Chapter-2

Pather Panchali: Song of the Road-

An Ecosophy of Life
Chapter 2 Pather Panchali: Song of the Road- An Ecosophy of Life

Man follows earth, earth follows sky, sky

follows the way, the way follows nature…

Gao, Xingjian, Soul Mountain

2.1. Introduction

The world of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay is invariably green as nature is

the keynote of almost all his prose narratives. His very first novel Pather Panchali-Song
of the Road deals with human nature interconnection in the deepest level. The novel was
published originally in Bengali by the author in 1929. But because of its world
recognition, it got translated into different languages. It was translated into English by
T.W. Clark and Tarapada Mukherji in 1968 and first published by Harper Collins India
in 1999. Its eleventh impression has come out in 2013. If Ecocriticism is the study of
nature in the literary viewfinder, the present article seeks to analyze this very popular
novel in Bengali later translated into English from the various aspects of green
literature. The rural landscape, human-nature bond, pathetic fallacy, the mal-treatment
of the weaker section of society, the impact of culture upon nature etc., which are some
of the principles of eco-literature are paramount in the novel. The novelist here sings the
glory of the simple folk whose eternal struggle for existence is not written in the golden
pages of History. Unlike Hardy nature here does not wear the somber look; like
Wordsworth, nature here builds up a positive attitude among the protagonists who find
solace in her open lap. The novel here builds up an earth-centric approach set against
the socio-centric attitude to life. Its ecopoetic beauty is excellent as it reads like the
poetry of common man which William Wordsworth suggested in his Preface to the
Lyrical Ballads as the proper theme of poetry.

One of the dominant themes of Pather Panchali is the man in the midst of
nature. The very title suggests that the text is going to be highly ecocritical. By
‘Panchali’ we mean simple song written by the poets of Middle Ages in Bengal. It is
often a holy song in praise of gods or goddesses. The writer here sings of the eternal
saga of the rural life of Bengal hitherto unexplored by many eminent writers of his time.

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The attraction of life centers on the call of the path (road) to explore the unknown and
see the unseen. So ‘path’ here serves as a life force that draws out all the characters
from home to nature to find out something better in life. Time and again the writer has
mentioned the god of the road which guides the characters in their way of life. The
novel projects man as the eternal wayfarer. Hence, there is a relationship between man
and the physical environment. There is an assemblage of natural ecology and social
ecology with the mental ecology of the protagonist of the novel. The novel is an epic of
poverty stricken people whose still sad music of humanity is often neglected by the
privileged class. The rural landscape has been skillfully depicted with its unspoiled
nature. The seasonal flux has been beautifully described with the changes in the natural
environment of Bengal. The flora and fauna of village life have a symbiotic living with
each other. Reading the novel from an ecocritic’s point of view is a real pleasure as the
socio-cultural and religious activities of the villagers have an impact on the environment
also. The novel shows how the Roy family is forced to leave the village which was
known for its abundance of natural beauty due to the hypocrisy and humiliation of the
social system. They had to migrate to the city for a better future. But happiness ever
eludes their grasp and after some further misery, Apu returns to the neighboring village
with his mother. It is a time which reconnects man’s lost relationship with nature.

Ecosophy is a more comprehensive understanding of ecology than we find in

the scientific study of ecology. This literary genre is considered to be an ecological
philosophy which is important for the pragmatic existence of mankind. Our natural
environment, as well as our socio-cultural environment influences us in many ways.
These things not only impact our present generation but also shape the psychological
identity of our future generations. The scientific study of the ecological science is not
enough to explore today’s problematic relationship between man and nature. Therefore,
a more comprehensive understanding of ecology is required. It was Arne Naess, a
Norwegian philosopher who coined the term ecosophy. Naess propounded that
ecosophy is the result of deep understanding of human existence through rational
thinking. To her, ecosophy is a kind of philosophy which is used to tackle the individual
problem related to ecology. It is also known as eco-philosophy or ecological
philosophy. Naess has given a fine definition of ecosophy as stated below,

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By an ecosophy, I mean a philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium. A

philosophy as a kind of sofia (or) wisdom, is openly normative, it contains both
norms, rules, postulates, value priority announcements, and hypotheses
concerning the state of affairs in our universe. Wisdom is policy wisdom,
prescription, not only scientific description and prediction. The details of an
ecosophy will show many variations due to significant differences concerning
not only the ‘facts’ of pollution, resources, population, etc. but also value
priorities. (A. Drengson and Y. Inoue 8)

The French psychoanalyst and post-structuralist, Felix Guattari has highlighted a radical
approach to ecosophy. Guattari’s conceptual framework of ecosophy is based on the
practical creativity of man rather than theoretical approach. There remain numerous
relationships in an environment. To reconstruct the alienated relationship among the
organisms and an environment, there requires human creativity to meet out the crisis.
He suggests that it is self-deceiving to judge our activities as having three separate
components of mind, society and environment. Guattari opines,

Without modifications to the social and material environment, there can be no

change in mentalities. Here, we are in the presence of a circle that leads me to
postulate the necessity of founding an “ecosophy” that would link environmental
ecology to social ecology and to mental ecology (Guattari 264).

