The Bara Rani in Ghaire Baire by Rabindranath Tagore (the Home and the World)
The ‘Bara Rani’, of a Rajah’s household should have nothing too serious to complain of or lament about, especially when the woman is a young and beautiful lady. She is the ‘Bara Rani’; the throne of the household should be her and not Bimala’s, who is the ‘Chota Rani’. A woman “of a beauty rarely to be seen”; why she should be jealous of the dark and slim Bimala? In a typical case like this, obviously nothing should be plaguing the Bara Rani, but it is not so here. She is a jealous, manipulative lady with “no pretensions to saintliness”, as seen by Bimala. And she is a fellow old friend of Nikhil, ought to be pitied and be lenient and benevolent upon by him.
She is a widow, a young childless widow.
And she is an epitome of patriarchy, the old traditional ways of India in the beginning of the twentieth century Bengal.
And for more, she is a true caretaker and well-wisher of Nikhil.
The missing vermillion mark on her forehead is actually been replaced by an in invisible black mark. A mark which has sucked off the happiness and rank she should have been entitled to. Called the Bara Rani she is not considered as Bara by Bimala. Bimala has taken the throne of Rani as if she is the legitimate holder of the position. Bimala has a stainless husband, and is loved a lot by him. This is a special eyesore to the Bara Rani, who herself could never get such love from her husband. Bimala has a husband and the Bara Rani is a widow, what could be another good reason to be jealous of Bimala? She taunts, she comments, she is rude and she is full of sarcasm for her.
“A Thief who had stolen a husband’s love”
“A sham hidden in the shamelessness of her new-fangled finery”
Her plight as a widowed woman can be best understood in her own words,
“‘No, brother dear,’ she replied with a sigh, ‘I would not live my life again – not as a woman! Let what I have had to bear end with this one birth. I could not bear it over again.”
Nikhil who had been her friend since she entered a young
She is a widow, a young childless widow.
And she is an epitome of patriarchy, the old traditional ways of India in the beginning of the twentieth century Bengal.
And for more, she is a true caretaker and well-wisher of Nikhil.
The missing vermillion mark on her forehead is actually been replaced by an in invisible black mark. A mark which has sucked off the happiness and rank she should have been entitled to. Called the Bara Rani she is not considered as Bara by Bimala. Bimala has taken the throne of Rani as if she is the legitimate holder of the position. Bimala has a stainless husband, and is loved a lot by him. This is a special eyesore to the Bara Rani, who herself could never get such love from her husband. Bimala has a husband and the Bara Rani is a widow, what could be another good reason to be jealous of Bimala? She taunts, she comments, she is rude and she is full of sarcasm for her.
“A Thief who had stolen a husband’s love”
“A sham hidden in the shamelessness of her new-fangled finery”
Her plight as a widowed woman can be best understood in her own words,
“‘No, brother dear,’ she replied with a sigh, ‘I would not live my life again – not as a woman! Let what I have had to bear end with this one birth. I could not bear it over again.”
Nikhil who had been her friend since she entered a young