THE RETELLING OF KABIKANKAN MUKUNDA’S ‘BANIKKHANDA’ IN MAHASWETA DEVI’S NARRATION: AN APPRAISAL/ মহাশ্বেতা দেবীর বয়ানে কবিকঙ্কণ মুকুন্দের ‘বণিকখণ্ড’-এর পুনর্নির্মাণ : একটি মূল্যায়ন

Abstract

The medieval period in Bengali literature is remarkable for its literary creations. The literature written in this age is so rich and varied that they have become the source for many of the modern literature. Despite their tendency of deviation the modern novelists have returned to the medieval tradition in the postcolonial period. They have realized that it’s better to retreat to reach the root of human life. The duty of later modernism is to keep the currents of socio-economic and cultural aspects of Bengali life that the medieval age brought up in literature. So, the modern novelists have continued that tradition through deconstruction and reconstruction of the narratives of the middle age of Bengali literature. The novelists have recollected the universal applications of life from medieval literature and reestablished them in the light of modernity. The critical environment of the later age has merged with the social crisis of the former. Mahasweta Devi’s novel ‘Benebou’ is a reconstruction of ‘Banikkhanda’ of the ‘Chandimangal’ kavya by Kabikankan Mukundaram Chakravarty. Mahasweta takes up the miniature of the family of banik Dhanapati victimized by the kaulinya tradition for the central theme of her novel. Time consciousness is analyzed in a new way. Society is dominated by the males until now and so time is fixed here. Mahasweta with her sharp power of observation analyses the two different forms of consciousness of two different ages. She puts emphasis on the feminist consciousness here. ‘Benebou’ is story a of the struggle for female rights. She presents the failure and hollowness of the restrictions of society through the interrogations of her central character Ahana. She also changes the socio-economic background, incidents and characters for the artistic recreation of the plot of her novel. Therefore ‘Benebou’ is not a mere retelling of the Mangalkabya tradition, but a reconstruction of the past in the context of present.