Krishna Charitra (eBook)

Sri Aurobindo had called Bankim Chandra a rishi. In 1882, Reverend Hastie, a Scottish missionary, began to publish severe criticisms on Hinduism in The Statesman. Bankim decided to challenge his accusations. Under the pseudonym of Ram Chandra, he replied with vigour to the missionary's charges in the columns of the same paper. Until then, Bankim had made his name as a literary stylist. But from that time onwards, he turned more and more into a spiritual thinker. He devoted the last years of his life to examining the essence of religion and putting them in writing. Sri Krishna is an enormous Indian icon for more than three thousand years. He represents love, devotion, wisdom and beauty. Bankim Chandra eagerly took up the study of Sri Krishna in India's vast cosmology. Bankim Chandra's Krishna Charitra is the longest and the most famous of his works in this category. Krishna Charitra is a wonderful classic and a great work that showcases intense erudition. While translating, however, I have left out certain portions, some small and some large, of that wonderful effort, as I felt that, for the readers I have in mind, they would be too lengthy and obscure. Bankim Chandra has been exceedingly thorough in his undertaking. He discusses roots of words at length to seek out their real meanings, compares statements by Sanskrit scholars, declares his own judgements on them, and reflects on philosophical concepts. He does all this to defend his thesis. Moreover, he simultaneously deals with the difficult task of convincing a large readership of 19th century Bengal, immersed in Krishna-bhakti, of the validity of his search for Sri Krishna, the real person, hidden behind centuries of myths and legends. As it should be, Bankim explains his methodology in detail in Section I of his book. Here, he also discusses the sources of his research material. Section I is divided into seventeen chapters. I have specifically chosen to cut short this part (rephrased as Section I in this book) to reduce the overload of data which, I reiterate, a genuine thesis would need, but would be of little interest to the common readers. The other chapters of the book (from Section II to Section VII), however, have been translated in greater detail. Then, in the course of his work, Bankim Chandra has often expressed his exasperation with the European people. These outbursts, however, are quite irrelevant after six decades of India's independence. So, most of such passages have also been omitted. It is said that making a translation is like serving two masters at the same time. Languages do differ in their grammatical and syntactical structures. And, a translator must meet the demands of the receiving language, while remaining true to the source language. I dare to think that I have not made many compromises. The primary purpose of my effort is to present to the readers a specimen of Bankim's robust power of reasoning and to show what truth he found about his beloved deity. A comprehensive review of Bankim Chandra's Krishna Charitra by Rabindranath Tagore (in translation) and a few of my short notes have been attached to the present work to put the study in the right perspective.