Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s Devdas was published in Bengali in 1917.
The ‘Devdas metaphor’, a time-honoured, enduring tragic symbol of unfulfilled love, has captivated readers and film-going audiences for the better part of a century now. But interest in the original Devdas, Saratchandra Chattopadhyay’s piece de resistance, has been rekindled recently in the wake of the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film, which is and adaptation of the Bengali novel. This is good time to take a fresh look at the novel in translation, and to look at the specific ways in which the Devdas metaphor has engaged our imagination over several generations.
It was a little before dusk when Parvati entered Devdas’s room. He was sitting on the bed studying some accounts. He looked up as she entered. Slowly, Parvati shut the door, bolted it and sat on the floor. Devdas looked at her with a smile on his lips. His face was sad, yet calm. Suddenly, he said, “What if I dragged your name in the mud?”
Parvati shot him a quick, pained glance from her bright eyes and lowered them immediately. That look made it very clear that the comment would always be lodged in her heart a painful reminder. She had come with so much to say, but her mind went blank now. Every time she came near him, she seemed to lose her powers of speech.
Devdas laughed again, “I know, I know, you’re feeling shy, right?”
But she still couldn’t talk. He went on, Don’t be. So, okay we made a mistake the fault was on both ends--- now look at the mess we are both in. You spoke in anger and haste, I wounded you on the brow – I suppose that makes us even.”
His words were devoid of sarcasm or derision; he spoke of the past with a pleasant , contented look. But Parvati felt her heart was ready to burst. She covered her face, held her breath and said to herself,”Dev-da, that wound is my salvation, my only hope. You loved me and so you were kind enough to inscribe our sweet memories on my brow. It is no shame to me, no disgrace --- but a matter of pride.”
“Paro.”
She answered through the cover of her sari, “What is it?”
“I often feel very angry with you—”
At last, his voice took on a bitter edge. “Father is gone, it is a difficult time in my life; but if you were with me, I wouldn’t feel it so. You know my brother’s wife and my brother’s nature too. What am I to do with Mother now? And I simply do not know what will become of me. If you were here I could happily drop it all in your lap and ..what’s that Paro?”
Parvati was sobbing helplessly.
Devdas said, “Are you crying? Then I have to stop talking.”
Parvati wiped her eyes and said, “No, go on.”
In an instant Devdas cleared his voice of all emotion and asked, “Paro, I believe you have turned into an expert homemaker? A proper wife, are you?”
Inwardly Parvati bit into her lips and thought, “Not really. What’s the point if the flower is never laid at the feet of the diety?”
Devdas laughed out loud “I think it’s really funny. You were this tiny little thing, and now look at you. Big house, large estate, grown children—and Chowdhury –babu, everything suitably aged… what are you laughing about?”
Chowdhury-babu was a great amusement to Parvati, whenever he came to mind, she wanted to smile. Even in this tearful state, she grinned.
Devdas assumed a fake air of gravity and asked, “Could you do me a favour?”
“What?”
“Are there any nice girls in your part of the land?”
Parvati gulped, choked and spluttered, “Nice girls? Whatever for ?”
“I could marry one. I feel like settling down, just for once.”
Parvati donned a straight and sweet face, “She has to be very beautiful, right?”
“No more than you.”
“And she has to be a good soul?”
“No, not much of that—perhaps a little playful—someone who can squabble with me like you used to do.”
Parvati thought, no one else can do that, Dev-da. For that she’d have to love you as as much as I do. But instead, she said, “Well, that’s easy. Thousands like me would be honoured to call you their own.”
Devdas jested meerily, “For the moment, just one will do. Can you get me one?”
“Dev-da, would you really marry?”
“I just told you.” But he didn’t tell her that she was the only woman he would ever be interested in, for as long as he lived.
“Devdas, can I ask you something?”
“What?”
Parvati collected her wits and asked him, “Why did you suddenly start drinking?”
Devdas laughed,”That doesn’t take a lot of practice, does it?”
All right, but why did you make it a habit?”
“Who told you this, Dharmadas?”
“That doesn’t matter. Isn’t it true?”
Devdas didn’t deceive her. He said, “Yes, to some extent.”
Parvati sat there in shocked silence. After a while she asked, “And have you given this woman a few thousand rupees’ worth of jewellery?”
Devdas laughed again, “ I haven’t given them to her, but I have got them made. Do you want them?”
Parvati stretched out her palm, “Why not? Look, I have no ornaments.”
