales place in the theatre of the soul. The

Buddhist monk Ananda awakens self-awareness and self respect in Prakriti by saying “Give

me water” (I.148) and accepting it in his cupped hands. Prakriti is transformed. The simple

words “Give me water” acquire an incantatory effect and run through the fabric of the play as

a silver thread. They symbolize her “awakening” and freedom from bondage. When Prakriti

says “My birth is washed clean” (I. 149) and “the new birth” she refers to is “self-

knowledge”.

In Chandalika, Prakriti stands for nature and her mother for earth-a symbol of

patience, suffering and understanding. The primal spell may be taken as the “force of

attraction” in nature particularly of sex. Ananda stands for spirit, the awakening and bliss.

Even the word „Chandals‟ is made to represent people with „mean spirits‟. The union of

Ganga and Jamuna is the union of the white and the dark, of spirit and nature, of Ananda and

Prakriti.

Rabindranath Tagore‟s Chitra is a dramatic sermon on the theme of true love. This

lyrical drama, written in 1913, the year when Tagore received the Nobel Prize, is based on

the story of The Mahabharata. Chitra is the first clear exposition of feminism in India by

Tagore. According to Rangan “…. This play is a work of supreme art, a dream of flawless

beauty in and awakened state” (15). Tagore‟s concept human love finds a beautiful

expression in Chitra.

Chitra is a lyrical drama of passionate love based on a puranic theme. Chitra, the

princess of Manipur, brought up as a warrior feels for the first time that she is a woman when

Arjuna in his ascetic robes glances at her. She becomes conscious of the fact that she is not

beautiful enough to win the heart of Arjuna. She vainly woos Arjuna but is rejected by him

on grounds of his vow of celibacy. She does not give up her love. She is no the kind of

woman who nourishes her despair in lonely silence. Chitra finds that it is the labor of lifetime

to make one‟s true self fully known and honored. Therefore she chooses the easy path of

illusion which is the first step to reality that is the acquired splendor of beauty bestowed upon

her by the Gods Madana and Vasanta. This is the phase where Chitra fascinates and wins the

heart of Arjuna. Thus loves is consummated in the union of Chitra and Arjuna.

In Chitra, the central symbol is the offer of beauty to beauty to Chitra by the Gods,

Madana and Vasanta for a span of a year. The mot remarkable thing is that there is no

obvious exhibition of this symbols which grows naturally and spontaneously out of the story

that it is not noticed as a symbol in the beginning at all.

The success of symbolism in The Post Office could be similarly attributed to the fat

that it is to a great extent subordinate to naturalism. Secondly, the contexts in which the

symbols contribute to their success: in this play, the recognizable world of day-to-day life and

the objects or phenomena belonging to real life are transformed into symbols through poetry.

Tagroe‟s plays as opined by Dr. Krishnanand Joshi and Dr. B. Shymala Rao “are not

plays of action but plays of feeling, plays of carnival delight and eternal identity” (79). They

attempt to synthesize the rhythmic intensity of western tragedy with the mingling of Indian

folk and classical drama. None of his plays are to be viewed objectively as a representation of

a series of events. It is intended to produce an aesthetic and emotional experience. He was

faithful to dramatic tradition and to the moral and spiritual values. He regarded drama or

theatre only as a medium of self expression. No doubt, his plays are seldom meant for

arousing dramatic effect on the stage, but so far as the symbolic significance is concerned

they are splendid and beyond description.

As the dramatist has skillfully made use of various symbols, the present researcher

has proposed to make a study of the selected plays of Tagore (Chitra, The Post Office and

Chandalika) from this angle. A study from this point of view will help mankind to understand

the inner significance of the plays of the Tagore. This study has been divided into five

chapters including this introductory Chapter. Chapter II, III and IV are devoted to an analysis

of symbolism in Chitra, The Post Office, and Chandalika respectively. In Chapter V, an

attempt is made to sum up the findings of this dissertation.

Chapter II

Symbolism in “Chitra”

„Symbolism‟ is the practice of representing things by symbols. The letters of the

alphabet are symbols, the numerals are symbols, and science as it advances to discover

intricate laws begins to rely increasingly on the use of symbols. A symbol works through

association or suggestion. “Cross” is associated with Jesus and His suffering; “white” is

associated with purity and “dove” with peace and “hawk” with cruelty and war. Hence they

suggest these different things in the proper context. Symbols are of two types-Conventional

or Public, and Private or personal. A symbol is an integral part of a context, whereas an

image can exist without a context. An image has only one meaning, whereas a symbol is an

irreplaceable literary device.

Each and every writer is prone to use symbols. As Gordan Craig points out

“Symbolism is at the root not only of art but also o fife” (35). Like “image”, symbols appear

in widely different contexts. It appears as a term in logic, in mathematics, in semantics and

semiotics and epistemology; it has also had a long history in the worlds of theology, liturgy,

the fine arts and poetry. The shared element in all these current uses is probably „something

that stands for and represents or denotes something else”. (Madhusudana Rao 35)

Although we are using symbols in every moment of our lives, most of us are not

aware of it. The symbol becomes important on its own account and we forget that it stands

for or represents something else. In literary theory it seems desirable that the word should be

used as an object which refers to another object. Gordon Craig further points out “Not only

do poets and painter constantly use symbols but music becomes intelligible only through the

employment of them.” (35)

The word „symbolism‟ came from the Greek “Symballein” meaning „to throw

together‟. The serious use of symbols in works represents or suggests ideas and thoughts. The

term „symbolism‟ sometimes refers to the later part of the 19th

century in France and the

symbolists rebelled against to the literary Realism. They have the idea that writers should

create subjective symbols to convey personal and intense emotional experience.

The symbolists are of the view that the symbols alone will produce the real essence in

the hearts of the readers while reading a literary work. They are more subjective in using

symbols. Though the movement has its roots in France, it has its impact and influence beyond

French borders and the 20th

century European and American writers like T.S. Eliot,

W.B.Yeats and Hemingway owe debt to symbolism.

It is the duty of the poet and the dramatist to make readers and spectators aware of the

hidden significance behind external symbols. Of all forms of art, drama is particularly

adapted to symbolist treatment because it make use of visible action; the actors and he stage

forts represent person and places in a play and them the artist‟s sense of values.

The symbols employed by an artist are definite and concrete, but they are made

suggestive by indirect hints. Sen Gupta observes “… there is a difference between a beautiful

woman‟s features and the general impression of loveliness projected by them” (Madhusdana

Rao 30). This impression o loveliness is projected by the features but it is extrinsic to them.

In a symbolic work we find that there are two planes of meaning: the surface meaning

which is directly expressed and the over-arching meaning which is indirectly suggested. The

surface meaning becomes incomplete unless it leads to the overhanging meaning must spring

spontaneously out of the surface meaning.

What merits our attention much in Chitra is Tagore‟s deep and profound use o

symbolism suffused with music rhythm. As a matter of fact, however rich one‟s philosophy

may be, it has a very little significance in the realm of are and literature unless it is woven

into fabric of art. A true art calls for a unified sensibility‟ – that is feeling and thinking

together. It must have both poetic truth and poetic beauty. Sometimes, it so happens that an

artist presents his vision of live beautifully that the feeling it self becomes a form. This is

exactly what we notice in most of the works of Tagore especially on Chitra.

Tagore‟s plays are basically expressions of the soul‟s quest for beauty and truth. A

close study of his play reveals that Tagore probed deep into the mind of women and

presented a wide range of female characters. He drew the attention of his readers to the

prevailing social injustice especially to women. Besides this, he placed before the whole

world the world the ideal of self-reliance in Indian women fighting not only their own rights

and desires but also for those of the subjugated nationality and downtrodden humanity. By

his well–known play Chitra he has presented a very sensible and revolutionary picture of a

common woman.

Chitra is a dramatic sermon on the theme of true love. This lyrical drama, written in

1913, the year when Tagore received the Nobel Prize is based on the story of The

Mahabharata. Chitra is the first clear exposition of feminism in India by Tagore this play is a

work of supreme art, a dream of flawless beauty in an awakened state. Tagore‟s concept of

human love finds a beautiful expression in Chitra.

Tagore being an inheritor of the great literary tradition of Bengal, regarded women as

the primordial energy of the universe. Tagore‟s heroines can be classified into two broad

categories, the type of feminine charm and the type of feminine grace, serene in her self-

assurance and radiating a tranquil charm and possessing silent power over the human

characters display remarkable vivacity and dazzling variety. They are not abstract entities, but

creations of flesh and blood, pulsating, with convincing liveliness.

In his works women appear as mother, daughter, wife, beloved, and woman

symbolizes the Jivatma who seeks union with the Parmaatma. There are also mythical,

historical, religious, social, realistic and romantic characters, placed in his dramas, short

stories and novels. He represents them as facing typical Indian problems and he explores

deep into their hearts, with his keen psychological insight. His women characters are dynamic

and are not the products of mere artistic manipulation.

Tagore‟s heroines are both feminine and masculine. They belong to the earth but they

undergo tremendous changes in their encounter with harsh reality. Sometimes the two types-

the emotional and the tranquilizing get fused as in Chitra. The diverse types of his women are

basically human. They are enthroned as queens of the house, full of self-respect and self-

confidence, exhibiting various moods.

Chitra is based on The Mahabharata legend of Chitranganda and Arjuna. The play is

punctuated into nine well balanced Scenes: four Scenes are dedicated to portraying the

atmosphere of Chitra‟s meetings with the Gods (Madana, the God of Love, and Vasanta, the

god of Seasons); alternating with each one of these four Scenes is the development of the

theme-there are four scenes to convey the other atmosphere, in which we see the hero,

Arjuna, and the heroine, Chitra, together; and the final scene is the Climax.

