Ardhakathanak (A Half Story)

Banarsidas
Translated by Rohini Chowdhury, with an Introduction by Rupert Snell

It was more than three hundred and sixty-five years ago, in the winter of 1641, in Agra, that Banarasidas, poet, philosopher and merchant, completed the writing of a unique and remarkable text. Ardhakathanak, as this text is known, is the story of Banarasidas’s own life.

The Ardhakathanak  is also, possibly, the first autobiography in an Indian language. Banarasi had no precedent in literature or tradition that might have inspired him to write his life’s story, or guided him in his task. His motivation to write his story seemed simple: ‘Let me tell my story to all’. The result was an account that is more modern than medieval in tone, and which transcends formulaic conventions and stylized ornamentation.

Banarasi’s story is set against a backdrop of Mughal history, spanning the reign of three great kings – the Mughal emperors Akbar, Jahangir and Shahjahan. Banarasidas does not provide us with any political or social commentary of the times, but he does give us some glimpses of a merchant’s life under the great Mughals. This makes the Ardhakathanak important not only from the literary point of view, but also as a historical record of the period.

The book includes Banarasidas's original text.

ISBN: 9780143100546
Publisher: Penguin Books India, 2009