River of Fire (Aag ka Darya)

In the 4th century BC Gautam Nilambar, a final year student at the Forest University of Shravasti, chances upon Hari Shankar, a princeling yearning to be a Buddhist monk. He falls in love with the beautiful, sharp-witted Champak.

And thus begins a magnificent tale that flows through Time, through Maghadhan Pataliputra, the Kingdom of Oudh, the British Raj and into a Time of Independence. This fiery river of Time flows along the banks of their lives as they are reborn and recreated, weaving through the twists and turns, the flows and eddies, keeping them together and keeping them apart.

The story comes full circle in post-Partition India when Hari Shankar meets his friend Gautam in a grotto in the forest of Shravasti, and mourn the passing of their lives into meaninglessness, their friends who have left for Pakistan, and what remains of their country of which they were once so passionately proud.

The author

Qurratulain Hyder is a leading writer in Urdu fiction in India. A prose stylist of rare accomplishment, she wrote in both Urdu and English, and her books have been translated into all Indian languages. She was awarded the Bharatiya Jnanpith, India’s highest literary award, in 1989. The recipient of a number of other literary awards, she is a Fellow of the Sahitya Akademi, travelled widely and worked as a journalist and broadcaster. Her novel River of Fire , translated by the author from the original Urdu Aag ka Dariya, has achieved epic status in fiction about the subcontinent. 

Reviews

‘A glorious tapestry of India’s history….Brilliant and thought-provoking…this book is fascinating!’ — India Edghill, Historical Novels Review, February 2004

‘A rich and ancient tapestry, interweaving the tiny threads of individual human experience into a panoramic spread of cultural diversity.’ — Linda B. Osborne, WorldView, November/December 2004

‘An Urdu classic with a breathtakingly vast canvas.’ — Outlook

‘Hyder is a wonderful writer. Hers is one of the most important Indian voices of the twentieth century.’ — Amitav Ghosh

‘To Urdu fiction what A Hundred Years of Solitude is to Hispanic Literature.’ — Times Literary Supplement

‘Never before available in English, River of Fire, originally published as Aag ka Darya in 1959, is without question the most important novel of 20th-century Urdu literature. An amazing, sui generis book, River of Fire spans two and a half millennia. Set during four Indian epochs (the classical, the medieval, the colonial, and the modern post-national), the novel is a meditation on history and human nature, tracing four souls through time. Each section is linked by characters who bear, in every period, the same names: Gautam, Champa, Kamal, and Cyril. Gautam (appearing first as a student of mysticism at the Forest University of Shravasti in the 4th century B.C.E.) and Champa (throughout embodying the enigmatic experience of Indian women) begin and end the novel; Muslim Kamal appears mid-way through, as the Muslims did, and loses himself in the Indian landscape; and Cyril, the Englishman, appears later still. In different eras, different relations from among the four — romance and war, possession and dispossession. Yet together the characters reflect the oneness of human nature: amidst the nationalist and religious upheavals of Indian history, Hyder argues for a culture that is inclusive.

Interweaving parables, legends, dreams, diaries, and letters, Hyder’s prose is lyrical and witty. There is really no book like River of Fire. Qurratulain Hyder was awarded the Bharatiya Gnanpith, India’s highest literary award, in 1989, and here is her masterpiece, her broadest canvas and her finest art.’ – Goodreads