MRICHCHAKATIKAM
A DRAMA PAR EXCELLENCE
MRICHCHAKATIKAM, a Sanskrit Play of king Sudraka, is an outstanding play on any count. It
not only portrays on a wide canvas the lives and customs or a highly organised
society about two thousand years ago in minute detail, but also excels in
characterisation bordering on the real and comparable to any of the outstanding
dramas of either the East or the West, including Shakespeare’s to which it
dates back by atleast a thousand years. It is dated Circa 3rd to 8th century
AD, whereas Kalidasa’s period is said to be 5th century AD. White the common
people speak the Prakrit, the elite characters speak Sanskrit. Sudraka is said
to have adapted the earlier play “Churudattam” of Bhasa into a
dexterously woven play, which has drawn the attention and appreciation of noted
critics like Prof. Kieth, Dr. Bradley and others. The characters in the play
are considered by them as “Citizens of the World”. One will find such live men
in any country, in any time and in any clime. The characters can be easily
identified even with present day living men amongst us. And there lies the
greatness of the play.
The setting is Ujjain, a city by even modern
standards, a well planned town by the side of the river, with broad roads,
public parks and multistoried buildings lining the roads. The streets are
crowded with covered bullock carts, with the higher strata of society each
having its own cart, much the same way as we have automobiles today. Often
there are traffic hold-ups which are required to be cleared with a special
effort, before the traffic resumes. After dusk, unsocial elements and pleasure
seekers take over and there are street brawls, and gamblers’ fist-lights and
attempts to kidnap women and even murders when they do not agree. There is a
well organiscd vigilance organization and one for administration of justice.
The king has the final say in all matters and the people are by and large
obedient.
There is a flourishing community of
prostitutes and an array of gambling dens. Many a young girl, born in the whore
houses, yearn for a lawful marriage and the status of a housewife. As the girls
born to the prostitutes are treated no better than slaves, they can either
purchase their freedom by a price to be paid to the master or mother; or with
the express permission of the king, when they are allowed to wear the bridal viel.
In Mrichchakatikam Vasantasena pines for marriage with her lover
and ultimately the king gives her permission to do so, whereas for her maid, Madanika, she readily gives
freedom to go with Sarvilaka and marry him.
There are of course brazen attempts at misuse
of power by those in the service of State and those related to the king
resulting in injustice and miscarriage of justice. The king gets bad name for
the misdemeanours of these people and as in this case, it may also lead to a
change of the king himself!
Then there is the elaborate description of the
whore-house, Vasantasena lives in a mansion house, with 8 enclosures, each of
which houses carts, elephants and other domestic animals, the men and working
tools. There is even a separate enclosure for customers to drink and play dice
and other games and another exclusively to those who are born and bred up on
the house and whose duty is solely to maintain order in the house. It is only
after the eighth enclosure that Vasantasena grants an audience to Maitreya in
her private garden, Of course, there is a separate enclosure for the Madam of
the House-Vasantasena’s mother, who is made fun of by Maitreya. This is quite
comparable to any of the modern casinos or drinking and cabaret joints! Or the
expansive buildings of a prince or a zamindar!
The plot has three clear strands elaborately
and intricately interwoven with each other-One, the love story of Vasantasena
and Charudatta, whom she meets in
a carnival and seeks his protection from some unruly elements; Two, the
solicitation of Sakara, the King’s brother-in-law and also a state official for
Vasantasena, who spurns his advances and is ultimately strangled by him; and
lastly, the circumstances leading to Aryaka, a cowherd youth, who is predicted
to be the future king, and is imprisoned by the present king, Palaka. He
finally manages to kill the latter and become the king himself.
The story begins with Vasantasena, the
courtesan, falling in love with Charudatta, a Brahmin by birth, and a trader by
profession, formerly very wealthy and having donated to many charities and
civic amenities, has now fallen on bad days, whom she meets in a carnival earlier.
