MODERN SANSKRIT PLAYS IN THE LAST FOUR DECADES : A BENGAL SCENARIO

The primary objective of the present paper is to bring into limelight a few modern Sanskrit plays of Bengal produced in the last few decades, based either on the episodes of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata; or on the contemporary issues obviously with specific objective in present – day social backdrop.

It is true that the position of Sanskrit in modern Indian society is degraded to a large extent and its penetration to the intellectual circle is limited; the old-worls concepts of values are no longer honoured as they were to be in the earlier period. Still there is a number of devoted Sanskrit-lovers who even in the 20^th century are trying their level best to sail against the tide and have proved through their original Sanskrit works e.g. poems, epics, plays, short stories etc. that Sanskrit language can still be force to reckon with.

Thus so far the modern Sanskrit plays are concerned more than 700 plays have been produced in India during the last five decades exhibiting a number of trends of which the following two are being dealt with in the present paper.

1. The plays based on ultramodern theme reflecting contemporary issues e.g. social (dowry etc.), sociopolitical, socioreligious problems and so on.
2. The play based on Ramayana and Mahabharata etc. reinterpreted in new perspective with specific objective reflecting present – day social milieu.

The present author has carefully chosen a few modern Sanskrit plays of Bengal from both the categories produced in the last few decades wherein the plays are refreshingly modern and innovative from the point of view of interpretation technique, structure and spirit.

Beside, a number of Sanskrit plays exhibit other trends; some of them are based on historical events or characters, others are based on the lives or activities of the freedom-fighters, political, spiritual leaders or intellectual gaints or on the well-known episodes of Upanishads, Ram. MBH, Puranas etc. to restate the lofty ideas embedded in them and on many other miscellaneous topics which are discussed elsewhere but kept outside the purview of our present paper, since only the two trends mentioned here seem to be noticeably relevant in the background of the 20^th and 21^st century Sanskritic studies.

In one of our publications (MSD – Appendix-1), more that 80 plays, all published during last four decades and produced exclusively in Bengal are listed and other unpublished dramas more than fifty (50) in number are mentioned wherein it is the established that the total number of dramas all produced in 20^th century is more than 300.

To give the account of Modern Sanskrit plays of Bengal, we would like to put forward a brief appraisal of a few plays chosen from both the categories as mentioned earlier.

In the first place we would like to discuss dramas that come under the first category.

Sardula-Sakatam (Calcutt, 1969)- by Dr. B.K. Bhattacharya.

In s.s., a 5 Act play of prakarana type, our playwright selects the plot from the contemporary political and industrial scene.

In this play different observations of our playwright on different aspects of present-day-society are vividly exposed. Here the author seems to have strong support for refugee rehabilitation and earnest sympathy for the refugee workers (s. s – p10) who were bound to evacuate then homestends and to come to India during partition of Bengal. Beside, it is seen various intricacies of Telephone system in Calcutta (s.s. – p11); addiction to drinking alchohol, a common practice of the labour class (s.s. – Act iv); availability of loan by the workers from the Co-operative Bank (s. s. – p33) and many more aspects cannot escape the notice of our playwright.

S. S is a nonpareil modern play. Our author, being well aware of the ins and outs of the bureaucraric system, having deep grounding in Sanskrit language and finest poetic talent will ever been shrined in the hearts of the readers as the superb executor of the Modern Sanskrit Dramas – modern in true sense – based on ultra modern topic.

Vestana – vyayogah (Calcutta, 1971 A.D.) – by Dr. B. K. Bhattacharyya

The play V.V. makes a strong attack on the policy of ‘Gherao’ introduced by some political parties in West Bengal during 1967-68 A.D. ‘Gherao’ means act of surrounding a person in order to compel him or her to meet the demand of the surrounders. This is a strategy adopted by the working class to pressurize administration or decision- making body with the aim to fulful their demands – be it legitimate or not.

The way of approach of the industrial workers towards the chairman and Labour-officer, the memorandum or the ‘ultimatum’ (caramapatra) given by the union – leaders towards management; the conversation among the union leaders, the Labour-officer and managing Director, the helpless condition of the said officials when gheraoed (confined) by the group of workers, the ultimate victory of Gherao (or Vestana) and the infallibility of the Gherao – the weapon of ‘kalki’ – all these are placed in an appreciably natural and easy – going way by our playwright. Since Dr. Bhattacharyya served the west Bengal Government and India Government in various capacities he was closely associated with the bureaucratic system and was thus well aware of the ins and outs of the said system. This experience in combination with his literary flare gave birth to these masterpieces on contemporary issues.

