Then followed the marvellous philosophical conversation between Savitri and the god of Death. There is something almost classical in the calm dignity of Savitri’s speeches, as when she addresses Death:
I know that in this transient world
All is delusion – nothing true
I know its shows are mists unfurled
To please and vanish. To renew
Its bubble joys, 10 be magic bound
In Maya’s Network frail and fair
Is not my aim! 11
Yama was so impressed by her words that he bade her ask for other favours than the restoration of Satyavan’s life or the taking of her own. Savitri asked for regaining the eyesight as well as the throne, which her father in law had lost due to some reasons.
Yama easily granted the boon. Again, Savitri started conversing prudently with Yama and tried to interpret death as love. She finds in his voice a sense of truth and kindness that can dissolve the false lights of any objects. Savitri praised the God of Death, in these beautiful words:
O god! All other gods above!
And that thou conquerest in the fight
By patience, kindness, mercy, love
And not by devastating wrath.
They would not shrink in childlike fright
To see thy shadow on their path
But hail thee as sick souls the light.12
The true character of Yama comes out clearly in her speech. People are afraid of Yama and call him, cruel, unkind and unjust but he, in reality is full of, ‘the milk of human kindness’.13 ‘Human love triumphs over humanity’s greatest foe. Nay, more Savitri looks unafraid into the very face of the King of Terrors, and finds it good!’ 14
Yama was so moved by her words. He decided to bless Savitri with another boon. This time Savitri demanded that her own father be blessed with a hundred sons. It was gladly granted to her.
Then she applied another persuasive logic to convince the god of Death. She refused to leave his company, as the way seems shorter to her when Death and Satyavan accompanied her. She praises death:
Of all the pleasures given on earth
The company of the good is best, 15
Oh let me, let me ever dwell
Amidst the good wherever it be. 16 In order to make her speech effective she further says :
The favours man accord to men
Are never fruitless from them rise
A thousand acts beyond our ken
That floats like incense to the skies
For benefits can near efface,
They multiply and widely spread,
And honour follows on their trace.17
Savitri’s magnificent speech again filled Yama’s heart with delight and he promised to give her one more boon before he left for his own dim domain. Fortunately, Yama laid down no conditions this time. Savitri immediately caught the clue and within no time she demanded:
Let my Satyavan live again,
And children into us born
Wise brave and valiant.18
Yama had to give in and he loosened the knot that bound Satyavan’s soul and blessed Savitri and disappeared in flame. As for Savitri, she has become immortal among the Hindus and her name is remembered with great respect at every Hindu marriage. She becomes immortal because of her strong will, selfless love and sense of duty.19 Toru dutt concludes the story in this manner:
To this day,
Her name is named, when couples wed
And to the bride the parents say,
Be thou like her in heart and head. 20
Of all the ballads contained in Ancient Ballads and Legend of Hindustan, Savitri holds a significant place because of its length and quality. On the one hand, it presents the ideals of Indian womanhood, on the other; it highlights the fundamentals of Vedantic philosophy.
The next legend Lakshman, is taken from the forty-fifth cantos of Aranya Kandam of the Ramayana. This legend is about the touching dialogue between Sita and Lakshman. Rama had incurred the wrath of the demons, by refusing the advances of the sister of Ravana, the lord of the monsters. In order to retaliate, Ravana, the chief ordered Maricha to assume the shape of a golden deer and come roaming about the hermitage where Rama, Sita and Lakshman dwelt. Struck by the exquisiteness of the deer, Sita begged Rama to get it for her and despite Lakshman’s forebodings, for he suspected it to be Maricha in disguise, Rama went off in pursuit of the elusive deer, leaving his wife in Lakshman’s charge with strict instructions not to leave her at any cost, Lakshman’s suspicions proved true. Rama, after a long chase of the elusive deer finally shot an arrow, which pierced it to the heart with on terrific bounce, the creature sprang up then fell to the ground roaring terribly and assumed its natural form as it lay dying. Nevertheless, Maricha did not forget the revenge even in death and as per Ravana’s orders began to imitate Rama’s voice crying out as if in mortal pain ‘Oh, Sita! Oh, Lakshman!’ It is at this point that the poem Lakshman actually starts. Sita heards the cry and urges Lakshman to go to her husband’s help. In her fear, Sita speculates that Rama is terribly hurt by his enemies and that he is now struggling for life. Sita scolds Lakshman for his inaction and not speeding to the rescue.
