''Chokher Bali'' (চোখের বালি) is a 1903

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

novel by

Rabindranath Tagore Rabindranath Tagore (; bn, রবীন্দ্রনাথ ঠাকুর; 7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali polymath who worked as a poet, writer, playwright, composer, philosopher, social reformer and painter. He resh ...

that depicts the life of the central character, Binodini, and her relationships with three individuals. It explores the extramarital affair between Binodini, a young widow, and Mahendra, one of the three other main characters, the complicated friendship with Asha, his girl-wife, and her mutually conflicting feelings with Behari, Mahendra's adopted brother. The content also highlighted issues of female literacy, child marriage, patriarchy within the family and the fates of three widows

Title

The title of the book can be translated as "a grain of sand", a "constant irritant to the eye", or an "eyesore". "Eyesore" was used as the title for its first English translation by

Surendranath Tagore Surendranath Tagore (1872–1940) was a Bengali author, literary scholar, and translator. He is particularly noted for translating a number of works of Rabindranath Tagore to English. Early life and background A member of the Tagore family of ...

published in 1914. Tagore used ''Binodini'' as a working title before its publication.

Writing and publication history

Tagore prepared himself for writing the novel by writing a spree of short stories and it was his first serious effort at a

novel A novel is a relatively long work of narrative fiction, typically written in prose and published as a book. The present English word for a long work of prose fiction derives from the for "new", "news", or "short story of something new", itsel ...

. He began working on the novel in 1898 or 1899, and a draft version was completed in 1901. It was first serialized from 1902 to 1903 in the periodical

Bangadarshan ''Bangadarshan'' ( bn, বঙ্গদর্শন) was a Bengali literary magazine, founded by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay in 1872, and resuscitated in 1901 under the editorship of Rabindranath Tagore. The magazine had a defining influence on th ...

, then published as a full book in 1903. Some passages were deleted in the initial serialization and publication, but partly restored in the anthology ''Rabindra Rachanabali'' published in 1941, with more restored in an independent edition in 1947.

Translation and adaptations

The first translation of ''Chokher Bali'' was by

which appeared in '' The Modern Review'' in 1914. It was then translated into English by

Krishna Kripalani Krishna Kripalani (29 September 1907 – 27 April 1992) was an Indian freedom fighter, author and parliamentarian. He wrote a number of books on Rabindranath Tagore, Mahatma Gandhi and on Indian literature. Early life The son of Ramchand B. Krip ...

, and published under the title of ''Binodini'' in 1959 by the

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

. It has also been translated into other non-Indian languages including

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

(1959) and

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of ...

(1961); and into most of the Indian languages including

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub ...

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

Marathi Marathi may refer to: *Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India *Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people *Palaiosouda, also known as Marathi, a small island in Greece See also * * ...

, Punjabi, Sindhi,

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, Assamese (translated by Dr. Mahendra Bora, published by Sahitya Akademi in 1968) and

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
''

transliteration Transliteration is a type of conversion of a text from one writing system, script to another that involves swapping Letter (alphabet), letters (thus ''wikt:trans-#Prefix, trans-'' + ''wikt:littera#Latin, liter-'') in predictable ways, such as ...

Devanagari script Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the a ...

, with footnotes in Hindi, was also published by the Sahitya Akademi in 1961. ''Chokher Bali'' has been adapted a number of times in film, television and theatre. A stage adaptation was first performed in 1904, and a film version directed by Satu Sen was released in 1938, which Tagore saw and he expressed his satisfaction with the performance in the film. Other versions have been produced on screen and television, for example, '' Chokher Bali'' by

Rituparno Ghosh Rituparno Ghosh (31 August 1963 – 30 May 2013) was an Indian film director, actor, writer and lyricist. After pursuing a degree in economics, he started his career as a creative artist at an advertising agency. He received recognition for his ...

in 2003, and in the television series '' Stories by Rabindranath Tagore'' in 2015. The Indian Bengali-language television serial '' Chokher Bali'', which aired on

Zee Bangla Zee Bangla is an Indian general entertainment pay television channel broadcasting in the Bengali language. It is owned by the Zee Entertainment Enterprises. It is the first Bengali-language satellite television channel in India, officially com ...

from 2015 to 2016, was adapted from the novel.

References

{{Rabindranath Tagore Indian novels adapted into films