UGC MHRD E Pathshala

UGC MHRD e Pathshala Subject: English Principal Investigator: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee, University of Hyderabad Paper: 09: “Comparative Literature, Drama in India” Paper Coordinator: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee, University of Hyderabad Module No 28: Dina Mehta: Brides are Not for Burning; Shaonli Mitra: Nathabati Ananthabat, Content Writer: Dr. Shrabani Basu, St. Francis College, Hyderabad Content Reviewer: Prof. Ipshita Chanda; Jadavpur University Language Editor: Prof. Tutun Mukherjee, University of Hyderabad This module will look into two plays, rather a full length play and a narrative performance concentrating on feminist issues in India. Around 1980s and the early 1990s, several texts exploring the predicament of women in Indian society surfaced. They ranged from non-fictional researches of contemporary feminist issues (the immolation of Rup Kanwar in 1987 for example), through plays and literary texts blatant portraying the patriarchal evils (like Dina Mehta’s Brides are not for Burning) to retellings of Ramayana and Mahabharata from a feminist point of view (like Irawati Karve’s Yuganta and Shaonli Mitra’s “Nathabati Anathabat” and “Katha Amrita Saman”). In this module we would study two such texts—Shaonli Mitra’s narrative performance of “Nathabati Anathabat” and Dina Mehta’s Brides are not for Burning. 1. “Nathabati Anathabat” 1.1. Introduction “Nathabati Anathabat” (roughly translated as the orphaned wife or as Nabaneeta Deb Sen states in her translation “Five Lords Yet None a Protector”) is reputedly adapted from Irawati Karve’s interpretation of Mahabharata, Yuganta: the End of an Epoch and was first staged in 1983. For her performance, Shaonli was awarded the Critic Circle of Indian Award, the Shiromani Puraskar in 1985, and the Prafulla Kumar Smriti Ananda Puraskar in 1991. Shaonli Mitra was also awarded The Sangeet Natak Academy Award in 2003 for acting in Bengali Theatre and in 2012 she was honored with The Banga Bibhushan for lifetime achievement in the theatre. In an article named "The Stage Is Her Own", published in Applause of July 22, 1991, Lekha J. Shankar said that Shaonli Mitra's “Nathabati Anathabat” had already enjoyed two hundred and fifty five house-full shows in Calcutta for the past eight years. DID YOU KNOW? • Irawati Karve does not retell the Mahabharata story in her Yuganta: the End of an Epoch. She rather very dispassionately delves into the psychological aspect of some of the characters: Gandhari, Kunti, Vidura, Bhishma, Draupadi and others. • In “Nathabati Anathabat”, Shaonli Mitra chooses to highlight the portion about Draupadi, and puts in all her understanding and empathy as a woman to try retelling her story holding almost all the other major characters culpable for her predicament. • Mitra also mentions Karve several times during her narrative performance, referring her as “Irawati didi.” This almost sounds like that a group of sisters in this epoch looks at the empty life of another several millennia ago. 1.2. Life of Shaonli Mitra Born to the famous theatre couple, Shombhu and Tripti Mitra, Shaonli Mitra got involved in the vibrant theatrical milieu of her parents at the age of four in “Dashachakra”, a Bohurupee play. The list continued with “Chenra Taar”, “Daakghar”, “Pagla Ghora”, “Kimbadanti”, “Ghare Baire”, “Raja”, etc. However, long spells of illness that sometimes extended for years at a stretch, ultimately made her decide to stay away from the theatre from 1978. Sohini Sen in her article named "The arc of a vaulting soul" published in The Telegraph of 18th August 1995, sheds light on the fact that Shaonli Mitra was unable to find any meaning in the works done in the contemporary theatre during the year 1978. However, Shaonli turned to translating Ionesco, scripting stories for radio plays, recitations and experimenting with audio plays for the next few years preparing to find something meaningful to be committed to. Around this time, in 1982, Shaonli’s father Sombhu Mitra introduced her to the rich world of Mahabharata through Iravati Karve's Yuganta. Being inspired by the history of discrimination and systematic oppression of women from the mythical age to the contemporary one, she gifted the theatre world two outstanding 'feminist' interpretation of the Great Indian Epic – “Nathabati Anathabat” and “Katha Amrita Saman”. 