The citizens of Ujjain admire and adore Charudatta’s noble qualities and
charitable disposition. Even Vasantasena admits often that she is won over by
his magnanimity. Charudatta shies away from moving forward in the matter of his
love for her being conscious of his penury. Vasantasena anticipates that
Charudatta may hesitate to make a move, and decides to move in herself and she
seeks him one day after dusk. She is accosted by Sakara, the king’s
brother-in-law and an official of the State (Rashtriya) who entreats her
to grant him her favours, in return for money and good food. He makes light of
her love for the poverty-stricken Charudatta. But she repulses his moves. In
darkness, when he tries to grab her physically, she manages to enter the nearby
Charudatta’s house and is welcomed there. The disappointed and vain-glorious
Sakara warns Charudatta that unless he surrenders Vasantasena to him, he will
have to face his enmity till death, and leaves the place.
They renew their love for each other. He entreats
her to stay on. She decides that the time is not yet ripe for doing so.
Instead, she leaves her ornaments with him for safe custody, as it is not safe
to have them while returning home. This is only an excuse to come back.
Charudatta receives and hands over the ornaments to his friend and companion,
Maitreya for custody. Then Charudatta escorts Vasantasena back to her home in
the night.
Meanwhile, there is a brawl in the street when
Samvahaka, who loses 10 gold coins in a dice game, tries to run away from his
creditors who assault him. A bleeding Samvahaka enters Vasantasena’s house and
introduces himself as a former masseur of Charudatta. Vasantasena is moved by
his reference to Charudatta’s name, and arranges to free Samvahaka from the
creditors by giving them one of her ornaments. Samvahaka is very grateful for
Vasantasena’s gesture and hopes that he will be able to repay her kindness
sometime in the future which he does in the anti-climax scene by reviving
Vasantasena and saving Charudatta’s life.
The next day, Charudatta and his friend,
attend a music concert of his friend Rekhila and return home past midnight,
after darkness sets in. They go to sleep with the bundle of ornaments in
Maitreya’s hands.
That night, under the cover of darkness,
Sarvilaka, executes a methodical and well planned theft in Charudatta’s ancient
house. His elaborate discourse on the principles and practice of digging holes
in the walls can form part of a classic text book on thievery, if there were
one. No wonder it is considered as one of the 64 arts. Sarvilaka is in need of
money to pay the price for freedom of Vasantasena’s
maid, Madanika, with a view to marrying her. He takes precautions before
entering the hole he digs in Charudatta’s wall, introduces a dummy to make certain
that all is well and then enters the room. Maitraya in a semi-conscious sleep
gives the bag of ornaments to Sarvilaka thinking that he is returning them to
Charudatta’s custody.
On waking up, they realise that the ornaments
are stolen and Charudatta admires the skill of the thief in executing an
aesthetically pleasing hole in the hall. Fearing that Vasantasena may not
believe the theft of her ornaments, Charudatta asks his friend Maitreya to give
her his wife’s pearl necklace in lieu of them and tell her that the ornaments were
lost in a game of dice by Charudatta under the mistaken impression that they
were his.
Sakara, sends to Vasantasena’s
mother ten thousand gold coins and covered cart to bring Vasantasena to him.
Vasantasena angrily returns them and sends a message to her mother not to
indulge in such acts if she wants her daughter safe. Sarvilaka reaches
Vasantasena’s house with the bag of stole ornaments and Madanika immediately
identities them as Vasantasena’s which were stolen from Charudatta’s house. She
advises him to say that the ornaments are returned by Charudatta. Vasantasena
overhears their talk and understands their love and desire to marry. She
accepts the ornaments and in return grants freedom to Madanika and offers her a
cart for her to leave. Just then there is a loud proclamation that Aryaka, the
cowherd youth, who is predicted to be the future king is imprisoned by Palaka,
the ruling king. Sarvilaka immediately decides to leave and try for Aryaka’s
release from prison and advises the new bride to take refugee in Rekhila’s
house till he returns.
Maitreya then enters
Vasantasena’s house, to give her the pearl necklace sent by Charudatta in lieu
of the stolen ornaments and reports that her ornaments were lost in a gamble by
his master. She understands that Charudatta is hiding the theft from her as she
already has them through Sarvilaka and her love for him increases as she admits
that it is these qualities that have won her love for him. She tells Maitreya
to inform Charudatta that she will personally visit his place that evening.
