THE VICTORY by
Rabindranath Tagore
She was the Princess
Ajita. And the court poet of King Narayan had never seen her. On the day he
recited a new poem to the king he would raise his voice just to that pitch
which could be heard by unseen hearers in the screened balcony high above the
hall. He sent up his song towards the star-land out of his reach, where,
circled with light, the planet who ruled his destiny shone unknown and out of
ken.
He would espy some
shadow moving behind the veil. A tinkling sound would come to his car from
afar, and would set him dreaming of the ankles whose tiny golden bells sang at
each step. Ah, the rosy red tender feet that walked the dust of the earth like
God's mercy on the fallen! The poet had placed them on the altar of his heart,
where he wove his songs to the tune of those golden bells. Doubt never arose in
his mind as to whose shadow it was that moved behind the screen, and whose
anklets they were that sang to the time of his beating heart.
Manjari, the maid of
the princess, passed by the poet's house on her way to the river, and she never
missed a day to have a few words with him on the sly. When she found the road
deserted, and the shadow of dusk on the land, she would boldly enter his room,
and sit at the corner of his carpet. There was a suspicion of an added care in
the choice of the colour of her veil, in the setting of the flower in her hair.
People smiled and
whispered at this, and they were not to blame. For Shekhar the poet never took
the trouble to hide the fact that these meetings were a pure joy to him.
The meaning of her name
was the spray of flowers. One must confess that for an ordinary mortal it was
sufficient in its sweetness. But Shekhar made his own addition to this name,
and called her the Spray of Spring Flowers. And ordinary mortals shook their
heads and said, Ah, me!
In the spring songs
that the poet sang the praise of the spray of spring flowers was conspicuously
reiterated; and the king winked and smiled at him when he heard it, and the
poet smiled in answer.
The king would put him the
question; "Is it the business of the bee merely to hum in the court of the
spring?"
The poet would answer;
"No, but also to sip the honey of the spray of spring flowers."
And they all laughed in
the king's hall. And it was rumoured that the Princess Akita also laughed at
her maid's accepting the poet's name for her, and Manjari felt glad in her
heart.
Thus truth and
falsehood mingle in life—and to what God builds man adds his own decoration.
Only those were pure
truths which were sung by the poet. The theme was Krishna, the lover god, and
Radha, the beloved, the Eternal Man and the Eternal Woman, the sorrow that
comes from the beginning of time, and the joy without end. The truth of these
songs was tested in his inmost heart by everybody from the beggar to the king
himself. The poet's songs were on the lips of all. At the merest glimmer of the
moon and the faintest whisper of the summer breeze his songs would break forth
in the land from windows and courtyards, from sailing-boats, from shadows of the
wayside trees, in numberless voices.
Thus passed the days
happily. The poet recited, the king listened, the hearers applauded, Manjari
passed and repassed by the poet's room on her way to the river—the shadow
flitted behind the screened balcony, and the tiny golden bells tinkled from
afar.
Just then set forth
from his home in the south a poet on his path of conquest. He came to King
Narayan, in the kingdom of Amarapur. He stood before the throne, and uttered a
verse in praise of the king. He had challenged all the court poets on his way,
and his career of victory had been unbroken.
The king received him
with honour, and said: "Poet, I offer you welcome."
Pundarik, the poet,
proudly replied: "Sire, I ask for war."
Shekhar, the court poet
of the king did not know how the battle of the muse was to be waged. He had no
sleep at night. The mighty figure of the famous Pundarik, his sharp nose curved
like a scimitar, and his proud head tilted on one side, haunted the poet's
vision in the dark.
With a trembling heart
Shekhar entered the arena in the morning. The theatre was filled with the
crowd.
The poet greeted his
rival with a smile and a bow. Pundarik returned it with a slight toss of his
head, and turned his face towards his circle of adoring followers with a
meaning smile. Shekhar cast his glance towards the screened balcony high above,
and saluted his lady in his mind, saying! "If I am the winner at the
combat to-day, my lady, thy victorious name shall be glorified."
The trumpet sounded.
The great crowd stood up, shouting victory to the king. The king, dressed in an
ample robe of white, slowly came into the hall like a floating cloud of autumn,
and sat on his throne.
Pundarik stood up, and
the vast hall became still. With his head raised high and chest expanded, he
began in his thundering voice to recite the praise of King Narayan. His words
burst upon the walls of the hall like breakers of the sea, and seemed to rattle
against the ribs of the listening crowd. The skill with which he gave varied
meanings to the name Narayan, and wove each letter of it through the web of his
verses in all mariner of combinations, took away the breath of his amazed
hearers.
For some minutes after
he took his seat his voice continued to vibrate among the numberless pillars of
the king's court and in thousands of speechless hearts. The learned professors
who had come from distant lands raised their right hands, and cried, Bravo!
The king threw a glance
on Shekhar's face, and Shekhar in answer raised for a moment his eyes full of
pain towards his master, and then stood up like a stricken deer at bay. His
face was pale, his bashfulness was almost that of a woman, his slight youthful
figure, delicate in its outline, seemed like a tensely strung vina ready to
break out in music at the least touch.
His head was bent, his
voice was low, when he began. The first few verses were almost inaudible. Then
he slowly raised his head, and his clear sweet voice rose into the sky like a
quivering flame of fire. He began with the ancient legend of the kingly line
lost in the haze of the past, and brought it down through its long course of
heroism and matchless generosity to the present age. He fixed his gaze on the
king's face, and all the vast and unexpressed love of the people for the royal
house rose like incense in his song, and enwreathed the throne on all sides.
These were his last words when, trembling, he took his seat: "My master, I
may be beaten in play of words, but not in my love for thee."