Lakshman consoles her, tries to disapprove her doubts of her husband’s power and strengths, and advises her to wipe off her inauspicious tears.
Lakshman tells her that demons, ghosts and gods are equally afraid of his might and that the cry she has heard must be ‘some trick of magic by the foe’. He is disinclined to go as he has been deputed for her security. But a woman’s doubts are too strong to be reduced and Sita harps on the old tune and blames Lakshman on different grounds including cowardice. She attributes his reluctance to go to a baser motive accusing him of desiring Rama’s death so that he may take possession of his wife and kingdom.
The real literary beauty of the poem consists in the way the poet builds up the psychological and spiritual tension. Lakshman finally decided to go to rescue his brother from demons. The poem presents an insight into the strength of the bonds that binds the members of an Indian family. Harihar Das remarks that “No where, we think, outside Indian thought could we get so perfect a picture of brotherly loyalty”.21 Lakshman remains loyal to the instructions of Rama and Sita is not the Sita of Ramayana, a perfect embodiment of virtue, but a woman of the common rank. Sita is foolish, cruel, and perverse, but Lakshman is wise, gentle, and understanding. Against his better judgment, he leaves her alone in the forest
Toru scores again through the simple sufficiency of her clear understanding of the tragedy at the heart of this old world order. 22
Through Jogadhya Uma, Toru Dutt attains the final stage of maturity as a poet. It belongs to the folklore of Bengal. One of the possible sources for the particular folktale is a legend of the lake of Ranjit Rai on the way to Kamarpur in Hoogly district while another can be related to the event of the three-day festival of Vaishaki Purnima at Khirogram in Burdwan district.
This poem is unique for its dreamy, mystic beauty. Its theme is not drawn from any of the great epics or Puranas of Sanskrit but from folklore. 23 It is a well-known legend of the people and was told originally to Toru by an old family nurse, Suchee. She was fully devoted to Hindu belief, “of whom all the children were very fond”,
This poem opens with the description of a pedlar walking along the road to Khirogram in the early morning. He was then hawking:
Shell – bracelets ho! Shell – bracelets ho!
Fair maids and matrons come and buy! 24
It was so early that there were few to hear his cry. Presently a turn in the road brought him to a lonely spot where lay a beautiful tank shadowed by fruit trees. On the one side, of this tank a wide flight of marble steps ran from an entrance arch down to the water’s edge where, facing the morning light there sat a lovely maiden with fascinating eyes and long dark hair. The pedlar stopped to display his wares. His bracelets, he declared, were charms to ‘keep a lover ever true and widowhood avert’. As the maiden stretched
out her hand, the pedlar slipped a bracelet on the slender wrist, marvelling at her extraordinary beauty:
No painter’s hand might hope to trace
The beauty and the glory there!
Well might the pedlar look with awe,
For though her eyes were soft a ray
Lit them at times which kings who saw
Would never dare to disobey.25
Here Toru has convincingly depicted Uma’s divine–human features. As the pedlar watched her when she upraised her arm against the sun, an indefinable air of imperial dignity about her filled him with awe. She tossed aside the straying curls from face and brow as she asked the price of the bracelet then promised him to get payment at her home. He enquired about her house. In response to his question, she said that her father, an old and poor priest, would pay for the bracelet. He lived in the temple whose ‘lofty glided spire’ appeared in the distance. If he (the father) said that he had no money, the pedlar was to ask him to open the vermilion- streaked box near the shrine where the money would be found. Charmed by the music of her sweet voice, the pedlar went to do her bidding and the maiden prepared to sink into the water pure.
