MANDAVI

By K. Chandrasekharan, M.A., B.L.

(Rendered from Tamil by the Author)

(A room in King Bharata’s palace at Ayodhya. Mandavi, Bharata’s queen, is found talking in low tones to her maid, Satyavati.)

SATYAVATI: Do you really gain anything, lady, in endlessly nursing this grief of yours?

MANDAVI: My sorrow knows no limit, Satyavati. My life has become a dreadful waste.

SAT: Can I be useful at all to you, dear lady, in trying to relieve you of this heaviness upon your heart? Say, I can try...Still, I will not venture upon this task without being assured of your forbearance in case of any act of discourtesy that I may commit.

MAN: Oh Lord! Even my own woman suspects me of wilfulness. Why are you also unkind to me, Satyavati?

SAT: You are mistaken. Your over-sensitive heart is responsible for all these bad humours. Already I see the traces of displeasure visible on your face. Well, one can easily imagine how much more unsafe for me it would be once I have finished what I wished to say.

MAN: Enough, silly girl, of your elaborate preambles! Let me know what sage counsel you carry me. Speak it out.

SAT: Yes, I am ready to tell you. Let me beg of you first not to think of what oppresses you alone. Have you ever bestowed any thought on poor Urmila’s condition! Don’t you think her lot is worse than yours? For you have at least your husband by your side, whereas Urmila has not, and cannot look to anyone for a word of comfort. Think of it, lady. Really your husband’s rejection of the crown has brought on you all this sadness. But Urmila’s fate is more grievous. She may not be so much crushed under the neglect she would have to encounter at the court hereafter, as by the circumstance of her being rendered cheerless for quite a long period to come, in the absence of her dear lord, Lakshmana. Ah lady, our readiness to share others’ griefs can alone make us bear our difficulties when they come to us. I feel no other way more sure of bringing peace to the bruised heart. Do you think one can escape otherwise the hard and heavy billows that beat upon us in this wide sea of life?

MAN: You are in no way different from the rest of the world in thinking so. Pity, this stupid world of ours! Everybody has some kind word or sympathy for Urmila. Everyone here, from the highest to the lowest, from the venerable Kausalya Devi to the most unthinking lady-in-waiting at the palace, cannot avoid saying something by way of commiseration to Urmila. But none cares for me. None really understands how my unexpressed heart deserves more of their kindness. If you too, who are almost always with me, cannot understand what exactly ails me, how can I hope to invite true sympathy from the rest of the world?

SAT: Pardon me, my mistress. But are you correct in your rash conclusions of my inability to sympathise with you? I do grant your heart has reasons enough to smart under the pain of fate’s woeful decrees; but still, I pray you, try to lessen your burden of sadness by showing some sympathy to others in suffering.

MAN: You do not know perhaps, my sorrow can only exhaust itself in copious tears. It grows the more intense the more its circumstance increases, permitting of such easy comparisons. Oh God! do people who speak of sympathy really understand what it signifies?

SAT: I am sorry to have hurt you. Let me stop forthwith. Indeed, I was prepared for such misconceptions even at the outset when I sought of you forgiveness if I were to displease you on any score.

MAN: Talk you of forgiveness? For what? Suppose I forgive you for what you have uttered, can I administer to my soul the unction that you will give no room to such thoughts hereafter. I am no such fool to believe you will shut out any similar train of thought from ever finding its way into you.

SAT: I am ready to follow your behests. But, for heaven’s sake, do not harbour any distress on account of my folly in speaking out so thoughtlessly to you.

MAN: Draw closer to me, my girl. Have you for one moment pondered over the reason why people here are all in complete sympathy with Urmila? Know then it was because Lakshmana left for the forest while all the world wondered at his self-abnegation and choice of a career of self-less service, that people have begun to feel more affected by the lot of Urmila. Don’t you know that the scene of their departure to the woods has shaken Ayodhya to the roots and that everyone was moved at the way Lakshmana made little of his home and his wife? But can eyes, that have not seen any such moving scenes enacted, ever understand what greater sorrow there can be in the absence of such outward demonstrations? Say, Satyavati, whether you can think of a situation when a woman to all external impressions is a wife but yet in reality is not?

