Book Details
| Book Title | Antarjali Yatra |
| Genre | Novel |
| Author | Kamal Kumar Majumdar |
| Language | Bengali |
| Publisher | Ananda Publishers, Kolkata |
| Recorded Edition | Kamal Kumar Majumdarer Upanyas Samagra 1st Edition, 2002 6th Reprint, 2015 |
| Date of Audio Publication | October 2019 |
| Media | Audio Book (mp3) |
| Duration | 5 hours & 58 minutes |
| Availability | For the print-disabled only |
About Antarjali Yatra
Antarjali Yatra was first published in 1962. This is the most well-known novel of the author, Kamal Kumar Majumdar (November 17, 1914 – February 9, 1979). The popularity of the novel may be attributed to the success of the film based on this novel in 1987 by Goutam Ghosh.
Antarjali Yatra is not an easy-to-read novel like other social and historical novels which we can read at a stretch. As Sunil Gangopadhyay wrote in his introduction to this book (also recorded in this audio book) that Kamal Kumar wanted to create a coterie of readers for his unique prose. He was at the same time a painter and sculptor. His characters are two-dimensional; his prose is full of images like lyric poetry. The sentences are long, full of participles and complex expressions containing metaphors and similes.
It seems strange that Kamal Kumar Majumdar has adopted a grand style for a story that has for its main characters Baiju (a drunkard chandal) and Yashobati (a hardly educated girl). The novel does not have any social relevance after almost two centuries of the abolition of Sati. It still has the impression of a historical fiction, depicting the cruelty of the patriarchal society in the nineteenth century. Yashobati is married off to Sitaram, a dying man at the burning ghat. She might be burned alive on the pyre, but the possibility of enjoying life again revitalises the dying man. Life at the burning ghat continues with Sitaram expecting to start afresh and Yashobati trying to help him in his efforts.
The atmosphere of the novel is dominated by the imagery of dawn and darkness. Sitaram and Yashobati are, the reader knows, waiting for the final passage to “heaven”. Baiju is the only man who realises the situation and tries to understand Yashobati. Read the book and you will find it more absorbing the cinema.
Please note that this book is not available for download.
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