Saikat Rakshiter Uponnyase Banchita Trayi Nari (সৈকত রক্ষিতের উপন্যাসে বঞ্চিতা ত্রয়ী নারী)

Abstract

Saikat Rakshit is one of the remarkable reformers of the new journey of changes that started in Bengali fiction from the seventies of the last century. Inspired by reading of Rabindranath's writings, in his school life, the dream of being a writer in future took root in the depth his heart. But when he starts studying Bengali literature, he finds that the literature of Purulia, his native district, is outcasted in Bengali literature. His creations have been expanded due to the inquiry about the lives of marginalized people in Purulia district inhabited by tribals. Saikat Rakshit, a portraitist of marginal public life, has depicted the lives of three marginal women in the novels ‘Sindure Kajole’, ‘Dhula Udani’ and ‘Vaishampayan Kohilen’. Bhaduri Mahatan, the heroine of the novel ‘Sindure Kajole’, get neither taste of sexual happiness or motherhood in the family of her eunuch husband, Adalat Mahatan. To satisfy the primitive needs of people, she gets involved in an illicit relationship with Srikanth. Illegitimate children by Srikant - Bhav and Champi were born in her womb. But after Bhav got a little older, one day, he saw an intimate scene of sexual lust of his mother and Srikanth. Due to his childish protests by him, Bhaduri lost her consciousness and killed her son by strangling. But when she regained her consciousness, she starts burning with remorse for killing her son. Finally, Bhaduri has put on her burning sensation by sacrificing her life. The novel ‘Dhula Udani’ is a depiction of life of how a young woman becomes a dancer and becomes a commodity of misogynistic men living in the society and how she is slandered as ‘witch’ and engrossed into darkness due to the blind superstitions prevailed in the society. In the novel ‘Vaishampayan Kohilen’, novelist Swapnacharini has painted the life of a woman named Binota.  In a patriarchal society, when a couple is unable to conceive children, society always looks down upon women, regardless of who is to be blamed for. Here, Binota has pointed out the true nature of such aspect of society. In fact, in these three novels, the novelists have revealed the psychological struggles of the three underprivileged women characters- their strong desire to taste motherhood and above all, heroic selfhood in the incomparable exquisite beauty of art.