‘Skeletons of History’: Fact and Fiction in Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay’s Sasanka

Abstract

Through an analysis of Rakhaldas Bandyopadhyay’s first historical novel Sasankaand his other historical writings, this article examines some interesting shifts in the process of narrativization of history in early 20th-century Bengal. Exploring why an archaeologist and historian felt the need to write historical novels at such a significant juncture of Indian history, the paper considers the issues of authenticity, realism and claims of historical truth in the making of a historical novel. It also examines the role of history and the ‘hunger’for it in colonial Bengal at a time of emerging national consciousness. Finally, it is demonstrated how narrativizing history and historicizing narratives were simultaneous processes in the making of a nascent ‘national’identity. Thus the article raises questions of generic differences (factual history and historical fiction in this case) in the construction of valid paradigms of knowledge, through a study of the potent and significant relationship between story and history in Sasanka.