That evening it has
been unusually dark because of a depression and untimely rain. She braves the
rain and darkness and reaches his house fully drenched. She enquires about how
the ‘gambler’ is doing. He receives her endearingly and she returns the
necklace and also produces the ornaments said to have been lost by him and
Charudatta understands that she is aware of the theft. They laugh it over and
spend the night together happily.
Charudatta asks the driver
of his cart, Vardhamanaka, to be ready to take her home if she wants to go. He
also leaves instructions with Maitreya, his friend, to inform the driver to
bring Vasantasena in the morning to the public park, where he is waiting, on
the outskirts of the city. Vasantasena rises rather late, and mingles with the
household to make friends. Charudatta’s son, Rohaka, cries at being unable to
play with the golden cart of his neighbours and the maid Radanika gets him a
clay cart, which he refuses to play with. Radanika introduces Vasantasena to
him as his mother. He protests immediately that it cannot be so as his mother
does not wear any ornaments. Vasantasena removes her ornaments and places them
in the clay cart and asks him to have
a golden cart made to play with.
Vardhamanaka arrives
with the cart, but Vasantasena says she needs a little time to get washed and
be ready. This suits Vardhamanaka well, as he forgets the carpet to be spread
in the cart for fetching which he goes back. When Vasantasena gets ready and
made up, she finds the carriage of Sakara parked near the side entrance. Its
driver, Cheta, finding that the road is blocked by vehicles from all
directions, gives a helping hand to clear the traffic and by the time he
returns, Vasantasena gets in and closes the door. Cheta finds the going a
little heavy for an empty vehicle he has brought, but satisfies himself that
due to his exertion he is finding a little drag, but moves on taking the
vehicle to the place where Sakara is waiting in another corner of the park.
Meanwhile, Vardhamanaka
returns with his cart. Aryaka, who escapes from the prison, with one chain
still dangling on his leg, gets in and closes the door. Vardhamanaka mistakes
the jingling sound to be Vasantasena’s ankle bells and drives on.
There is an
announcement that Aryaka, the cowherd youth, who is to be the king escaped from
the prison, and all the concerned have been alerted to be watchful.
Vardhamanaka’s cart is accosted by two of the vigilance guards, Chandanaka and
Veeraka, who are told that Vasantasena in the cart is going to meet Charudatta
in the park. Though they have respect for both these figures, they insist on
seeing inside the cart for a physical check. Chandanaka peeps in first, and
Aryaka immediately seeks his protection, which Chandanaka gives readily, for he
has sympathies with the king to be. When Veeraka insists on his inspection
before the cart is allowed to proceed. Chandanaka fearing that Aryaka’s plan
will be spoiled if that happens, decides to provoke Veeraka into a quarrel (karnata
kalaha prayogam karome) and
decides to employ the Karnata quarrel remedy. He abuses Veeraka by the
name of his barber’s caste and asks him how dare he disbelieve his word and
try to peep in Veeraka, enraged, abuses Chandanaka in return by his caste (Chandala).
Chanadanaka pulls down Veeraka who is trying to peep in and kicks him.
Veeraka furious at this outrage leaves the spot swearing to report the matter
to the court of justice. Chandanaka then tells Aryaka in the cart addressing
him as Vasantasena to inform anyone who stops the cart that it has already been
inspected by Chandanaka and Veeraka and gives his sword in token thereof, which
also is intended to be useful for his protection. The cart then reaches
Charudatta, who on finding Aryaka inside, instead of Vasantasena, promptly gets
him unchained and entreats him to go in the same cart to safety and remember
him when he does become a king. A grateful Aryaka is driven to safety.
It is already midday
and the sun is very hot. Sakara waiting with his the companion Vita is restless
and makes fun of the Buddhist monk. Sramanaka, who goes to the well to wash his
clothes. When the cart comes to pick him up, he finds Vasanthasena inside, as a
result of the mix up. Overjoyed he mistakes that she has come for his love, and
kneels, his head at her feet. She kicks his head in scorn and he gets enraged. His
entreaties to Vita and Cheta to kill her having failed, he decides to kill her
himself. He sends both of them away and strangles her and when she falls down
motionless, presumes her dead. Both Vita and Cheta return later to find her
killed by their master. Vita leaves in disgust. Cheta, being his slave and the
only eyewitness to the murder, Sakara decides to bind him in his place till all
is clear. He then decides to file a complaint against Charudatta accusing him
of Vasantasena’s murder for her ornaments.
