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Pather Panchali(novel)

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Pather Panchali
AuthorBibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay
Original titleপথের পাঁচালী
LanguageBengali
SeriesBichitra
GenreBildungsroman,tragedy, family drama
PublisherRanjan Prakashalay,BY1336,
Publication date
BY1336, CE1929
Publication placeIndia
Followed byAparajito

Pather Panchali(Bengali:পথের পাঁচালী,Pôther Pãchali;transl. Song of the Little Road[1]) is a 1929novelwritten byBibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyayand was later adapted into a 1955film of the same namebySatyajit Ray.Considered to be one of the greatest literary works describing rural life,Pather Panchalideals with the life of the Roy family, both in their ancestral village in ruralBengaland later when they move toVaranasiin search of a better life, as well as the anguish and loss they face during their travels.

History[edit]

It first appeared as aserialin aCalcuttaperiodical in 1928[2]and was published as a book the next year;[3]it was thefirst published novelwritten by the author.[4]It was followed in 1932 by a sequelAparajito,which was adapted into a 1956film of the same nameby Satyajit Ray.

Plot[edit]

Horihor Ray, an impoverishedBrahmin,lives in the village of Nischindipur. Indir Thakrun, an old widowed woman, who had nobody to look after her, takes shelter in the house of Horihor, to whom she is distantly related. Horihor's wife Shorbojoya, an ill-tempered lady, cannot bear the sight of the old woman. She is therefore given a tumble-down thatched hut to live in. However, Durga, Shorbojoya's six-year-old daughter, is very fond of Indir Thakrun and stays with her for hours to listen to fairy-tales.[5]

After some time, Shorbojoya gives birth to a son. Shorbojoya is jealous of Indir Thakrun as she thinks that Durga is more fond of the old woman than of her mother. Indir Thakrun is mercilessly turned out of the hut for a trifling reason. The helpless old woman implores for shelter in her dying moments but she is heartlessly refused; she passes away in arice-barn.[5]

Four or five years later, the boy named Apu grows up to be very inquisitive and sensitive to the beauty and mystery of nature. He and his elder sister Durga are always out for some new adventures like roaming through the forests, taking part in indigenous games and plucking flowers and fruits stealthily. Apu is admitted into the village school where many village elders assemble and talk on diverse subjects. Apu is taken by his father to a client's house. It is the first time that Apu gets a glimpse of the outside world which fills his mind with joy and excitement. The village festivity, the fair, and theJatraperformance, all bring variety and thrill to the monotonous flow of village life. Durga, restless yet innocent, dies suddenly, plunging the whole family into grief and leaving her little brother all alone. Horihor leaves home for a long period and struggles desperately to earn a livelihood. After returning home he decides to leave Nischindipur. They pack up and go to the railway station. As the train steams in, they board the train leaving behind Nischindipur forever with its many sweet and sour memories.[5]

Translations[edit]

Pather Panchaliwas translated first to Telugu under the same name by Maddipatla Suri in 1960 and published. It was translated to Sinhalese under the nameMawathe Geethaya(Sinhala) byChintha Lakshmi Sinhaarachchiand published in 1986.[6]This was immensely popular in Sri Lanka and was followed by the translations of the other two books of the Apu trilogy by the same translator.

Pather Panchaliwas translated into Malayalam under the name,Pather Panchali - Paathayuday Sangeethamby Mr. M. K. N. Potty, which was first published in April 2009 by Green Books Pvt Ltd., Trichur, Kerala.

An English translation by T.W. Clark and Tarapada Mukherji was published in 1968[7]by Indiana University Press as part of theUNESCO Collection of Representative Works,and an abridged translation by K. Roy and Margaret Chatterjee followed in 1976.[8]

An adaptation for radio by Tanika Gupta was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on 24 February & 3 March 2013 as a "Classic Serial".[9]

References[edit]

  1. ^Pather Panchali,Oxford University Press,ISBN0-19-565709-8
  2. ^Robinson, Andrew(1989).Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye.University of California Press. p.74.ISBN978-0-520-06946-6.
  3. ^Sekhar, Saumitra (2012)."Pather Panchali".InIslam, Sirajul;Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.).Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh(Second ed.).Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.Archivedfrom the original on 1 April 2016.Retrieved12 March2016.
  4. ^Encyclopaedia of Indian literature.Vol. 1. Sahitya Akademi. 1987. p. 365.ISBN81-260-1803-8.Archivedfrom the original on 16 September 2023.Retrieved27 November2008.
  5. ^abcGeorge, K. M.,ed. (1993).Modern Indian Literature: an Anthology: Fiction.Vol. 2. New Delhi: Sahitya Akademi. pp. 112–113.ISBN81-7201-506-2.
  6. ^Mawathe Geethaya.Chintha Lakshmi Sinhaarachchi (trans.). Wijesooriya Grantha Kendraya. 2003.ISBN978-955-652-027-9.{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: others (link)
  7. ^"Pather Panchali. Song of the Road".Allen & Unwin - UNESCO (and Indiana University Press, Bloomington and London).Archivedfrom the original on 2 November 2016.Retrieved13 September2015.
  8. ^"Pather Panchali. A Bengali Novel".Unesco.org.Archivedfrom the original on 2 November 2016.Retrieved3 August2012.
  9. ^"Pather Panchali--Song of the Road".British Broadcasting Corporation.Archivedfrom the original on 20 May 2015.Retrieved3 March2013.

External links[edit]

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