Devdas–Dharmadas relationship

The relationship between Devdas and Dharmadas emerges most clearly in the final stages of Devdas’s life, when illness turns companionship into sustained, practical care. Dharmadas recognizes the danger in Devdas’s decline, tries to move him toward treatment and family, and remains beside him through travel and repeated setbacks. Yet loyalty cannot overcome Devdas’s refusal to face his mother, and Dharmadas’s hatred of Chandramukhi leaves another important bond unmentioned. Their closeness is real, but it cannot give Devdas the sense of belonging he lacks.

Companionship Under Strain

When Devdas’s health worsens in an unsuitable climate, Dharmadas is moved nearly to tears and urges him to go somewhere else. Devdas agrees, but his distracted assent does not become a lasting recovery or a decisive change in direction. The exchange shows Dharmadas trying to respond to a problem Devdas himself does not appear to address with comparable urgency.

Their care takes on a more immediate form during an earlier serious illness. After the doctor warns that Devdas needs the utmost care and that the illness could become fatal, word is sent home and Dharmadas arrives; money is also obtained from the bank for treatment. The episode places Dharmadas within the circle mobilized by Devdas’s crisis, even as the account does not assign him responsibility for arranging the funds. Devdas improves for a time, but the reprieve does not resolve the illness that will later dominate their relationship.

Watching and Waiting

In the later episode, Devdas’s pattern of drinking away from home makes him difficult to keep track of. He sometimes returns late and sometimes does not return at all. After he has been absent for two days, Dharmadas is so distressed that he will not eat or drink. Devdas comes back on the third day with a high fever, lies down, and cannot get up; several doctors attend him. The sequence makes Dharmadas’s concern visible through what he does while Devdas is missing, and through the vigil that begins when Devdas returns gravely ill.

Dharmadas proposes writing to Devdas’s mother in Varanasi and argues that illness is nothing to be ashamed of. He urges Devdas to go to her, but Devdas refuses to appear before her in that condition, insisting that he should recover first and visit later. Dharmadas answers with practical care and an appeal to family connection; Devdas answers by postponing both. His refusal leaves Dharmadas with the responsibility of accompanying him without being able to bring him to the person Devdas says he hopes to see once well.

The Unspoken Alternative

Chandramukhi is another possible source of care, but Dharmadas cannot bring himself to mention her. Her name briefly comes to his lips, then remains unspoken because he hates her. Devdas remembers her too, but does not want to talk about her. No news is sent to either Chandramukhi or his mother, and neither comes. The separation is therefore not simply a matter of distance: the people who might respond are not informed, while Devdas and Dharmadas remain within a narrowing circle of illness and silence.

This episode reveals a limit in Dharmadas’s devotion. He is attentive to Devdas’s physical condition and tries to connect him with his mother, but his hostility toward Chandramukhi prevents him from raising her as an option. The text does not suggest that he intends to isolate Devdas; it shows instead how his personal aversion intersects with Devdas’s own unwillingness to speak. The result is that care is present, but not all available care can reach the sick man.

The Journey Home

A year later, Devdas leaves a hospital in Bombay leaning on Dharmadas for support. Dharmadas again suggests going to Devdas’s mother. Devdas weeps, reflecting on the people he has: his mother, elder brother, Parvati, and Chandramukhi. Yet he feels that having these relationships is not the same as being claimed by them. Dharmadas also weeps and asks once more whether they will go to his mother. Devdas refuses again, saying that the time has not come. Dharmadas’s insistence marks his continuing hope for reunion; Devdas’s answer keeps that reunion deferred even as his condition makes the delay increasingly consequential.

Devdas is visibly and seriously ill: his liver is badly infected, and he suffers coughing and recurring fever. At the station, Dharmadas asks where to buy tickets. Devdas chooses to go home first, leaving the next decision for later, and they board a train for Hooghly. Dharmadas stays close throughout the journey. Before dusk, as fever returns, Devdas tells him that even reaching home may be difficult. When the train passes Varanasi, Devdas is unconscious with fever; he wakes near Patna and concludes that he was not destined to see his mother. Dharmadas proposes getting off at Patna to find a doctor, but Devdas declines and repeats his wish to go home.

Devotion and Its Limits

Across these episodes, Dharmadas’s care is steady but not triumphant. He notices Devdas’s worsening health, presses him to leave an unhealthy place, worries when he disappears, calls attention to the need for medical help, and physically supports him after the hospital. He also repeatedly tries to take him to his mother. Devdas accepts his company and support, yet refuses the journeys and conversations that might restore family contact. Their bond therefore offers Devdas a companion through illness, not an escape from the isolation he feels. The relationship’s final significance lies in that contrast: Dharmadas remains beside him, while the larger circle of family and affection remains painfully out of reach.