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Amrita (Gujarati novel)Amrita (pronounced ; Gujarati: ?????), also spelled Amruta, is a 1965 Gujarati novel by Raghuveer Chaudhari. Although criticized for its highly Sanskritised language and lengthy metaphysical discussion, it is regarded as a landmark in the development of the experimental novel in modern Gujarati literature. It has been referred to as a reflective existentialist novel.

The story follows a love triangle between three characters, Amrita, Udayan and Aniket.

Plot
Amrita is awarded her doctorate, and her two friends Udayan and Aniket congratulate her on her achievement. From their youth onward, Udayan has been an important formative influence, guiding Amrita to reach her intellectual goals. Amrita had declared her love for him, but now Udayan observes that Amrita is growing partial to a lecturer in botany, Aniket. Udayan had played a role in introducing Aniket to Amrita. On that occasion, Udayan seemed to have brushed away Amrita's expression of affection, saying that what he desired from her was not so much her love as her understanding. For Udayan, love is contingent, an accidental matter.

During a trip the three take together to Juhu Beach, Udayan falls from their boat during a tempest and is injured. Amrita finds a note under her pillow from her bhabi (her brother's wife), informing her that the family regards her friendship with the two young men as socially embarrassing. Amrita confesses to Udayan that she feels the pressure to make a choice between the two is a threat to her pursuit of freedom. But at the same time, as she sees Aniket off from the station on a journey, Amrita tells Aniket that she will wait for him. Udayan decides to resign from his post as a lecturer in Gujarati, and to sell his property at Bhiloda. Amrita sojourns in Aniket's home, acting as caretaker in his absence. Aniket stays away, living in a rented house in Palanpur and hoping that, while he is gone, Amrita and Udayan will once more draw closer to each other.

In a final meeting, before Udayan, Amrita declares her preference for Aniket. Udayan leaves for Japan to pursue journalistic work on the effects of radiation on survivors of the bombing of Hiroshima. There he falls ill, suffering from kidney disease. On his return to India, he is looked after by both Amrita and Aniket but repudiates their care, even at one point cutting his veins. Amrita and Aniket donate blood to save him. Before Amrita and Aniket accept an invitation to travel to Japan, they visit the bedridden Udayan at Ahmedabad. There he dictates his final testament, a summing up of his life in which he states that he is not a believer, that love itself is an illusion, but that he feels gratitude to his two friends who, in different ways, have helped him understand himself.

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