To Guattari, the only way to solve the global ecological imbalance caused by scientific
ecology is to adapt ‘ecosophy’ which considers the world as a combination of the three
areas of the environment. In short, ecosophy is an integration of three ecologies, e.g.,
environmental ecology, social ecology, and mental ecology. Although ecosophy is
basically an environmental philosophy, the true nature of this concept is a creative
ecological wisdom among the humans. Thus Guattari urges the need to modify the
fields of material, social and ideological understanding to reconnect man’s lost
relationship with nature.

On the other hand, Naess’ ecosophy is a set of individual beliefs about nature
which varies from person to person. Everyone has his own ecosophy of life. Naess
provides his own ecosophy as a model of the theory. His ecological philosophy

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emphasizes the intrinsic value of nature and the importance of cultural and natural
diversity. All life forms have their respective value which should not be tampered with
except the vital need for the sake of our very survival.

Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s eco-sophy of life is well expressed in his

Pather Panchali. Here the protagonist Apu understands of the inter-connective wave of
man, nature and society which is the main focus of the study. The chapter explores how
the children have a mental association with nature which has a sustainable impact on
them.

2.2. The Rural Landscape

An important principle of eco-literature is the study of landscape and all the

organisms to which it is related.

Ecocriticism is most appropriately applied to a work in which the landscape

itself is a dominant character when a significant interaction occurs between
author and place, character and place. Landscape by definition includes the
non-human elements of place like the rocks, soil, trees, plants, rivers, animals,
air as well as human perceptions and modifications. How an author sees and
describes these elements relates to geological, botanical, zoological,
meteorological, ecological, as well as aesthetic, social, and psychological
considerations. And then there is the historical vantage point. As Thoreau once
wrote, there can be no history but natural history—if one believes that by
natural we mean the human as well as the non-human world (“Ecocriticism-
ASLE” 2017).

In Bibhutibhushan we find a picturesque description of the rural landscape. Like

Jibanananda Das (a famous Bengali poet of nature) descriptions of nature overflows the
pages of his novels. His natural descriptions appeal to our senses of sight, taste and
smell as it is in Keats’ poetry. But Bibhutibhushan is superior as his novels pave the
path to reach divine godliness. In this sense, he is close to nature mystic William
Wordsworth. The novel abounds in the descriptions of beautiful natural landscape,
flowers, and fruits during seasonal changes having a deep impact upon the children
characters like Apu and Durga. Thus summer is blessed with mangoes and jackfruits;

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the rains with palms and berries; the winter with typical sour fruits like soa (a kind of
sour fruit) etc. The children explore patalkor and bondhudul as vegetables for their poor
family. The village Nishchindipur is extremely hot during summer, wet and
waterlogged in the rainy season, humid in autumn, dry in winter and pleasant in spring
the king of all seasons in Bengal.

Pather Panchali opens the eyes of the world to the exquisite beauty of the most
unexpected regions of rural Bengal. The novel focuses on a poverty-ridden family of
Brahmins from Bengal. The plot of the novel is set in the soul of Bengal, its pristine
beauty of the rural landscape. Living in an impoverished area of Nishchindpur village,
etymologically meaning the land of eternal peace, Harihar Roy struggles hard to make
both ends meet for his family, including his wife Sorbojoya and children Apu and
Durga. The little ones had never been able to afford to satisfy their craving for
delicacies with cream and sugar curds. Yet they were driven to find their sweets like
ripe berries and mangoes on the jungle bushes. The goddesses of the forest had
contrived to fill their honeyed nectar all their own. The novel also shows the impact of
seasonal flux upon the landscape and its people. During summer people get choked with
thirst until it is quenched by the placid rainfall of the rainy season. Mangoes and
jackfruits are found in plenty. The rural people have a chance to relish the juicy fruits in
the dry season. The rains invoke Taalnavami festival when palms are found in plenty.
The autumnal air is heavy with dew and it is also heavy with the strong scent of the
chatim flowers. The white clouds in the blue sky and the kash flowers declare the arrival
of Durga Puja, a famous festival of Bengal. With the arrival of spring, nature wears a
new look with new leaves appearing on the branches. The whole environment looks
colourful with beautiful flowers. Spring also is the festival of Chadak, Shivaratri,
Saraswati (Goddess of learning) puja etc. So the festivals, a part of human culture also
have a link with the seasons. Besides, the unsophisticated rural folk observe several
rituals and vows throughout the year. Kuluichandi and Senjuti are some of vows
observed by women of rural Bengal. The elements of nature like fruits and flowers,
crops and birds are used in these rituals. Mother used to sing lullaby having descriptions
of nature to make their children asleep. Fairs are frequent according to seasons and folk
plays and songs are in tune with the natural environment. Every now and then there is a
mention of Nischindipur village, Sonadanda field, Ichhamoti River and the varied

