In 1873, Bengal was rocked by a scandal involving a 16-year-old married girl named Elokeshi and the head priest of a Hindu temple in Tarake...
In 1873, Bengal was rocked by a scandal involving a 16-year-old married girl named Elokeshi and the head priest of a Hindu temple in Tarakeswar. When an alleged “affair” between the two came to light, Elokeshi’s husband Nobin Chandra Banerjee decapitated his wife, leading to his own arrest as well as the priest’s.
The events captured the attention of Bengali society and were recreated in the dramas and popular art of the day. The Two Centuries of Indian Print collection features several contemporary dramas that depict what has come to be known as the Tarakeswar affair, including the anonymously-penned dozen-page drama Ajakara Bajara Bhau.
For present day readers and observers, the Tarakeswar affair and the popular literature that sprung up around it has different resonances than it did in 19th-century Bengal. In light of Elokeshi’s age, it is impossible to perceive her as anything other than a victim of the situation and a victim several times over. As Tanika Sarkar points out, Elokeshi is “a girl whose father sold her off, whose guru raped her and whose husband killed her”.
Sarkar tells us there was significant “public sympathy” for Nobin Chandra in 19th-century Bengal, due to his “exalted” caste status of a Kulin Brahman, his alleged devotion to his...
