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This is what the protagonist of the novel believes in.
Someone who found comfort in unrest, Chitralekha, is portrayed as a woman of exceptional beauty and wisdom.A courtesan who can be seen musing over the philosophy of life and love and seen debating and putting great hermits to shame.
Beejgupt and Kumargiri are the other two main characters who just bring life to the story with their different personalities and
जीवन हलचल है, परिवर्तन है, और हलचल तथा परिवर्तन में सुख और शान्ति का कोई स्थान नहीं!This is what the protagonist of the novel believes in.
Someone who found comfort in unrest, Chitralekha, is portrayed as a woman of exceptional beauty and wisdom.A courtesan who can be seen musing over the philosophy of life and love and seen debating and putting great hermits to shame.
Beejgupt and Kumargiri are the other two main characters who just bring life to the story with their different personalities and remarkable opposing ideologies.
Have not we all pondered upon the great mysteries of life? Why are we born for? What is love, god all about? Here in the novel you can find pretty interesting philosophical answers to everything.The main topic in the plot was the definition of sin and virtue, and we go on to witness characters stating and pointing out what sin means to them.
The conclusion we reach upon in the end is that there is no such thing as a sin, we are puppets tied down to the circumstances and we do what we have to do.
I did see the story as an approach to show the power of beauty,attraction and love too, how it influences our human minds and how we tend to get manipulated running after those desires.
If you like philosophy this book would surely give you food for thought and enrich your search for deeper meanings, for the rest of the readers its just the ramblings we do after drinking like a fish.
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An okayish novel. Nepali translation is full of errors. Silly spelling mistakes. This book really needs a copy-editor. I got tired of circling the same word written differently in 10 places.
About the translation. There's a flow and then there's an unnatural translation. Tarini Prasad Koirala died around 44 years ago. I don't know how many years do this translation date to. All I know is it could have been better.
Though it's an interesting book to read, the depiction of a female charact
2.5 stars.An okayish novel. Nepali translation is full of errors. Silly spelling mistakes. This book really needs a copy-editor. I got tired of circling the same word written differently in 10 places.
About the translation. There's a flow and then there's an unnatural translation. Tarini Prasad Koirala died around 44 years ago. I don't know how many years do this translation date to. All I know is it could have been better.
Though it's an interesting book to read, the depiction of a female character and their space in the society couldn't be more than second class. This is sad. Chitralekha was supposed to be such a strong character filled with wisdom. Yet, she is downsized to nothingness.
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Central Idea: A man does not do a saintly act, nor does he commit sin; a man just does what he has to do.
Plot: Two students, keen to understan
Disclaimer: This review was written before discovering Shrilal Shukl, and is basically a venting out of some frustation, one that came from reading a total dud that many tout as a masterpiece. Hindi literature is not as devastated as I seem to say here. The review has been transported here because two versions of the book seem to be doing the rounds on GR.Central Idea: A man does not do a saintly act, nor does he commit sin; a man just does what he has to do.
Plot: Two students, keen to understand the true nature of 'sin', are commissioned on a project by their Guru. One is sent to a rich young man enjoying all the pleasures of life, while the other is sent to a Yogi, who has abnegated all that is worldly for the spiritual. The students are required to serve these masters for one year and then revert with an answer to their question.
Pathetic Novel! But this terrible novel does one good thing: it reveals the truism that stylization, restraint and contextual relevance are necessary components of all fiction, even one -- in fact especially one -- whose purported aim is philosophy. With this thought, 'Chitralekha' may not even be regarded a novel, for it is a brutal failure on all these aspects. Its characters -- or rather types -- are so deplorably tied to the inescapable, shrill voice of the author, that it reads not as a subtle display of his intelligence -- as it could have -- but as a loud, over-the-top honking of it. Verma grossly marginalizes texture, concentrating unceasingly on ill-conceiving events to enable him to engage his characters in debates on philosophical issues. The fake characters exist solely for the delivery of the author's point and counterpoint, and nothing else. A Dostoyevsky reference may be made here, but any comparison is impossible; Verma is too verbose and straightforward to come anywhere close to the Russian (who, incidentally, is not a big hit with me). So pathetic is Verma's desire for control, that at no single page is he able to distance himself from the work and let it flow.
All in all, the plot and the central idea are simplistic yet strong, but their translation into fiction is poor. 'Chitralekha' is paragraph after paragraph of logical conversation (the logic by the way, if it really matters, is solid at times) delivered by characters who are clueless of what they will do next, other than talking, that is. 'Chitralekha' is hurried, as if it was written by a writer restless to provide his soul some deliverance from his own cumbersome intelligence.
But now I'm wondering. Should I deliver the insult? I think I should: Chitralekha, ostensibly a masterpiece of Hindi literature would have never EVER found a decent publisher if it was written in English (Is that the reason why there are no translations in print?) You may call me biased. I have read one more book by Bhagwaticharan Verma -- 'Veh Phir Nahi Aayi' -- and it had the same problems as Chitralekha (though the stentorian philosophizing was absent, which made it passable). I have not yet read 'Bhoole Bisre Chitr', supposedly Verma's best book, and so I will abstain from making an unqualified comment about his writing -- or about Hindi-Urdu-literature-that-is-not-social-realism. But after reading some examples 20th century Hindi novel, I have decided to be a bit skeptical of its claim of being as good as its Western counterpart.