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beauty of rural landscape. The jungle that begins from Apu’s house extends upto the
river in one side and the rejected indigo factory on the other side. Little Apu cannot
measure the density of the forest which he has been watching since childhood. The
green forest has a deep impact upon the children like Apu and Durga who roam through
the forest path having a touch of the gulanchalata (a herb), bonchalta, the rain freshed
leaves etc. Apu goes the bank of river Ichhamoti to catch fish but catching fish was not
a matter of much interest as it is in the joy of hovering through the place. The plants and
herbs like kadam-shimul, bonkolmi, the bamboo groves, the ulubon hanging over the
river, the chirping of birds, all make a maze and enchant little Apu. The air heavy with
ripe dates and the song of the birds like Papiya and Bou-katha-kao in the forest glowing
with afternoon light make Apu feel that he is in a fairy land. The vogue image of the
distend land beyond the horizon fills his imagination with joy and wonder.

2.3. Nature as a Metaphor for Life

One of the key features of Ecocriticism is that nature is a metaphor for life itself.
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which we try to find out similarities between two
unallied things. The similarity is not explicitly stated but implied in a deft manner.
Whereas a simile directly compares two things, a metaphor equates them without using
‘like’, ‘as’ etc. But metaphors are not merely stylistic, but they are also cognitive. In
fact, metaphors are pervasive in our everyday life. The title of the novel Pather
Panchali implicitly suggests that life is a journey. So the path is synonymous with life
itself. Panchali is a holy song generally dedicated to God. Here Panchali
metaphorically represents the song of life flowing in a continuous way. Nature is
constantly present in Nischindipur which is a land of peace and perennial beauty. The
early part of the story indicates the colonial exploitation of the farmers who were forced
to cultivate indigo. The British rulers had unleashed ruthless torture against the innocent
villagers of Nischindipur. During the British Raj in India, Nischindipur had been the
headquarters of Bengal Indigo Concern. There had been a number of factories in the
area the buildings of the factories symbolized colonial domination. John Lermor, the
manager of the Nischindipur factory held sway over them all like an emperor. But now
the manager’s bungalow and the office were not more than heaps of rubble overgrown
with jungle. There was a time when the name of the mighty John Lermor had such

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power that at the mere mention of it tigers and cows went down to the same watering
place to drink. Yet today, except for a few extremely old people, nobody remembered
him. But nature takes her retribution with the passage of time upon her exploiter; as a
result, the Neel-kuthi (Indigo factory) remains as the corpse of a prehistoric demon lying
isolated on one side of the village. The simple saga of the life of rural Bengal is artfully
represented by this green village. Every organism here seems to have a symbiotic
relationship with the environment. The animals, cows, dogs, cats, birds, frogs, spiders,
the frisking insects and the slithering snake, all these co-exist with the human beings
here. The luxuriant vegetation merges with the houses here. And the wild growth just
about threatens the crumbling house of Harihar. Rain is the life giver after hot summer
days; it also kills when it floods the rural landscape. Shorbojoya metaphorically means
of winning the hardship and she really proves this. During the long absence of her
husband, she keeps her family going. She finds her children’s faces as lovely as jasmine
flowers usually after a shower. Durga is a Hindu goddess worshiped as a deity of power.
In the novel, we also find Durga who also metaphorically represents the goddess of
power. She shields her family with the means she collects from nature. The tale of Indir
Thakur is presented in a realistic manner. She was the last one to represent the age-old
custom of Kaulinya culture in which women often became a victim of polygamy. Her
husband having many wives got a little time to visit her. She herself is a metaphor of the
women who were exploited in the name of kanyaday in a patriarchal Bengal society.
And no one can ignore the metaphor in Indir Thakurun’s song, in the fading light of the
day, singing in her sad feeble voice as we see in the cinematic version of the novel:

“Hori din to gelo, sandhya holo, par koro amaare” which translates to: “God… the day
is finished, the evening has descended…now please take me across”. The old age has
been implied as the evening of life, and crossing the bar of life has been implied as
crossing a river by a boat.