SAT: Lady, please supply me more light in order to understand your import. Let me be in the first place sure of whom you are speaking all the time. Are you referring to Sita Devi?

MAN: My God! What folly of mine to try to inculcate in you intelligence. I am to blame I know. But the whole world is just like you. Hence I have none to blame save my own self and the hour of my birth. Otherwise who can explain this dire misfortune visiting one like me–the daughter of King Kusadhvaja of no mean importance and the daughter-in-law of Dasaratha of far wider reputation?

SAT: Still I am at a loss to understand you. Are you referring to the King’s change of mind since his return from Chitrakuta? Has any- one tried to convert him?

MAN: Convert him? Who has got the capacity to do it? Even Rama of such invincible powers of persuasion and overpowering determination to carry home his convictions in others, felt powerless to move him even a bit from his stand taken in such earnestness.

SAT: Then what else do you refer to? Are you worried in mind about the King’s resolve to abandon city life and dwell in rustic surroundings?

MAN: Your ignorance drives me mad indeed. Your stupid queries only pain me more, my writhing heart. If my lord loves the villages, am I so unimaginative as not to like them? If Sita could grow enthusiastic of the woods and mountains, will I, her sister, lack the desire to breathe of the purer atmosphere of rural parts where nature and man are in better harmony of existence? I pity my situation where I am not even vouched the good things which Sita has been fortunate to enjoy.

SAT: Are you envious of Sita Devi? Am I to believe you deem her fortunate? Do you wish me to forget all those tears you had shed at learning of Sita’s innocent questions to Rama about how to wear the valkala when Kaikeyi presented her with them? Have you so soon forgotten what you said in extreme anguish:’ How can dear Sita bear the bruises on her tender feet when they have to tread the sharp stones and thistles of the forests!’ Am I then to conclude you were not then quite so really afflicted as you appeared to be?

MAN: Silly girl; you do not grasp my words. If there are sores on the body you can apply unguents and heal them quickly. But when there are bruises within the heart how is one to assuage their pain? You speak of Sita’s grief’s. Well, so long as Raghava’s arms encircle her in their embrace, Sita need have no cause for sadness of any kind. For, does one need the comforts of a cushioned couch for love’s satisfaction? To me when compare myself to Sita, she appears, more lucky than I. Don’t you know all that we suffer, or enjoy in life is rendered keener by causes for comparison existing side by side? There are varying degrees of enjoyment and suffering one has to experience, and often it results from comparison of ourselves with others. Depression and satisfaction are not creations of our own. Much of it has to do with our impressions of others placed in similar situations. Nothing of an absolute standard there is in all these matters.

SAT: Mistress dear, you are, I believe, coming round to my view. That is why I asked you to ponder over Urmila Devi’s lot in order to lessen your sense of disappointment and disillusionment.

MAN: Away with your points. You have not yet understood me. But how much eager you are to snatch victory from my hands. Don’t you feel the difference between Urmila’s and my lot? Sympathy, given so freely to her, can alleviate her anguish more than in my case. Even Sita’s misfortune, unprecedented as it may seem, has a silver lining to it. Rama opposed her ineffectively when she put forward to him her claim to accompany him to the jungle. Imagine what could have been her state of mind in case she had been left behind in the palace. Could she have moments of peace here, however secure from the miseries of forest life she had been? Does anyone know what I suffer? I am, to all eyes, safe in the enjoyment of a queenly life here. But alas! my lord who is a thousand times stronger of mind than Rama himself, will not touch me even though he stays constantly near me. Could there be a worse fate befalling a woman!

SAT: Indeed! Am I to take your words as true? Does your lord refuse you his company?

