Shivarathriby Dr. Chandrashekhara Kambar
Ankita Pustaka, Rs. 80
“Shivarathri” is Dr. Chandrashekhara Kambar's latest play, it moves away from his engagement with folk myths and political satires. His new play deals with the famous sharana movement of the 12th Century. However, the major concerns and recurring motifs of Kambara have found a new expression on a new canvas and hence remains a typical Kambar play in that sense. Kannada literature — ancient and modern — have been responding to the sharana movement intensely since the 13th Century.
Kambar's new play continues this long, rich tradition with a new verve. The playwright succeeds in adding new dimensions to our perceptions of a great movement.
Bypassing the highway, he takes us to Kalyana, the capital of King Bijjala, through the bylanes. In this route, all roads lead to house of the prostitute — the ‘aramane' (Bijjala) and ‘mahamane' (Basavanna) meet there. All the important political and philosophical debates take place in Savanthri's house. Kambar's play stands out distinctly from other important Kannada plays dealing with this theme.
“Shivarathri” consciously avoids the ‘major' ‘historical' details and incidents. Instead, Kambar has creatively worked upon an interesting legend.
According to this legend, Harihareshwara, the Brahmin court priest prompts his son Damodara to steal an expensive string of gems from the palace.
Damodara, in the guise of a sharana, manages the theft. But while on a run to escape the palace guards, he enters a Dalit's house and then a prostitute's house. Both refuse to keep the string of gems as it is not something that is earned through labour. Savanthri leaves it on the footwear stand and Bijjala who arrives there is surprised to see it. Basavanna who comes is search of Mugdhasangayya ends up at Savanthri's house and the famous dialogue between Bijjala and Basavanna ensue. With all these incidents collapsing into one single day, the past comes alive through reflections, memories, reports, and gossip.
The playwright consciously breaks the linearity of events to grasp the spirit of an age in its totality.
By bringing in all sections of the society into the ambit of the plot, Kambar makes the great churning of those times everybody's experience. The common people belonging to the different strata of Kalyana offer an understanding of all the major happenings in their own way.
This subaltern view makes us perceive a complex age with multiple perspectives.
Not only Bijjala's administration, but also Basavanna's experiments are discussed, critiqued and assessed by one and all. The spiritual and political coalesce into the quotidian of the lives of ‘ordinary' people.
If, as a result, the heroes Bijala and Basavanna are marginalised, it is conscious. Bijjala is the weak spot in the play, he is uni-dimensional as well. To that extent the complexity of play is also lost.