The season of winter has been metaphorically represented as a messenger of death in the
Roy family. They had to live in the damp and congested area of Kashi. Death gradually
seeped Harihar who fell seriously ill during the winter. His eyes were as red as hibiscus
and this signified his impending doom. This environment was most unhealthy which

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brought about the tragedy of the family. The natural environment of Nishchindipur
village was rather healthier than Kashi, though poverty forced them to leave the village.

Ecocriticism is a reappraisal of romanticism in a changing environmental

scenario. Indeed it’s a modification of the great Romantic Movement which celebrated
nature as a heavenly abode of mankind in general. The great romantic poet William
Wordsworth found nature permeated with a heavenly radiance. His great lyrical poems
Tintern Abbey and Immortality Ode celebrate the all-pervading influence of God, the
creator of the mighty process of the universe. To the nature poet, even the meanest
flowers that bloom can give us thought that lie too deep for tears. The ecocritics look
upon nature as next to godliness, so Ecocriticism worships nature which sustains human
beings. Bibhuti novels also celebrate nature from eco spiritualistic attitude.
Bibhutibhushan himself was like a priest who worshiped nature as God. Thus Durga has
been presented as the incarnation of Goddess Durga, the Hindu goddess of power. She
has tremendous vitality with which she roams through the forest collecting sustenance
for her family as well as play things for joy. It is Durga who made Apu learn to
recognize nature. She collects fruits for her brother and makes natural costumes like
nolok for him. Nature gets motion as she moves around and looks somber when she
suffers and even sometimes looks ferocious in her absence. She is much like the
forgotten foundress of the village, goddess Bisalaksi who is seen often late at night
wandering about the landscape. The goddess being angry with human sacrifice left the
village temple forever. Yet she is visible to some people whom she urges for vegetable
sacrifice to remove her wrath. Once she foretold that there would be an epidemic in the
village unless she is satisfied. And exactly this proved to be true as there really was an
epidemic. The whole forest glowed with her gracious loveliness and magic spell. Yet
Durga is ill-treated, as a result when everybody cries for her she dodges (dies) even
before the Durga festival! Only Apu who loved his elder sister so dearly could perceive
her presence in the natural environment. She roams like an evergreen girl whose
loveliness never fades. Everybody grows with the passage of time. But Durga ever
remains a child and never grows old. Her pristine beauty never fades away. She ever
remains afresh with her usual hue and luster. It is as though Durga still searches some
white gondhobhedali leaves for her ailing brother in the groves of Nischindipur singing
a song her aunt had taught her-

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“When I saw the yellow gleam in the forest my

Heart was glad;
But I lost the ring from my nose and now I’m sad.”(Bandyopadhyay & Clark
254)
Although the ring gets lost, Durga does not even after her death. She remains as fresh as
nature and Apu can feel her presence in the village of Nischindipur hovering with her
usual habits. She does not grow with years; she remains immortal like the goddess
Durga.

2.4. Children Nature Interconnection

In Wordsworth’s Immortality Ode the poet sings the glory of childhood as

heaven lies about our state of infancy. As a child has a direct attachment to the natural
joys it can enjoy the celestial light. But as soon as it grows into manhood, it gets
alienated from nature and the divine experience begins to wane. One of the keynotes of
Pather Panchali is the children nature interconnection. ‘The forest with its freshness
and deep green shadows had laid its freshness and deep green shadows had laid its
fingers on Opu(Apu) and his sister alike, and had brought peace and consolation into
their hearts. They had known it all their lives.’ (169) Durga and Apu, the siblings derive
a lot of pleasure in nature; they explore the flora and fauna of their land; they enjoy the
sweet rain, and arrange a feast in the forest. Bibhutibhushan himself being the true son
of the soil, his creation Apu is also a child of nature. Like Wordsworth, his Apu also
finds immense pleasure in the open lap of nature. He is bewildered at the astonishing
rural beauty of nature. Looking at the big banyan tree from the window, his heart soars
high in the sky to reach the undiscovered country beyond the horizon. He cherishes to
know the unknown, see the unseen and to hear the unheard. While he went on a visit to
the blue-throated bird along with his father, he witnessed a hare with big ears for the
first time. The boy had seen it in his alphabet book. But he had never imagined it in real
life and that he would get to see it. The creature created a lot of sensation in him as it
was not a picture, not a china toy—but a real life hare that leapt up and darted away
right in front of him. His elder sister Durga was his companion who taught him how to
infuse with nature. She didn’t care about playing with the neighbouring children. But
she remained ever outdoors exploring the countryside on her own. “She knew exactly

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where and when the first of the tiny violet-pink baichi berries ripened, which were the
sweetest jujubes growing in the middle of this or that clump of bamboos, and when the
first tiny mango would have blossomed in somebody’s orchard”(Bandyopādhyāẏa,
Bhattacharya, & Tagore 47-47). So Durga herself is the embodiment of nature and
without her nature seems to be lacking a part. She had loved her village and its every
stick and stone, plants and rivers in it. She had known them all her life so naturally and
intimately that they had become a part of her identity. Like Wordsworth’s Lucy, she
serves as a connection between nature and humanity. She is raised by nature and
survived by the memory of others even after death. Although the poor Brahmin family
was repressed by the chill penury and suffers the humiliation of the wealthier
neighbours, the children remained unaffected as their love for nature shields them from
the social injustice. The village forest with its freshness and deep green shadows had
laid its fingers on Apu and Durga alike. It had brought peace and consolation into their
hearts.