MAN: Yes, Satyavati. He would not wear kingly robes but only the garments of a forester because his elder brother has taken to that life. Again he would spurn the comforts of a home and the caresses of love because his younger brother has sacrificed both when he accompanied his brother to the woods. Satyavati, how am I to bear my sorrow, unpinned and unrecognised? I cannot stand this any longer. (She swoons)

SAT: (Fanning her with the end of her saree and bringing her back to consciousness) Oh my mistress, my queen, whence this cruel fate overwhelming you! Is it for this your dear parents gave you away in marriage to one of the most promising of youths of the kingly house of Ikshvakus?

MAN: (Regaining her self possession) Pardon me, my maid, I lost my balance. But I shall not lose it again. Never! You are as true in your speech as your name indicates. Everything you uttered comes to me now with added significance. My own self-pity and self-indulgence led me to ignore others. You counseled me to pay heed to the miseries of others in trouble. I heeded not because of my ego. Little did I consider Urmila has cause for unbearable grief. Let me try to make what amends I can in order to commend myself to the world. Thank God, at least now I am clearer of perception.

SAT: No,–it was not correct that I should have thought so ill of you. I am prepared to agree now with you; your sorrow has no parallel. No wife could have received this most unkind cut of all. There is some consolation for Urmila because everybody is kind to her and shares her sorrow. But can anyone perceive the worm that is eating away bit by bit your heart? After one by one, all the petals have dropped down, then will the eyes of the world realise how the flower had concealed the worm that had done its havoc all the time. Ah, lady, who can stand this humiliation and this trial of strength? Please bestir yourself and gain your lord’s concession.

MAN: (After a pause) My dear Satyavati, there is no way out. My lord is one of the strongest of minds I have known. He sternly refused the crown when Rama himself offered it to him. He is firm as a rock. I am by his side an utterly frail creature. Without knowing of what stuff he is made, I laid my countless charges at his door. He can have only one kind of reaction towards me. He may be wondering in himself thus: ‘Am I not mistaken in thinking this woman worthy I of her birth in ‘Janaka’s glorious house?’ For I remember how on finding my importunities persistent he remarked: ‘Alas, Mandavi, you do not for a moment think of Urmila.’ Instead of listening to him, I began from that moment hating Urmila. I berated her whose profound silence conveyed, as nothing else, the great sorrow that is hers. Hereafter I do not propose remaining quiet.

SAT: Mistress mine, what a wonderful woman you are! Everyone knows the mountain spring gushes forth only to course down the slope; but once on the level it broadens and takes in more volume in order to shape its grand course to the sea. Even so your good nature, though tuned turbid in its fall, has now cleared up and broadened itself full to view.

MAN: Let it be my honest girl. Though the king, my lord, has vowed not to deviate from the straight path of Brahmacharya for full fourteen years, he has not shut out the scope for voluntary services from me being accepted. I shall from even now being my austerities. Before my lord rises from his bed every morning, I shall be already awake and be bestirring myself in his service. I shall decorate the sacred sandals of Rama, which he worships, with garlands of flowers culled with my own hands. I shall be diligent with my help in all the duties he has to perform. Only I shall not be visible to others’ eyes. Remaining hidden from sight, let me keep vigils in order that my master may perform his viceregal duties with no hitch or hindrance to the rectitude of his conduct. I shall never tire of serving three queen- mothers with all that I am capable of. I shall never allow the heavenly Urmilas hot tears to course down her cheeks or permit her lips to get parched in perennial self-mortification. For, hereafter I shall not stint of my love to keep her in want of any thing to comfort her.

SAT: Mistress, you will achieve everlasting fame among women kind for the way you have decided to dedicate yourself to service of a most unostentatious type.

MAN: If my sacrifice were to be true, it should not seek any recognition at all. Love seeks no reward or return. I shall ever feed the lamp of life with love and hold it aloft to light my onward path. I shall place the ever fresh wreath woven of my thoughts of love at the feet of my lord and master. I shall never cease loving this world despite its short memories.

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