Page:The Curse at Farewell.pdf/12

 INTRODUCTION

' the Meghadita (pp. 33-34). The house of the Demons’ preceptor is a typical forest- hermitage and school, such as Tagore himself has established at Santiniketan. But the handling of the theme is finely modern, as well as traditional. In the Mahabharata Kach is held up as a con- queror, because he controlled himself and withstood a woman's prayers. Tagore has given the story an extraordinary quicken- ing of dramatic and human interest. Our modern world is interested in psycho- logy, especially the psychology of a man and woman facing each other. The poet has boldly thrown all his sympathies on the woman’s side, a fact which some of his Bengali readers have taken amiss, as Athenian readers probably took amiss Euripides’ presentment of Alkestis and Admetus. Some of Kach’s replies touch a height of extreme caddishness—the 11