When Bibhutibhushan prepared the manuscript of Pather Panchali, the

character of Durga was absent. While staying at Bhagalpur, he happened to meet a
rustic girl and thought of including her in the main novel. The writer has a great
sympathy for the girl the kind of whom we pay little attention. Durga is the child of
nature who roams through the green forest. This forest girl knows every herb and flower
of Nischindipur. She is familiar which flower blooms in which season, which fruits are
ripe in which season. Like a deer, she roams through the forest in search of food. The
poverty of her family does not touch her. Like Kalidasa’s Sakuntala, she has built up a
close kinship with nature. In fact, Nature pales into insignificance without her presence.
She is the timeless symbol of spontaneity and freedom.

Apu also saw with open eyes, the green fields, grove and orchard, the gushing
song of cuckoo bird, the leafy branches filled with countless blossoms, the south wind
heavy with the scents of forest flowers, the moonlit nights, the seasonal changes – all of
which ‘became a part of his life, filling the pensive moments of his later working days
with sweetness and inspiration.’(Bandyopadhyay & Clark 354)

In the cinematic version of Pather Panchali Ray has depicted the life like
picture of children nature interconnection. When Apu and Durga were caught in the rain

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of Kaalbaisakhi Aup’s initial reaction was that of disgust as he was shivering with the
cool rain drops. He felt helpless too. But when he saw his little sister enjoying the rain,
he also started loving the rain. Their hearts new know bound when they witnessed the
rain drops making circles upon the pond which faded away after growing large. Their
joy continued until they were scared by the thunderbolt. Here again, Durga uttered a
sloka with natural elements to save them from incessant rain,

“Rain, rain go away from me,

There’s a koromcha fruit on our lemon tree;

And--” ( Bandyopadhyay & Clark 110).

But nature rude and demonic with cyclonic storm choked her song with a loud thunder.
The novelist beautifully narrates how the children were stricken with panic as the
flickering tongue of fire went through the sky’s dark mantle from one end to the other.
The two children remained under a tree. Apu clung to his sister in terror. But Durga had
an undefeated spirit and she consoled him even when her throat was dry with fear. She
pressed him closer to her and not knowing what to do, she repeated the song in a
trembled voice, “Rain, rain, go away from me, /There’s a koromcha fruit on our lemon
tree” (Bandyopadhyay & Clark 111).

It was as though goddess Nature heard her prayer and being pleased with the
children revoked her demonic form to stop the rain! But nature also enticed them to pick
up fallen fruits like mangoes, coconuts etc. from their neighbor’s orchard. Worried
mother Shorbojoya guided them to return those fruits to avoid chaos. It was Durga who
brought Apu, her little brother out of the home. Apu took the initiation of loving
Nischindipur village from her. Where there is Durga, there is Apu. The importance of
Durga is so much in Apu’s life that he can never forget her. Like mother-nature, Durga
nourishes Apu with her tenderness and affection. Yet, there is a basic difference
between Apu and Durga. While Apu is more concerned with the mythological world,
Durga’s dream centers down to earth reality. While Apu passes time with the rail-rail
game, she delights in her cooking games and tasting off sweet fruits and flowers. So,
Ecocriticism which explores the difference of attitude between male and female is quite
prominent here.

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Children Nature interconnection is described in a poignant manner when the

Roy family is leaving the ancestral village. Durga is no more; yet her invisible loving
touch has been with Apu in the broken house at Nischindipur, in the every nook and
corner of the village. Apu’s love of nature is prominent when he is away from his dear
village and its rural environment. In Kashi, Apu misses nature most. He imagined how
deeply he enjoyed the bamboo thicket, the mango orchard, the moon-lit nights, the
coconut trees, the jungle behind his house, the rowing of a boat, the catching of fish in
the river, the Kadamtala, the open field of Sonadanga etc. He can never forget all these
things of Nishchindipur village. As the day of their departure approached, his
enthusiasm for going to a new place ebbed away. The imminent separation gave birth to
a deep pain inside him and it played like a note of sorrow in his mind. Sitting in the city,
he always remembers his village where he would roam about the landscape under the
open sky. He got relief amid the green landscape of Bengal. Being a riverine state,
nature in Bengal has a placid beauty with its flora and fauna. After Durga’s premature
death, Apu’s family migrated to Kashi, a congested town for a better future. But Apu
did not enjoy the city atmosphere. Through Apu, the novelist’s crave for the rural life
‘far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife’ is revealed. With his pair of eyes, Apu
witnessed the face of Bengal in her pristine beauty. He could easily recognize in which
season which flowers bloom, and which fruits are available at which time. So life
without nature seemed terrible for him in the town.