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What I liked most is Beejgupta's character and his views. His assertion that everything natural is highly overrated and all artificial things are not bad is very persuasive.
I would have rated it 5 star but for two things:
1. Character of Yashodhara is not developed fully (maybe intentionally). I can't decide whether she is inclined more towards Beejgupta or Shwetank.
2. Assertion of Vishal Dev in the epilogue that Kumargiri is a saint and Beejgupta is a sinner even when he knew all about Kumargiri and Chitralekha seem un-natural.
Overall I enjoyed the book thoroughly. In my opinion book is a must read. ...more
Enjoyed the first half immensely. Felt the latter part swayed a bit.
Loved the chapters depicted as sketched pictures.
Either its debate related to the origin and conception of religion,god and society or the relative definition of veracity and falsehood,this work try to provide a glimpse of such things in a entertaining manner.
At the end of it the eternal conflict which has been raging on since time immemorial to decide whether an event is sinful or not,is resolved thro There are some convos which instead of changing our mode of thinking,only try to alter it after a brief hiatus.This work falls in that category.
Either its debate related to the origin and conception of religion,god and society or the relative definition of veracity and falsehood,this work try to provide a glimpse of such things in a entertaining manner.
At the end of it the eternal conflict which has been raging on since time immemorial to decide whether an event is sinful or not,is resolved through a vedantic conception that to decide a misdemeaning act is in itself a futile thing since no one is able to decide its contours and hence no one is able to categorise it exactly.
The thing called "sin" is only a subjective translation of extremeness of our perception.
As Aristotle has said that "Youth is the age of extremes",when a person is not able to deliver objective judgements and seeing the situation one should abstain from being judgemental most of the times.This is the central theme of this philosophical work.
Truly a masterpiece. ...more
Chitralekha is a beautifully crafted story to convey the all important concept of sin. A method adopted by gurus who have themselves learned the concept and devised methods it to teach common men. Dhanyawad to Verma ji for writing this book.
To the book's credit, the plot and the pacing in the first part of the book are very good. The story endings, keep your heart throbbing and doesn't let you put it down. Some of the philosophical messages, webbed in the form of conversations are really startling and begs the reader to ponder upon. Wh
The book is fairly nice in its plot. It carries a simple storyline, not bogged down by any unwanted diversions and delivers a simple message. Yes, not multiple messages, but just a handful of at most.To the book's credit, the plot and the pacing in the first part of the book are very good. The story endings, keep your heart throbbing and doesn't let you put it down. Some of the philosophical messages, webbed in the form of conversations are really startling and begs the reader to ponder upon. While some of the reviewers on the forum find these conversations to be mundane and unnatural, I like to take a step back and not form my opinion likewise, just for the sole reason that it might have been intentionally used by the author to represent times quite far ago. Remember, it is the Mauryan times, and unless someone exclusively points out the err in Bhagwati's writing, I would gladly believe it to be the conversation manners in those times.
This is not to hide the several other things I disliked about the book. It's pacing gets quite slow in the second half, almost to the extent that you already know the climax by 80% into the book. It starts turning into a over-complicated philosophy manual, with seemingly no perfect viewpoint to anything (could be author's intention!) Even the final teachings shared, seem to be of a dull taste and could have been made punchier. With no offence, it seemed the author was himself fed up with the brain churning (and very impressive) arguments in the first part of the book and was like - "Let's get over with it!" :P Just kidding ofc.
To sum up why I'm not fully blown away from this book (whilst being 80% blown away) is in the words of the author himself - "The only people who couldn't see Kumargiri's maaya, were the ones who were unimpressed by him (did not consider him to be the most supreme)"
With the same wisdom, I wrote my review! :)
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The story is around 300BCE and start with a question 'what is evil?' which was the curiousity of 2 students of a sage. Being brahmcharis, they always stayed in the custody of their teacher i.e. Sage & had no idea of worldly feelings.
The sage was of opinion that life can be learnt three diffe
The story is around 300BCE and start with a question 'what is evil?' which was the curiousity of 2 students of a sage. Being brahmcharis, they always stayed in the custody of their teacher i.e. Sage & had no idea of worldly feelings.
The sage was of opinion that life can be learnt three different ways: by knowledge, by imagination and by experience.
He could have answered the question with knowledge but he knew that his explanation will be insufficient for his subjects and it is something that they should learn by experience only. To give them a transition introduction to the world for their next stage of life i.e. Grihastha he decided to leave them with his known people in the city. To bring diversity of experience, he left each subject with different kind of person. First person is a Samanta (Mauryan empire) and other being a yogi. Sage instructed his subjects to stay with them as their servants and promised to meet again after 1 year. In this 1 year, the one who lived with Samanta experienced lust, anger, humiliation & jealousy while the other subject experienced mysticism, defeat, selfishness, stubbornness & lie in his surroundings.
