Parineeta

For other uses, see Parineeta (disambiguation).

Parineeta (The Married Woman)

Author	Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay
Country	India
Language	Bengali
Genre	Novella
Publisher	Roy M. C. Sarkar Bahadur & Sons
Publication date	1914
Media type	Print (Hardback)

Parineeta (Bengali: পরিণীতা Porinita) is a 1914 Bengali language novella written by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay and is set in Calcutta, India during the early part of the 20th century. It is a novel of social protest which explores issues of that time period related to class and religion.

Title

The word Parineeta is translated in English as married woman. The literal meaning comes from Bengali (Sanskrit) word "পরিণয/परिणय/Parinay" - "marriage".

Plot

Parineeta takes place at the turn of the 20th century during the Bengal Renaissance. The story centers around a poor thirteen-year-old orphan girl, Lalita, who lives with the family of her uncle Gurucharan. Gurucharan has five daughters and the expense of paying for each dowry has impoverished him. He is forced to take a loan from his neighbour, Nabin Roy. Excepting the indifferent attitude of Nabin Roy,who eyed over Gurucharan's mortgaged plot,the two families shared a cordial relationship. Lalita was the apple of Bhuvaneshwari's (Nabin Roy's wife) eyes and the latter insisted her to address her as 'maa'(mother). Roy's younger son Shekharnath(Shekhar),a twenty five/ twenty six years old man about town is lately turned attorney who seems to have an affective relationship with Lalita.The young girl adores him like her mentor and for some strange reasons ratifies to his possessive attitude towards her. With the advent of a supportive Girin in Lalita's life,a certain jealousy transpired within Shekhar which tended to moderate Lalita's increasing associations with Girin who has now extended his helping hand to Gurucharan's finances and also assisted him in finding a match for Lalita. These situations seemed to stir the instinctual passions of Shekhar and somewhat Lalita for each other and one evening before Shekhar's tour to the west, the duo secretly gets married with a dramatic exchange of garlands formed of marigolds. But a newly married Lalita had to conceal herself in the veil of her spinsterhood as her uncle Gurucharan quits his fight with the law and orders of Hindu society and embraces Brahmoism inspired from the angelic words of Girin. The society abandons them and the same is followed by Shekhar towards Lalita upon his return (though mixed with covetousness over Girin's influence on her family). His jeopardies in introducing his wife amidst the society because of the differences in wealth,religion and more importantly due to a precluded marriage of marrying an under-aged woman made him harsh and arrogant towards Lalita who drowned in agony, decides to accompany her family to Munger as a means of healing her psychologically tormented uncle anguished by the sense of isolation. Girin aided them all through his journey to whom Gurucharan had his dying wish of marrying his daughter(suggestively indicated to his niece Lalita) which Girin accepts wholeheartedly.

Years pass with the of both Gurucharan and Nabin Roy and an eighteen years old Lalita visits her old place one last time for the sake of selling Gurucharan's house to Nabin Roy's heirs since the deceased desired the plot for a long time. Shekhar has his marriage fixed in a week but Lalita's advent questions him over his real wishes but he has heard of Girin's promise to marry Lalita which must have been fulfilled by now. Tables turn as Girin visits Shekhar with the Legal documents of Gurucharan's plot and amidst the conversation reveals that he indeed became Gurucharan's son-in-law as per his promise but never married Lalita but married her cousin Annakali upon her suggestion as Lalita claimed herself to be already married. Shockingly pleased by this Shekhar regains himself and his now realised love for Lalita goes to his mother and confesses about his marriage with Lalita. The novel ends with consent for this marriage a declaration of union for Shekhar and Lalita.

Lalita's family

Lalita: the protagonist of the novella. Lalita came to live with her uncle's family after she was orphaned at the age of eight. At the beginning of the novella, she is thirteen years old and is close with her cousin Annakali (Kali) and her neighbor, Charubala (Charu). Lalita is considered a member of not only her uncle's family but of Charu's and of Shekhar's as well. Shekhar's mother Bhuvaneshwari is so attached to Lalita that she tells Lalita to call her 'maa'. At a time (1914) when young women were typically married at the age of thirteen, Lalita becomes the object of attraction between her neighbour Shekhar and Charu's uncle, Girin.
Gurucharan: Lalita's uncle is a bank clerk with a small salary and five daughters, as well as Lalita, to support. He becomes impoverished due to his attempts to follow social custom and pay large dowries for the weddings of his daughters. Indeed, the marriage of his second daughter was paid for by Shekhar's father, Nabin. In lieu of returning the money with high interest, Gurucharan's house was mortgaged to Nabin.
Lalita's aunt: She is never named in the novella and has only a minor role.
Annakali or Kali: Gurucharan's ten-year-old daughter and Lalita's cousin and playmate. It is during Kali's imaginary "doll-wedding" that Lalita and Shekhar exchange garlands.