Arjuna came to Manipur during the course of his wanderings to fulfill a vow of

penance. He saw Chitranganda, the beautiful daughter of Chitravahana, the king of the

country and was captivated by her charming beauty. He then asked the king for the hand of

his daughter in marriage. The king asked him to reveal his identity. On learning that he was

Arjuna, the Pandava prince, the King told him that one of his ancestors in the kingly line,

named Prabhanjana, was childless for a quite a long time. In order to obtain a successor, he

performed severe penance. Lord Shiva, pleased with his austerities, granted him a boon that

he and his successors would each have one child. It so happened that the promised child had

invariably been a son.

But Chitravahana was an exception, as he was the first to have only a daughter to

continue his race whom he named as Chitranganda. He, therefore, treated her always as a son

and had also made her as his successor. Chitra, the princess of Manipur, brought up as a

warrior feels for the first time that she is a woman when Arjuna in his ascetic robes glances at

her. She becomes conscious of the fact that she was not beautiful enough to win the heart of

Arjuna. She vainly woos Arjuna but it is rejected by him on grounds of his vow of celibacy.

She does not give up her love. She is not the kind of woman who nourishes her despair in

lonely silence. Chitra finds that it is the labor of lifetime to make one‟s true self fully known

and honored. Therefore she chooses the easy path of illusion which is the first step of reality

– that is she acquires splendorous beauty bestowed upon her by the Gods Madana and

Vasanta. This is the phase where Chitra fascinates and wins the heart of Arjuna. Thus love is

consummated in the union of Chitra and Arjuna.

Krishna Kripalani comments as follows: „Chitra is doubtless the most fascinating and

the most satisfying of Tagore‟s Plays‟ (139). It is “his loveliest drama, a lyrical feast, it is

beautiful, touching . . . there is clarity of vision and maturity of art. „ (Edward Thompson

125)

Chitra is not a play of feeling, but a play of carnival delight and external identity. The

central theme of the play is love. The drama evolves around the fullness of love which is

shared by man and woman equally. The play is marked by a subtle interplay of mood within

mood. It is a genuine symbolic play, yielding more meaning at every successive reading. The

world of Chitra is the world of mythology and tradition. It is a drama of youth, a drama of

growth.

Tagore represents the symbolism of human psyche, of youth and growth in Chitra. He

refers to the symbols-the organic world of flowers, fruits, plants and creatures. There are also

the symbols of metaphysical passion of „illusion and reality‟. Again he has also stated the

symbols of mythological consciousness of Madana and Vananta and the beloved elves. The

whole point of the play is that itself is a sudden spring time miracle, for it comes as it were

suddenly and fades away suddenly and unaccountably.

In Chitra the central symbol is the offering of beauty by the Gods Madana and

Vasanta for a span of a year. What is most remarkable is that there is no obvious exhibition of

this symbol, which grows so naturally and spontaneously out of the story that it is not notices

as a symbol in the beginning at all. Chitra who is brought up as a son falls in love with

Arjuna who sends her away saying „I have the vow of celibacy, I am not fit for thy husband‟

(2.33). So, she seeks the helps of the Gods-Madana and Vasanta to whom she says:

Had I the time needed, I could win his heart by slow degrees and ask no help

of the Gods. But it is the labor of lifetime to make one‟s true self fully known

and honored (2.35).

Her strong desire prompts her to cry impatiently for instant satisfaction. She requests

the Goddesses as follows: „For a single day make me superbly beautiful . . .give me but one

brief day of perfect beauty‟ (2.35). Her prayer is granted but with a significant difference

Vasanta says „Not for a span of a day, but for one whole year the charm of spring blossoms

shall nestle round thy limbs.‟ (2.36).

Commenting on the significance of symbolism Chitra, Ketki observes as follows:

The play begins and moves the action in a poetic-realistic mode, presenting

Arjuna‟s infatuation, their Gandarva marriage, their living together, Chitra‟s

sorrow, Arjuna‟s boredom and his holding for the other Chitra, the falling of

Chitra‟s beauty-mask at the end of the year, Arjuna‟s happy acceptance of real

Chitra and the final spiritual consummation presenting to these in a

delightfully smooth way, offers no clash between the surface-poetic-realistic

level and the deeper symbolic meaning. (168).

The significance of time is first indicated in Chitra‟s words: „had I but the time

needed. . . it is the labor of lifetime to make one‟s true self known and honored‟ (2.34). The

time element is significantly dipped into the play in the form of the God‟s offer of beauty to

Chitra for a span of a year. This central symbol so beautifully and organically lodged in the

play is assisted by the symbolic Gods: Madana, the bodiless of God of abiding love; and

Vasanta, the time-bound God of Spring without whose assistance Madana cannot function.

In the beginning of scene III Chitra shows her pain and pleasure in a very symbolic

way to the Gods. She imagines herself to be a beautiful flower of spring and Arjuna a

butterfly sipping the honey, drop by drop, which the flower has stored during long day. She

says:

I felt a flower which has but few fleeting hours to listen to all the humming

flatteries and whispered murmurs of the woodlands and then lower its eyes

from the sky, bend its head and at a breath give itself up to the dust without a

cry, thus ending the short story of a perfect moment that has neither past nor

future. (1.24).

Here the author – a great craftsman, mingles pleasure with pathos. The pangs of

temporary borrowed beauty of Chitra are compares to a beautiful flower which is a guest of

very few hours. As long as the flower contains nectar, the bees remain glued to it; and soon

after, the flowers bend its head and droops down to the dust. But one should keep in mind

that though the beauty of the flower is short lived, yet it is perfect, always praised and gazed;

ever ready to diffuse its aroma to everybody without distinction, sometimes culled immature

for making a garland for the almighty God.

Regarding the beautiful presentation of symbols and images J.C. Rollo rightly

observes:

Although it is not equal to the Gitanjali in profundity or strength or to The

Gardener in its varied emotions, or to the delicate and exquisite

suggestiveness of the Crescent Moon, yet there is the same beauty of phrasing,

the same flowing rhythm, and in its thought, there is the same firm hold upon

reality, the same truth of feeling and of sympathy and the same arresting

power of symbolism. (49).

The sleeping Arjuna stands for the wintry old age which symbolizes the death of the

fertility demon. Subjected to the attack of the spring-god, he becomes a love inspired young

man. The entry of Arjuna and Chitra into the temple of Shiva symbolizes the quest of the

hero and the heroine into the inner most order of nature or the prescience of the womb of

nature. What Arjuna and Chitra worship at the Shiva temple as a frozen image is symbolic of

what they are going to be in the bower of bliss. The bower of bliss is earthly and succumbs to

the cyclical changes of birth and death. It is denoted by the falling of flowers on Chitra, „each

choosing a bed to die on (1.24). They are the symbols of amore limited range of creatures

those passively participle through normal sexual career.

The sleeping consciousness of the romantic mood is contrasted with the waking

consciousness. Chitra wakes up in the morning to realize consciously what has happened in

the night. Tagore describes that with the first gleam of light and the first twitter of birds, she

rose up and sat leaning on her left arm and Arjuna was asleep with a vague smile about his

lips like the crescent moon in the morning. The morning moon symbolizes the evading

consciousness and the farewell to it the broad daylight. Chitra retains the dreamland

atmospheres of the prelapsarian bower by making the noon bed in the massy fountanous dark

cavern.

In short, Chitra stands for human desire, Arjuna stand as the seeker of love; the Gods

Madana and Vasanta stands for love and youth and beauty respectively. The symbols in

Chitra are an organic part of the theme-Chitra combine the flower of spring with the fruits of

autumn. It also combines heaven and earth.

Chitra is a significant fusion of the two kinds of women characters- the emotional and

the tranquilizing type. She has not received formal education, but well versed in archery. She

advances from the paradise of sensual rapture of the ecstasy of illumination and the

sustaining delight of wisdom. Arjuna accepts her in bliss when she casts a tranquilizing spell

on him.

Rabindranath Tagore‟s concept of human love finds a beautiful expression in Chitra.

The play promotes the very concept of equality of women even in the field specially reserved

for men; she is not the woman who aroused her despair in lonely silence, she is not the

Goddess to be worshipped, not yet the object of common pity to be brushed aside like a moth

with indifference. She has certainly lost one paradise but she has gained another instead.

Which is the real paradise where woman holds undisputed sovereignty as devoted wife and

mother.

Through the character of Chitra, Tagore has forcefully portrayed the picture of

modern Indian woman promoting higher spiritual and psychological sensibilities. On the one

hand Chitra is a very promising princess and bears all the responsibilities towards kingdom.

On the other hand she is a devoted of Arjuna, and becomes the victim of love and

emotions. Arjuna thinks of her as a Goddess of victory and says:

Like a watchful lioness she protects the litter at her dugs with a fierce love.

Woman‟s arms though adorned with nought, but unfettered strength, the

beautiful! My heart is restless, fair one, like a serpent, reviving from his long

winter‟s sleep. Come, let us both race on swift horses side by side, like twin

orbs of light sweeping through space. (22).

Chitra in bold, courageous, daring, determined and she is filled with feeling s of

dedication and devotion towards her duties. She had all the capabilities, which a king should

have. If she lacks in something, it is womanly grace, tenderness and over all physical charm.

In Chitra Tagore has revealed two aspects of woman through the play. She is

portrayed as a person who possesses strength enough to win the biggest battle of the world

and the other one that easily gets shattered by one flow of emotion. She is a complete

personality of a woman, who has commendable patience, sacrifice and dedication.

