SABITRI—_Wife of Goluk Chunder_.
SOIRINDRI—_Wife of Nobin_.
SARALOTA—_Wife of Bindu Madhab_.
REBOTI—_Wife of Sadhu Churn_.
KHETROMANI—_Daughter of Sadhu_.
ADURI—_Maid-servant in Goluk Chunder’s house_.
PODI MOYRANI—_A Sweetmeat Maker_.
FIRST ACT—FIRST SCENE.
SVAROPUR—GOLUK CHUNDER’S GOLA OR STORE-HOUSE.
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GOLUK CHUNDER BASU _and_ SADHU CHURN _sitting_.
_Sadhu._ Master I told you then we cannot live any more in this
country. You did not hear me however. _A poor man’s word bears
fruit after the lapse of years._
_Goluk._ O my child! Is it easy to leave one’s country? My family
has been here for seven generations. The lands which our
fore-fathers rented have enabled us never to acknowledge ourselves
servants of others. The rice which grows, provides food for the
whole year, means of hospitality to guests, and also the expense
of religious services; the mustard seed we get, supplies oil for
the whole year, and, besides, we can sell it for about sixty or
seventy rupees. Svaropur is not a place where people are in
want.—It has rice, peas, oil, molasses from its fields, vegetables
in the garden, and fish from the tanks;—whose heart is not torn
when obliged to leave such a place? And who can do that easily?
_Sadhu._ Now it is no more a place of happiness: your garden is
already gone, and your relatives are on the point of forsaking
you. Ah! it is not yet three years since the Saheb took a lease of
this place, and he has already ruined the whole village. We cannot
bear to turn our eyes in the southern direction towards the house
of the heads of the villages (Mandal). Oh! what was it once, and
what is it now! Three years ago, about sixty men used to make a
daily feast in the house; there were ten ploughs, and about forty
or fifty oxen; as to the court-yard, it was crowded like as at the
horse races; when they used to arrange the ricks of corn, it
appeared, as it were, that the lotus had expanded itself on the
surface of a lake bordered by sandal groves; the granary was as
large as a hill; but last year the granary not being repaired, was
on the point of falling into the yard. Because he was not allowed
to plant Indigo in the rice-field, the wicked Saheb beat the
_Majo_ and _Sajo_ Babus most severely; and how very difficult was
it to get them out of his clutches; the ploughs and kine were
sold, and at that crisis the two Mandals left the village.
_Goluk._ Did not the eldest Mandal go to bring his brethren back?
_Sadhu._ They said, we would rather beg from door to door than go
to live there again. The eldest Mandal is now left alone, and he
has kept two ploughs, which are nearly always engaged in the
Indigo-fields. And even this person is making preparations for
flying off. Oh, Sir! I tell you also to throw aside this
infatuated attachment (_maya_) for your native place. Last time
your rice went, and this time, your honour will go.
_Goluk._ What honor remains to us now? The Planter has prepared
his places of cultivation round about the tank, and will plant
Indigo there this year. In that case, our women will be entirely
excluded from the tank. And also the Saheb has said that if we do
not cultivate our rice-fields with Indigo, he will make Nobin
Madhab to drink the water of seven Factories (_i. e._ to be
confined in them).
_Sadhu._ Has not the eldest Babu gone to the Factory?
_Goluk._ Has he gone of his own will? The pyeadah (a servant) has
carried him off there.
_Sadhu._ But your eldest Babu has very great courage. On the day
the Saheb said, “If you don’t hear the Amin, and don’t plant the
Indigo within the ground marked off, then shall we throw your
houses into the river Betraboti, and shall make you eat your rice
in the factory godown;“ the eldest Babu replied, “As long as we
shall not get the price for the fifty bigahs of land sown with
Indigo last year, we will not give one bigah this year for Indigo.
What do we care for our house? We shall even risk (pawn) our
lives.”
_Goluk._ What could he have done, without he said that? Just see,
no anxiety would have remained in our family if the fifty bigahs
of rice produce had been left with us. And if they give us the
money for the Indigo, the greater part of our troubles will go
away.