PRAHLADA
(A PLAYLET)
HARINDRANATH CHATTOPADHYAYA
SCENE 1
(In the Palace - Hiranyakashapu, the King, and his Queen, Kayadhu.)
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Now can I bend all things to my desire,
Since with much prayer and penance I have won
Indomitable strength, immortal power.
If I but chose I could put out the fire
Of the dim stars, scoop out the golden sun,
And stamp the moon out like a withered flower.
Nor aught that lives, save in the twilight hour,
Dare break the magic circle of our peace.
KAYADHU
But wherefore, lord! should thy charmed circle cease
To work in that pale hour alone?
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Alas!
I cannot tell. But twilights come and go
Like swiftly-moving shadows in a glass,
Or harmless as the summer-winds that blow
Over the rice-fields, and, unheeded, pass,
I do not fear the twilight which is but
A wandering beggar with his eyelids shut,
Who knocks at every door and passes by.
(enter their son’s Guru with a troubled look in his eyes)
GURU
My King! I fear your son has lost his head,
For he is always dreaming of the sky
And ever talking of a pure white thread
That runs behind the birds and flowers, and runs
Beyond the painted clouds and flaming suns,
Connecting living beauties with the dead!
He says there is one spirit in all things,
In does and men and in the humming wings
Of insects in the forest.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Does he say
One spirit dwells in dogs and men? Alas!
He is gone mad.
GURU
My Lord, and sings all day
of one who will not die though all things pass.
KAYADHU
’Tis passing strange, my lord!
HIRANYAKASHAPU
’Tis passing strange! Where is the boy?
GURU
I’ve brought him.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Bid him come
Into my presence
(enter Prahlada, smiling)
PRAHLADA
Father! through the dumb.
Blue sky I heard Him sing who knows no change.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Sure, he is mad.
PRAHLADA
I saw the Changless one
The unborn and eternal Spirit, who slips
From shape to shape, the laughter or whose lips
Paints gold and purple in the selling sun.
Whose silent fingers thrill the blind blue night
With starry vision, and whose quiet face
Is brimming into dawn upon the height
Veiled in the fiery star-enamelled space.
KAYADHU
Sure, there is madness working in his brain.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Who is this wizard being that you sing?
PRAHLADA
He is the only and immortal King!
HIRANYAKASHAPU
My boy, you dare not shape those words again
Unless they point to me.
PRAHLADA
No other words
Wake on my lips, my lord! for I have dwelt
Long days and nights dreaming of Him, and felt
One with the great skies and the little birds.
GURU
He is never tired of telling us about
His foolish King that nobody as yet
Has seen.
PRAHLADA
O Father! do you hear the shout
Of sunshine on the water? I have met
The Maker of the sunshine and the sea.........
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Give over, boy, this show of lunacy,
I shall not brook it longer.
KAYADHU
Gentle son,
You are not well.
PRAHLADA
See! how His hands have spun
Eternal webs of wonder oe’r the world ........
All heaven like a banner is unfurled
Quiet in triumph through the lonely ages.......
O kneel before the Lord, the Changeless One
The Dream of Saints, the Vision of the Sages!
HIRANYAKASHAPU
What do you call your Lord? Has it a name?
PRAHLADA
Indeed ’tis written on the world’s broad leaf
Distinct and wonderful in flawless flame......
Lo! He is Hari.
GURU
Some invisible thief
Has robbed him of his senses.
HIRANYAKASHAPU (in anger)
Do you dare
To name Him in my presence?
PRAHLADA
Lord! I know
None else but Him whose love is everywhere.....
HIRANYAKASHAPU
I hate Him, boy, since He is my great foe,
Yea! and with hate will slay Him in the end......
PRAHLADA
He lives alike in hearts of foe and friend.
KAYADHU
His mind is in a mist.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Nay! do not drive
My heart into a frenzy with your voice.....
PRAHLADA
It is through Him all life is still alive;
It is in Him that worlds and men rejoice.
HIRANYAKASHAPU (to his wife)
This boy shall die. Go! fetch the poisoned cup
(she goes in without a word)
So you shall perish in your madness, boy
(she brings the cup and hesitates to give it to Prahlada)
PRAHLADA (taking the cup from her hands)
God floods the poison like a sea of joy.........
And with chaste lips He sucks the poison lip.
(he drinks it)
SCENE 2
(The same Hiranyakashapu, Kayadhu and the Guru. At the door stands a group of attendants awaiting the King’s orders)
HIRANYAKASHAPU
What poison could be worse than Hari’s name?
And he is drunk with it
GURU
A wizard-flame,
Burns in his eyes, my lord.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
It shall be blown
Out like a friendless solitary spark,
And like a star deserting its high throne \
In heaven, drop and die into the dark.
KAYADHU
A feeling tells me that he is possessed.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
There is an evil spirit in his breast
Has set him wandering so.
GURU
He never tires
or chasing shadows. There he comes, my King.