Tagore has beautifully symbolized her as a great person undergoing mental conflict

on the one hand, and the symbol of strength determination on the other. Chitra has a tender

heart within her strong body and she willfully changes her personality for the sake of love.

She suffered a great mental conflict while presenting her false endeavor before Arjuna and

says:

My body has become my own rival. It is my hateful task to deck her everyday,

to send to my beloved and see her caressed by him. (14).

This attitude reveals the reality about the very nature of the woman- that for the sake

of love and true relationship, she will do any thing to any extern and will sacrifice her life

too. She is ready to lose the most precious thing of her life. She says:

I will reveal my true self to him, a nobler thing than this disguise. If he rejects

it, if he spurn me and break my heart, I will bear even that in silence. (15).

She gets success in winning the heart of Arjuna by her borrowed sublime grace but

she fails before her own self. Chitra very soon realizes the misdeed she had done and wants to

deprive from that falsehood which unfortunately becomes the base of that pious feeling. She

is ready to come out of her illusive face and want her true self loves by Arjuna which is

capable enough to participate in his every brave action. She says to Arjuna:

If you design to keep me by your side, in the path of danger and daring, if you

allow mw to share the great duties of your life then you will know my self.

(24).

This is what the new feminist movement in India stands for as it was heralded by

Tagore and these words of Chitra are undoubtedly a great source of inspiration to the young

educated females of India in twentieth century.

Tagore‟s representation of human love finds a beautiful exposition in Chitra. Tagore

is both an idealist and a realist. He accepts the physical attraction between man and woman as

true. It is equally true that if love is centered on the body and cannot impinge it, it

degenerates into lust. The physical relationship between man and woman is the groundwork

of love and the spiritual relation between them is its composition and the structure of love

would remain incomplete without this composition.

Love finds its attainment when the mind and the heart of the lover are synchronized

with the mind and the heart of the beloved. Arjuna stands for the average man and Chitra for

the average woman. Love between man and woman has a corporal basis. The attainment of

love in Chitra takes place in the last scene of the play when Arjuna meets the real Chitra with

all her physical imperfections and exclaims in delight, that his life is satisfied.

The play is not designed to convey the meaning that sexual wantonness is an act of

adoration. This is clear from the beginning when Arjuna offers his love to Chitra and is ready

to break his vow of celibacy for the sake of love. Chitra is not thrilled with joy. On the other

hand she says:

Whom do you seek in these dark eyes, in these milk white arms, if you are

ready to pay for her the price of your probity? Not my true self, I know. Surely

this cannot be love; this is not man‟s highest homage to woman! Alas, that this

frail disguise, the body, should make one blind to the light of the deathless

spirit! Yes, now indeed, Arjuna, the fame of your heroic manhood is false.

(37).

This passage conceives the body as the disguise and that the real self of a woman

becomes gradually stronger. Then Chitra speaks to Arjuna: „Would it please your heroic soul

if the playmate of the night to be the helpmate of the day, if the left arm learnt to share the

burden of the proud right arm?‟ (37).

In reply Arjuna states his apprehension to know the real self of Chitra in the following

words: “I cannot pay you my dues in return for your priceless gifts. Thus my love is

incomplete. Illusion is the first appearance of Truth” (38). Consequently, he lovingly accepts

Chitra in her original form. And when they are about to part there is a feeling, maturity,

satisfaction and understanding. In essence, the theme Chitra is the evolution of human love.

This idea is best illustrated in the words of K.R.S. Iyengar:

Beauty and youth, although they may be transmit, are yet a part of our

experience. Wisdom lies in neither looking upon the body and its beauty as

ends in themselves, nor in imagining that our life could wholly be separated

from the physical base.

Tagore rejected both „negations‟-the ascetic‟s denial of life as well as the sensualist‟s

denial of the sprit. The blinding maddening ecstasy of the physical union is not only denied in

Chitra but its transience is also recognized.

Even as illusion is but „the first appearance of truth‟ the fever and the throb of the

senses are but a prelude to the less evanescent more subdued, joys of holy wedded love.

There are two unions in Chitra. The first union takes place in the second scene. And

the next union takes place in the ninth scene of the play. This play was not meant for dealing

with a particular passion but for translating the whole subject from one world to another; to

elevate love from the sphere of physical beauty to the external heaven of moral beauty.

The central symbol in Chitra the offering of beauty to Chitra by the Gods, Madana

and Vasanta, for the span of a year grows naturally and spontaneously out of the story. There

is no conflict between the surface-realistic level and the deeper symbolic meaning. The

symbolic meaning is related to the essential duality of love. There is no contradiction

between Infinite and Finite, Truth and Illusion, Sprit and Body, Love and desire, Joy and

Pain, peace and Restlessness, True self and False self, but what is most remarkable in the

play is that the latter i.e., Finite, Illusion, Body, Desire, Pain Restlessness, False self are

transmitted into the former. i.e., Infinite, Truth, Spirit, Love, Joy, Peace and True self. This

transformation occurs primarily because of Time, which plays, a crucial part in the entire

play.

The symbol is assisted by images of flower and fruit and by the image of flame,

which symbolizes the upward, restless, and burning process of love.

Chitra is Tagore‟s deep and profound use of symbolism suffused with music and

rhythm. Here, it is not the bare information or the history of a particular period that matters

but the way of presentation, the poetic exuberance, the metaphoric structure, the imaginative

flight of the poet on „the viewless wings of poesy.‟ Tagore is of the opinion that

Bare information on facts is not literature, because it gives us Merely the facts

which are independent of ourselves. Repetition of the facts that the sun is

round, water is liquid, fire is hot, would be intolerable. But a description of the

beauty of the sunrise has its eternal interest for us,-because there it is not the

fact of the sunrise, but is relation to ourselves, which is the object of perennial

interest. (57)

It is also interesting to note here that most of the images and symbols employed by

Tagore have come out from nature, and the day-to-day life of common man. They seem to be

richly influenced by Wordsworth and Keats, Shelley and Tennyson. In the very opening of

the drama, Tagore shows his deft mastery of Nature images through the retrospective vision

of the protagonist: “I found a narrow sinuous path meandering through the dusk of the

entangled boughs, the foliage vibrated with the chirping of crickets, when of a sudden I came

upon a man lying on a bed of dried leaves, across my path.” (58)

The female protagonist of the book, Chitra, behaves like a boy, and so when she sees

Arjuna in the forest, all of a sudden she feels like a woman. This scene reminds us of

Shakespeare‟s The Tempest, where Miranda, the girl of nature, is startled to see Ferdinand

and, consequently, she falls in love with him.

We know Tagore is also a great painter. Like most of the Pre-Raphaelite poets, he

brought painting into poetry. Sometimes, he describes his object in such a manner that it

resembles a great painting. One such example can be seen in the retrospective dreaming of

Chitra‟s beauty by Arjuna in the opening of the second scene:

She bowed herself above the shining mirror of the lake and saw the reflection

of her face. She stared up in awe and stood still; then smiled, and with a

careless sweep of her left arm unloosed her hair and let it trail on the earth at

her feet. She bared her bosom and looked at her arms, so flawlessly modeled,

and instinct with an exquisite caress. (58)

Through this pictorial passage, the author seems to point out Chitra‟s long-subdued

female urge which now craves fulfillment. Here Tagore has succeeded in delineating the

female psychology through the image of the Baring of bosom‟ and „looking at the arms.‟

The spell of the heavenly beauty of Chitra dissolves Arjuna‟s vows of celibacy and

penance. His prowess and manhood bow down meekly before her beauty. The poet opines:

“Alas, that this frail disguise, the body, should make one blind to the light of the deathless

spirit.” (59)

As a matter of fact, human body is borrowed for a very short span of time. The only

thing real is the „deathless spirit‟. But unfortunately, man is so much enticed and ensnared by

the materialistic world that he begins to take the real to be the unreal and vice versa.

True beauty always prevails over man‟s strength and prowess. The same is the case

with Arjuna, who being blinded with the illusion of beauty, begins to think this unreal,

transitory beauty as a perfect completeness once and for ever: “Ah, I feel how vain is fame,

the pride of prowess! Everything seems to me a dream-You alone are perfect. You are the

wealth of the world, the end of all poverty, the goal of all efforts, the one woman.” (60)

Hence the dialogue between Arjuna and Chitra seems to be a eternal dialogue

between truth and illusion, between outward manifestation and inner-self; between the

deceptive wind and the voice of consciousness. The reply of Chitra, in a way, suggests the

voice of consciousness of a man who is ensnared by the illusion of the charms or fancy. It

reminds us of John Keats‟ Lamia in which Apollonius prevents Lucius, his disciple, from

being entangled in the fake charm of Lamia‟s beauty.

In the beginning of scene III, Chitra shows her pain and pleasure in a very symbolic

way to the God Madana. She imagines herself to be a beautiful flower of spring and Arjuna a

butterfly sipping the honey drop by drop which the flower had stored during the long day.

The flower image can also be seen in the end scene IV when Chitra devotes herself entirely to

the sweet love of Arjuna. She says:

Leave the little wild flower where it was born; leave it beautifully to die at the

day‟s end among all fading blossoms and decaying leaves. Don‟t take it to

your palace hall to fling it on the stony floor which knows no pity for things

that fade and are forgotten. (61)

Here the phrase, “little wild flower suggests Chitra and the phrase” “decay in leaves”

and “fading blossoms” arouses our pity and terror. The phrase „stony floor‟ suggests the cold

and apathetic behavior of the philosophical people of the court who lack the sense of true

love and sympathy. Here image reminds us of Keats‟ famous poem „Ode to a Nightingale‟ in

which the bird represents the immortal world of art and beauty while the poet, of this mortal

world of fret and fever.

