A Note on the Use of Language in Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s Novels

Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838-1894)

Any good novel is always full of a pace which contributes to the liveliness of both the character and the story itself.  Bankim Chandra’s greatest tool in achieving this pace was his language.  Generally speaking, his novels are written in the standard or literary Bengali, known as the sadhubhasa.  And this sadhubhasa is characterised by the unmistakable presence of the words of Sanskrit origin, lengthy compound-words in the Sanskrit fashion, lengthy syntax, etc. True, Bankim’s language shows these symptoms of a ‘standard’ Bengali indubitably, but this is not the end.  He uses words of Arabic and Persian origin to a great extent (if not equally).  Often he does not even hesitate to use words, phrases and expressions which are altogether colloquial.  All these have a motley effect on the reader’s mind.  Normally when we read a piece written in Sanskritised Bengali we hardly expect to become one with the theme or the characters.  This is because of the deep chasm lying between the language of reality – the language we speak and the language of fiction – the language we write.  In his novels, often the beauty of nature or a nostalgic and romantic episode or description is expressed by Bankim in this grandiose sadhubhasa.  But when the author wants his readers to take a trip to the world of conflicts that sway the characters or the story itself both within and without his sentences become often shorter in length, more direct, closer to the colloquial pattern.  However, even in such sentences the verb-form is always retained in the sadhu, which lends a musical and poetic effect to these apparently banal constructions.  Many of Bankim’s novels have quite a simple or thin storyline or plot, but its mirth is not marred because of the extremely powerful and balanced language in which it is embedded.  Again in such works as Radharani, it is the movement of the language which alone contributes to the characters’ being on the move.  The conflicting, unseemly character of the Babu class in Bishabriksha (The Poison Tree) is underlined by the mixed language, and such English expressions as ‘Hurrah! Three Cheers for Heera!’  The keynote of political tension in Anandamath is brought out by the contrasting use of ‘Hare Murare’ cry of the Santans and ‘Hurrah’ of the English soldiers and the blow of their cannons.  The latter is expressed by the author with the help of the onomatopoeia – ‘gudum, gudum, gudum’.  Bankim’s naming of the individual chapters of his novels is also noted for their linguistic originality and they are often derived from Sanskrit philosophical literature (as in Bishbriksha, Mrinalini, etc.) or everyday speech.  Their often perfunctory appearance helps realise the immediacy of the theme better.  So it is the dialectics of words-as-sound and such innovative linguistic ‘deviations’ in Bankim Chandra Chatterjee’s novels which underlines, reinforces and sustains the dialectics of thought and ideas.  And this ultimately endorses Bankim’s literary craftsmanship of the highest order.