2.5. Pathetic Fallacy

The rhetorical term ‘Pathetic fallacy’ is used when nature is invested with the
attributes of human emotion. John Ruskin, a British cultural critic coined the term in his
book Modern Painters. It means nature reacts against human joys or sorrows. In Pather
Panchali nature is personified with human emotion. Thus nobody cares to offer a flower
to the grave of the child of Indigo Manager Lermor. It was quite deserted and
overgrown with wild weeds. The trace of the grave was signified by a mere inscription
on its old black stone. Many trees around the grave spread their leafy branches wide to
give it a shade. There was a shondal tree and in the hot weather by day or by night,
whenever the wind blew up hard from the delta, it led its clusters of yellow flowers fall
on the time-stained tomb of that forgotten foreign child. Everyone might have forgotten

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him. But the trees of the forest still remembered the unfortunate child. Life for the poor
villagers appears as ruthless as hot summer noon. The suffering of Old Indir finds best
expression in the hot summer days. She is driven out of the house and is forced to take
shelter on the road which proves to be her ultimate shelter where she dies. Her sorrows
are shared by nature until Apu and Durga find her out on the way. She is a typical
victim of cruel Kaulinya Custom in which women prove to be a victim of polygamy.
The joys of people during Durga puja (a famous festival of Bengal) is reflected in the
happy look of the autumnal sky with its white clouds. Again nature with her dark clouds
and somber look foreshadows the impending doom of Harihar’s family. It rained
incessantly with thunderbolt throughout the night before Durga’s death. Nature really
hits back when Durga an embodiment of nature is being exploited for being a female
child. The neighbors maltreat her due to her childish mistakes. Her elementary
education is neglected. She is given little care and attention by her parents. When
patriarchal domination against her is there nature also gives a fitting reply. That is why
there is a calamity after Durga’s death as we see in the novel. As though, nature
expresses her wrath in the form of calamity. There was an incessant rain that disturbed
the normalcy of village life shattering plants and trees. Nature wears a somber look to
commemorate the unfortunate and untimely death of Durga. Thus the village looks
worn out with her disheveled natural environment. The Roy family is forced to move
from their village to a city. They migrate to Banaras with the hope for a better future.
But Durga’s entity which is identical with nature remains there in village; nobody cares
her tragedy except nature. Like Wordsworth’s Lucy, her tragedy is shared by nature.

2.6. From Local to Global

Ecocriticism considers the earth as not a social sphere; rather it looks upon our
planet as an eco-sphere. The motto is to act locally and think globally. So, an ecocritic
is not a denizen of a particular place; he is a citizen of the earth. The whole earth is his
dwelling place and the sky is the roof above his head. Apu is a world citizen who wants
to explore the unknown regions. Despite his social responsibilities, his heart yearns to
return to nature. The earth looks like an ecosphere or a biosphere with tremendous
vitality, not a social sphere. He is a nature mystic through whose eyes floats countries
after countries. Initially, Apu’s world was merely narrow as he was a very little child

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only. When he was six years old, he went to see Kuthir Math with his father. This was
his first outing outside his own known land. So far the boundaries of his world had been
his neighbor’s house on the one hand and the land in front of his house expanding up to
Ranu Di’s house on the other. Anything further away than this, he imagined, could only
be the land of the fairy tales his mother used to tell him, the country of the Black Lanka,
where the exiled prince slept with his sword by his side, alone under the tree where the
bengama and bengami birds lived. Apu imagined that no man lived further than that
place. The deserted Indigo factory was the world’s last frontier to him. Beyond it laid
only the land of impossible. He cherished such mysterious countries in the commonest
objects of nature. Sometimes it is near the Sankhari pond; sometimes it is behind the
kalmi groves as a land of hidden treasure, sometimes like a pleasure land near the bank
of river in a stormy night of the rains. Or it is a land of bravery of the Rajputs or the
Maratha. His imagination transports him to the land of the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata. Like a kite in the sky he wants to fly high in the sky, to reach the
remotest country beyond the horizon. A little away from Apu’s home, there was a very
large banyan tree, but only the top of it could be seen from the windows of the
verandah. Apu stood and stared at it and whenever he did so his mind went wandering
the distant places, to a land far, far away. He had not any idea about the land. He fancied
that it must be like the countries his mother used to tell him about, the countries where
the princes of fairyland lived. Mere awareness of such distant places filled his heart with
wonder and made him happy. Sometimes Apu dreamt of visiting goddess Bisalaksi in
his afternoon dream. Due to her influence there was an epidemic in the village as little
Apu had heard. One day when was out in the jungle in search of gulancha creepers, it
happened. The goddess having appeared before him praised little Apu. She even offered
him to take something from her according to his will as a blessing. Little Apu did not
want anything from her. He just laid down in his bed amid the sweet scent of many
creepers floating in the whispering wind. He wanted to hear the distant call of nature.
As if, he could hear the shrill long-drawn cry speaking far above the petty joys and
sorrows, quarrels and reconciliations, past and present, of their ordinary village life. It
seemed as the voice of a goddess wandering free and untrammeled by the bounds of
home or temple. The music faded from distance to distance until he could hear it no
more. Every afternoon he looked into the empty forest and his mind stirred with many