Tagore must have been influenced by the Irish literary movement. Tagore has created

a wonderfully rounded form for a play racing the passage of the human soul through the

eternal cycle of innocence and experience and consummation. To sum up, Tagore‟s Chitra is

a fine example of creative genius. It is the quintessence of romance. Thompson considers it

“the loveliest drama and a lyrical feast” (125) and Ernest Rhys imagines it “a piece of

sculpture.” (122)

A Close study of the play reveals the fact that it is a play of various contrasts like fact

and fantasy, illusion and reality, physical and spiritual, youth and beauty. E.M. Forster rightly

holds the view as follows: “the story is told with faultless delicacy and grace; its action is no

stronger than a flower and the fragrance of blossom clings round every phase” (112). Thus

Tagore has wonderfully conveyed in this drama “an endless meaning in the narrow span of a

song.” (Joshi 70)

In the following chapter an attempt is made to analyze the symbols in The Post Office.

Chapter III

Symbolism in The Post Office

Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) was one of the finest flowers of Indian

Renaissance. The span of his life witnessed hectic activity in all fields of national life. The

emergence of an Independent national spirit, re-discovering itself was a spectacular

phenomenon. And Tagore made rich contribution in the matter of redefining the Indian spirit

in the modern context. In Stray Birds. Tagore said, “No, I will never be the leader, brothers,

of this new age of new Bengal. I shall not trouble to light the lamp of culture for the

benighted…” (25)

That is what exactly he has done-he has lit the lamp of the Spirit, and consequently

has shown the way for the world. Tagore was essentially a poet. His characteristic utterance

was naturally a symbol or an image. His imagination gave him eyes, ears, wings and a

melodious voice. Whether he wrote a play or a novel or a short story, Tagore the poet was

there with his harp, and the result was a musical thought.

W.B.Yeats, the most ardent admirer of Tagore has discouraged the reader to trace the

allegory or symbolism in the play The Post Office. Even a simple reading of the play reveals

that the play does have the symbolism of a deep kind in all its rich connotations and varied

manifestations. Tagore himself has commented that the play The Post Office should be “read

through the eyes of a child.” (Rukhaiyar 59)

It is to be noted that in The Post Office symbolism as a dramatic device has been

different from that of Chitra. In the earlier plays symbols are more ethereal than terrestrial;

suggestions are often dim and vague. Denotation and connotation often fall far apart.

But in The Post Office we have a sense of firm concreteness and connotation and

denotation are close to each other. The post office, door windows are all concrete. Characters

like Madav, Doctor, Watchman, curd seller and Gaffer are common folks.

Another notable feature is that in the play the conflict of themes, emotions and

characters has been expressed with the help of contrasted symbols. Madav is a crude

materialist. Hence his language has no color or music. On the other hand, Amal‟s speech has

imagination and emotion as also a lyrical lilt. This shows the conflict between the poetic and

the prosaic form. Even more notable feature of the play is images and symbols that refer to

Time. Throughout the play we find constant reference to time with subtle variations in its

density in accordance with the tone and temper of the situation, a feature that has been

discussed in this brief analysis.

According to G.D Khanolkar “the dominant theme of The Post Office is the longing

for the far horizons: (Rao 33) as in O‟Neill‟s Beyond the Horizon. From the day of his

writing this play, it is observed that Tagore became more and more eager to escape from the

narrow confines of his work and place and to roam in the great open spaces.

Prof. Sen Gupta has rightly said that The Post Office is “impeccable in construction

and the message it conveys springs spontaneously out of the plot of the human story: (Rao

35). According to Prof. K.R.S Iyengar, The Post Office is one of the most deeply significant

of Tagore‟s plays, which a child could read and understand though it might intrigue the

grown ups. (Rao 35)

The theme of The Post Office seems to be the liberation of the child Amal from the

bondage of various kinds-social, psychological, emotional and spiritual. Freedom from all

kinds of bondage has been the prime quest of Tagore. This theme occurs in several of his

poems and plays. In Gitanjali, he says: “Freedom is all I want: (Poem XXVIII). The last line

of the poem “Where the mind is without Fear” is: “Into that heaven of freedom, let my

country awake.” (Poem XXXV)

As a boy Tagore had been too well looked after by his servants, and this had irked

him. It is said that he often had to spend hours in a room sitting near a window opening out

into the garden and the pond. With all the imaginative fervor of a boy, young Rabindranath

must have thirsted for the „Great Beyond‟ as an escape from his cribbed existence within the

four walls of the room. One of his famous songs magnificently recaptures this mood:

I am listless; I am a wanderer in my heart. In the sunny haze of the languid

hours, what vast vision of thing takes shape in the blue of the sky… I forget, I

ever forget, that the gates are shut everywhere in the house where I dwell

alone! (The Gardener V)

And there is another song in which the poet heats the answering steps:

I was singing all alone in a corner, and the melody caught your ear. You came

down and stood at my cottage door (Gitanjali XIIX)

Knock, and the door opens; call, and the response follows. As action and reaction are

equal and opposite in the physical world, so also in the spiritual world too, „aspiration‟ and

„response‟ have a casual relation.

There are only two Acts in The Post Office. In Act I, the sick child squatting near the

window muses and talks to the strangers that pass along; in Act II, the child is in bed, and

people talk to him or watch him sleep. In the first movement, the boy looks out into the

world, in the second, the world flows into the child‟s consciousness. There are, of course, two

planes of action in the play.

Tagore wrote The Post Office when he wrote his master piece Gitanjali. It deals wi5th

5the longing for freedom by Amal, a little boy, who has been severely ill. He was forced to

remain in his room and was not permitted to go out. Madav has adopted him and is very

anxious to preserve his life. The village physician advises him to keep Amal within a small

room and not to expose him to wind and cold. Amal, the little boy longs for freedom from his

bondage. Amal looks at the outer world from his window and is fascinated by the stream of

life. He looks at the street laborers going out in search of job and the children at play. Amal

says “I wish to fly with the time to that land of which no one knows anything.” (3.234)

On the realistic plane, the child looks out avid for experience and is particularly

excited by the news about the new post office. He would very much like to receive a better

from the King! The distant isle too excites the child, for he would like to go there with

Gaffer! If the Parrots‟ Isle which is a more exercise of Gaffer‟s fancy takes a firm hold on

the child‟s imagination, 6the post office which is but a big house with a flag flying high up

comes to be invested in the child‟s mind with a romantic, even a mystic aura, out of all

proportion to its actual functions. Thus, on the spiritual plane, the drama comprises the

child‟s (or the soul‟s) dream of the Parrots‟ Isle, his in6tense longing for the letter from the

King, and the coming of the King himself to the child. The sick-room at one end, the

„parrots‟ isle at the other end and, in between, The Post Office, which is both a visible

institution, and a symbolic clearing-house for the transmission of human aspiration in one

direction and of the grace of response in the opposite direction. There is a letter, and a reply;

likewise, there is the surge of aspiration from below, and the answering response from above.

The watchman tells him that the new big house he sees on the other side of the road

with its flag flying high is the post office and some fine day there may be a letter for him

from the King. During his severe illness, Amal imagines that the King‟s postman is coming

down to the hillside with lantern in his hand and a bag of letters on his back. He feels quite

happy and says: “I will be the King‟s postman one day.” (2.110)

The state physician comes and opens wide all the doors and windows and asks Amal

whether he would like to leave his bed when the King comes in the midnight. Amal says “Of

course; I am dying to be about for ever so long. I will ask the King to find me the polar star. I

must have seen it often, but I do not know exactly which it is.” (3.250)

Everything becomes quiet. Amal sleeps and the lamp is blown out. His life‟s day is

done. As K.R.S Iyengar observes:

In Amal the aspiration and divine response meet and the result is the new

birth, new physical death; the divine has come to the parched human heart and

there will now ensure the burst of a new spring of life and joy. (143)

Although apparently Amal is asleep, he tells Gaffer “I can hear everything. Yes, and

voices far away” (3.249). There is a knock at the door and the King‟s herald enters to

announce that the king himself would come in the midnight and is sending his “great

physician to attend on his young friend” (3.280) The King‟s physician is a mystic presence.

He represents the healing power of the omnipresent God. Even though He is invisible, His

very presence is felt everywhere. On the arrival of the King‟s physician the doors and

windows are opened and Amal feels that “all pain is gone” (3.284). Amal is in deep slumber

and Sudha the little flower girl arrives with the flowers and “places the flowers in Amal‟s

own hands;” (3.282)

The Post Office deals with the theme of spiritual quest and deliverance. There is

bondage in seclusion and there is freedom in union with all. Amal is the symbol of human

soul yearning to become one with God, the King. The meaning of King‟s letter is a message

of the deliverance and the death of Amal represents the end of spiritual bondage.

Amal‟s confinement in the small room symbolizes the human soul imprisoned in the

mortal body. Amal‟s soul has received the “call of the open road” (Madhusudana Rao 37),

where there is light and beauty. But it is denied to his soul which is imprisoned in his body.

