《戈丹》是普列姆昌德的代表作，发表于1936年。描写主人公何利一直想买一头奶牛，因为奶牛是当地吉祥，富裕的象征。何利从牧人薄拉那里赊到一头奶牛。何利的弟弟希拉妒嫉哥哥一家的欢乐，毒死牛后，远走高飞。何利怕面子难堪，骗了警察和头人，还借用高利贷买通他们。何利的儿子与寡妇裘妮娅相好，裘妮娅孕后，戈巴尔将其带回家。何利夫妇好心收留了裘妮亚，却因此违反教规。何利又借高利贷来交罚款，以求得不被开除教籍，最后，他不仅欠了许多钱，连耕牛也拉去抵债。何利只得靠帮工过日子。尽管如此，他还不改初衷，为买牛而奋斗，不久，他因劳累过度而死去。依照印度教的习俗，临死前要行“戈丹”的仪式，即请婆罗门祭司来“净化灵魂”，并以一头牛做为谢礼，于是他生前辛辛苦苦积攒起来的二十个安那，也作为牛的代价落入祭司之手。 小说揭示了印度农村阶级压迫和剥削。是一部号召印度劳动人民反对地主、高利贷者的长篇史诗。这本书无论从思想性或艺术性来说，都是普列姆昌德一生创作的高峰。

Premchand is the most famous name in modern Hindi fiction, and Godaan is Premchand's most celebrated novel. It is the story of Hori, a poor peasant who yearns to own a cow and to make the pious Hindu's traditional gift to a Brahmin when he dies. Through Premchand's vivid character portrayals we witness the efforts of Hori's family to survive the conflicts of village politics and the webs spun by colonial landownership patterns. Counterposed to the culture of rural connectedness but also constriction is the isolation but also freedom of the city. Here the rigors of industrialization and empty materialism only can be offset by the promise of Gandhian idealism. An engaging introduction to north India before Independence, Godaan is at once village ethnography, moving human document, and insightful colonial history.