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strange thoughts. He was aware of a deep contentment. It seemed to him that something
good was going to happen. Some great joys seemed to be waiting for him. These
afternoons and the forest behind his house were his lifelong companions and with their
ever changing forms, he found his secret dreamland of mythological age. In the deep
darkening sky beyond the bamboo grove he could see the god Indra persuading youthful
Karna in a generous mood. Holding out his hands, Indra begged to him his impenetrable
armor, thus leading Karna to his untimely death. He could see the poor wretched boy
called Asvatthama, Dron’s son, drink his thin rice gruel and dance with glee before his
playmates exclaiming it to be milk! Under the wood apple tree, Apu could find Arjuna
in the deserted compound piercing the earth with his sharp arrow and bring forth the
sacred river Bhagavati so that he could moisten the lips of the mighty Bhishma who lay
mortally wounded on a bed of arrows. King Dasarath still seemed to him as a young
man hunting in the flowery woods on the banks of Sarayu where he mistook a boy who
had gone to draw water, as a deer and killed him making his old blind parents helpless.
This thing Apu thought to be happened in the orchard of their neighbor, Ranudi. The
Shonadanga plain seemed to Apu as an undiscovered country un-peopled, unknown
over which the darkness of a moonless night was now descending. Apu’s had a deep
sympathy for the sorrows of men of old, thousands of years before. The eager and
inquisitive mind of Apu, transported him to a world of illusion; the world of pre-historic
age of the Ramayana and Mahabharata and very often he used to identify himself with
the characters of those ages. The novelist writes about him, “Your childish eyes are big
and they take in the world around you with a hungry appetite that gulps down
everything. Just think of the pleasure you are getting, for you too are a world explorer. It
is nonsense to suppose that you must roam the whole world to taste the joys of the
unknown. You are bathing for the first time in new rivers. You are cooling your body in
winds that blow through new villages. When can it matter to you if somebody else has
done all this before you? To your eyes it is an undiscovered country, and today for the
first time you taste its newness in your heart, and in your mind and with all your
senses”( Bandyopadhyay & Clark 148). Like a kite in the sky he wants to fly high in the
sky, to reach the remotest country beyond the horizon. An interesting thing happened to
Apu. He had found a book from his father’s collection named An Anthology of Ancient
Philosophical Works where he read that a man can fly if one puts some mercury in the

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vulture’s egg and have it in the sun for a few days and then hold it in the mouth.
Deceived by this story, Apu left no stone unturned to collect those things spending his
pennies and some favourite cowries to a mischievous cowherd boy. What can be funnier
than this? Apu’s dreams remained unfulfilled not simply because the eggs fell on the
ground but because of his wrong belief guided by the book. But no one can ignore the
little boy’s crave for flying to reach a land unknown to him. Further it seemed to Apu
that exploring more countries was a matter of time. Let him once grow young, he would
go to the different countries to see the unknown and discover the unseen. This craves
find best expression on their way to Banaras. After Durga’s death, their family decided
to shift to that city. Apu felt a sense of freedom having crossed the boundary of
Nischindipur. When he was travelling by a train, he perceived that he was going to
some unknown region crossing rivers after rivers and countries after countries. The train
seemed to carry him to reach his destination following the setting sun ever eluding his
grasp in the western sky. But Apu had a deep love for his dear village where he spent
his childhood joyfully. Like the true son of the soil, he feels innate with his rural life at
Nischindipur, his dear village. He can never forget the innocent joys of his childhood
days in his dear village. He has not visited his village for three long years. Yet he knows
Nischindipur village still calls him as his child day and night; the Shankhari pond calls
him; so calls the bamboo groves, the open fields of Sonadanga and the ghat of
Kadamtala Sahib. He wants to roam about the green shadows of Sajnetala hearing the
sweet notes of birds and smelling the fragrance of lemon flower. But the god of the road
does not want him to be confounded in his village only. Life rolls and rolls from known
to the unknown; from local to global. The note of assurance is evident here in these
concluding lines:

