Sarbajaya
Sarbajaya is the wife of Harihar, and the matriarch of the central family. She lives in poverty and does her best to keep her household going while her husband struggles to find work. She has dreams of her own, but she has given up on them in order to support her family. This responsibility is especially burdensome because Harihar is easily cheated out of money and doesn't generally make very much. She must keep her children in line and then bear the loss of Durga at the end of the story. Her journey is a burdensome one, in that she is tasked with worrying and fretting about the future of her family. She barely smiles throughout the film and takes on a great deal of stress, often taking this stress out on the elderly Indir and the young Durga.
Harihar
Harihar is the patriarch of the family. He is a priest and also works in any way he can to earn money for his family. He is prone to being cheated out of pay and fears asking his employer for the three months of pay he is owed because he doesn't want to get fired. He goes away for an extended period of time to earn money and on his return he finds that Durga, his daughter, has passed away. He then moves his family from his home that his ancestors have been at for generations in order to attempt to get out of the massive debts that he has accumulated, and to walk away from the life that has disappointed him. In contrast to Sarbajaya, he is largely hopeful throughout the film, believing that things will turn out for the best at any moment, and believing that God has a plan. He desires to be a writer and scholar and to educate his son, but neither dream is realized. By the end of the film, his hopes have been dashed, but he is on his way to a new life.
Durga
Durga is Harihar and Sarbajaya's daughter. She is very connected to her Auntie, Indir, for whom she steals fruit from the neighbor's orchard. She desires to have a husband one day and watches as her friend is given in marriage to a young man. After a monsoon sweeps through their village Durga takes sick and eventually dies, causing her family to leave their home. Durga is imaginative and loving, and not as hard-working as her mother would like her to be. She takes pleasure in the small elements of life and is close to her younger brother Apu, with whom she plays daily.
Apu
Apu is the youngest child of Harihar and Sarbajaya. When Apu is born, Harihar says he will educate him as he desires to become a writer and pass on his skills to his son. We watch Apu grow to be a young boy who experiences the deaths of his Auntie Indir and his sister Dargur before moving away with his mother and father. He has a deep sense of wonder and imagination, and looks up to his older sister, Durga.
Indir
Indir is the elderly aunt of the family. She is exceedingly old and her back has curled over in her old age. She gladly accepts gifts from Durga, and Sarbajaya disapproves of their bond, frequently throwing Indir out because she thinks Indir is spoiling her daughter. Indir has nowhere else to go, and suffers the hardship of old age and poverty, eventually dying in the forest after Sarbajaya has kicked her out of the ancestral home.