The next morning,
Sakara dresses himself in the regalia of his office and awaits the court to
commence the proceedings. The court consists of Adhikaranaka (the magistrate). Sreshti (the evaluator or financial expert and Kayastha (the
court clerk), besides a servant of the court, Sodhanaka. The magistrate at
first refuses to hear Sakara’s complaint, as he is notorious for his litigation
and his over-bearing behaviour. Sakara threatens the magistrate that he is a
state official and also the brother-in-law of the King himself and he will have
him removed and replaced if his complaint is not taken up. The magistrate
succumbs to his pressure and takes up his case. The clerk takes down the
complaint as Sakara blabbers that Vasantasena was murdered not by him but by
Charudatta for the sake of her ornaments. He even erases with the toe of his
foot what has earlier been stated by him and written by the clerk, and
browbeats them. As Vasantasena’s
murder is the matter, her mother is called for investigation and she speaks
highly of Charudatta and that Vasantasena left for Charudatta ‘s place but has
not returned. Then Charudatta is called in and is offered a seat out of respect
for him, to which Sakara objects that he can not be offered a seat being the
accused in the murder case. Charudatta is in a fix as he cannot disclose that
Aryaka travelled in his cart and not Vasantasena, lest he may betray Aryaka.
Veeraka, the policeman
on guard duty and who is driven away by Chandanaka enters to report that as he
tried to verify Vasantasena’s identity, going to meet Charudatta in his cart,
Chandanaka beat him up and drove him away. Veeraka is sent to the park to see
if any female corpse is still there. He promptly returns and reports that there
is indeed a half-eaten corpse of a woman lying there.
In the meantime,
Maitreya, who is asked by Charudatta to return the bundle of ornaments to
Vasantasena, hears that Charudatta has been framed, and he rushes to the court
to defend him along with the bundle. There, enraged at Sakara’s accusation
against Charudatta, he tries to hit him with his stick and in the struggle, the
bundle is dropped to the ground and the identity of Vasantasena’s ornaments is
established. Then Sakara forces the court to unseat Charudatta as a prima facie
evidence is available. In spite of the soil corner they have for his
reputation, Charudatta himself vacates the seat and sits on the ground. Sakara
reiterates his charge that Vasantasena is murdered by Charudatta for her
ornaments and in spite his denials, a verdict of guilty is passed and the
matter is reported to the king for pronouncing the sentence, with a
recommendation for excommunication as being a Brahmin, Charudatta cannot be
killed. The king, however, sentences him to be impaled to death and also orders
that it should be widely proclaimed by beat of drum that similar fate would befall
to anyone committing such an offence in future.
The Chandalas (the
executioners) take over and put a
garland of red flowers on Charudatta’s neck. The procession starts with the
first of the five mandatory proclamations of his offence and punishment, before
Charudatta is impaled. As the procession wends though the streets, Cheta, the slave
of Sakara and eyewitness to the murder, jumps to the ground to save Charudutta
from his master’s wily and evil design. But Sakara effectively turns tables
against him, saying that he is his slave and is beaten and tied down for the theft
of gold in his house. Cheta’s words that Sakara himself killed Vasantasena have
no takers, as being a slave, he is effectively overruled by his master. Cheta
begs leave of Charudatta saying that he is powerless for doing any thing more.
Meanwhile Vasantasena
is saved by the Bikshu, Sramanaka, who is none other than Samvahaka, whom she
had earlier saved from the clutches of his creditors after he had lost in a
dice game. On his return after washing his clothes from the well, he dries his
wet clothes on a heap of dried leaves. Vasantasena moves and he squeezes some
water into her mouth from the wet cloth and is revived. She is led to the
nearby monastery where she recovers.