Both of these subjects return to the Sage after one year and explained evil differently. To which sage replied that they both have lived in different environments and therefore have developed different definitions & explained his own stance on the same. He congratulated both subjects that they are ready to enter the next stage of life.
The book share insights on human behaviour and response to the feeling of lust, attraction and separation where the core encourages the idea of sacrifice, humbleness and selfless love.
I read a hindi book after quite sometime. I have read only Premchand's novels when it came to hindi literature. So this book was something different for me in lot of ways.
I was having two hindi books on my reading list for quite sometime, one was "Chitralekha" and another was "Yayati" . Finally I got in the mood to try Chitralekha, and I was very impressed by the writing style and the content.
This book is kind of philosophical treatise, and the fictional story that
I read a hindi book after quite sometime. I have read only Premchand's novels when it came to hindi literature. So this book was something different for me in lot of ways.
I was having two hindi books on my reading list for quite sometime, one was "Chitralekha" and another was "Yayati" . Finally I got in the mood to try Chitralekha, and I was very impressed by the writing style and the content.
This book is kind of philosophical treatise, and the fictional story that binds it together is just a means to communicate different point of views with stimulating arguments.
I liked this book for the food for thought it provided, for thoughtful and profound discussions between the characters, and also for the atmosphere it portrayed. A society which seems totally different from our current, yet so relatable.
All central characters are so strongly driven by their philosophy of life, yet they are always open to discuss and debate any opinion, they are even willing to change their way of life in a moment if they are convinced.
With profound questions like what is right and what is wrong, what is truth and what is falsity. In search of absolutes and exploring all possibilities. This book is very deep and enriching in experience.
It is a short read, not very heavy, but it is very stimulating and thought provoking.
Starting from the very first line "what is Sin", it absorbs you in it's intriguing journey. And gives you some great answers and some food for thought.
I think I will read it again in times to come.
The language of the novel is a bit different fr It is a novel written in pure Hindi (using Sanskrit words wherever possible). it was written in early 20th century. It is a story of a nobleman, a courtier/dancer, and a Yogi living in around 4th century BCE in north India. The story begins with two characters going out in search of definitions of "a moral act" and "an immoral act (Sin)". The story ends with the conclusion that there is nothing like "good" or "bad" but only our attitude makes it so.
The language of the novel is a bit different from the contemporary Hindi. So it takes a lot of effort on part of reader to understand each sentence. Readability is compromised. The story revolves closely around the feelings of a handful of characters and you don't get any new insight to the culture or life style of the people of those times. Characters argue logically about philosophy and problems of their lives but their arguments do not contribute anything new to what you already know. ...more
The book begins with two students who are sent out to explore the definition of sin by their guru. One of them was sent to live with an Chitralekha is a wonderful book which touches upon the themes of morality, abstinence, indulgence, love, lust, nature and society. It is a philosophical text set in the Mauryan period in India and the story revolves around a court dancer- Chitralekha, Bijagupta- a wealthy nobleman, Kumaragiri- an ascetic who aspires to attain salvation by penance and abstinence.
The book begins with two students who are sent out to explore the definition of sin by their guru. One of them was sent to live with an ascetic- Kumaragiri and the other was sent to live with a wealthy nobleman- Bijagupta who happens to be the lover of Chitralekha.
Over the course of time , we see how the circumstances, feelings and carnal attraction force each of these characters into transforming their lives and the evolution of their thoughts.
The book ends with a message about sin being subjective in accordance with one's mental disposition.
A wonderful read! Read a Hindi Novel after almost 11-12 years. ...more
The ideas are not taken to their logical end, and key characters lack consistency in their thoughts. Perhaps the author wanted to say that everyone is confused, but that leaves the reader unsatisfied. So, while the novel keeps the reader on his/her toes because of the very nature of the questions it seek
I am giving the novel three stars for the stylish prose, as on philosophy, it leaves a lot to be desired. The philosophical conversations lack the depth to which they should have been discussed.The ideas are not taken to their logical end, and key characters lack consistency in their thoughts. Perhaps the author wanted to say that everyone is confused, but that leaves the reader unsatisfied. So, while the novel keeps the reader on his/her toes because of the very nature of the questions it seeks to ask, the culmination is somewhat unsatisfying at the philosophical level.
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it is a must read.
Especially, its last part where the Teacher explains to his two disciples what is 'sin' - a question with which the novel starts.
Absolutely interesting and binding work. With an apt discussion on the nature of life and its different views with respect to different persons, "Chitralekha" is short, deep and philosophical fiction about the virtue and sin in the society.
Especially, its last part where the Teacher explains to his two disciples what is 'sin' - a question with which the novel starts.
Absolutely interesting and binding work. ...more
Story about three people who went in the world in search of meaning of life..
One of them was a great saint who finally fells in love of a prostitute...
I can't give spoiler ....
U readers must read ..!!
Totally overwhelming...??Story about three people who went in the world in search of meaning of life..
One of them was a great saint who finally fells in love of a prostitute...
I can't give spoiler ....
U readers must read ..!!
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Masterpiece - a roller coaster ride . On
Never thought a hindi novel will make me think so much in same topic frm so many
diff angles ..a complete wow story
Entralled by the writing .
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