Tears filled the eyes
of the hearers, and the stone walls shook with cries of victory.
Mocking this popular
outburst of feeling, with an august shake of his head and a contemptuous sneer,
Pundarik stood up, and flung this question to the assembly; "What is there
superior to words?" In a moment the hall lapsed into silence again.
Then with a marvellous
display of learning, he proved that the Word was in the beginning, that the
Word was God. He piled up quotations from scriptures, and built a high altar
for the Word to be seated above all that there is in heaven and in earth. He
repeated that question in his mighty voice: "What is there superior to
words?"
Proudly he looked
around him. None dared to accept his challenge, and he slowly took his seat
like a lion who had just made a full meal of its victim. The pandits shouted,
Bravo! The king remained silent with wonder, and the poet Shekhar felt himself
of no account by the side of this stupendous learning. The assembly broke up
for that day.
Next day Shekhar began
his song. It was of that day when the pipings of love's flute startled for the
first time the hushed air of the Vrinda forest. The shepherd women did not know
who was the player or whence came the music. Sometimes it seemed to come from
the heart of the south wind, and sometimes from the straying clouds of the
hilltops. It came with a message of tryst from the land of the sunrise, and it
floated from the verge of sunset with its sigh of sorrow. The stars seemed to
be the stops of the instrument that flooded the dreams of the night with
melody. The music seemed to burst all at once from all sides, from fields and
groves, from the shady lanes and lonely roads, from the melting blue of the
sky, from the shimmering green of the grass. They neither knew its meaning nor
could they find words to give utterance to the desire of their hearts. Tears
filled their eyes, and their life seemed to long for a death that would be its
consummation.
Shekhar forgot his
audience, forgot the trial of his strength with a rival. He stood alone amid
his thoughts that rustled and quivered round him like leaves in a summer
breeze, and sang the Song of the Flute. He had in his mind the vision of an
image that had taken its shape from a shadow, and the echo of a faint tinkling
sound of a distant footstep.
He took his seat. His
hearers trembled with the sadness of an indefinable delight, immense and vague,
and they forgot to applaud him. As this feeling died away Pundarik stood up
before the throne and challenged his rival to define who was this Lover and who
was the Beloved. He arrogantly looked around him, he smiled at his followers
and then put the question again: "Who is Krishna, the lover, and who is
Radha, the beloved?"
Then he began to
analyse the roots of those names,—and various interpretations of their
meanings. He brought before the bewildered audience all the intricacies of the
different schools of metaphysics with consummate skill. Each letter of those
names he divided from its fellow, and then pursued them with a relentless logic
till they fell to the dust in confusion, to be caught up again and restored to
a meaning never before imagined by the subtlest of word-mongers.
The pandits were in
ecstasy; they applauded vociferously; and the crowd followed them, deluded into
the certainty that they had witnessed, that day, the last shred of the curtains
of Truth torn to pieces before their eyes by a prodigy of intellect. The
performance of his tremendous feat so delighted them that they forgot to ask
themselves if there was any truth behind it after all.
The king's mind was
overwhelmed with wonder. The atmosphere was completely cleared of all illusion
of music, and the vision of the world around seemed to be changed from its
freshness of tender green to the solidity of a high road levelled and made hard
with crushed stones.
To the people assembled
their own poet appeared a mere boy in comparison with this giant, who walked
with such case, knocking down difficulties at each step in the world of words
and thoughts. It became evident to them for the first time that the poems
Shekhar wrote were absurdly simple, and it must be a mere accident that they
did not write them themselves. They were neither new, nor difficult, nor
instructive, nor necessary.
The king tried to goad
his poet with keen glances, silently inciting him to make a final effort. But
Shekhar took no notice, and remained fixed to his seat.
The king in anger came
down from his throne—took off his pearl chain and put it on Pundarik's head.
Everybody in the hall cheered. From the upper balcony came a slight sound of
the movements of rustling robes and waist-chains hung with golden bells.
Shekhar rose from his seat and left the hall.
It was a dark night of
waning moon. The poet Shekhar took down his MSS. from his shelves and heaped
them on the floor. Some of them contained his earliest writings, which he had
almost forgotten. He turned over the pages, reading passages here and there. They
all seemed to him poor and trivial—mere words and childish rhymes!
One by one he tore his
books to fragments, and threw them into a vessel containing fire, and said:
"To thee, to thee, O my beauty, my fire! Thou hast been burning in my
heart all these futile years. If my life were a piece of gold it would come out
of its trial brighter, but it is a trodden turf of grass, and nothing remains
of it but this handful of ashes."
The night wore on.
Shekhar opened wide his windows. He spread upon his bed the white flowers that
he loved, the jasmines, tuberoses and chrysanthemums, and brought into his
bedroom all the lamps he had in his house and lighted them. Then mixing with
honey the juice of some poisonous root he drank it and lay down on his bed.
Golden anklets tinkled
in the passage outside the door, and a subtle perfume came into the room with
the breeze.
The poet, with his eyes
shut, said; "My lady, have you taken pity upon your servant at last and
come to see him?"
The answer came in a
sweet voice "My poet, I have come."
Shekhar opened his
eyes—and saw before his bed the figure of a woman.
His sight was dim and
blurred. And it seemed to him that the image made of a shadow that he had ever
kept throned in the secret shrine of his heart had come into the outer world in
his last moment to gaze upon his face.
The woman said; "I
am the Princess Ajita."
The poet with a great
effort sat up on his bed.
The princess whispered
into his car: "The king has not done you justice. It was you who won at
the combat, my poet, and I have come to crown you with the crown of
victory."
She took the garland of
flowers from her own neck, and put it on his hair, and the poet fell down upon
his bed stricken by death.
Grateful thanks to Project Gutenberg.
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