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Maha Maya

Rajeev summoned Mahamaya, an unmarried woman from an aristocratic family, to a dilapidated temple by the river at noon. When they met, Mahamaya cast a solemn gaze at Rajeev, slightly reproachful that he asked her to come at such an hour. Unable to avoid giving a reason, Rajeev sputtered "Let's escape from this place and get married secretly." Mahamaya remained silent. Rajeev was brought to the village as a child by the British manager of the local silk factory after his father's death. He had grown up alongside Mahamaya but refused marriage until now, though finding a suitable match for Mahamaya also proved difficult.

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41 views

Maha Maya

Rajeev summoned Mahamaya, an unmarried woman from an aristocratic family, to a dilapidated temple by the river at noon. When they met, Mahamaya cast a solemn gaze at Rajeev, slightly reproachful that he asked her to come at such an hour. Unable to avoid giving a reason, Rajeev sputtered "Let's escape from this place and get married secretly." Mahamaya remained silent. Rajeev was brought to the village as a child by the British manager of the local silk factory after his father's death. He had grown up alongside Mahamaya but refused marriage until now, though finding a suitable match for Mahamaya also proved difficult.

Uploaded by

K L
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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‘Mahamaya.’ Rabindranath Tagore. Translated from the Bengali by Mohammad A.

Quayum

Transnational Literature Vol. 3 no. 1, November 2010.

http://fhrc.flinders.edu.au/transnational/home.html

Mahamaya

Rabindranath Tagore

Translated from the Bengali by Mohammad A. Quayum

Mahamaya and Rajeevlochan met at a dilapidated temple by the edge of the river.

Without saying a word, Mahamaya cast her inherently solemn gaze at Rajeev

with a slight reproof. The essence of it was, ‘How dare you ask me to come here at

this unearthly hour. You have become so bold only because I have obeyed your every

word so far.’

Rajeev always saw Mahamaya with a little awe; her sombre glance made him

even more nervous. He had thought of saying a few words that would be lucid and

intelligible, but he had to forego that wish hastily. Being unable to avoid giving a

reason for their meeting, he sputtered, ‘Let’s escape from this place and get married

secretly.’ This no doubt conveyed what Rajeev had in mind, but the preamble he had

so carefully planned for it remained unsaid. His words therefore came across as dry,

bare, and even strange. He himself felt embarrassed by them; there was not even the

possibility of repairing the words by some tweaking and padding. After summoning

Mahamaya at high noon to this run-down temple by the riverside, all that this silly

man could manage to say was, ‘Come, let’s get married.’

Mahamaya was an unmarried woman from an aristocratic family. She was

twenty-four years old. Like her teeming age, she teemed with beauty; and like the

autumn sunlight, she looked like an icon of pure gold. Similar to the luminous ray of

autumn, she was bright but silent, and her eyes were open and unafraid like the

daylight.

Her father had passed away, but she had an elder brother named Bhavanicharan

Chatterjee. Brother and sister were alike; not a word from the mouth, but there was a

glow about them that blazed silently like the midday sun. People were fearful of
Bhavanicharan for no reason.

Rajeev was a stranger to the village. He was brought along by the British

manager of the local silk factory. His father was an employee of this Englishman.

After the father’s demise, the Englishman took responsibility for the young boy and

brought him to this village when he was still a child. The boy’s only family was his

aunt. They lived as neighbours of Bhavanicharan. Mahamaya grew up as a childhood

companion of Rajeev and she shared a deep affectionate bonding with Rajeev’s aunt.

Rajeev crossed sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and even entered the threshold of

nineteen, but he refused to get married despite his aunt’s repeated pleas. The

Englishman felt very happy at this sign of good sense in the Bengali boy, and thought

that the boy had taken after him as he had himself remained a bachelor. The boy’s

aunt passed away in the meantime.

On the other hand, it was proving difficult to get a suitor for Mahamaya from an

equally respectable family without spending more money than they could afford. She

also continued to remain single.

But it needs to be said that although the god who overseas matrimonial relations

was not particularly mindful of this young couple, the god of love had wasted no time.

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