MRICHCHAKATIKAM

A DRAMA PAR EXCELLENCE

Courtesy: Vemaraju Narasimha Rao

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.