DRAMA
Powerful plays
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`Both plays linger in memory long after you have finished the last line — Tipu for its fervent nationalism and Bali for the power of the thought.'
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WHEN a historical figure as large as Tipu Sultan captures the imagination of a playwright of Girish Karnad's stature, the upshot is bound to be a masterpiece.
Girish Karnad's "The Dreams of Tipu Sultan" commissioned by BBC Radio in 1996 to commemorate 50 years of Indian Independence is undoubtedly one. The Oxford University Press recently published "The Dreams of Tipu Sultan", along with "Bali: The Sacrifice".
The play see-saws between the apparent present — where Hussain Ali Kirmani, the court historian, and Colin Mackenzie, the Oriental scholar, are trying to reconstruct Tipu's life; the past — how Tipu lived and what he aspired for; and Tipu's dreams — which he recorded, along with his interpretations of them, in a book.
Though he is writing of events that happened over two hundred years ago, Karnad's situations and dialogues have a touch of the modern world — with many references to issues of trade, commerce and governance that continue to dog the world. The words of the British representative Charles Malet, when he urges the Maratha statesman, Nana Phadnavis, to join the English against Tipu to punish a man who is "the enemy of all mankind," have tones of George Bush urging the world to back his war on terror.
Karnad explains that Tipu's interests extend beyond the scope of trade, administration, war and politics to all things new, scientific and innovative. For a soldier who spent most of his life on horseback, Tipu was a man with a keen, enquiring mind and a desire to learn and move ahead. Throughout the play, Tipu's admiration for the Europeans is evident. Karnad brings dreams and reality into play, without really defining the boundaries between the two. The real glides into the dream world and back so seamlessly that in the closing scene, you almost believe that Tipu has won the Fourth War of Mysore, that the English are fleeing, that the roses are blooming... until the scene shifts back to Kirmani saying that was Tipu's last dream. He died that afternoon, fighting the British and his men betrayed him.
The sense of disappointment is acute proving that Karnad is a brilliant playwright who can sweep you along with his words and his imagination. The semi-matter-of-fact, almost hurried way in which Kirmani and Mackenzie sum up Tipu's last battle and the subsequent developments in India in the closing of the play is more powerful than stretched-out words detailing treachery and deceit could have been. With "Bali: The Sacrifice", the pace shifts to a less straightforward play about the philosophy of violence. Bali is a puzzling play that doesn't follow a beginning-middle-end format. It's the kind that thrives on layers of subtleties that makes you want to sit down and sort out the zillions of thoughts it stirs up.
The play is based on a 13th Century Kannada epic, "Yashodhara Charite", which refers to various other texts dating back to the Ninth Century. It deals with the idea that violence is just beneath the surface. With the idea that thought, intention and action are not so different after all.
It debates the Jain notion that intended violence is as atrocious as the action itself. That the mere thought of bloodshed or brutality condemns one as much as the deed would. The focus is on the conflict between Vedanta and Jainism. Karnad has effectively dramatised the myth of the Cock of Dough to bring out the idea that violence is pervasive and often masked by other actions and aspects.
The scene of the King and Queen's first meeting shows how constant exposure can numb people or children to violence. The concept of injury causing pain and idea of compassion occur to the Hindu King for the very first time, when he sees his future Queen, a Jain, mourning over a bleeding bird. The effect is so profound that he converts to Jainism and marries the Queen against his mother's wishes.
It's a play about a conflict of beliefs. The mahout is not merely the reason for the queen's transgression, he symbolises the belief in a listening, logical God. The Queen believes that salvation comes from living a life of compassion, and the Queen Mother follows a Goddess who needs to be satiated with blood to be benign. In between is the King who has forsaken the faith he grew up in to embrace Jainism and is now torn between guilt and confusion about the right path.
Both "Bali: The Sacrifice" and "The Dreams of Tipu Sultan" are powerful plays that stay with you long after you have finished the last line — Tipu for its fervent nationalism and power of words, Bali for the power of the thought behind the text.
SHALINI UMACHANDRAN
Two Plays: The Dreams of Tipu Sultan; Bali The Sacrifice; Girish Karnad, Oxford University Press, Rs. 195.
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