Mrityunjay

Name of the book: Mrityunjay

Publishers name: Orchid Publication

Writer: Birendra Kumar Bhattacharyya

Translated by: D.N. Bezboruah

Number of pages: 411

Price: Rs 250

In the name of the country

Conflict is the predominant theme of Mrityunjay, the Assamese novel that won Birendra Kumar Bhattacharyya the Jnanpith Award in 1979. In the turbulent eddies of the Quit India Movement, the dichotomy between the Gandhian path to independence and the more revolutionary vision of some others has been intricately woven into this volume.

In 1942, Bhattacharyya had witnessed the Barapathar derailment. Twentyeight years later, he created Mrityunjay, a graphic tale of the Panikhaiti derailment, which killed hundreds of soldiers of the British Raj. The plot brings together the rustic and the religious, the urbane and the patriotic, in a collective spirit that conquers death as it were, hence mrityunjay. The narrative is so visually resplendent that it could well work as a film script. With the sturdy delineation of the primary protagonists — the irreverent Dhanpur, the saintly Mahat Goswami, Aahina Konwar, Bhibhiram, Lairam, Prince Baneswar, Rupnarayan, among others, the characterisation is almost faultless, not merely symbolic or ideological.

The sum total of the conflict that rages in these characters is evident as an undercurrent throughout. The backdrop is the struggle raging in Nowgong of that era, where martyrs Bhogeswari Phukanani and Tilak Deka shine as an inspiration for this bunch of patriots who are unafraid to die.

The ambit of characterisation includes Nature in large measure. There are passages where Nature charmingly suffuses the emotion of the moment; at others, the vivid description of the landscape or fauna lends a dramatic dimension to the sequence of developments. Examples abound — the green hills of Assam, the rivers and banyan trees that act as a foil or add poignancy to the situational interplay of events.

The translation into English by D.N. Bezboruah is commendable, especially in the case of verse; he has painstakingly ensured the rhyme sequences. There are a few stilted passages (as in "Do you think they are going to give up so easily what goes with them even up to their deaths?") Local nuances, such as the "By Krishna" prefix used by Vaishnavites, does jar when read in English. But these are pitfalls common to all translations.

Comparisons with other novels of the period, such as Bankim Chandra Chattopadyay’s Anandamath, would be irrelevant because Bhattacharyya’s canvas is restricted to a small portion of the freedom struggle. But what makes it a panoramic interplay of events and characterisation is his vision and capacity to give a single incident the universality and permanence one associates with true art.

SUDIPTA BHATTACHARJEE

Published on July 1, 2011