(enter Prahlada, singing)
PRAHLADA
The Summer and the Autumn and the Spring
Are of one Fire the separate-colourcd fires.
GURU
The same old song again, the same dull tune......
KAYADHU
My lord! he walks as in a quiet trance.
PRAHLADA
He made the yellow sun, the mellow moon,
And taught the infant-stars to dream and dance!
GURU
The same old sorrowful hunger in his eyes!
KAYADHU
There’s still the same old madness in his speech.
PRAHLADA
Each clod of earth has wings that it may reach
In final night Lord Hari’s flowering skies.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
That name again! I swear it shall be hushed
Forever on his lips. This evil fruit
My Queen, that you have borne me, shall be crushed
Under a wild impetuous elephant foot,
Until his blood, like juices, stain the earth.
GURU
Prahlada! are you not afraid of death?
PRAHLADA
My Hari dwells in death and dwells in birth;
And fills the whole world with immortal breath.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Die like a feeble blossom in the power
Of the dark monster, boy!
PRAHLADA
Naught ever dies......
Eternally my Hari waits and cries
In the great monster and the feeble flower.
(the attendants drag him out of the hall)
HIRANYAKASHAPU
When I am in a rage, like dolls of clay,
The little gods of men fall down and pray
For mercy at my feet. A trembling cloud
Wraps up the heaven like a dead man’s shroud,
And the sun’s glory hides behind the veil
Of a dim shadow, and the world grows pale.
GURU
Sage Narada, O King! deserves the blame
For the boy’s madness. It is said that he
It was who taught the boy, Lord Hari’s name
While yet within the womb.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
That cannot be......
It is an earth-born madness which the mind
Contracts in empty search after a blind
And unsubstantial god. By Heaven! I rule
The three wide worlds of mist and wave and fire ...
The seven oceans and their kingdoms cool
Of pearl and rainbow built. No God is greater
Than I am, since I bend to my desire
The vast creation and their proud Creator!
(Enter attendants in great haste and excitement)
1ST ATTENDANT
My lord! the dreadful monster will not tread
Upon the prince’s body.
2ND ATTENDANT
Hari’s name
Has killed the brute in him and made him tame.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
What! is the boy alive?
1ST ATTENDANT
He is not dead.
2ND ATTENDANT
He sings as merry as a child in Spring
While with enraptured trunk that giant thing
Like a young human mother, strokes his head.
KAYADHU
Sure, this is wizard’s work.
GURU
’Tis like a story
Heard in the depths of sleep.
(Enter Prahlada, smiling)
PRAHLADA
My lord! of that divine tremendous creature
Is dancing Hari’s glad immortal glory!
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Silence! your words but fan the hungry flame
Of my heart’s anger.
PRAHLADA
Cool it in the fountain,
In the eternal fountain of His name.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Go! take this boy and hurl him down the mountain!
By heaven, he shall not live another hour.
PRAHLADA
Why are you angry, Father, with your son?
Is it because I sing the Changeless One
The endless source of Beauty and Power,
The mute Infinity in man and flower,
The Fountainhead of knowledge, and the sea
Without a shore.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Wild words! Away with him.....
(The attendants take him away)
PRAHLADA (while going out)
Lord Hari’s hands are beckoning from a far
Standing alone upon the mountain rim
(Exit Prahlada)
KAYADHU
Alas! he is mad.
GURU
My lord! his visions are
So like a drunken thing’s; dishevelled streams
Of broken images and formless dreams
Run restless through his mind.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
He has no mind.
He lost it long ago, among a blind
Grey heap of shattered godhead. He will die
Poor raving fool! crushed to a little pulp.....
Nor will the gods in heaven heed his cry
When death, dissolves his body at a gulp.
(An attendant comes rushing in)
ATTENDANT
My lord! three men have slipped and fallen together
Over the mountain-steeps; a peal of laughter
Broke somewhere to behold them rolling after
The Prince into the valley.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Are they dead?
ATTENDANT
Only the Prince is saved. Light as a feather
Descending slow upon a blossomed bed,
His body dropped through air. My lord! its poise
Was like to a great bird’s that one beholds
But in the depths of dreaming.
KAYADHU
In this boy’s
Young heart a demon dwells.
GURU
A spirit folds
His body like a serpent
(Enter Prahlada, smiling)
PRAHLADA
Father! I
Have brought a message to you from the King
Whose swift and painted flight is in the sky
And of whose night all life is but a wing.
(The King is raging with anger, The Queen and
the Guru look on silent and wondering)
SCENE 3
(The same. Hiranyakashapu, Guru and the Queen.
The attendants await the King’s next order.)
HIRANYAKASHAPU
And when they hear your helpless drowning cries
Nine lakhs of ocean-creatures stark and dim
Will crowd and tear your body limb by limb,
Staining their mouths with your heart’s dropping blood,
Fishes in greed will feast upon your eyes.