The only way to secure freedom for the soul is through death, as death is said to be the

emancipation of spirit. Therefore the doors and windows of the room are opened on the

arrival of the king‟s physician. The opening of the gate by the King‟s physician symbolizes

the opening of the human mind to the experience of nature. Chaubey has aptly observed:

The longings of Amal are extended to journey even the Beyond. The lack of

communion with the outside world is a symbol of society forcing alienation,

anger on the harmless beings. These harmless beings are unnecessarily

tortured by unknown forces. (48)

For Amal, the King‟s post office is a constant source of peace and happiness. Amal

becomes a symbol of innocence. He tries sot seek from the chains of society. He knows that

nobody lives forever; and nothing lasts for long. Amal is suffering but perhaps it is out of

love that God sends suffering. The suffering Amal sees a life of a labor and wants to eat gram

flour like a laborer. He is attracted by the stream and the scenic beauty. He finds something

wonderful in all that happens in the outside world. Amal is unhappy as “no one ever takes

him away‟ (3.235). Every one wants him to stay inside.

The Post Office is colored by the recollection on death and mysterious call from the

far off. The letter is an important symbol and serves as bridges between the known and the

unknown. From the post office, the King writes letters which are to be sent to various people.

One fine day, there might be a letter from the King to Amal.

The next important symbol that draws our attention is the post office, which gives the

play its title. A symbol performs two functions sin a poem or a play. First it provides an

emotional centre around which a pattern may evolve. Secondly, it places in focus the

emotional attitudes towards important quest of all kinds. This symbol is very much complex

and works on several levels in different parts of the play. As S.K. Desai has rightly observed:

The Post office might be the whole world; the King might be God sending

messages of eternity to everyone, according to their capacity for reception,

through the visible nature. (57)

On the simplest level, the post office receives and gives letters, which contain

information. It was the most popular medium of communication before the invention of the

modern electronic media. There have been several poems on people anxiously waiting for

5the postman. A man who is looking wistfully toward a post office is a man longing for some

information from somebody. Communication is itself a kind of ventilation. Thus, the symbol

of post office gives a concrete base to the theme of freedom from all kinds of bondage-

physical, emotional, and psychological and spiritual which is the leitmotif of this play.

One of the important and recurrent symbols in the play is time. When the watchman

sounds the gong, Amal asks him:

Amal : won‟t you sound the gong, watchman?

Watchman : Time has not yet come.

Amal : How curious! Some say time has not yet

come, And some say time has gone by! But

surely your time will come the Moment You strike

the Gong!

Watchman : that‟s not possible; I strike up the gong only

when it is time

Amal : Yes, I love to hear your gong… Tell me,

why does your gong sound?

Watchman : My gong sounds to tell the people. Time

waits for none, but goes on forever (1.21)

In the symbol suggests time and its conquest. In this world we are bound by time. All

of us want to conquer time. But the task is not easy. It calls for great suffering and penance.

Only then does the Great Deliverer come to free us from the mortal coils of time. Amal‟s

deliverance suggests, among other things, this note as well.

The King represents Almighty God. As Edward Thompson says, “Tagore‟s plays

have plenty of Kings. The symbolism of Raja (King) is very gently and touchingly expressed

in the play The Post Office” 120. The King‟s physician brigs the message of emancipation

through death and thus completes the symbolical meaning of the play, but the King is

necessary to round off the fairy tale. As Prof. D.V.K. Raghavacharyulu points out:

The post Office is a perfect fairy tale in the senses that one can submit to its

pathos and fancy without any disbelief and without raising disturbing

questions regarding the play‟s deeper intent or i6ts proportions of allegory,

myth and symbolism. It takes forward its dramatic action structurally to the

one question:

What is there beyond Horizon? (Rao 35)

It is because of Amal‟s loves for the far away that this simple drama links itself to the

fairy tale, and we find an appropriate play in it for Gaffer who roams about from place to

place. He tells Amal tales of the Isle of parrots where there are no men and where the parrots

neither speak nor walk but simply sing and fly. The parrots Isle is a symbol that stands for

human aspiration. It stands as a contrast to the symbol represented by the post office which

stands for human life. Gaffer also learns a new fairy tale of the post man from Amal.

In his preface to The Post Office, W. B.Yeats splay emphasis on‟ deliverance as the

theme of the play‟, the deliverance which the child discovers 8in death. Although The Post

Office ends in death and the state physician brings the message of deliverance, yet a good

deal of drama is also about the earth, its joys which Amal wants to find by freeing himself

from the limitation imposed body his uncle. In this symbolical drama, we are rarely away

from the beauties of the open air, and if a hidden truth reveals itself, it does so not through

abnormal instincts and emotions but through yearning of a child for the world stretching

beyond his window.

An attention to Tagore‟s own interpretation of The Post Office helps us to understand

the over reaching meaning of the play.

Amal represents the man whose soul has received the call of the open-he seeks

freedom from the comfortable enclosure of habits sanctioned by the prudent

and from the walls of rigid opinion built for him by the respectable.

(Chakravorthy 133).

But, Madav, the worldly-wise one, consider his restlessness to be the sign of the final

malady, and his adviser, the physician, the custodian of the conventional platitudes-with his

questions from prescribed text books full of maxims-gravely nods his head and say that

freedom is unsafe and very care should be taken the sick boy within the walls. Tagore

used symbols that they have been part either of the life of the common people or of the

ancient Indian tradition. Only by using them unconsciously could he transform them into the

living symbols, not of any particular time but of the past, the present and the future in one. In

this sense, his work may be said to be archetypal. In The Times Literary Supplement, Reddy

has commented:

Tagore has the rare gift which some poets and writers of fairy stories have, of

unconsciously using symbols while consciously writing interesting story. But

he appears to be aware of his gift, and for this reason he is not like the writers

of fairy stories, and is indeed, half-way between Coleridge and T.S. Eliot. (89)

The last scene is also symbolic. It shows sleep, death and silence but all suffused with

an aura of great liberation. Sleep comes softly. The lamp is to be blown out. Only the starlight

is to be let in. The unimaginative Madav asks, “How will star light help”? (1.57). any

common man would feel the same way. Starlight is to be contrasted with the light of the oil

lamp. The light of the lamp can help us to see only the physical things, but the light of the

stars reveals its vision of the Great Beyond.

The symbolism of the last lime of the play is to be noted. Sudha tells the Royal

physician to tell the dying Amal, whom she consider to be sleeping “that Sudha has not

forgotten him‟ (1.59). The symbolism of the statement depends upon the meaning of the

word Sudha-both denotative and connotative. Sudha, the character, in the symbolic scheme of

the things is a foil to materialists like Madav. She is a symbol of love and affection. Perhaps

she wants to convey to Amal that she has always remembered him. Connotatively, in Hindi

the word „Sudha‟ means nectar, and its innumerable variants. The symbolic meaning, then

would be that Amal is not dead, that he has with Sudha, tasted the drink of immortality. We

know that it is only the body that dies and that the soul is immortal.

To consider the play as a complete and consistent allegory is to miss its human and

emotional appeal. One of the simplest suggestions on the subject is that, the play is an

expression of the irresistible longing felt by the poet in 1911 to shake himself free of the

chains of family, and wander at will through the wide world. He sought relief from his

restlessness by writing The Post Office in four days: As G.D.Khanolkar observes:

The lad Amal is the boy Tagore, and the play expressed that mysterious call

that came to his and the emotions it awakened. The restless poet is at thirst to

wander far away; he sits by the window as the day departs, waiting till it shall

return. The dominant theme of The Post Office is the longing for the far

horizons. (160-162).

The play, however, cannot be accepted at its face value, though reading it with no pre-

conceived notions of allegorical significance is quite rewarding. That it has a deeper meaning

or meanings is clear from many passages and especially the closing scene. But the inner

meaning should be felt rather than known; it should be sensed emotionally rather than

apprehended intellectually. To be dogmatic about any particular interpretation is to be unjust

to the play and miss its rich suggestiveness; to seek consciously for underlying meaning

meanings or to attempt to build a consistent theory about its true significance is to fail to

appreciate its elusive beauty.

There is a touch of elusiveness about the sick child Amal‟s relationship with Madav

who has only adopted him. His very name signifies innocence and original purity. The

children literature has always represented proximity to man‟s source in the divine being. As

Christ himself has said:

Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is

the kingdom of God. Verily I say unto you, whosoever shall not receive the

Kingdom of God as a little child he shall not enter there in. (Rao.31).

In The Post Office, symbols play the role of what Eliot calls „Objective Correlative‟

which he defines as:

A set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of

that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must

terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately

evoked. (177).

Tagore is a great spiritual realist. He says that the finite self is like a bird in the cage

which can‟t move and fly in the vast blue sky. Madav confines Amal within the four-walls

and does not allow him to come in close contact with nature but ultimately he is delivered

from the bondage. Tagore writes:

It is said in a verse of the Upanishads that this world is . . .all pervaded by one

supreme unity, and therefore true enjoyment can never be had through the

satisfaction of greed, but only through the surrender of our individual self to

the Universal Self. (14).

The Post Office is colored by recollections on death and mysterious call from the far

off. The letter is an important symbol and serves as a bridge between the known and the

unknown. Is Amla‟s death that is so readily taken for granted necessary to the scheme of the

play? There is, of course, the Watchman‟s reference in Act I to one greater than Amla‟s

physician who “lets us free”. And Amal himself expression to go, for he “can‟t stick on here

any more”. This may be read in con junction with the arrival of the King‟s Physician in Act

II, and we may conclude that he comes to the sick chamber only to „release‟ the child.

We may say that The Post Office is beautiful, touching, and within its limits it can be

regarded as an almost perfect piece of art, its true significance apart, the play is one of the

finest things of its kind in any literature. The most enthusiastic encomiums have been

showered on it by the critics of Tagore. It is a delicate little masterpiece. Yeats in his preface

to it said of that “it is perfectly constructed and conveys to the right audience an emotion of

gentleness and peace.‟ (Sastri.330).