Dharitri-pati-nirvacanam (Culcutta, 1971)- by Dr. Siddheswar Chattopadhyay

Dha. is an enjoyable satirical playlet, based on the contemporary political condition of the whole world. There cannot be any stronger attack or any pointed satire on contemporary political condition in International scenario. The International body known as UNO (United Nations Organization); the super powers with their huge arsenal of deadly weapons; the policy of non-alignment of neutral nations with their unjustified pride and many more aspects of contemporary political scene get lashes of sharp satire from the facile pen of our author.

All of us know that UNO has been established in 1945 to maintain peace and security and to promote co-operation between nations in solving political, economic problems. Though UNO is considered to be as arbiter of International disputes, yet it had limited success as in Arab – Israell wars etc. In this excellent work, Bhagavan is shown as chief of UNO and permanent members e.g., USA, USSR, UK and so on are represented by ‘Hayangala’, ‘Dhurandhara’, ‘Laghuvancaka’ etc. Bhagavan, being the chief, tries his best to stop the mutual contradiction among the present members, but he fails. Our author ultimately establishes the truth, that he who got power, none can stop his imperisalistic attitude. By virtue of their might the super powers are able to influence the decisions of UNO which normally should be an impartial one, but in many cases the decisions of the super powers are simply endorsed by UNO.

Thus Dr. Siddheswar Chattopadhyay throws lashes of satire at all the agencies of the world who claim themselves to be the protectors of the democratic system but try to cut at the roots of democracy by the mechanisms devised by them and thus obstruct its proper functioning.

Atha-Kim (Calcutta, 1974)- by Dr. Siddheswar Chattopadhyay

Atha kim is a savoury Sanskrit playlet with a severe reproof towards our system of democracy towards all the political parties of Bengal rather India and especially towards our system of ‘Election’.

The drama shows, in our India which is a developing country, a number of political parties are in existence. All the political leaders try to gain control over administration. Frequent strikes, gheraos are organized in every sectors making it difficult for the existing system of management to function. Before election, the party leaders put forward hollow words of promises for cheaper essential commodities, plenty of Avenues for employment and so on, through their Election manifesto before the public. Rigging, killing etc. have become part and parcel of our system of ‘Election’. Some parties, however, don’t have least faith in this system of parliamentary democracy. They want a radical change in our political, social and educational life as well. The general public, however, having lost all their faith in Election system decides to waste their voting rights by putting consent marks against all the symbols and names in the ballot papers. All the said matters have wonderfully been placed in this playlet.

Nana-vitadanam (Calcutta, 1974) by Dr. Siddheswar Chattopadhyay

Our playwright through this excellent play casts an extremely pointed satire which nakedly exposes the folly, false pretensions and ridiculous attitude of the academic and political administrators who are to oust Sanskrit – the embodiment of the greatness of India’s thoutht and culture and therby endeavouring to damage our eternal culture.

Janani (Calcutta, 1984)- by Dr. Gauri Dharmapal

The drama starts in an unconventional way without a nandi or beneditory verse. Prologue, in Bengali language starts here in a light and humorous tone through the conversational talk of the lady announcer and her lady assistant. But after a while the conversation has been turned towards a serious dialogue.

Janani, the mother, the main character of the drama, is a lecturer in a Calcutta College, She toils hard day and might for all the members of her family e.g. her husband, son, daughter and father-in-law. But the members, however, take offence for any trivial and negligible lapse on her part.

The most uninteresting story of a middle-class family is most interestingly represented through the drama ‘Janani’ with a philosophy behind it.

Thus ‘Janani’, with its lucid style, simple but dignified language, with occasional use of Bengali language, with its novel theme revealing the identity of ‘Mother’ of the ‘House Mother’, of ‘Sanskrit’, of ‘India’ and of ‘Mother soil’ or ‘Earth’ bringing out the multi-lingual and the integrated aspect of India, depicting integration in its different aspects e.g., family integration, linguistic integration, national and East-West integration and with an ultimate objective of ushering into the traditional realm of peace, harmony, tolerance and integration – will ever be be enshrined in the hearts of the connoisseurs.

Now we would like to come to the second category Manavaka – Guaravam (Calcutta, 1958) – by Mm. Kalipada Tarkacarya

The drama primarily aims at the glorification of gurubhakti i.e., the devotion to teacher is essentiality for a student without which a student cannot achieve anything. This gurubhakti can produce miracles and bestow anything beyond estimation. A character known as gurubhakti is introduced precisely for the glorification of the said devotion to teacher.

In the Adiparpan of Mahabharata the episide of Dhaumya and his disciples covers only a few verses and depending upon the aforesaid materials the dramatist herein has composed his drama consisting of seven marvellous acts occasionally deviating from the source and making some outstanding innovations which gave the desired form and spirit.

