When the girl was given the name of Subhashini,[34] who could have
guessed that she would prove dumb? Her two elder sisters were
Sukeshini[35] and Suhasini,[36] and for the sake of uniformity her
father named his youngest girl Subhashini. She was called Subha for
short.
[34] Sweetly speaking.
[35] Lovely-locked.
[36] Sweetly smiling.
Her two elder sisters had been married with the usual cost and
difficulty, and now the youngest daughter lay like a silent weight
upon the heart of her parents. All the world seemed to think that,
because she did not speak, therefore she did not feel; it discussed
her future and its own anxiety freely in her presence. She had
understood from her earliest childhood that God had sent her like a
curse to her father's house, so she withdrew herself from ordinary
people, and tried to live apart. If only they would all forget her she
felt she could endure it. But who can forget pain? Night and day
her parents' minds were aching on her account. Especially her mother
looked upon her as a deformity in herself. To a mother a daughter is
a more closely intimate part of herself than a son can be; and a
fault in her is a source of personal shame. Banikantha, Subha's
father, loved her rather better than his other daughters; her mother
regarded her with aversion as a stain upon her own body.
If Subha lacked speech, she did not lack a pair of large dark eyes,
shaded with long lashes; and her lips trembled like a leaf in response
to any thought that rose in her mind.
When we express our thought in words, the medium is not found easily.
There must be a process of translation, which is often inexact, and
then we fall into error. But black eyes need no translating; the mind
itself throws a shadow upon them. In them thought opens or shuts,
shines forth, or goes out in darkness, hangs steadfast like the
setting moon, or, like the swift and restless lightning, illumines all
quarters of the sky. They who from birth have had no other speech
than the trembling of their lips learn a language of the eyes, endless
in expression, deep as the sea, clear as the heavens, wherein play
dawn and sunset, light and shadow. The dumb have a lonely grandeur
like Nature's own. Wherefore the other children almost dreaded Subha,
and never played with her. She was silent and companionless as noontide.
The hamlet where she lived was Chandipur. Its river, small for a river
of Bengal, kept to its narrow bounds like a daughter of the middle
class. This busy streak of water never overflowed its banks, but went
about its duties as though it were a member of every family in the
villages beside it. On either side were houses and banks shaded with
trees. So stepping from her queenly throne, the river-goddess became
a garden deity of each home; and forgetful of herself, performed her
task of endless benediction with swift and cheerful foot.
Banikantha's house looked upon the stream. Every hut and stack in
the place could be seen by the passing boatmen. I know not if amid
these signs of worldly wealth any one noticed the little girl who,
when her work was done, stole away to the waterside, and sat there.
But here Nature fulfilled her want of speech, and spoke for her.
The murmur of the brook, the voice of the village folk, the songs
of the boatmen, the crying of the birds and rustle of trees mingled,
and were one with the trembling of her heart. They became one vast
wave of sound, which beat upon her restless soul. This murmur and
movement of Nature were the dumb girl's language; that speech of
the dark eyes, which the long lashes shaded, was the language of
the world about her. From the trees, where the cicalas chirped, to
the quiet stars there was nothing but signs and gestures, weeping and
sighing. And in the deep mid-noon, when the boatmen and fisherfolk
had gone to their dinner, when the villagers slept, and birds were
still, when the ferry-boats were idle, when the great busy world paused
in its toil, and became suddenly a lonely, awful giant, then beneath
the vast impressive heavens there were only dumb Nature and a dumb
girl, sitting very silent--one under the spreading sunlight, the
other where a small tree cast its shadow.
But Subha was not altogether without friends. In the stall were two
cows, Sarbbashi and Panguli. They had never heard their names from
her lips, but they knew her footfall. Though she had no words, she
murmured lovingly and they understood her gentle murmuring better
than all speech. When she fondled them or scolded or coaxed them,
they understood her better than men could do. Subha would come to the
shed, and throw her arms round Sarbbashi's neck; she would rub her
cheek against her friend's, and Panguli would turn her great kind
eyes and lick her face. The girl paid them three regular visits every
day, and others that were irregular. Whenever she heard any words
that hurt her, she would come to these dumb friends out of due time.
It was as though they guessed her anguish of spirit from her quiet look
of sadness. Coming close to her, they would rub their horns softly
against her arms, and in dumb, puzzled fashion try to comfort her.
Besides these two, there were goats and a kitten; but Subha had not
the same equality of friendship with them, though they showed the
same attachment. Every time it got a chance, night or day, the kitten
would jump into her lap, and settle down to slumber, and show its
appreciation of an aid to sleep as Subha drew her soft fingers over its
neck and back.
Subha had a comrade also among the higher animals, and it is hard to
say what were the girl's relations with him, for he could speak, and
his gift of speech left them without any common language. He was the
youngest boy of the Gosains, Pratap by name, an idle fellow. After
long effort, his parents had abandoned the hope that he would ever
make his living. Now losels have this advantage, that, though their
own folk disapprove of them, they are generally popular with every
one else. Having no work to chain them, they become public property.
Just as every town needs an open space where all may breathe, so a
village needs two or three gentlemen of leisure, who can give time
to all; so that, if we are lazy and want a companion, one is to hand.
Pratap's chief ambition was to catch fish. He managed to waste a lot
of time this way, and might be seen almost any afternoon so employed.