Thompson who thinks that the play has been greatly overrated is, however, full of

praise for the portrayal of Amal:

It does successfully what both Shakespeare and Kalidasa failed to do, brings

on to the stage a child who neither‟ shows off‟ nor is silly. (215).

He also praise Tagore for the perfect language which keeps the play from sliding into

a „hopeless mush and welter of sentimentalism.‟ (213).

What is more remarkable about The Post Office is use of symbols in the play. The

Post Office becomes a symbol of the universe; the king stands for God, the postmasters ate

the four seasons representing the visible nature. The letter is the message of eternity, the

message calling us to reach God. The Blank Slip of paper symbolizes the message of God

which every one is free to interpret according to one‟s own lights. The Post Office is the

place where messages are received and delivered and where is ample scope for

communication. Amal‟s confinement to the small room symbolizes the human soul

imprisoned in the mortal body.

The Post Office is a genuine symbolic play, yielding more meaning at every

successive reading. The play is successful, because the naturalistic level is maintained

throughout-even in the last scene in which there is „fantasy‟. It is because the play‟s roots are

in reality, in life, that it can be what it is and at the same time radiate meanings and evoke

significant emotions. Again, since Tagore does not use symbolism in a conscious, deliberate

way, it has acquired, through increased suggestiveness, its richness and many sidedness.

Thus Tagore‟s play The Post Office is replete with symbolism and in the chapter an

attempt is made to analyze the symbols in Chandalika.

Chapter IV

Symbolism in Tagore’s Chandalika

Tagore‟s plays are plays of symbols than of characters and incidents and they

certainly express a philosophy: „Not the logic of careful plotting, but the music of ideas and

symbols is the soul of the drama‟ (K.R.S.Iyengar 26). Even the titles of plays and names of

the characters are symbolic. Rabindranath Tagore‟s Chandalika is the shortest but most

powerful play. It is a poetic drama. In this play, images and symbols play a vital role and all

the conflict takes place in the theater of the soul.

Chandalika is the shortest (only 20 pages), but most powerful. It is a poetic drama.

The Buddhist monk Ananda awakens self-awareness and self-respect in Prakriti by saying,

„Give me water and accepting it in his cupped hands, a transformation id brought by him in

the character of Prakriti. His simple words “Give me water” acquires in incantatory effect and

runs through the fabric of the play as a silver thread.

In the popular Buddhist legend the girl gives him water and falls in love with the

beautiful monk. She draws him back to her through music. But the monk, at the last moment

saves himself through prayer and goes away. This crude plot of the popular tale has been

transformed by Tagore into a psychological; drama of intense spiritual conflict. Chandalika is

not the story of a wicked girl roused to lust by the physical body of the monk, but of a very

sensitive girl. Condemned by her birth to a despised caste, who is suddenly awakened to a

consciousness of her full rights as a woman and a human being.

Based on an ancient Buddhist legend Tagore‟s Chandalika is the story of Prakriti, a

Chandals or untouchable girl who is lost in wonder that Ananda, the famous disciple of the

Buddha had asked for a cup of water at the well, in spite of her warning him of her lower

birth. His words: “. . .don‟t humiliate yourself; self-humiliation is a sin, worse than self-

murder” (1.148). Rings the theme of the play.

His sense of identity begins to flower though her mother cautions her against it.

Prakriti‟s effusive gratitude turns into desire for the handsome monk. She persuades her

mother to cast a spell over him and bring him to her bed. “My birth is washed clean” says

Prakriti. The new “birth” she refers to is her “self-knowledge‟. Prakriti, now awakened, does

not want to sink back into darkness and dirt. She wants to dedicate herself to the great one.

“Make me forget that I am born of dust” says the “flower”. She also says, “The earth must

offer its worship through me” (30). Thus the individual desire of the low-caste girl Prakriti

becomes the universal urge of Nature to regain its original status of the Divine, in this cosmic

Drama of Decent and Ascent.

Again in the play, Ananda, with some other Bhikshus passes by the well, unmindful

of Prakriti. Her heart is broken. She becomes possessed and makes her mother use the

primeval spell of magic to drag the proud monk back to her door. Her Mother argues and

cautions her. But Prakriti is impetuous.

The spell is cast. There is a great spiritual fight and intense suffering in all the three

for fifteen days. In the end, Ananda comes with a distorted and agonized face. All the glow

and fire of purity is missing. Prakriti stops the spell and begs his pardon. The great lord

forgives all and Prakriti‟s mother dies as a consequence of her magic spell.

One of the arresting characters in Chandalika is the Buddhist Monk, Ananda. Even

though Prakriti is the central character in the play, it is impossible to separate her character

from that of Ananda. The presence of Ananda is felt throughout the play. Everything about

him is seen through the eyes of Prakriti. Tagore with skillful diction and clever manipulation

of language has succeeded in portraying the character of Ananda springing alive before the

mind‟s eye.

Ananda, being a Sanyasi has renounced all the material comforts. He lives a life of

renunciation which is shown as a quest towards spiritual perfection. Northrop Frye speaks of

the three main stages of a successful quest:

. . . the stage of the perilous journey and the preliminary minor adventures; the

crucial struggle, usually some kind of battle in which either the hero or his

foe, or both, must die; and the exaltation of the hero. . . . (187).

The quest of Ananda, no doubt, involves all these three stages. The act of mastering

all human passions is not within the reach of all and sundry but a few. It demands strenuous

tempering of both the physique and the psyche. Overwhelmed by Ananda‟s holiness Prakriti

tells: “His form was radiant as with the light of dawn.” (1.148).

Prakriti would never touch his feet for fear of polluting them. Long years of penance

and strict adherence to the religious norms have given celestial and radiant form to him. The

rigorous process of subduing the conflicting passions and detaching himself from the worldly

care is adventurous which may be linked worth a perilous journey.

The meeting of Prakriti with Ananda is a heaven sent moment in her life for it paves

the way for her new birth which may be viewed as a short of adventure. His act of talking a

few compassionate words to Prakriti and accepting water from her hands sets the story on the

onward movement. At a time when untouchability as a social evil was reining supremacy, her

chance of meeting the monk brings out a complete evolution in her character. The words of

Ananda,

. . .if the block clouds of Sravana are dubbed Chandal, he said, what of it? It

doesn‟t change their nature, or destroy the virtue of their water. Don‟t

humiliate yourself, he said: self-humiliation is a sin, worse than self-murder.

(1.147)

The word of Ananda rings in her heart and makes her feel invigorated and nourished.

Her suppressed spirit bursts forth and she attains self-consciousness. By saving a soul from

the sin of self-degradation, Ananda takes a progressive step towards his destination. Prakriti

feels that the water which she poured into the hands of Ananda has purged off the stain of her

birth and feels ennobled and redeemed.

Lust gives way temporarily to reverential devotion and so Prakriti feels:

Such little words, yet as might as flame they filled all my days with light.

They rolled away the black stone whose weight so long has stopped the

foundations of my heart, and the joy bubbled forth. (3.155)

The words of the Buddhist monk Ananda-“Give me water” (1.148) acquire an

incantatory effect and run through the fabric of the play. They symbolize her „awakening‟

and freedom from bondage. “My birth is washed clean” (1.150) says Prakriti. The new „birth‟

she refers to is her „self-knowledge‟.

Ananda opines that “Water becomes for Prakriti a symbol of life, of the recognition

and respect which is the rightful due of every human being regardless of his of her birth”

(1.88). When she recollects Ananda‟s words “Give me water”, her being overflows with

happiness.

She feels so much offended when she sees Ananda for the second time since he never

looks in her direction. Filled with anger and shame, she vows to break his pride and dissuade

him from the path of renunciation. She confesses: “his lamp will go out; his path will be lost

in darkness.‟ (2.165)

Prakriti now awakened, does not want to sink back into darkness and dirt. She wants

to dedicate herself to the great one. The desire of Prakriti makes her compel her mother to

practice the magic spell. Her longing is so great says: “If my longing can drew him here, an if

it is a crime, then I will commit the crime. I care nothing for a code which holds only

punishment and no comfort” (1.155). On seeing the passionate yearning of Prakriti, her

mother brushes aside all her misgivings and resolves to practice it. She prays to Ananda,

O thou exalted one; thy power to forgive is greater far than my power to

offend. I am about to do thee dishonor, yet I bow before; accept my obedience,

Lord (2.165).

Totally ignorant of the net that has been woven around him, Ananda continues with

his journey to Vaishali. The casting of the spell leads to Ananda‟s crucial struggle, the second

stage of quest. As a result, the spell works havoc on the primal instincts of Ananda which in

turn makes him undergo intense suffering. The soul-struggle of Ananda is both awe-inspiring

and realistic. By long years of discipline, Ananda has built a wall of resistance around him

enables him to withstand the pull during the first fifteen days.

Feeling exhausted, the mother tells Prakriti, “My spells have no more power, child;

there is no breath left in my body” (2.166). She says further “I have worked the spell through

all its stages-such force might have brought down Indra of the thunderbolt himself. And yet,

he does not come. It is a fight to the death indeed.” (2.166).

Prakriti urges her mother to speed up her act, because if she fails in her attempt to

draw him, she would have to return to the illusion of a Chandal birth. In addition to the

exercise of the spell, Prakriti also performs some ceremonies in order to make the pull even

stronger. At last Ananda comes with a distorted and agonized face. All the glow and radiance

of purity is missing.