Following the directions given, the pedlar easily reached the temple, where Cattle, flowers and tinkling bells spoke in a language sweet and plain. Unconsciously he cried out “Shell bracelet ho!” and in response a hospitable old priest came out and invited him to share in the temple feast.
Here once again we find the fundamental nature of Indian hospitality. The pedlar gratefully accepted the proffered hospitality and then explained the purpose of his arrival. Hearing the purpose the priest responded quickly:
No daughters in the world have I,
An only son is all my stay
Some minx has played a trick no doubt.26
But the pedlar, tried to convince the priest that the maiden with such a divine face could never deceive him. In order to fortify his comment, he repeated the directions concerning the vermilion – streaked box. The priests with a sense of astonishment fetched the box, opened it and behold in it the exact sum, ‘nor surplus over, and no lack’ needed to pay the bracelet. At once the old man realized that the vision of the goddess, which he had so long aspired for, had come suddenly to the simple pedlar.
The pedlar also realized the fact and remembering the awe-inspiring beauty of the maiden; he quickly dropped the basket and set out at full speed for the tank, followed by the priest. But to their utter disappointment, nobody was there except a solitary heron stood sentinel. On the bank of the pond, a deep silence thus seemed to have fallen over the face of nature.
With heavy heart both the pedlar and the priest turned back, all of a sudden the chime of temple bells started to ring and they requested the goddess to show some sign of her presence, ‘A word, a breath or passing gleam’. As they waited anxiously, there was a sudden disturbance among the lotus buds covering the surface of water and a beautiful rounded arm wearing the white bracelet sprang out of the water for an instant. Swiftly the arm sank down in the water. The priest and the pedlar bowed down to ‘the mystic power and before they turned back home ward they pulled out a lotus bud each to be treasured’ in memory of the day and spot. Ever since that day the descendants of the pedlar have annually paid a tribute to the temple, ‘Shell – bracelets of the old design’. In this way, they still acknowledge the gratitude they feel towards the goddess who, from that eventful day had crowned their business with success.
In other words, we can say that Jogadhya Uma is about the unexpected appearance of the goddess Uma to a simple pedlar, and not to a ritualistic priest. In this ballad, simplicity of heart is placed above blind worship. The greatness of the goddess as well as the beauty of her appearance fascinates the reader most. It is a very lovely tale and a charming folk legend.27 It is a beautiful idea, and there are thousands of such ideas about in our India. Toru did full justice to the appearance of a goddess in the guise of a simple girl. 28
Toru’s originality has touched a new height in this ballad. The way Toru concludes the poem is marvellous. We find an antique flavor in it. The substance, setting as well as the treatment is all essentially Indian. In the last few lines Toru has given the hint about the possible source of the poem:
Absurd may be the tale I tell
Ill suited to the marching times
I loved the lips from which it fell
So let it stand away my rhymes.29
Obviously, this source is Indian. Toru selected to write this ballad in order to give the Western reader an insight into the simple piousness of our ancient Indian folklore. ‘Although she had parted from her ancient faith and become a Christian, it would have been a poem destined to live in the religious poetry of Hinduism, and take a place among the songs of the people’.30 It also emphasizes that simplicity is a greater devotion than ritualistic practice with its paraphernalia of superstitions and blind beliefs.
The Royal Ascetic and the Hind :
The legend of Jada Bharat in The Royal Ascetic and the Hind retells the story from the 13th canto of the second section of Vishnu Purana. The ballad opens in the form of a dialogue between Maitreya and Parasura. It narrates the failure of life of asceticism of King Bharat.
