• Dr. Supriya

  Author

Rabindranath Tagore, a major voice of awakening in the Indian
Renaissance, has transformed an ancient Buddhist legend into a dance drama,
Chandalika, which depicts the contemporary issue of class consciousness and the
prevalent spiritual crisis in the society. The dance drama powerfully presents the
intense desire of a marginalized woman who desperately wants to possess the man
from the mainstream who happens to treat her as a social equal. The paper proposes
to appreciate Tagore’s aesthetic exploration into the psyche of a socially ostracized
woman who has experienced a strange sense of fulfilment on being treated as a
normal human being. An attention is drawn towards the integration of ethical values
into the response pattern of the marginalized experience However, the universal
appeal of Chandalika substantiates the greatness of Tagore’s artistic acumen which
has raised it above a polemic of protest.

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