The deity of the eternal road smiles benevolently and asserts, Foolish boy, the
path of life does not end in the bamboo grove of your village, or under the
peepul tree of Biru Roy, the Thug, or near the ferry ghat of the village
Dhalchita. The road proceeds endlessly forward from one country to another,
from the land of sunrise to the sunset, from the known to the unknown….days
pass by, birth and death pass by months and years pass by……my path never
ends …goes on, on and on. Eternal is its harp heard by the eternal time and
eternal space. Putting the unseen mark of wonderful pleasure trip of the road on

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your forehead, I have drawn you out of home. Let’s go ahead (Pather
Panchali, 208).

So the journey never ends and Apu’s exploration of physical environment continues
through the path of nature. The boy is not afraid of the journey he has to undertake.
Rather he delights in the natural environment which enriches his imagination, quenches
his insatiable thirst for knowledge, and survives him in the most wretched condition of
life.

2.7. Conclusion

The classic prose narrative Pather Panchali-Song of the Road celebrates human
nature bond as a basis of our very existence. The manifold analysis of nature suggests
that ‘nature’ herself is a philosophy to Apu. The still sad music of humanity flows like
the river Ichhamoti through the never ending path of life that revolves around birth,
death, and re-birth. Apu’s journey of life through the path of nature enriches his
ecological vision. There are trail and tribulation in the course of time, yet life remains
the winner in spite of the hurdles. The novel shows how nature can be the best refuse
for mankind comforting even in the adverse situation of life. It ends up with an
optimistic note despite the pessimistic undertone as there builds up an ecosophic
attitude in Apu, the protagonist. He is a nature loving soul who has a never failing bond
with his rural environment. The pristine beauty of nature always haunts his imagination.
His close proximity with nature sustains him, makes him free from materialistic pursuits
and guides him to lead a very simple life with noble thinking. “If there is something at
the heart of Pather Panchali, it is this overwhelming power of life that asserts itself
even in the face of poverty, misery, and death.”(greatbong.net)

The very first novel of Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay got eternal appeal when
it was translated into film by Oscar-winning film director of Bengal, Mr. Satyajit Roy
who gave Bandyopadhyay a universal recognition. Although it was his debut film it
introduced the Indian Cinema to the international winning prizes after prizes. After its
film version, the novel got world recognition as a masterpiece novel, a beauty, a gem, a
classic of all times in itself. Ray had included a few alterations to make the theme more
attractive and vivid. But the ecosophy of Apu never gets disturbed in the film. It is

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nature which helps him sustain in life in spite of so many unfortunate situations. In
nature, he finds his deceased sister. Apu feels a never failing bond with the rural
environment. Today when children are burdened with studies and busy with computers
and laptops playing video games, the novel gives us a scope to explore the children
nature interconnection in a vivid way. Nature nourishes our creative urge, therefore, we
find in Apu a poet full of ecosophy vision. In fact, the UN has chosen Mr. Roy as one of
the twenty world thinkers whose art has transformative power in 2015. He has been
selected for preserving and immortalizing in the art that section of people whom we
carelessly pass by. Some pictures of Panther Panchali-Song of the Road have been
selected for exhibition as a part of Time for Action to fulfill sustainable UN Goals to
combat climate change. The simple saga of untrodden life has been dealt with the lyrical
beauty of green language. The novel has a message to humanity that life in harmony
with nature is bliss and any alienation from her (nature) is sure to cause a disturbance in
its normal course. Nature can even punish as we have seen the case of Biru Roy who
defied the normal law of human nature and nature can reward Apu with a hopeful life
satisfying his dream. It reminds us of the glorious lines of the famous poet of nature,
William Wordsworth:

“---Nature never did betray / The heart that loved her” (Tintern Abbey, lines 127-8).

Apu walks with the road of nature and develops his ecological vision. The protagonist’s
ecosophy of life sustains him and creates in him a positive approach to life. Apu’s
ecosophy of life is enriched by his understanding of the rural landscape, its flora and
fauna, ponds and rivers, animals and birds etc. His father dies untimely, sister dies
premature, yet he studies hard and shines in life. Abject poverty can never dampen his
irresistible pull to know the unknown and see the unseen. Thus he wins scholarship and
continues his study as we see sequel of the novel named Aparajito which deals with his
adolescent and youth. The song of life continues to muse melodiously despite the
huddles of the road. The readers get never depressed and want to read the novel for
several times. The interest of the story never dies as there are so many Apu in every
society and they never forget to strive following the laws of nature.

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