It was thus most often that he met Subha. Whatever he was about, he
liked a companion; and, when one is catching fish, a silent companion
is best of all. Pratap respected Subha for her taciturnity, and, as
every one called her Subha, he showed his affection by calling her
Su. Subha used to sit beneath a tamarind, and Pratap, a little distance
off, would cast his line. Pratap took with him a small allowance
of betel, and Subha prepared it for him. And I think that, sitting
and gazing a long while, she desired ardently to bring some great help
to Pratap, to be of real aid, to prove by any means that she was
not a useless burden to the world. But there was nothing to do. Then
she turned to the Creator in prayer for some rare power, that by an
astonishing miracle she might startle Pratap into exclaiming: 'My! I
never dreamt our Su could have done this!'
Only think! if Subha had been a water nymph, she might have risen
slowly from the river, bringing the gem of a snake's crown to the
landing-place. Then Pratap, leaving his paltry fishing, might dive
into the lower world, and see there, on a golden bed in a palace of
silver, whom else but dumb little Su, Banikantha's child? Yes, our
Su, the only daughter of the king of that shining city of jewels!
But that might not be, it was impossible. Not that anything is
really impossible, but Su had been born, not into the royal house of
Patalpur,[37] but into Banikantha's family, and she knew no means of
astonishing the Gosains' boy.
[37] The Lower World.
Gradually she grew up. Gradually she began to find herself. A new
inexpressible consciousness like a tide from the central places of
the sea, when the moon is full, swept through her. She saw herself,
questioned herself, but no answer came that she could understand.
Once upon a time, late on a night of full moon, she slowly opened
her door, and peeped out timidly. Nature, herself at full moon, like
lonely Subha, was looking down on the sleeping earth. Her strong young
life beat within her; joy and sadness filled her being to its brim;
she reached the limits even of her own illimitable loneliness, nay,
passed beyond them. Her heart was heavy, and she could not speak!
At the skirts of this silent, troubled Mother there stood a silent
troubled girl.
The thought of her marriage filled her parents with an anxious care.
People blamed them, and even talked of making them outcasts. Banikantha
was well off; they had fish-curry twice daily; and consequently he
did not lack enemies. Then the women interfered, and Bani went away
for a few days. Presently he returned, and said: 'We must go to
Calcutta.'
They got ready to go to this strange country. Subha's heart was heavy
with tears, like a mist-wrapt dawn. With a vague fear that had been
gathering for days, she dogged her father and mother like a dumb
animal. With her large eyes wide open, she scanned their faces as
though she wished to learn something. But not a word did they
vouchsafe. One afternoon in the midst of all this, as Pratap was
fishing, he laughed: 'So then, Su, they have caught your bridegroom,
and you are going to be married! Mind you don't forget me altogether!'
Then he turned his mind again to his fish. As a stricken doe looks
in the hunter's face, asking in silent agony: 'What have I done to
you?' so Subha looked at Pratap. That day she sat no longer beneath
her tree. Banikantha, having finished his nap, was smoking in his
bedroom when Subha dropped down at his feet and burst out weeping
as she gazed towards him. Banikantha tried to comfort her, and his
cheek grew wet with tears.
It was settled that on the morrow they should go to Calcutta. Subha
went to the cow-shed to bid farewell to her childhood's comrades.
She fed them with her hand; she clasped their necks; she looked into
their faces, and tears fell fast from the eyes which spoke for her.
That night was the tenth of the moon. Subha left her room, and flung
herself down on her grassy couch beside her dear river. It was as
if she threw her arms about Earth, her strong, silent mother, and tried
to say: 'Do not let me leave you, mother. Put your arms about me, as
I have put mine about you, and hold me fast.'
One day in a house in Calcutta, Subha's mother dressed her up with
great care. She imprisoned her hair, knotting it up in laces, she
hung her about with ornaments, and did her best to kill her natural
beauty, Subha's eyes filled with tears. Her mother, fearing they
would grow swollen with weeping, scolded her harshly, but the tears
disregarded the scolding. The bridegroom came with a friend to inspect
the bride. Her parents were dizzy with anxiety and fear when they saw
the god arrive to select the beast for his sacrifice. Behind the
stage, the mother called her instructions aloud, and increased her
daughter's weeping twofold, before she sent her into the examiner's
presence. The great man, after scanning her a long time, observed:
'Not so bad.'
He took special note of her tears, and thought she must have a tender
heart. He put it to her credit in the account, arguing that the heart,
which to-day was distressed at leaving her parents, would presently
prove a useful possession. Like the oyster's pearls, the child's tears
only increased her value, and he made no other comment.
The almanac was consulted, and the marriage took place on an auspicious
day. Having delivered over their dumb girl into another's hands,
Subha's parents returned home. Thank God! Their caste in this and
their safety in the next world were assured! The bridegroom's work
lay in the west, and shortly after the marriage he took his wife
thither.
In less than ten days every one knew that the bride was dumb! At least,
if any one did not, it was not her fault, for she deceived no one. Her
eyes told them everything, though no one understood her. She looked
on every hand; she found no speech; she missed the faces, familiar
from birth, of those who had understood a dumb girl's language. In her
silent heart there sounded an endless, voiceless weeping, which only
the Searcher of Hearts could hear.
Using both eyes and ears _this_ time, her lord made another careful
examination, using his ears this time as well as his eyes, and married
a second wife who could speak.