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Unit 21: ‘Chitra’ by Rabindranath Tagore: Theme and Plot Construction

The play is not only a thing of beauty in itself, but reveals to us what artistic possibilities lie in our Notes
Purans, if only we have in us the selective and creative genius and learn the message of Puranic
stories and seek to steep them in the height of our imagination and reveal them to the world for the
uplift and delight of mankind.
Tagore explains that love founded on the physical beauty alone is built on insecure foundation.
Beauty in human face and form is like the glow of sunset on evening clouds, glorious, fleeting and
mysterious. The beauty of the soul is immortal as the soul itself is immortal, so the love built on the
beauty of soul is built on a rock and endures for ever. Dr. Iyengar says that “the Sensual is transcended
in the Spiritual, and the union is sanctified at last.”
Chitra is doubtless the most fascinating and the most satisfying of Tagore’s plays. Krishna Kripalani
regards it to be Rabindranath’s most beautiful plays, perhaps the only one that is flawless. Edward
Thompson considers it “His loveliest drama, a lyrical feast”. M.V. Iyengar calls it “a thing of beauty”. It
presents an evolution of human love from the physical to the spiritual.
J.C. Rollo remarks that He further remarks “Here you have no particular people. Arjuna and Chitra are
Every man, Every woman and the problem facing them is that of human wives and husbands from the beginning
to the end of time”.

“Chitra is no less masterly than Gitanjali and The Gardner’. There is the same beauty of
phrasing, the same flowing, ever-satisfying rhythm and in its thought, there is the
same firm hold upon reality, the same truth of feeling, and of sympathy and the
same arresting power of symbolism.

Dr. Iyengar feels that “the supernatural machinery—Vasanta, Madana and their gifts to Chitra is strictly
superfluous to the play’s inner causation. The whole point of the play is that youth itself is a sudden spring-time
miracle, for it comes as it were suddenly and fades away as suddenly, as unaccountably.” The play is primarily
about Chitra, about woman. Motherland achieves the miracle of continuity, the beyonding of death
itself. Beauty and youth, although they may be transient and hence illusory, are yet a part of experience.
This lyrical drama is based on the following story of the Mahabharata.
In the course of his wanderings, in fulfilment of a vow of penance. Arjuna comes to Manipur. There
he sees Chitrangada, the beautiful daughter of Chitravahana, the king of the country. Smitten with
her charms, he asks the king for the hand of his daughter in marriage. Chitravahana asks him who he
is and learning that he is Arjuna, the Pandava tells him that Prabhanjana, one of his ancestors in the
kingly line of Manipur, had, long been childless. In order to obtain an heir, he performed severe
penances. Pleased with these austerities, the God Shiva gave him the boon that he and his successors
shall each have one child. It so happens that the promised child has invariably been a son. He
Chitravahana, is the first to have only a daughter Chitrangada to perpetuate the race. He has therefore,
always treated her as a son and has made her his heir. Continuing, the king says: “The one son that will
be born to her must be the perpetuator of my race. That son will be the price that I shall demand for this
marriage. You can take her if you like on this condition.”
Arjuna promises and takes Chitrangada to wife and lives in her father’s capital for three years. When
a son is born to them, he embraces her with affection and taking leave of her and her father sets out
again on his travels.
K. Chandrasekharan says that “Chitra is a play, nay, a playlet inspired by the Mahabharata. It is Tagore‘s
miniature version of Kalidas’s Shakuntala. Chitra and Arjuna gain a sensual earthly paradise first, but gain
later the higher heavens of total trust and understanding and fulfilment’’
The theme unfolds itself, in Tagore’s play in nine scenes. The first scene deals with the rejection of
Chitra by Arjuna, while the second with the rejection of Arjuna by Chitra. The third describes the
delicious union of the hero and heroine. In the fourth scene Tagore refers to the decline of Arjuna’s
infatuation. It is followed by an interlude in the fifth scene. While the sixth scene describes the further

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