Draft:Manu Dwadosh

Manu Dwadosh (Bengali: মনু দ্বাদশ) is a post-apocalyptic dystopian Bengali science fiction (kalpabigyan) novella written by Bengali writer Premendra Mitra in 1964. It is set in a degenerated future where humanity is at the brink of extinction after a series of apocalypses. The novella is widely available as a part of the Kalpabigyan Samagra published by Dey's Publication.

Background

Premendra Mitra is recognized for being one of the pioneers of Bengali science fiction and the creator of the tall-tale storyteller, Ghanada, the protagonist of his most famous series of science fiction novels.He is one of the key figures of the Kallol movement in Bengal during which his career flourished. Mitra addressed contemporary social and geopolitical issues in most of his works and delved deep into human nature and its complexities. His autobiography Nana Ronge Bona( "Woven in Many Colours", 1981) accounts his interest in geography, history and natural sciences. Manu Dwadosh was taken by Sahitya Akademi for a complete translation after six years of its publication. The novella was written in the 1960s when the Cold War escalated, and authors like Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick and Walter M. Miller Jr. expressed the fear of a nuclear holocaust in their works. It was also written in a time of communal violence following Partition in post-independent India. Mitra's Manu Dwadosh defamiliarized and addressed these two urgent concerns, framing it into a dystopian science fiction.

Plot

Premendra Mitra blends elements from Hindu cosmology with speculative and science fiction elements, setting the story into a post-apocalyptic future where mankind have regressed into their primordial state. According to Hindu cosmology, a kalpa refers to a single day in the life of Brahma, the creator, where 1 kalpa is equal to 4.32 billion human years. Each Kalpa is divided into 14 manvantara, which is ruled by a Manu who rules for 71 yugas until a pralaya occurs and a new manvantara begins thereafter. While currently we are under the seventh Manu Vaivasvata's rule, Mitra sets the story in the twelfth (Bengali: dwadosh) manvantara which is ruled by Rudra Savarni . The earth has undergone series of pralayas which is not merely a cosmic act but a result of mankind's pride, misuse of science and desire to control nature. This had resulted in a drastic extinction of mankind limiting the entire human population into three clans. The protagonists leave their respective clans, to seek the unknown and give a last attempt to save mankind from extinction. The story unravels their quest  to find Timirkandar which is originally believed to be a mythical place where mankind sought refuge when the entire world was undergoing destruction. They believe that the remedy to break away from Kupitokiron (the curse of the sun) is hidden in there.

