Padma River: Influencing culture through the decades

Rivers envelop Bangladesh as adoringly as a mother embraces her child. Among the hundreds of rivers, the mighty Padma stands out the most. In many ways, this river has influenced the country’s culture and way of life for decades.

Writer Pramathanath Bishi depicts the influence of the Padma River in his book “Shilaidahe Rabindranath” by writing, “He who has not seen the Padma has not seen Bangladesh. He who has not known the Padma has not known Bangladesh, he who has not understood the Padma has not understood Bangladesh; everything that is seen and understood is integrated into this river.”

As a nation, we have romanticized our deltaic landscape with poems, songs, films, and literature. The Padma has inspired many poets and authors to write about its peaceful yet destructive nature. Seeing it’s sometimes turbulent, sometimes calm behaviour, many poets and lyricists have dug into their feelings and written about them.

The river, a Ganges tributary, appears frequently in Rabindranath Tagore’s creative writings as a symbol of life.

His thoughts and creativity were undoubtedly influenced during his stay —his most productive days — in Kushtia’s Shilaidaha on the banks of Padma River, where he was assigned by his father to monitor the lands under their zamindari.

While living at Shilaidaha, Rabindranath wrote “Sonar Tori”, “Chitra”, “Choitali”, “Konika”, “Khinika”, “Kolpona”, “Kotha”, “Noibadya”, “Chitrangada”, “Malinee”, and “Chinnapatrabali”. The river’s presence is significant in each of these poems.

“Chinapatrabali” also frequently mentions Padma’s miraculous influence in his writings, which seemed to encompass his entire being.

He confesses, “I adore the Padma River. When I’m rowing down the Padma, it takes on a life of its own.”

“Rabindranath Tagore spent more time on the river [Padma] than on land for more than a decade, from 1889 to 1900,” writes Uma Das Gupta in Seminar, 2019.

Rabindranath went on to take charge of agricultural estates along the Padma River in East Bengal, as well as in the Cuttack district of Orissa when he was 28 years old. He was stationed at Shilaidaha, but he travelled to the other estates on the family’s houseboat named after the river.

Padma saw “the most productive period of my literary life... when, under the cover of obscurity, I enjoyed the greatest freedom my life has ever known,” according to his admission.

There, Rabindranath also finished a number of projects, including the translation of poems that became the Nobel-winning “Gitanjali”. The vast river and a small bajra boat saw the birth of collections like “Chaitali” and “Sonar Tari” (The Golden Boat).

The ever-changing moods of Padma had left him saying, “Hey Padma Aamar, Tomay Amay Dekha Shoto Shoto Bar.”

“Truly, I adore the Padma River; it is so wild and untameable. I have the desire to ride on its back and caress its neck... In these transparent days we live here, I feel like doing my duty in quiet solitude,” he said expressing his desires.

Influencing literature

Talking about Padma’s influences on our culture and literature, Professor Dr Mohammad Sajjadul Islam, of the Bangla Department at Jahangirnagar University, said, “The Padma is a major and ancient river. The Padma sometimes has been used as a subject and sometimes as the backdrop in the literature.

“We have also seen rivers like Meghna and Brahmaputra’s use in our literature, but their amount is very little compared to the Padma. This river is being used more and more in literature because the Padma has merged with us and created fidelity in human life.”

He opined, “It has come into our life from both ecological and philosophical perspectives. The film “Padma Nadir Majhi” has been made from an ecological point of view while Rabindranath depicts the Padma in his writing from a philosophical perspective.”

Poet Annadashankar Roy hailed the longevity of Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s life’s works comparing them to the mighty Padma.

“Jotokal robe Padma Jamuna Gouri Meghna bohoman, totokal robe kirti tomar Sheikh Majibur Rahman (As long as Padma Jamuna Gauri Meghna flow on, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, your accomplishments will live on),” Roy says in a poem on Bangabandhu that was published during the 1971 Liberation War.

Manik Bandopadhyay’s novel “Padma Nodir Majhi” (1936) has become an allegory for humanity in the delta, highlighting the tidal changes in the tough lives of Hindu and Muslim boatmen and fishermen, as well as an intertwining of their intimate lives, centred around the birth of a mysterious island (char), a freshly brewed landscape, where a Muslim businessman aspires to build a new society.

In terms of both the physical landscape and human life, the Padma landscape is a constant reminder of dissolutions and emergences. Apart from portraying the hardships in the fishermen’s lives, “Padma Nodir Majhi” depicts the mighty river’s personality by depicting its rhythm and its cycle from being a plentiful source to a dangerous character, inciting both hope and fear at the same time.

Influencing the silver screen

Indian filmmaker Gautam Ghosh made a film based on the “Padma Nodir Majhi” novel and it was a huge success both at home and abroad following its release in 1993. The depiction can be considered a reliable document on how much importance rivers have in the lives of Bangladeshi people.

The film, with a brilliant cast consisting of Raisul Islam Asad, Champa, Rupa Ganguly, Utpal Dutt and many others, won several National Film Awards in 1993. Asad won the best actor award, Champa the best actress, Mohammad Alauddin the best Makeup artiste and Mohiuddin Farooq won the best art director award for the film.

The 1991 film “Padma Meghna Jamuna” tells the story of love and conflicts among the people living on the banks of the river.

Directed by Chashi Nazrul Islam, the film’s cast includes Bobita, Farooque, Champa, Bulbul Ahmed, ATM Shamsuzzaman and others. Based on the story written by Mohammed Mohiuddin, Jalaluddin Rumi wrote the screenplay and dialogue of the film, which won six National Film Awards in 1991 including the best film.

Based on Askar Ibne Shaikh’s novel, “Bidrohi Padma” is another film that was released in 2006. It was directed by Badol Khondokar and produced by the private television channel NTV.

The story of the film, which stars Ilias Kanchan, Champa, Riaz, Poppy, Shams Sumon and Shahidul Alam Sachchu in important roles, revolves around the struggles of the people against the char exploiters who do not hesitate to do injustice to establish control. To stop the landlord’s char possession and inhuman acts against women, one of his lathial (played by Kanchan) stands up against him. A school teacher and the village gayen soon join the lathial and the three together gradually taught the language of protest to the villagers — which leads to the film’s climax with all the villagers forming an alliance and taking down the oppressive landlord.

Ritwik Ghatak, another renowned filmmaker, directed a film called “Durbar Gati Padma,” which was screened in several countries during the Liberation War.

Influencing music

One of the most popular songs about the Padma is Kazi Nazrul Islam’s “Padmar Dheu Re.”

This song depicts Radha’s grief over her separation from Krishna. The Bhatiyali song was written by Nazrul as a hymn to the mighty river. He linked Padma (river) and Padmo (lotus) with the desires of Krishna’s heart through the song.

Late Indian singer Bhupen Hazarika called both the Padma and the Ganges his mother in the song “Ganga Amar Ma,” comparing both mighty rivers equally.

“Himaloy theke Sundarban, hothat Bangladesh, Kepe kepe othe Padmar ucchashe,” poet Sukanta Bhattacharya had written in his poem “Durmor,” which applauds the Bengalis’ “never give in” attitude towards oppression.

Legendary singer Abdul Alim also depicted the Padma River’s destructive beauty in the song “Shorbonasha Padma Nodi.”

Apart from these, there have been a lot of Polli Geeti or Bhatiyali songs over the decades that have been produced based on the Padma River and its beauty, mightiness and destructive nature. “Padma Nadir Naiya” by Paromita Mukherjee, “O Padma Nadir Majhire” by Amar Pal and “Utthal Patthal Padma Nodi” are just a few of those.