Self, Religion and Transgression in Rabindranath Tagore's Chaturanga

<p>Rabindranath Tagore’s Chaturanga (1916) is a Bengali literary text portraying the<br>journey of its characters in a world full of religious actions and social realities. This<br>paper explores the binaries between Self and Religion, traditional and modern, and<br>womanhood and transgression. Characters in the novella have attempted to keep<br>distinct identities for themselves without much getting into the spiritual discipline.<br>The essay argues that the presence of multiple voices is a way to assert many social<br>perspectives through which multiple acts of transgression happen. Tagore is very<br>concerned with the abstract ideas linked with religion, which leads to continuous<br>conflict between oneself and society. Chaturanga is remarkable in lucidly portraying<br>this very idea. The essay concludes by discussing the self and religion with the help<br>of two characters who are poles apart in their progress and interpretation of life.</p>