Anandamath
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| Author | Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay |
|---|---|
| Publisher | |
| Released | 1882 |
Anandamatha (Bangla: আনন্দমঠ Anondomôţh) is a famous Bengali novel, written by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay and published in 1882. Set in the background of the Sannyasi Rebellion in the late 1700s, it is considered one of the most important novels in the history of Bengali and Indian literature. Its importance is heightened by the fact that it became synonymous with the struggle for Indian independence from the British Empire. The word Anandamatha can be roughly translated as The temple of joy.
TheAnandmath begins at an apocalyptic moment. It is 1769AD (1176 BS) and the British have just established a toehold in Bengal after the Battle of Plassey. There is a famine in Bengal—Mahendra Singh, his beautiful wife, Kalyani, and their little daughter Sukumari, are leaving their ancestral home in Padachina to tread the broad road to Calcutta. Though Mahendra is a rich landlord, he and his family are starving. Everywhere men, women, children and cattle are dying of hunger. Famished and angry, the impoverished villagers have taken to dacoity. Yet the tax collectors of the Government are unrelenting. Clearly, after the loss of Muslim rule, Bengal has been reduced to beggary.
Mahendra is separated from his wife and daughter. Satyananda, the master of Anand Math rescues Kalyani and Sukumari from a group of robbers. Anand Math is located in deep forest. Bhavanananda, on Satyananda's behest, brings Mahendra to the forest. Here Bhavanananda bursts into a song
Mahendra, astonished to hear a song, and wondering what mother stands for remarks, "This refers to a country, and not to a mortal mother." Bhavanananda then says that Mother India is their Mother, and all other relationships for them are nonexistent. Hearing these words, Mahendra too joins the song. He learns that the "Children" (Adult sanyasis of Anand Math) are organising a revolt against the British to free the "Mother India".
Mahendra refuses to take the vow of utter devotion to Mother India, which meant renouncing his wife and child. His wife refusing to be a weakening factor in her husband's discharge of duties poisons herself. Before Mahendra could cremate his wife, he and Satyananda are arrested. Jiban, Mahatma's right hand man, finds Sukumari and entrusts her to the loving care of his sister. In the process, he meets his wife Shanti, who he had vowed not to see before his duty is done. Bhavanananda saves the life of Kalyani and becomes entranced by her beauty. Mahendra thinks that is wife is dead, and eventually gets initiated into the order of sanyasis. "Children" rescue Mahatma and Mahendra from the jail, but are defeated by British forces in a pitched battle, where spears and swords of sanyasis lose to cannons and guns of British.
Shanti, Jibanananda's wife, was a woman with a difference. She dressed like boys throughout her childhood, and had travelled far and wide with a group of sanyasis. She was both mentally and physically strong and possessed charming features. She too enters the order, dressed as man to be christened Navinananda. But soon after Satyananda finds out her real identity. She convinces him with her physical strength and demeanour that she would not hamper her husband on his discharge of duties. Mahendra is sent to Padachina, entrusted with the task of building a fort there. Satyananda planned that the fort to act as treasury and factory for manufacturing arms. Shanti is allowed to stay in Anand Math. Her new role both surprises and pleases Jibanananda, and she keeps him away and alert of his duties.
The famine ends, but in absence of living population, dense forests replace the erstwhile villages. "Children" are able to entice many hundred followers into their order. The "Children" slowly start to gain strength, and defeat British forces in many minor clashes, looting their arms and treasuries. Bhavanananda falls in love with Kalyani, and is willing to break all his vows to make her his wife. Kalyani shooes him away and he realises that death was his only his atonement.
The British, under the command of Captain Thomas, attack the " children". After a hard-pitched battle, the "children" humble the British. The British were about to win, when seventeen cannons from Padachina arrive well in time at the battlefield turning the tide in favor of the "Children". Bhavanananda dies in this battle. Kalyani, Sukumari and Mahendra, and Jibananada and Shanti all happily reunite at the fort of Padachina. The British, once humbled, now relaunched a strategic offensive against the "Children" under the command of Major Edwards. The British are again defeated, Jibanananda fights like a superhero, fighting alone, when his compatriots desert him, succumbs to multiple injuries and is lost in heaps of dead in battlefield. Shanti finds him, a mysterious Mahatma heals him and disappears. Jibanananda role in Service of Mother ends with this sacrifice. A revived Jibanananda and Shanti walk away hand in hand. Singing songs, they soon disappear out of sight.