1.3. The Setting of “Nathabati Anathabat” Shaonli Mitra uses the Bengali indigenous folk form of story-telling tradition of kathakata for both “Nathabati Anathabat” and “Katha Amrita Saman.” However, Shaonli modernizes the genre by introducing several other features from different story telling traditions throughout the country. Shaonli defines the Kathak as a narrator, a story-teller in pre-modern Bengal who would narrate the major Hindu scriptural texts with verbal and musical embellishment. Such performers were mostly males paid to perform at annual rituals or family rites of passage. Shaonli reverses the hegemonic role of the male narrator by replacing it with the kathak-thakrun or Madam Storyteller. The kathak-thakrun, interestingly does not wear the traditional garbs of a Bengali woman. She, rather, pleats her sari differently and wears Orissi nose rings and ornaments. Shaonli She is the conscious representation of contemporary times who looks back with empathy and speaks to the fellow members of the society. Mitra realizes the flexibility of having a story-teller who can slip from one narrative to the other, from the past to the present and the perspectives of the characters through her oratory. She contemporizes the Epic and through certain characters of the Epic focuses on different issues and characters of her times. But instead of being the dispassionate male story-teller, kathak thakrun unabashedly empathizes with the characters with an easy grounding of the epic scholarship mentioning the names of Iravati Karve, Kashiram Das, Rajshekhar Basu and Kaliprasanna Singha in between her narration, admitting that the story of Mahabharata has been much discussed already, but dispassionately until now. Many scholars have compared Mitra’s rendition of the epic with that of the celebrated Pandavani performer Teejan Bai. But Mitra denies having witnessed any of Teejan Bai’s performance before the first staging of “Nathabati Anathabat,” though she also admits that it would have enriched the narrative in more ways than one. DID YOU KNOW? Pandavani (about the Pandavas) is a narrative ballad form of Chattisgarh, sung primarily by the Pardhan and Devar castes, which is based on the stories from the Mahabharata. Since the epic was read by and was accessible only to upper castes, a body of folk poetry developed around it that became popular in villages and among lower castes in forms that are a little different from one another - Kapalik literally, from the forehead, and Vedamati, based on the Vedas. The former uses the outline of the Mahabharata but has Bhim as its hero. It is highly improvisatory, freely bringing in local legends and myths stored in the head, which exist in the collective popular consciousness. The latter bases itself strictly on the epic. The Kapalik performer stands and moves around, incorporating song, dance, and acting to create a solo theatrical show. Vedamati consists of pure ballad- singing from a seated position. It features mostly a single performer who sings the couplets form the text, set to folk tunes. The singer uses a rural three- stringed tambura with bells tied at one end with castanets, symbols both as accompaniment and as props, the performer brings alive the characters, their traits, moods and situations while sitting on his knees. There are other instrumentalists also. The singer-actor brings also provides explanations of the couplets as he goes along. In some cases, there is the ragi, a companion who asks questions to facilitate relevance so that the audience can bond with the story. Pandavani is a mesmerising genre of storytelling in either of its varieties. Vedamati has its most famous exponents in Peenaram, Chetan Ram and their mentor Jhaduram Devangan. The Kapalik form is best represented by Teejan Bai - possibly its first woman practitioner and celebrity who has made it on her own without help from her community or family. 1.4. The Narrative of “Nathabati Anathabat” In “Nathabati Anathabat”, Mitra starts with the slightly rustic accent of the Madam Storyteller as she greets her audience and introduces her chorus companions or jurir dal and the context of her story. She sings, weeps and laughs while telling the story with a passionate involvement, otherwise denied to the traditional male narrator. She announces that she would talk about the empty life of Draupadi, who was left unprotected in the oppressive society, in spite of having five husbands. She starts how Draupadi falls in love with Arjun in the swayamvara and chooses a life of poverty and suffering thinking him a poor Brahman. But instead, she is bartered to all the five brothers as their wife in order to preserve the familial harmony between the brothers, which might get disrupted as all of them lusted after Draupadi. The story jumps to the gambling which ultimately leads to Draupadi’s forced public- disrobing. Madam story teller gleefully narrates the brief period of opulence and peace of Draupadi and the comic episode where Duryodhan is humiliated in the legendary palace of illusions. As the narrator sings of Draupadi’s brief prosperity, she also talks about the disastrous consequence of this harmless episode as Duryodhan decides to avenge his humiliation and ruin the Pandavas. He lets his uncle Shakuni arrange for a dice-gambling and invites Yudhisthir to participate. After losing everything, Yudhisthir also wagers the life of his brothers and his own and ultimately that of Draupadi. As she is ignominiously dragged in the public courthouse, Draupady tries to argue that having lost his own freedom in the game, Yudhisthir has also lost his ownership on her and cannot stake her anymore.

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