The story begins in a dense forest where a man named Buban from the Prabhar clan desperately tries to save his life after being tethered with a rope by two women, Luna and Nasha, from the Kafram clan. He somehow leaves their clutches and escape. Luna and Nasha talk about Nicki who does not have a gama-sore which apparently is a marker of one's purity. That mankind was once advanced and overcrowded the world is a myth among all the clans. After his escape Buban encounters three of his clan members Duru, Nandak and Ajib who apparently were believed to be caught by the Kaframs. Kafram is a female dominated clan which is powerful, merciless and driven by hatred towards the other two clans and hence feared by them. They are ruled by a female head whereas Prabhar and Yousov are male dominated. The decreasing number of male and female from each clan resulted in abductions which lead to prolonged history of malevolence. Duru wants to go beyond the rigid myths and search the unknown truths about the history of the planet. He had collected distracted fractions of stone tablets which the survivors of Timirkandar had carved out in the past and from one of the tablets he figured out its location. Nandak and Ajib wants the three clans to get united and reconcile in order to save humanity from extinction since infant mortality was high and no child had been born for the last fifteen years. Buban on the other hand had left the clan to search his friend Paraj who he believes is abducted by the Kaframs. However soon they discover that a female member from the Kafram clan is missing. Whether it is a runaway or an abduction was unknown but the Kaframs were determined that either of the two clans have hand in the mysterious disappearance and called for a war if she wasn't returned. Buban swears to find the woman and return her in order to restore peace. On his way to find Paraj, Buban meets Sharva from the Yousov clan who was evicted from the clan due to his unnatural behaviour. Sharva was a man filled with curiosity and questions on life and death, creation and destruction, motion and immobility and seeked answers which made the clan members uncomfortable. On Sharva's suggestion Buban leaves to find Timirkandar, where Sharva believes the missing woman might be. Meanwhile on their runaway from the Kaframs, Duru tells his friends about how in some manvantara mankind was at peak in its power, strength and knowledge. This led them to transgress nature and create countless Surjo-shabok (translates into children of sun) which lead to the rapid destruction of the earth. Each manvantara saw the heights of the curse due to Surjo-tacchilyo(insolence towards the sun) and mankind drastically started to go extinct limiting it into these three clans. The sores caused by radioactive gamma rays are a sign of that curse. Duru, Nandak and Ajib find the Timirkandar while on the other hand the Kaframs stick to vengeance even when their head pleads for reconciliation. A series of events take place in Timirkandar like the mysterious disspearence of the tablet which laid the remedy from Kupitokiron, a footprint and distinct wails from the tunnels. Eventually Duru and his friends discover that it was Paraj who had taken the stone tablet and the footprint was his too since he and runaway Nicki, the Kafram woman had given birth to a healthy newborn child. Paraj skilfully planned his own abduction and surrendered to the Kaframs where he served Nicki and they developed a mutual connection which lead them to copulate. Duru and others swear to save the baby at any cost. Meanwhile Nicki comes crying and reveals that the baby was taken away while she was sleeping. It is unfolded that it was none other than Sharva who abducted the baby. Upon asking, Sharva says that humanity is stuck in a vicious and never ending cycle of greed and pride which would eventually lead to war and destruction. He believes that the only way to get out of the curse that humanity has brought upon itself is through immobility which can only be attended through its entire extinction from the earth's surface. The child rather than being the last lamp of hope to save humanity, Sharva wants him to be the torchbearer of this immobility. Considering this as the ultimate sign of Sharva's madness, Buban stabs him and with a obscure smile on his face, Sharva dies. The story ends with a question whether the child was ever found and if humanity was ultimately saved.

Themes and Critical Analysis

Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay argues that Manu Dwadosh doesn't adhere strictly to the western understanding of science fiction and concepts of novum as laid by Darko Suvin. Rather it fits into the understanding of the term kalpabigyan, the Bengali term for science fiction which amalgamates imagination and science. Mitra draws references from the Vishnu Purana and frames it within both mythological and abstract speculation elevating the estrangement effect in the text.

In her article "Estrangement, History, and Aesthetic Relish: A Reading of Premendra Mitra's Manu Dwadosh", Anwesha Maity states how the novella engages with a series of novums expanding from social issues and philosophical questions which serve the estrangement effect of the novella. The first novum is the reduction of humanity into three technologically and scientifically primitive clans .This kind of degenrated future is a recurrent theme seen most commonly in H. G. Wells' The Time Machine or Hemendra Kumar Roy's novel Amanushik Manush and stands in contrast to the positive and advanced futuristic trope,common within science fictional works. The female predominant Kafram clan continue to abduct and torture men from the other two clans and their supremacy in every field is another important novum in the text. The birth of the baby to a mother who is not affected by Radioactive gamma sores which is considered as a mandatory mark to signify pride is also a factor of estrangement in a world where birth rate is falling drastically and humans can go extinct entirely. Maity states that the most important novum of the text is the series of nuclear apocalypses which reflects Mitra's own anxieties of the geo-political situations in the 1960s. Duru does not use direct English terms associating to nuclear technology and its invention but rather uses terms like Surjo-tacchillyo, Surjo-Shabok, Kupitokiron and refer to Vedic astronomy for indicating the passage of time which furthur estranges Duru's knowledge of history and science from how we understand our contemporary world. Mitra uses lofty Sanskrit phrases which sets the novella apart from his other sci-fi works. By the end of the novella Sharva who abducted the child, infers to the idea of history repeating itself by directly opposing the efforts of the other characters who wants to save humanity. He rather surrenders to the state of immobility and escapes the pain of the viscious life-cycle in his death.

See also

• Mosha (story)
• Pinpre Puran
• Cat's Cradle