The giant crocodiles beneath the flood
Will dance with joy enchanted by the flesh
White crackle of your bones, and serpents swim
Swifter than lightning-fire, to bite your flesh.
PRAHLADA
Can you not see the glimmer of His smile
Upon the ocean-flood and in the hearts
Of ocean-creatures sailing through its gloom?
The Lord is seated in the crocodile.
And in each little fish that dives and darts,
And in each snake born in the ocean’s womb.
GURU
Alas! poor boy!
KAYADHU
He raves and raves and raves
Like a black tempest-cloud upon the sea.....
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Go! fling his body to the wandering waves!
PRAHLADA
The holy Boatman’s voice is calling me.
(They drag him away).
(The stage is darkened for a few moments and through the darkness floats the sound of the ocean and the voice of Prahlada singing the praises of Hari, his Lord.)
HIRANYAKASHAPU
(when the stage grows bright again)
(laughing almost hysterically)
Sing on, poor fool! before the waves devour
Your hollow hymns of praise to Him I hate.
KAYADHU
I bore him in an unauspicious hour.
GURU
The hunger of the sea was in his fate!
(Enter attendants in great haste)
1ST ATTENDANT
Lord! we have never known such things before.
There’s witchcraft round the body of the boy.
2ND ATTENDANT
My King! the waters clapped their hands for joy
To hear the young Prince singing his wild song.
3RD ATTENDANT
Each time we hurled him into the mad sea
Some kind hand bore him gently to the shore!
Lord! we have never seen such sights before!
1ST ATTENDANT
The world seems wrong because there’s something wrong.
With the young Prince.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
The devils mock at me
Now that the twilight-hour draws near. But come!
We shall yet strike the bitter music dumb
Upon his lips.
KAYADHU
My Lord! I read a sorrow
In your dark eyes.
GURU
A mournful tinge of gold
Is in the air.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
He shall not see the morrow!
To-night the fire shall be his winding-sheet.
PRAHLADA
(Coming with a smile)
Lord Hari hums His melody of old
Upon the waters. Lo! the Lord is coming!
All Life, like a great thirsty bee, is humming
Around the flowering echo of His feel.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
I’ll break Him like a branch across my knee
When your Lord comes!
KAYADHU
What! will he never tire
of talking so?
GURU
My Lord! how mournfully The twilight comes.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Go! fling him into fire.
(The attendants take him away rudely)
KAYADHU
Whose voice is that, my lord?
GURU
The night will soon
Be here.
KAYADHU
My lord! who plays upon the flute
In this dim twilight?
GURU
’Tis mournful tune
KAYADHU
The night will soon descend and fold it up.
GURU
At night the sky looks like a poisoned cup.
KAYADHU
Or like a giant monster’s shadowy foot.
GURU
Or like a deep dark mountain void of motion.
KAYADHU
Or like a black illimitable ocean.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
My Queen! the twilight-hour will soon expire
And we shall rest and last from Hari’s name.
(The attendants rush in as-before)
1ST ATTENDANT
My lord! his body has burned up the fire!
2ND ATTENDANT
The Prince’s song has eaten up the flame.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
You speak like madmen!
GURU
It is very strange!
KAYADHU
His body is immune to everything
Being possessed,
(The prince enters the hall with a smile of love and kindness)
PRAHLADA
The glory of the King
Continues changeless in a world of change.
I feel Him shining on the golden height,
I feel Him breathing in the twilight grey,
The silence of whose voice is in the night,
The splendour of whose face is in the day.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Come hither, boy! and let me see your face.....
KAYADHU
The twilight’s glow is on his eyes and hair.
GURU
How pale the sky’s mouth glimmers.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Where is he,
This idiot-god you dream of night and day?
Come! tell me whither stands his dwelling-place?
PRAHLADA
The laughter of His lips glows everywhere,
His beauty bums alike in fire and clay.
HIRANYAKASHAPU (mockingly)
And in the pillar too?
PRAHLADA
What place is there
Where He is not?
HIRANYAKASHAPU (wielding his sword)
You lie!
PRAHLADA
Yon column rings
With the white music of the King of Kings.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
You lie!
PRAHLADA
I hear His voice.
HIRANYAKASHAPU
Then strike, my sword!
And spill a wizard’s blood.
(The column cracks in two, and the Image of Narasimha appears)
PRAHLADA
Behold! the Lord!
(The Queen, the attendants and the Guru fall down struck dumb with fear. Narasimha springs out from the column, lifts the King up, places him across his knees and with his mighty hands rips his bowels up and starts busily examining his entrails, as though looking for something precious.)
NARASIMHA
(Seating the boy Prahlada on his lap)
Lo! I have come at last, my little Lover!
To crown with silence doubt’s impetuous storm.
PRAHLADA
What are you seeking in my father’s form?
NARASIMHA
My holy son! I’m trying to discover
Within its gloom another little Lover!
[Reproduced from SHAMA’A, July 1923.]