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English - II

Notes decline of Arjuna’s infatuation, there is an interlude again in the seventh scene. In the eight scene
Arjuna comes across the ‘other’ Chitra and the last scene represents the course of events from the
“Lie”’ to the “Truth”.
Tagore could start the play, strike the opening chords, name the characters and memory and
imagination would do the rest.
This short play of one Act contains none of the attractions of variation in scene, action and characters.
There is no complexity in the plot. There is no feeling of vagueness bordering on dissatisfaction as we
finish the book. The blending of fine shades of thoughts in a single theme is rendered with a rare
intuition and skill.
Chitra is the daughter of the king of Manipur. Arjuna is of the Kshatriya or Warrior Caste and during
the action is living as a hermit retired in the forest. Dr. Iyengar feels that Chitra is the quintessence of
romance. The speeches burn with passion and light up the way from truth to illusion and again from
illusion to Truth. The truth is that Chitra is no Goddess to be worshipped, not yet the object of common
pity to be brushed aside like a moth with indifference. She is a woman and a mother and Arjuna is
content and says simply, “Beloved, my life is full.
Chitra is not a goddess hidden in a golden image. Her noble ambition is to meet the greatest hero of
the five pandava brothers. She responds to the call of love and places herself in the hands of Arjuna
murmuring to him “Take me, take all I am.” There is a real conflict at first in her, but she slowly yields
to the compromising attitude and is ready to make her last sacrifice at Arjuna’s feet. As K.
Chandrasekhran says: “The final revelation of her true self, so sudden and so impressive cannot but leave a
ringing touch even long after the play is over. Chitra is certainly greater than man and woman put together,
though by a strange irony of fate she happens to be both.” As one representing the ideal of womanhood,
Chitra shows that a woman is not merely a passive follower of her husband. Chitra, typifying faith,
purity, love and sacrifice embodies the noblest virtues of womanhood.
Arjuna claims our attention next. He is found fickle. He sees an apparition of beauty in the perfect
form of a woman. He thinks that the vague veilings of her body should melt in ecstasy into air as the
golden mist of dawn melts from the snowy peak of the eastern hill. The intensity of pathos overwhelms
us when each of them passes through an inner struggle in trying to understand the other.

Tagore finally represents the symbolism in Chitra namely the symbolism of the human
psyche of youth and growth. He refers to the symbols, ”the organic world” of flower and
fruit and plant and creature. There are also the symbols of metaphysical passions of illusion
and reality.

Again he has also stated the symbols of mythological consciousness of Madana and Vasanta and the
beloved elves.
All these symbols are sustained throughout by the controlling allegory of the two ashrams of Kalidas
as Shakuntala. Tagore has created for himself a wonderfully rounded form for a play racing the passage
of the human soul through the eternal cycle of innocence and experience and consummation.
Thus Tagore has wonderfully conveyed in this short drama with consummate skill an endless meaning
in the narrow span of a song. He has the original gift of spreading the atmosphere of the ideal world
over familiar forms and incidents. Prof. Jadnath Shankar says, “Chitra is no mere tale of joys and of a
lass. It is a criticism of life”.

21.1 Chitra as a Play

Chitra was performed in India without scenery and the audience surrounded the actors. All the other
necessary components for writing and producing the drama, such as playwriting, acting, costume
and scenic design were attended to by Tagore. Chitra is based on the Chitrangada-Arjuna episode in

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