King Bharat left behind all his royal comforts and pleasures at home and went out to a forest to lead a life of a hermit in order to attain perfect dominion on his soul; and detachment from ‘wealth and love and fame’. Unexpectedly an incident that took place in the forest changed the whole course of his life. He once went out to take a bath where through the wood the river flows, after which he sat down on the bank for meditation and prayers. Meanwhile, an attractive pregnant hind came there to drink water. While drinking, she heard a lion’s roar, ‘like a thunder – clap’ burst in that solitude from a thicket’ nearby, started the hind left to death and her offspring tumbled from her womb into the flowing water and struggled for life there. The scene before him moved the king and he drew out the newborn creature from the wave, as his mother was no more, he decided to take it to his own hut. He brought up that little fawn with utmost care and tenderness until it grew in stature and in strength. A fount of love burst forth in the heart of the hermit king and he could not think anything besides the little hind, his nursling. It affected his prayers and penances. After many years when death visited him, Bharat’s heart was still filled with distress at leaving his little fawn and not with the problem of Death and Eternity.
Toru concludes the poem with a strong defense of the hermit king’s conduct and condemns the ideal of asceticism. The clash of two ideals -asceticism and love is in the core of this poem. The king Bharat, a great ascetic becomes a deep lover of a hind under certain circumstances and forgets altogether about Eternity and God. This attachment for the ascetic with the hind is not to be seen as his return to the web of Maya, on the contrary it under scores the philosophy of love and involvement. In the poem Toru reads a little lecture to the ascetics for their renunciation of the world because the poet believes that man can justify his existence by accepting life in its full form:
Not in seclusion, not apart from all,
Not in the place elected for its peace.
But in the heat and bustle of the world
‘Mid sorrow, sickness, suffering and sin,
Must he still labour with a living soul?
Who strives to enter through the narrow gate.31
In this ballad, love gets upper hand over painstaking asceticism; Toru upholds the right to love and questions the ethics of abandoning the world entirely, as the sages of India were went to do. 32 In fact, Toru was mistaken that, it is implied in the original that by seeking the love of a forlorn hind Bharat had failed in his yoga.
The legend of Dhruva :
The legend of Dhruva, is also taken from the Vishnu Purana (Book I, Chapter XI-XI). It relates the story of a prince, Dhruva, the son of a less favoured queen Suneetee. Dhruva was an ambitious, indignant child, anxious to get the love of his father. Suruchee, the favoured
queen, did not like this because she wanted that the king’s love be exclusively reserved for her own son Uttama. One day, Suruchee could not control her anger when she saw Dhruva sharing the king’s attention with her son. She scolds Dhruva to give up his proud ambition. This insult was unbearable to Dhruva, tears rolled down his cheeks. Ashamed and devastated with rage and indignation he ran to his mother’s room and narrated the whole incident.
The helpless and abandoned Suneatee heard all and sighed deeply. She tried to console her distraught son, explaining him the Hindu doctrine of Karma in these simple but evocative words:
The deed that thou hast done,
The evil, haply, in some former life,
The sins of previous lives must bear their fruit.33
She explained him that Suruchee is beloved of the king because of her glorious actions done in some previous birth and we are suffering for our ancient sins. It all depends upon our previous actions or Karam of our past. In the same way, she assured:
That man is truly wise
Who is content with what he has, and seeks?
Nothing beyond, but in whatever sphere,
Lowly or great, God placed him, works in faith;34
Though proud and haughty Suruchee spoke harsh words to Dhruva and hurt him, still her mother said:
Yet to thine eyes thy duty should be plain.
Collect a large sum of the virtues; thence
A goodly harvest must to thee arise.35
She also told him the prospect of future reward in case he lived his present life well and advised him:
Be meek, devout, and friendly, full of love,
Intent to do good to the human race
And to all creatures sentient made of God.36
Dhruva patiently listened to her words but found no respite from his agony and anguish. He was quite upset by her stepmother’s rude behavior. Far from choosing humility as his goal; he decided to seek for himself his rightful place, whatever difficulties he had to face:
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