Dharmarajyam (Calcutta, 1981) – By Amiya Nath Chakravarty

This play with five – Acts is based on the episodes contained in the Sabhaparvan of Mahabharata. Form the very begining it transpires that the main objective of the playwright is to establish the truth – Yato dharmastato jayah i.e. the society if devoid of – dharma – proceeds towards destruction whereas the rule of dharma or righteousness leads the sociely towards peaace and harmony. Now the dice-play between Yudhisthira and Duryodhana; the latter’s winning of the stake by foul play, the exile of pandavas alongwith Draupadi to forest etc. the well-known episode of Mahabharata has been furnished in intelligible Sanskrit and lucid style with a new fascinating colour, form and spirit. The drama faithfully follows the story of Mahabharata only with two minor but significant innovations e.g. the appearances of Narada twice in the first scene and the other in the last scene. In the last scene Narada says a – dharma-rajya- i.e. a realm of righteousness is in the make where peace, harmony and social morality will prevail. He adds as the oppression will become more and more, as the tyranny will go unabated, all the forces will combine together with unyielding determination to throw away the regime of adharma and the realm of dharma will firmly be established. Narada makes the prophecy that the oppression of Duryodhana and his associates has come to such a level, it means, that the “doomsday” is near at hand.

The strong belief of Amiya Natha that ” dharma trimphs in the long run” has been established through out the drama. Moreover, he adds when the oppression of the sinners go more and more only then the citizens join hand together to revolt against the tyrannical administration. The author however makes an earnest attempt to present the social and political condition of East Pakistan during the tenure of Genreal Ayub Khan and Iyahiya Khan when the reign of terror prevailed in the said country. The departure of pious Astavakra, Bhargava and others represents the mass exodus started at that time from East Pakistan to India.

In the concluding part of our paper we come to the point of relevance of Sanskritic studies in the 21st century which happens to be the central theme of this seminar.

It goes without saying that every piece of art is necessarily a form of social consciousness. An artist is but a social being and is a product of his / her social environment which speaks through his/her creation. Be it the case of carving of the caves or the more advanced form of artistic expression viz. poetry, drama, dance or so, each component and motive therof come out of social urge.

Recent developments in techno crafts have brought about a revolution in all art forms including literature. Thus literary pursuits in any corner of the world now, in fact, are bound to react to global issues and phenomena. And the Sanskrit literature of 20th century is or of the 21st century will be no exception there. That 19th / 20^th century spoke through Sanskrit is evident from the dramas mentioned above which prove the fact that like all other litterateurs of the world Sanskrit scholars are also affected by the turmoils and vicissitudes of the pressing problems of the society. The trend of selecting themes from contemporary political, social, academic, socio-political and industrial scenes and treatments thereof either in serious veins or with sarcasm, is evident in their writings. Sometimes time and old themes are reinterpreted with the same objective.

As with the themes, so also with the literary idioms a perfect blend of tradition and innovation in terms of coined words, allusion, popular maxims and the like brings forth a new mode of stylistics of figurative language.

Prakrit the conventional language for Ceti, Vidusaka etc. is omitted; occasionally vernaculars e.g. Bengali, Punjabi, Oriya etc. and Hindi are used (Ref. MSD – P – 169), English words are incorporated either being compounded with Sanskrit words or used with Sanskrit suffixes e.g. stove-sya, Officer’ – an, Curfew-grastam etc; Some vernacular words or idioms are used without change or with a little change ko, Ko, peyaji etc.

Adaptation to modern dramatic technique in the Sanskrit plays of the last four decades is also a remarkable event in this context.

As found in the western plays the acts are generally divided into scenes. The essential gorgeous forms of the stages are transformed into simplified forms due to progressive outlook of the playwrights. The orthodox concept of a firm barier between the stage and the spectators has been removed giving a new dimension to the dramatic technique. Occasionally the characters performing on the stage (vide Nanavitadanam) are seen to come out from the spectators underlining the insparable identity between the characters performing on the stage and the characters watching as spectators. Abstract plays, Radio-plays, symbolic plays, operas or Giti-natyas etc. are produced. The introduction of Flash back system is another noriceable feature indeed. At times the characters are introduced mere symbols and not by individual names showing in each case the personal identiy is not important, important is the ‘class’ or ‘idea’ they represent.

From the above discussion hopefully it may be concluded that Sanskrit language will remain, as it was used to be, during 19th, 20th century, a powerful vehicle of expression, not only in Bengal, but in India too; not only in the plays but in other gerres of literary creations e.g. short stories, poems etc; it will help to make us realise the inner truths of human existance in the 21st century Indian context and there lies the genuine relevance of Sanskritic studies in the 21st century.

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