At this crucial moment, a sudden change comes over her and she becomes

disheartened and perplexed as to what is going to offer him except her wretched self.

Moreover to her utter horror and dismay, the mirror reflects a completely distorted and

disfigured Ananda. This is not expected by Prakriti in the least and she realizes the folly of

her deed. Ananda devoid of radiance and purity is not the man to whom she wanted to

surrender herself. She realizes that true love expects nothing in return and implores her

mother to undo the spill. She is remorse-stricken to see Ananda coming before her with a

drooping head. The mother stops her spell and begs his pardon. The great lord forgives all

and the mother dies.

There are innumerable small and great symbols throughout the drama. The Kin‟s son

“hunting for the beast‟ symbolizes all those who see only the flesh of the woman and not her

soul. “The house of darkness‟ is the state of ignorance of the self. “Water” is the symbol of

love. “Black stone on my heart” is the weight of castle label. “Fire” is a great purifier and a

symbol of purity, “dust” symbolizes lowliness, “flower” is a symbol of woman; “bloom” is a

symbol of full development of soul; “light” symbolizes self-knowledge or love. Autumnal

clouds symbolize free floating things, detached persons like the monks. Prakriti utters “The

hurt will I bathe in the deep waters of my pain‟s Immensity”. (1.148).

This “pain‟s immensity” refers to the suffering heart of Prakriti and her unbound

oceanic love. When Prakriti says that her suffering and Ananda‟s sufferings are one, it

becomes a complex symbol. It is a union of souls. Souls unite through the fires of suffering.

She also speaks of the fusion, of “gold” and “copper” in the great fire. Gold stands for

Ananda and Copper for Prakriti, for Spirit and Earth, for Heaven and Earth. That is why she

tells him boldly in the end, “I have dragged you down to earth, how else you could raise me

to your heaven?” (2.168).

Thus in Chandalika, Prakriti stands for nature, Mother for the earth, the symbol of

patience, suffering and understanding. The primal spell may be taken as the force of

attraction in nature, particularly for sex, Ananda stands for spirit, the awakening and bliss,

even the word “Chandals” is made to represent people with mean spirits. The union of Ganga

and Jamuna is the union of the white and the dark of spirit and Nature, of Ananda and

Prakriti. The greatness of Chandalika les in the fact that within a short span, the writer was

able to embody so many higher ideals which make human life dignified and distinguished.

Of all the plays, Chitra and The Post Office can be considered as the most symbolic

plays. But they are mystical in nature and deal with personal quest. Chandalika can be

regarded as a study in contemporary social problems and at the same time it presents spiritual

drama of great interest in symbolic terms. The Tagore‟s vision of the universals behind the

particulars is effectively conveyed through these highly symbolic dramas. The following

chapter makes an attempt to summarize the findings of this study.

Chapter V

Conclusion

Rabindranath Tagore the Nobel Laureate is a poet, playwright, essayist, novelist,

short-story writer, musician, painter, academician and a philosopher. Commenting on the

influences of Tagore, Sastri says: “Indian Renaissance is Tagore and Tagore is Indian

Renaissance” (69). He is called “The flower of Indian Renaissance” (69) and Edward

Thompson praises him as an extraordinary dramatist. Tagore is a humanitarian to the

core. He sees deep into the human heart and portrays it with a remarkable understanding.

Tagore also pains nature in unforgettable colors. He feels the pulse of nature in her varying

moods. He is not the poet of Man and Nature‟ he is also a singer of God. Tagore‟s multi-

faced genius has found expression through dramas and novels, essays and short stories.

Tagore firmly believed that God could never be realized by discarding life and the

enjoyment of the good things of the world. To him, asceticism is only a negative virtue. Only

through love and compassion, and by accepting all bondage and attachment, one could realize

the supreme.

In Tagore‟s works the theme is man in relation to God. The King of the Dark

Chamber was the first of these attempts to invade the invisible. It was followed by The Post

Office.

The most prominent theme in almost all his poetical work revolves around the relation

between the Finite and the Infinite. To Him, God is no remote Absolute but an entity emoting

Sath, Chit and Ananda and the universe a joyous expression of god‟s play and human love a

step to the divine.

Tagore‟s attempt to fertilize this area between allegory and symbol could be seen in

some of his plays such as: The King of the Dark Chamber, The Post Office, Mukta-Dhara and

Red Oleanders. The Play is obviously an attempt to put into dramatic from the Vaishnava

philosophy of the relationship between God and the soul and the play is perfectly intelligible

to one who is acquainted with the philosophy.

Rabindranath Tagore has been the source of supreme inspiration to millions in

modern India. His works stir our spirit, refine our life and give profound satisfaction to our

mind. Hindu tradition influenced activity in the home itself. Tagore‟s family was educated,

enlightened and progressive unlike must of the orthodox and superstitious Hindu families. All

the family members had literary, artistic and progressive taste. There was much artistic

cultural and literary activity at his home. He had notable experiences, which expanded and

uplifted his mind and spirit. From his childhood, he was taught to chant in correct accents the

selected mantras from the Upanishads arranged by his father under the Upanishads were used

in daily worship.

The forest homes of ancient India (Tapovana) always had a special appeal to the mind

of Rabindranath Tagore. He was a philosopher, a religious teacher and practitioner. All his

activities were part of an undivided and ceaseless quest for self-realization through manifold

contact with world and life. Tagore writes, “Deliverance is not for me in renunciation; I feel

the embrace of freedom in a thousand bonds of delight‟. (Gitanjali verse No: 73). He

condemns isolation in ivory tower and makes a forceful plea for participation”. Where the

whole world finds its shelter.

The study has brought to light the following findings. The use of symbolism in plays

like, Chitra, The Post Office, and Chandalika are remarkably successful. The Post Office and

its success of symbolism could be attributed to the fact that it subordinates to naturalism to a

great extent. But Chitra and Chandalika are lyrical and poetic. In Chitra, and Chandalika the

context in which the symbols and images is not some nondescript would, like that of Red

Oleanders of The King of the Dark Chamber or even of Mukta-Dhara but the well-known

world of mythology and tradition, where as in The Post Office it is the recognizable world of

day-to-day life, in the context of which the very objects or phenomena belonging to real life

are transferred into symbols through „Poetry‟

Tagore‟s representation of human love finds a beautiful exposition in his play Chitra.

In this play, the central symbol is the offer of beauty by the gods Madana and Vasanta for a

span of a year. What is more remarkable is that there is no obvious exhibition of this symbol,

which grows so naturally and spontaneously out of the story that is nor noticed as a symbol in

the beginning at all.

The play is a journey from the physical attraction to the spiritual love and Chitra acts

as a bridge between two feelings. She gets infatuated towards the heroic splendor of Arjuna;

when Arjuna offers his love to Chitra and breaks his vow of celibacy for the sake of her

physical charm, she is not thrilled with joy. As days pass on, she becomes gradually stronger

and says:

Whom do you seek in these dark eyes, in these milk white arms, if you ready

to pay for her the price of your probity? Not my true self, I know. Surely this

cannot be loved; this is not man‟s highest to woman! Alas, that this frail

disguise, the body should make one blind to the light of deathless spirit! Yes,

now indeed, I know, Arjuna, the frame of your heroic manhood is false.

(1.11).

Before parting from Chitra, Arjuna accepts her in bliss when she casts on him a

tranquilizing spell. Chitra becomes all the more beautiful because she has known love and

because she is now a prospective mother.

The genesis of the play Chitra is significant. Once observing is early April the burst

blossoming in the trees, Tagore seems to have mused whether a woman would not look upon

her physical beauty as an enemy since it was apt, inspite of its transience, to engross the lover

to the point of ignoring the more enduring qualities of the mind and the soul. The beauty and

fragrance are the ultimate result. Bit men and woman are more than reproductive

mechanisms. They have grown a spiritual dimension. Hence to subsist or dies with its own

surfeit or turns to nausea or disgust instead.

Love and death are mindless in their choice of victims. They are impartial. Tagore is

seized by the idea that love is too long centered in the physical. He wishes to incarnate it in a

drama presenting the evolution of human love from the physical to the spiritual. He also finds

a suitable story from The Mahabharata.

In an article that he contributed to the Mysore University Magazine, J.C.Rollo

expressed the following idea:

Here you have particular people: Arjuna and Chitra …. Are every man, every

woman, and the problems facing them is that of wives and husbands from the

beginning to the end of time (Iyengar: 49).

The further point that Rollo tries to make is that Tagore‟s play presents a point of

view that is false because if sets up life as being above and also because it implies woman‟s

subordinate position to man. Real intension of Tagore is not to picture woman as a

subordinate of man. Tagore must have been aware that the rope which binds us all permits no

master slave relationship; it permits only mutual companionship.

The whole point of the play is that youth itself (with its freshness, strength and

beauty) is a student spring time miracle for it comes as it were suddenly, and fades away as

suddenly, as unaccountably. Chitra expresses Tagore‟s concept of love kin its varied aspects.

The play conveys the message that satisfaction of physical love should not be sought through

false and hypocritical means.

Youth and beauty are two important aspects on which love is built. It is “Nature‟s

trick” to bring about results, but hen man has learnt through the ages of his civilized existence

to improve upon, so soften, and to transcend this mere “trick‟ and make it the means of a

more integral and durable union that lasts a whole life time, and even overflows from

generation to generation. Because men and woman have evolved subtle methods of

seduction, assuming graces and powers far in excess of normality, there is also the risk of

greater disappointment, revulsion or disgust.

