The Tagore family was a leading follower of Brahma Samaj, a new religious sector in the 19th century. Rabindranath Tagore develop an early love for literature, and had begun reading biographies, poems, history, Sanskrit and several others by the age of 12. Tagore is essentially a river-poet so far as his love for nature is concerned. The theme of the play Chandalika is the realization by a chandal girl that she is a human being like others, and that it is a mistaken on her part to think herself beneath the notice of human beings who belong to upper castes. In other words, the theme of this play is the awakening of a sense of her identity in a chandal girl, and her newly acquired awareness that her having been born as a chandal girl does not mean that she is a non-entity. The chandal girl in this play is Prakriti who discovers that she is as much a human being as anybody else and that she too has the right to give water anybody high or low, who asks for it. This realization by her not only makes her feel that she is somebody with an identity to her own but also leads her to fall in love with a Buddhist monk who is responsible for having brought this new awakening  in her . However, Prakriti’s love for the Buddhist monk is not in itself the theme of the play. Her love for that man derives from her new knowledge, imparted to her by him, that she is a human being .But her falling in love with him shows also her presumptuousness. A woman commits no fault if she falls in love with a man, whoever he may be; but Prakriti’s falling in love with a Buddhist monk is certainly a fault, and a serious fault too, because Buddhist monks are pledged to celibacy. The play evokes Hindu, Buddhist, and Christian notions of creative, renunciatory, and sacrificial Love.

Through this play, Tagore has given massage of equality without discrimination of caste and creed. He also pointed that everyone has have one identity and willingness to live according to his/her own perspective. Emotions like caring, sharing and loving are also too natural. In Chandalika, Tagore interfaces Love's manifold forms creating a conflict verging on violence. The characters' names - Prakriti, Mother and Ananda - are unmistakable symbols unraveling the action of the play.

Characters of the play: Prakriti, Buddhist monk- Anada ( bhikshu), Prakriti’s mother.