Chandrakanta

Nothing breaks your illusions about the greatness of old literature as much as actually reading it. I finished Chandrakanta today and am left with a mixture of feelings at the end of it. I read the original hindi version authored by Devakinandan Khatri. I have spent a great deal of my time growing up, surrounded by all the Chandrakanta books and watching the television adaptation so I was delighted to actually get down to reading it after all these years.

I must give a brief description of the storyline and some of the main hindi terms in the book for the rest of this post to make sense. This is essentially a love story of the Princess Chandrakanta and her lover, Prince Birendra Singh. At the start of the novel, we are introduced to the two lovers who belong to two feuding royal families of different states which makes the path of love difficult for them. This equation soon changes and Prince Birendra is lovingly welcomed at her father's palace when Chandrakanta is kidnapped by a third king, Shivdutt at the behest of Kroor Singh, a courtier at Chandrakanta's palace, who is also besotted with her. The most interesting characters of the story are the 'aiyyars'. Aiyyars are warriors and spies for the royal families with some very special skills of disguise, astrology and even a bit of magic which all comes in handy when the aiyyars are trying to make or break a 'tilism' for their side. The tilism is a kind of magical maze or trap which has both advantageous and harmful things concealed in it. There are a handful of aiyyars on each side with the number scale tipping in favour of Shivdutt. However, the best of the aiyyars, Tej Singh is on Prince Birendra's side and is also his best friend. The aiyyars also have a separate honour code among themselves different from that of regular warriors, they don't kill any of their own brethren. So, while King Shivdutt's aiyyar's will use every last ounce of their skill and intelligence to outwit their enemy aiyyars, they won't kill them.

Commit this to memory people, aiyyars = special warriors; tilism = magical maze or trap

Now I can get to my own thoughts on the book.

The good things first: I think Chandrakanta narrowly passes the Bechdel test for fiction, so we have two women (tick), who talk to each other (tick), about things other than a man (tick). If you've seen my earlier entries on my feminism, you'll understand why I'm quite delighted by this and why it's important to me. Now, our two women in question, Chandrakanta, the princess herself and her waiting maid, friend,confidante and aiyyar, Chapala, are as thick as thieves. Granted, that they spend a great deal of time mooning over the love of the prince Birendra Singh but imagine how happy I was when the two are kidnapped by Shivdutt's aiyyars and manage to escape into the forest all by themselves and actually pause in between expressions of love to discuss survival in the jungle and other important life-saving issues.

I also did a mental somersault when I realized that there are both male and female aiyyars. Chapala is the best aiyyar on Chandrakanta's side and is even training other women to become aiyyars. Isn't that awesome? The women are just as wily, deceptive and ruthless as the men and also take part in taking the story forward, sometimes having entire plans revolve around them.

The characters engage in all kinds of intricate plots to kidnap, steal, implicate, frame, elope and of course trap each other when the time comes. It gets interesting when Chandrakanta is trapped in a tilism and the aiyyars on both sides engage in a final tussle to win her for their own prince and king even as prince Birendra's love for Chandrakanta is being tested through a separate honey trap. In those days it wasn't infidelity if it was the King or Prince engaging in polygamy. I don't mind it in this book very much cause there's no arguing with the times gone.

A distinct Indian flavour manifests itself in the descriptions, leaving me wistful, of the dry countryside, the hidden caverns, the daily durbars, the palaces and the local customs etc.

Now, the not so good part, this book was first published in the late 1880s. Though this is a work of fantasy, the social and political realities of the time are reflected in it through the author's treatment of his Muslim and hindu characters. Note, that there are no important muslim characters in the story but they are collectively mentioned a great deal in the book. We have the hindu Kings and Princes plotting to have their muslim courtiers slowly ousted from their court and responsibilities or have their entire lot serve as a sacrificial lamb at the front deliberately in a losing battle. Then, the muslim groups are lobbying to have the King removed in a coup and install someone more amenable to their own interests in his stead.The timing is interesting to note, cause this novel was published well after the uprising of 1857 which was supposed to be a mutiny in which hindus and muslims protested together against British rule. I realize this is off-topic but I wonder if the author was affected by this in his writing, my history books suggested that it was after the mutiny of 1857 that the British, started to sow the seeds of discontent through their 'divide and rule' policies for hindus and muslims.

I would recommend reading Chandrakanta if you like to read titles based on the distinctions they hold, this one is supposed to be the earliest work of prose in modern hindi. It is a pretty decent work of fantasy, the love story sometimes got on my nerves but I loved the aiyyars, all of them. The author mostly reveals all of his mysteries upfront so there won't be any edge of the seat moments but it still manages to be sufficiently engaging. I say, that you forget all your LOTR, Peter Jackson, Artemis Fowl, Game of Thrones and all of the other modern english works of fantasy if you want to enjoy this. And absolutely do not compare.

A last word to those who watched the show on TV, the actual story is nothing like the TV adaptation which I can say quite unabashedly, was atrocious. It's all pretty straight forward, two people who love each other are persecuted and fight against their circumstances to live happily ever after. There are no 'vish kanyas' (doesn't merit an explanation) like they showed on TV, thank god. The good are staunchly honourable in the context of those times and the bad are wholly bad.

The book is in the public domain now so you can go read it for no other reason than it's free. I can see why this was wildly popular a hundred years ago. It still has its old world charm but I would understand if it made readers in this age impatient cause we love the flash, bangs and large machines so much from modern fantasies.