Anandamath
The Bengali novel of the Sannyasi Rebellion (1882)
Anandamath is a Bengali novel, written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee and published in 1882. Set in the background of the Sannyasi Rebellion in the late 18th century, it is considered one of the most important novels in the history of Bengali and Indian literature. Its importance is heightened by the fact that it became synonymous with the struggle for Indian independence from the British Empire. The novel was banned by the British. The ban was lifted later by the Government of India after independence. The national song of India, Vande Mataram, was first published in this novel.
The prologue and the first thirteen chapters of Part I were translated by Sri Aurobindo, the rest by his brother Barindra. The parts translated by Sri Aurobindo first appeared in the KARMAYOGIN, intermittently between August 7, 1909 and February 12, 1910.
Plot summary
The novel opens in Bengal in 1770, during the Great Famine. Mahendra Kumar, a zamindar of Padachinha, and his wife Kalyani leave their village with their infant daughter Sukumari when there is no food left. On the road the couple are separated: Kalyani runs through the forest with the child, pursued by starving men, and collapses unconscious on the bank of a river.
She is found by Jibananda, one of the Santans — householders who have taken the dress of sannyasis and left their homes to fight the East India Company. He gives the child to his sister and carries Kalyani to the monastery at Anandamath, the «Abbey of Bliss» which gives the book its name. Mahendra, searching for his family, meets Bhavananda and is initiated by Mahatma Satyananda, the guru of the brotherhood, who orders him to put his wealth into ammunition for the cause.
Kalyani, wanting to free her husband from worldly attachment, tries to take her own life. Before Satyananda can reach her he is arrested by Company soldiers, and from the hands of his captors he sings a coded verse that sends Bhavananda to rescue her and the child. Husband and wife are reunited in the rebels’ hideout. There Satyananda shows Mahendra the three images of the Mother: Jagaddhatri, what India was; Kali, what she has become under Company rule and famine; Durga, what she will be.
The Santans move their headquarters to a brick fort. Company troops attack in force and the rebels, without artillery or training, are driven back — until some of them capture the enemy guns and turn them on the Company lines. It is the brotherhood’s first victory, and the song Vande Mataram is sung in the novel at this point. The book ends with Mahendra and Kalyani building a home again while Mahendra continues to support the Anandamath.
Characters
- Mahendra Kumar — a zamindar of Padachinha, driven out by the famine; initiated into the Anandamath and ordered to finance the brotherhood’s ammunition.
- Kalyani — his wife, separated from him with their daughter Sukumari and rescued by the Santans.
- Mahatma Satyananda — the guru and founder of the Anandamath, who leads the rebellion and tests his disciples’ renunciation.
- Bhavananda — a commander of the brotherhood, who dies in the battle against the East India Company.
- Jibananda — the most loyal disciple, who rescues Mahendra’s family and reunites them.
- Shanti (Navin) — Jibananda’s wife, who disguises herself as a man to join the Anandamath and becomes its only woman fighter.
Vande Mataram
«Vande Mataram» — «I bow to thee, Mother» — was published for the first time in Anandamath. It is the song in which the Santans greet the Motherland, and it became the anthem of the independence movement in the twentieth century; after 1947 its first two stanzas were adopted as the national song of India. Sri Aurobindo’s English rendering, «Mother, I bow to thee», is the translation most closely associated with this edition of the novel.
English translations
Sri Aurobindo translated the prologue and the first thirteen chapters of Part I, published in the Karmayogin between 1909 and 1910; his brother Barindra Kumar Ghosh translated the rest. Nares Chandra Sen-Gupta’s The Abbey of Bliss (1906) was the first full English version, and Julius J. Lipner’s annotated translation, Ānandamaṭh, or The Sacred Brotherhood, appeared from Oxford University Press in 2005. The free edition on this page is the Sri Aurobindo–Barindra translation.
Book details
- Author: Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838–1894)
- Original title: আনন্দমঠ, 1882
- English translators: Sri Aurobindo and Barindra Kumar Ghosh
- Publisher: Basumati Sahitya Mandir
- Print length: 173 pages
- Language: English
- Formats: PDF, ePub, Kindle (MOBI)
Download Anandamath
The complete English translation is available free in PDF, ePub and Kindle formats. Files are hosted on our download page — no registration and no payment.
Contents
- Foreword
- Prologue
- Part I
- Part II
- Part III
- Part IV
- Appendices
Book sample
A wide interminable forest. Most of the trees are sals, but other kinds are not wanting. Treetop mingling with treetop, foliage melting into foliage, the interminable lines progress; without crevice, without gap, without even a way for the light to enter, league after league and again league after league the boundless ocean of leaves advances, tossing wave upon wave in the wind. Underneath, thick darkness; even at midday the light is dim and uncertain; a seat of terrific gloom. There the foot of man never treads; there except the illimitable rustle of the leaves and the cry of wild beasts and birds, no sound is heard.
In this interminable, impenetrable wilderness of blind gloom, it is night. The hour is midnight and a very dark midnight; even outside the woodland it is dark and nothing can be seen. Within the forest the piles of gloom are like the darkness in the womb of the earth itself.
Bird and beast are utterly and motionlessly still. What hundreds of thousands, what millions of birds, beasts, insects, flying things have their dwelling within that forest, but not one is giving forth a sound. Rather the darkness is within the imagination, but inconceivable is that noiseless stillness of the ever-murmurous, ever noise-filled earth. In that limitless empty forest, in the solid darkness of that midnight, in that unimaginable silence there was a sound, “Shall the desire of my heart ever be fulfilled?”
After that sound the forest reaches sank again into stillness. Who would have said then that a human sound had been heard in those wilds? A little while after, the sound came again, again the voice of man rang forth troubling the hush, “Shall the desire of my heart ever be fulfilled?”
Three times the wide sea of darkness was thus shaken. Then the answer came, “What is the stake put down?”
The first voice replied, “I have staked my life and all its riches.”
The echo answered, “Life! it is a small thing which all can sacrifice.”
“What else is there? What more can I give?”
This was the answer, “Thy soul’s worship.”
…
About Author:
Bankim Chandra Chatterji
Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838–1894) was a Bengali writer, poet and journalist. He was the composer of India’s national song Vande Mataram, originally a Bengali and Sanskrit stotra personifying India as a mother goddess and inspiring the activists during the Indian Independence Movement. His works were widely translated into other regional languages of India as well as in English. Chattopadhyay is widely regarded as a key figure in literary renaissance of Bengal as well as India. Some of his writings, including novels, essays and commentaries, were a breakaway from traditional verse-oriented Indian writings, and provided an inspiration for authors across India.