The progress of love is from the sensual to the spiritual. Arjuna‟s austerities fall like

an unwanted cloak when he sees Chitra in her “Frail disguise”- woman‟s body glowing with

the spring of her youth and he thirsts with new-awakened love. But neither Arjuna nor Chitra

is wholly at ease. She conquers her unease by boldly revealing the truth about herself. The

„false‟ woman redeems herself as the true mother-to-be. The sensual is transcended in the

spiritual, and the union is sanctified at lose.

Tagore‟s main purpose in writing the play Chitra seems to be to express his view of

life, religion, philosophy, etc., so, characterization gets only secondary importance. Like

Shakespeare and other great dramatists, he only not allow his characters to speak for

themselves. This play is more in the nature of a lyric. The whole play is surcharged with an

aroma of subtle poetic charm which pervades it from the beginning to the end. For example,

the following sentence illustrates this point: “tonight in its last hour let my beauty flash its

brightest like the final flicker of a dying flame.” (49).

Chitra lends itself to dramatic representation on the stage, in spite of its shortcomings

as a play. Tagore‟s object is to inculcate the lesson that mere physical love is not real love.

Physical love is no doubt an adjunct for the fulfillment of love. On the other hand, it is divine

and it calls for mutual understanding and adjustment between the lovers.

Tagore also shows himself an adept in the art of adapting the ancient puranic themes

to suit his views. The play is really a wonderful piece of work, as beautiful in its thought as in

its expression. Thus Chitra is a both a lyric and a play.

The Post Office (1912) was written during what is known as the Gitanjali period. The

Post Office achieved next only to Gitanjali, great popularity in the west. The critics naturally

got busy discovering profound meaning in the play, interpreting every bit of it as something

pregnant with significance.

The Post Office has a tighter structural unity and its meaning comes to us like a deep

dream of peace. Tagore is at his best he deals with children. A child is a wonder-world of its

own. The grown-ups usually do not understand the special hopes and fears of children. But

Tagore the child a symbol of the Infinite. And he describes with great tenderness the

„Childish‟ joys and anxieties for he has spent most of his days during the younger days at the

servants quarters. Sitting at the window, he would gaze like his own Amal in The Post Office.

In stories like the Cabuliwallah and Home Coming and poems like The Crescent Moon he has

given us moving pictures of children.

The symbolism in The Post Office is delicate and interpreted in more ways. Tagore is

however, reported to have rejected the suggestion that the play is symbolic. To him the

incidents in the play are very concrete.

In the play The Post Office, Tagore conveys the soul‟s longing for freedom. It is the

hope of freedom, the dream of wandering in wide open spaces that sustains Amal. Here,

Tagore interprets freedom as the inner condition of calmness rather than mere absence of

restraint. In Tagors‟s plays, in general, we find that a fascination for the mysterious and

unpredictable aspect of life goes hand in hand with deep concern for the crucial practical

problems faced by humanity. In the play The Post Office, Tagore is at his best as he deals

about a child Amal and his feelings of loneliness and his hope for freedom.

Tagore in his personal life has to face shocks and bereavement that would have

broken down any man. His misfortunes multiplied and he lost his daughter and son. These

bows are severe and left their traces in his poems. The feeling of loneliness and gloom with

which he tries to live down through prayer and meditation cast their shadow on

„Remembrance‟ and „Child‟. It is obvious that the loss of his daughter is the background.

Psychology of the child, its innocent joys, pointless curiosity, its sense of wonder, its

hankering for the unknown and the remote, are revealed in many of his poems. The sick boy

represents Tagore‟s boyhood and his own experience of loneliness and worldliness. The boy,

who is confined to the house, forgets his sickness with the help of his fertile imagination. He

is unlike any normal child, who would, at such a condition, indulge in self, pity. He faces his

end boldly.

In this symbolical drama, we are rarely cut off from the beauties of the open air, and if

a hidden truth reveals itself, it does so, not through abnormal instincts and emotions but

through the normal yearning of a child for the world stretching beyond his window.

It may also be pointed out in conclusion that The Post Office as well as the other

symbolic plays of Tagore acquires a contemporaneous relevancy when we come back to the

reading of the play from the vantage point of the recent Abstract Theatre. It is not a far-

fetched supposition to say that The Post Office can be fruitfully discussed in comparison with

a Nigerian play like Wole Soyinka‟s The Road or an American play like Edward Albee‟s

Tiny Alice.

Amal is just a nice boy, with all the impulses and attitudes which Tagore considered

as healthy and creative. He is imaginative, adventurous, innocent, and spontaneous in his

responses, gentle, loving, naturally sympathetic, observant, and full of hunger for experience.

His imaginative identification with things around is so intense that he wants to be and do so

many things.

Amal‟s desires and fancies arise spontaneously out of the situations that he

encounters, the characters and the situations may be representative and suggestive, radiating

meaning other than the surface one , but one can‟t be definite about them.

The King symbolizes the Almighty God. The King‟s physician brings the message of

emancipation through death and thus completes the symbolical meaning of the play.

The Post Office is one of the most frequently performed on the stage in many

countries. Apart from the for that it is a very moving little piece, the dramatic interest is kept

alive throughout. After a performance of the play in London, the Irish poet Yeats had

commented: “The play conveys and emotion of gentleness and peace.” (Ghose: 63) Indeed in

spite of Amal‟s silent suffering, the dominant mood in the play is tranquility.

We might say that The Post Office is essentially a naturalistic play with a number of

symbolic overtones. The play is successful, because the naturalistic level is maintained

throughout-even in the last scene in which there is “Fantasy”. The play‟s roots are essentially

in actuality, in life, and it is because of this, it has attained greatness. This is not to deny that

there are many hidden meanings as suggested by the critics of Tagore, but the point of

analysis has been to assert its basic, realistic level and leave the play to radiate its meanings

to readers according to their sensibility and spiritual kinship with the philosophy of Tagore.

Chandalika is not a voice against untochability rather a story of Prakriti‟s spiritual

rebirth, „her redemption,‟ „a message of liberation‟ and the second coming of Lord Buddha(in

the name of „Ananda;.) her wild physical desire surrenders before Ananda resplendent with

the light of truth; perhaps Tagore wants to highlight the enigmatic character of woman, the

character of being all-dominating and over possessive to devour all that stands before her,

precisely, her excessive materialistic approach that ultimately fails before spiritual

manifestations. Tagore presents a psychological study of a young woman who suffer on

account of her vanity and self-consciousness.

In Chandalika the central operative symbol is that of „giving‟. Prakriti the Chandals

girl gives water to Ananda. Ananda gives her the awareness of self, a new birth. Prakriti, in

turn, longs to give herself (her ego-bound physical self) to Ananda; but this kind of giving

goes with possession. Prakriti‟s mother offers to give her life for the sake of her daughter by

under taking to work the magic spell which would drag Ananda to Prakriti. Though

sympathy, pity and love, through her identification with Ananda‟s suffering, Prakriti realizes

that after all this what she had desired to give him (i.e., her physical self) is nothing but her

„Wretched self‟. The play ends with three different „giving‟: Prakriti gives Ananda his

freedom; Ananda gives her deliverance, and a spiritual rebirth which is superior to the „ego-

birth that he had given her earlier‟.

Prakriti‟s mother gives her life itself; her sacrifice helps her to bring about the

spiritual union (which is but mutual giving of „Mukti‟) of Prakriti and Ananda. Some of the

important contributory symbols are: (a) Water-water as a concrete symbol is associated with

Prakriti‟s rebirth; and the water image (as language) is used in a variety of contexts with a

variety of meanings; (b). The magic spell-the spell of the Earth (of Matter), the ancient spell,

„as old as life itself,‟ which drags Ananda (Pursha, Spirit) to Prakriti (Matter); The Magic

Mirror-symbolic of Prakriti‟s gradual self-realization, her „seeing‟ the truth and also her

gradual identification with Ananda (her self-realization taking place through her

identification with Ananda: a mirror normally reflects one‟s self, and here the magic mirror

reflects Ananda).

In Chandalika, too, as in Chitra the symbols are organically connected with the theme

and the story, and the symbolic level never clashes with the surface poetic-realistic level. In

both Chitra and Chandalika, the two levels are so perfectly fused that one naturally feels that

the conception of these plays must have been the outcome of a dynamic process of

imagination, a kind of creative churning that brings forth feminine, living symbols.

The greatness of Chandalika lies in the fact that within a short span, the writer is able

to embody so many higher ideals which make human life dignified and distinguished. True

love wins. Tagore, we have seen, experimented with symbolism in a number of ways, varying

between dogged, self-conscious, manipulation, spontaneous and unconscious. His plays The

Post Office, Chitra and Chandalika have experimented with the interaction of symbols and

their contents, and the contexts were traditional, mythological, naturalistic, completely self-

created, social-political and metaphysical. We have found that Tagore was successful when

he lodged his symbols in traditional or mythological contexts and when he allowed them to

grow out of a naturalistic context. Tagore‟s manifold experimentation indicates that his

symbolism always goes with a certain amount of palpable design; it is successfully used in an

apparent mode of expression and also to illustrate a proposition or to drive a point home. It

also medicates that when his symbolism is genuine and mature, as in Chitra, The Post Office,

and Chandalika, it turns the works into magic mirrors which offer significant heights into

human life along with profound aesthetic experiences.

Tagore‟s claim to eminence as a playwright consists in the large number and

versatility of his drama, in their undisputed literary excellence, in their suitability for

successful presentation of the stage and last but not least in the vision of a higher life that he

presents in them. The provide a rich feast to the eye, ear, mind heart and soul.

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