Samipya 1991 Vol 08 Ank 01 02

Author(s): Pravinchandra C Parikh, Bhartiben Shelat
Publisher: Bholabhai Jeshingbhai Adhyayan Sanshodhan Vidyabhavan

Page 98

to seek his leadership. However, he fails to convince Gautam, his soldier-disciple, to desist from taking arms. Gautam, despite his deepest regard for his Guru, is convinced of his mission to drive the British out of India. Kalyani, the grand-daughter of Rudradatta wants to marry Gautam only if he realizes the limitations of violence.
Rebellion is in the air and Rudradatta starts his journey for the holy bath at Triveni Sangam. He is accompanied by Kalyani, Trayambak, his chief disciple, and Shankar, an old soldier but now turned as a boatman.
At little distance from his Pathashala Rudradatta destroys his last concealed store of arms and ammunitions that he had preserved so far, which some of the prominent rebels wanted to use against the British. Thus, the author suggests that Rudradatta has completely destroyed his ghost-past.
After covering a distance of about two hundred miles he comes to a town, which by that time has become a strong centre of revolt. He stays in Dharmashala attached to a temple. The rebels want to capture and kill the priest, Johnson, and his family who also have come to the same town, and now have taken a refuge in the same Dharmashala. Rudradatta refuses to submit to the threat of the mob. He also prevents Tryambak (who also wants to be a soldier of Gautam's fame) and Shankar from taking arms against the mob. Being an old soldier, Shankar feels insulted. A shot from Shankar's gun is fired at Rudradatta. Rudradatta utters the word Om while collapsing on the ground by the side of Kalyani and Lucy-Laxmi, fatally wounded in the chest. The author depicts this moving scence of the evening time. For his reader, the author symbolizes Rudradatta with Lord Krishna on the battle ground of Mahabharat. But where as Lord Krishna remained invincible all throughout the epic war, Rudradatta meets his tragic end. Thus, the reader who is emotionally attached to Rudradatta is not prepared to face Rudradatta's death. Tryambak loses his temper, takes lathi to kill Shankar but he is stopped by Rudradatta. Rudradatta declares that only one who takes vow not to touch weapon in any form would perform his last rites. Tryambak, consumed with sorrow, complies with his demand.
The author wrote this novel in 1935, but as Rudradatta was cast in the image of Gandhi the author described the way in which his central character should die. And it is ironical that years later Gandhi also met such heroic death, and that too at the hands of a violent Hindu.
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It is essentially through his creative novels that Ramanlal mirrored the Gandhian movement. And he did it in such a way that he earned immense popularity among the educated middle class of Gujarat. It is true that he wrote most of his novels almost in a causal fashion, sometimes only after a light goading from his friends and publishers. It is also likely that his own personality of keeping himself in the lowkey profile did not make him conscious as a writer with a message for the society. Nevertheless, it seems clear that his sensitive mind had grasped the pressing issues of the time. He was attracted towards Marxism. However, he could not get himself
Sämpya: April, '91-March, 1992