Shekhar Roy's family

Shekhar: The youngest son of the Roy family, Shekhar is twenty-five years old. He has a master's degree as well as a law degree and is working as a teacher. From the time of her arrival to Gurucharan's house, Shekhar had taken an interest in Lalita's upbringing. While Shekhar contemplates marrying Lalita, he is restrained by social customs as well as by the resistance of his father who wants him to marry a wealthy woman with a large dowry.
Nabin: Shekhar's father, who is a rich and an unscrupulous businessman. He becomes so enraged when Gurucharan's debt is repaid and when Gurucharan converts himself and his family to Brahmoism, that he builds a wall between the two houses.
Bhuvaneshwari: Shekhar's mother, who is an advanced thinker. She wants Shekhar to choose his own wife rather than marry the woman whom Nabin selects. She also accepts Lalita as her daughter despite the difference in wealth and position.
Abinash: Shekhar's married elder brother, a lawyer, who is mentioned in passing but never appears in the novella.

Charu's family

Charubala or Charu: Lalita's neighbour and playmate. It is through her that Lalite gets intriduced to Girin.
Manorma: Charu's mother and Girin's cousin. She is an active card player and involves Lalita in many card games.
Girin: Manoroma's cousin and a university student who as been away for many years. He, as with the rest of the family, is a Brahmo, and convinces Gurucharan to convert himself (and his family). As a Brahmo, Gurucharan will no longer have to pay large dowries for the weddings of his daughters. In addition to repaying Gurucharan's loan, Girin repeatedly proves himself to be a man of integrity who acts according to the common good rather than his own self-interest.

Translations

2005:English edition (Penguin India), translated by Malobika Chaudhuri, with an introduction by Swagato Ganguly .
1937: Gujarati edition
1934: Marathi edition

Film adaptations

Parineeta has been adapted to film a number of times:^[1]

Parineeta (2005 film) (Bollywood version), directed by Pradeep Sarkar, based upon a screenplay by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, starring Sanjay Dutt, Saif Ali Khan, and Vidya Balan.
Sankoch (1976 film), directed by Anil Ganguly, starring Sulakshana Pandit and Jeetendra.
Parineeta (1969 film), directed by Ajoy Kar, starring Soumitra Chatterjee and Moushumi Chatterjee.
Parineeta (1953 film), directed by Bimal Roy, starring Ashok Kumar and Meena Kumari.
Parineeta (1942 film), directed by Pashupati Chatterjee.
Manamalai (1958 Tamil film), directed by Ch.Narayana Rao, starring K. Balaji and Savitri.

References

↑ "The different faces of Parineeta". Rediff.com movies. June 8, 2005. Retrieved 2014-04-19.

Ganguly, Swagato. "Introduction." In Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Parineeta. Translated from Bengali into English by Malobika Chaudhuri. New Delhi:Penguin Books, 2005.

External links

Bengal Renaissance

People	Sri Aurobindo Rajnarayan Basu Jagadish Chandra Bose Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Satyendra Nath Bose Bethune Upendranath Brahmachari Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay Akshay Kumar Datta Henry Derozio Alexander Duff Michael Madhusudan Dutt Romesh Chunder Dutt Dwarkanath Ganguly Kadambini Ganguly Monomohun Ghose Ramgopal Ghosh Aghore Nath Gupta David Hare Kazi Nazrul Islam Eugène Lafont Ashutosh Mukherjee Harish Chandra Mukherjee Ramakrishna Paramahamsa Gour Govinda Ray Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury Raja Ram Mohan Roy Meghnad Saha Akshay Chandra Sarkar Mahendralal Sarkar Brajendra Nath Seal Girish Chandra Sen Keshub Chandra Sen Haraprasad Shastri Debendranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore Satyendranath Tagore Jnanadanandini Devi Sitanath Tattwabhushan Brahmabandhav Upadhyay Ram Chandra Vidyabagish Dwarkanath Vidyabhusan Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar Swami Vivekananda Paramahansa Yogananda Begum Rokeya

Topics	Adi Dharm Bengali literature Bengali poetry Bengali music Brahmo Samaj British Raj British Indian Association History of Bengal Nazrul geeti Rabindra Nritya Natya Rabindra Sangeet Sambad Prabhakar Socialism in Bengal Swadeshi Satyagraha Tattwabodhini Patrika Tagore family Bangiya Sahitya Parishad Young Bengal

Institutions	Anandamohan College Asiatic Society Banga Mahila Vidyalaya Bangabasi College Bethune College Bengal Engineering and Science University, Shibpur Calcutta Madrasah College Calcutta Medical College Fort William College General Assembly's Institution Hindu Mahila Vidyalaya Hindu Theatre Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science Midnapore College National Council of Education, Bengal Oriental Seminary Presidency College Ripon College Sanskrit College Scottish Church College Serampore College Vidyasagar College Visva-Bharati University University of Calcutta University of Dhaka

Other renaissance/ revolutionary movements in Bengal	Bhakti movement Gaudiya Vaishnavism Brahmoism Sannyasi Rebellion Indian independence movement Kalighat painting Jugantar movement Bengal School of Art Hindu–German Conspiracy Kallol Gananatya Andolan Bratachari movement Bengali Little Magazine Movement Parallel Cinema Indian Communism Naxalism Hungryalism Prakalpana Movement

Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's Parineeta (1914)

Films	Parineeta (1942 Bengali) Parineeta (1953 Hindi) Parineeta (1969 Bengali) Parineeta (2005 Hindi)

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