Skip to main content

Bangle sellers

Bangle sellers - Sarojini Naidu


Summary
A group of bangle sellers is on its way to the temple fair to sell their bangles. One of them is the narrator of this poem. They are an impoverished and marginalized group of people whose income from the sales of their bangles is at the best of times uncertain and very meagre. However the bangles they sell are of religious and symbolic importance: no Indian widow is permitted to wear bangles. Hence the wearing of bangles is considered to be very auspicious and of symbolic value bordering on the religious.

What is of great significance in the poem is that the bangle seller does not say a word about his/her  poverty, nor does he/she  say anything about the profit that he/she intends to make by selling his/her bangles at the temple fair where he/she will certainly do roaring sales. On the contrary he/she only concentrates on the human element of the product 

Sarojini Naidu has foregrounded the auspiciousness and the symbolic value of the custom of wearing bangles by repeating "happy."  The 'happy' daughters look forward to their marital bliss while the 'happy' wives are content and glory in the fulfillment which is a result of their  marital status.

Each of the next three stanzas deal with the three stages in the life of of an average Indian woman - a virgin maiden, an expectant bride and finally a mature matriarch.The bangles are of many colors. However, each stage in an Indian woman's life is described lyrically and appropriately according to the colour of the bangle suitable to that stage:for the maiden virgin who is always dreaming  of a happily married life it is a misty silver and blue, for the expectant and passionate bride it is a golden yellow, and for the mature matriarch it is a "purple and gold flecked grey."

Similarly Sarojini Naidu very poetically describes the longings of an Indian woman according to each stage of her life: the virgin maiden is carrying in her heart countless dreams of her future married life and she is compared to a "bud that dreams." The young bride is described as brimming over with passionate desire although she is nervous about what the future holds for her as she leaves her parental home - "bridal laughter and bridal tear."

Finally, she describes the proud and faithful matriarch who has attained  fulfillment by successfully rearing  her sons - "serves her house in fruitful pride -" and hence is permitted to take her rightful place by the side of her husband in all the domestic religious rituals.




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Palanquin Bearers.

Palanquin Bearers-  Sarojini Naidu. Summary. Palanquin bearers is a melodious poem. The poem describes the scene of a bride being carried on a palanquin. The poem generates images of royal wives being carried on a palanquin to their husbands house. The men who carried the palanquin felt that their job was special and did it with much happiness. The similies in the poem point to the fact that the men did not feel that their job was tiresome. Some examples of the same are, 'Softly, O softly we bear her along', 'She hangs like a star in the dew of our song' and 'Lightly, O lightly we glide and we sing'. Palanquin bearers is melodious and one of the most appealing poems of Sarojni Naidu. The poem describes the beauty of the bride while she is being carried in a palanquin. We are reminded of one of the ancient customs of carrying royal brides in India in decorated carriages to their husband’s home. Occasionally, the men of the royal families would trav

The Dance of the Eunuchs.

The Dance of the Eunuchs - Kamala Das. Summary- Included in the collection Summer in Calcutta(1965), 'Dance of the Eunuchs' is one of the most remarkable poems of Kamala Das. This is another autobiographical poem written in confessional style that symbolically portrays the poetess's personal melancholy in her own life.  'Dance of the Eunuchs' vividly conjures up the atmosphere of a hot, tortured, corrupt, sterile and barren world through vivid symbols and images. The dance of the eunuchs whose joyless life reflects the poet‘s fractured personality is a noticeable piece of autobiographical poetry. Kamala Das has vividly visualized the world of vacant ecstasy and sterility through numerous functional images and symbols in her poetry. In fact Eunuchs try to eke out a livelihood by dancing. Their dancing is mechanical and painful. The conditions and the climate are forbidding. The spectators are merciless. Even God seems to add their woes. The eunuchs

Old Stone Mansion.

Old Stone Mansion – Mahesh Elkunchwar. Plot Overview- The play, Wada Chirebandi, begins on the fifth day after the demise of Tatyaji (Venkatesh) the patriarch of the Deshpande family of Dharangaon. Dharangaon is a small hamlet in the interiors of   Maharashtra where the influences of commercial Bombay has slowly spread its tentacles. The play begins with Aai, the widow of Tatyaji, awaiting the arrival of her second son Sudhir and his wife Anjali from Bombay, to attend the 13th day rites. In the meantime, the eldest son Bhaskar and his wife, Vahini, has taken over the reins of the family by taking charge of the two objects of command, the keys and the ancestral jewellery box. Been a traditional Brahmin family, Bhaskar intends to conduct the rituals in full traditional fanfare even when the family has fallen in difficult lines.   Bhaskar expects Sudhir to bear the expenses, as his image of someone from a big city is that of been financially well off, while Sudhir