Charudatta is made to
carry on his shoulder the wooden pole on which he is to be impaled, much like
Jesus carrying the cross. As the last and final proclamation is made at the west
point, the Bishku hears about the sentence and procession of Charudatta’s
execution and hastens to the scene with Vasantasena and saves him at the nick
of time by her physical presence. Sarvilaka brings the glad tiding that Aryaka,
has killed Palaka to become king himself. As the first act, the new king, makes
Charudatta king of Kusaavati and grants permission to Vasantasena to
wear the bridal viel and marry. Sarvilaka places himself at the command of
Charudatta. Sakara is brought before Charudatta hands tied behind him, and
shrewd and cunning as he is, he begs Charudatta of forgiveness. While all those
would like Sakara to be executed, Charudatta gives him pardon and restores him
to his office. The justification is that if Sakara were killed there is no
opportunity for him to repent, where as if he is alive, he will have always to
repent for his misdeeds for the rest of his life.
Charudatta’s wife Dhuta
is also saved in time from immolating herself, as she does not want to hear
news of Charudatta’s death. He and Vasantasena arrive on the scene and Dhuta
welcomes Vasantasena as her sister (dishtya kusalam bhagini).
Sudraka weaves this complicated
plot dexterously, clearly chiseling out the characters into live human beings.
The social organisation of those days is clearly brought out. The procedure of
investigation and administration of justice is quite comparable to the modern
system. Complaint being admitted on a prime face case being made out,
the examination of witnesses, consideration of evidence produced, etc., before
the judgment is delivered and sentence awarded by the King. So is the security
system, which is alerted by the news of escape of Aryaka, when every passing
vehicle is stopped and searched. The helplessness of Cheta, being a slave and
many other references to the insults and hurdles in society the slaves have had
to face is clearly brought out. The marriage or love between an upper caste
Brahmin and a courtesan is accepted as normal, as also the solicitations of
prostitutes. The firmly entrenched system of prostitution adds liveliness to
the play. Charudatta’s observation that the crimes committed by the wealthy are
easily passed on the poor is as valid today as it was then. Today we come
across many Sakaras who try to browbeat the officials and twist the rules to
their advantage only because they happen to be influenced in society or are
connected to higher-ups. The miscarriage of justice in Charudatta’s case would not
have occurred had the evidence and witnesses been probed a little further which
is prevented by Sakara’s intimidating tactics.
There is a reference by
Charudatta to the water-wheel which is used to draw water from the well. He
remarks that life’s ups and downs are like the buckets of a water-wheel.
Incidentally references such as these show the advanced stage of civilization
in those days.
Sudraka perhaps
belonged to the South, considering the various references in the play to the
Goddess of Sahyadri, the karnatakalaham employed by
Chandanaka to drive away Veeraka and the kingdom of Kusavati by the river Veni.
The employment of spoken Prakrit dialect for the common people adds immensely
to the drama’s appeal. Added to this, is Sakara’s own inimitable style of
humour. His vainglorious boasts, his villainy and meanness, timidity behind a
brave front, his unscrupulousness, his half-baked knowledge of the classics and
malapproprisms and his eccentric behaviour-all these add to create humour.
The characters assume
real life and strut before us as real men and women do, and the prototypes can
be found in any country, at any time which add to the universal appeal of the
play.
One word about the production
of the play. Many of the Sanskrit plays are designed for presentation over a
number of days. Considering the complexity of the situations and locales, there
have been several doubts about production of the play in its present lengthy form.
Through a little pruning and avoidance of repetitions on various topics, the
play can easily be condensed to about three hours’ duration and is definitely
presentable in a crisp manner. With modern techniques like the revolving stage
and effective lighting arrangements restricting locus to certain parts of the wide
stage, many scenes can created without any loss of time in quick succession,
and making the play enjoyable. Sudraka must have had in his mind the production
part of the play also when he produced this great piece of art, which is still
enjoyed by the rasikas even after two millennia.
(The National Theatre
Festival is being celebrated in March-April, 2000. This immortal play should be
put on boards as it provides ample evidence of our anicient civilization and
cultural heritage.) –Ed.