Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 3 SPECIAL ARTICLE OPEN ACCESS Shakespeare in Comparative Discourse and Influence Studies in the Assamese Language Print Media Dr Jyotirmay Jana† Abstract This article is a survey of some essays, articles and other kinds of writings published in Assamese language newspapers, magazines, tabloids and anthologies from 1947 to 2002 Key words: Shakespeare, Assamese language, print media

† Associate Professor, Nowgong Girls’ College, Nagaon, Assam ©2015 Jana.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 4 Introduction Satyendranath Sarma, Jajneswar Sarma, Apurba There is a tendency in Assam, as in the rest of Chandra Barthakuria, Upendranath Sarma, the globe, of comparing great literary works Hiren Gohain, Pona Mahanta, Makhan Prasad dealing with passions like love, hatred and Duara and Ananda Barmudoi. jealousy with such works by Shakespeare. In an article in Navayug in 1964, Hiren Gohain Again, there is no negligible amount of writing declared his opposition to Rabindranath in Assamese tracing the influence of Tagore’s view that Kalidasa’s Sakuntala Shakespeare on remarkable Indian literary represents a world of cohesion and unity, works. This is quite natural and usual. However, whereas Shakespeare’s The Tempest represents what is unusual - and probably unnatural too - a world of discord and disharmony.ii is the innovation of correspondence between Contradicting Tagore’s view that Sakuntala the entire spirit of a folk culture of a land with represents the spiritual superiority of the East the ruling spirit of a certain kind of work by over the West, Gohain argues that Shakespeare. Jajneswar Sarma, a great literary Shakespeare’s spiritualism was humanism at savant of the state, has observed that the spirit bottom, and this humanism was integrative and of the Bihu (that is, the spring festival in Assam) cohesive – a making of different ethos, and the ruling spirit of the comedies of attitudes and ways of life growing at different Shakespeare are indistinguishable. times in Europe. Gohain refuses to be in line Materials available in this area can be discussed with Tagore’s praise of Kalidasa’s device of separately as garbing an uncouth reality of polygamous ancient Indian society with the curse of a  Shakespeare in comparative studies Brahmin named Durbasa. The reality garbed is proper; and that the women who are hunted (that is,  Shakespeare in influence studies. deceitfully married and/or sexually enjoyed) by men are often forgotten by those who hunt We will discuss here only such writings them. Gohain says that nothing like the curse of as appeared in Assamese language newspapers, Durbasa – a result of the divisive and magazines, tabloids and souvenirs from 1947 to discriminatory barnasram system of Hinduism – 2002. has ever been faced by anybody in The A. Shakespeare in Comparative Studies Tempest. Avowal of the divine dictum that all men are equal and again justification and Materials available in this area can be sub- retention of the age-old barnasram system, as classified as follows: was done by the great avatar Krishna – which  Shakespeare in comparative literary paradoxically exists in Hinduism even today – studies; and has never been acceptable to the West, asserts Gohain. He does not seem impressed by  Shakespeare in comparative cultural Tagore’s observation that nature in the forms studies. of Caliban and Ariel is held in bondage and We will discuss these two separately. compelled to serve man as his slave. He, on the (a) Shakespeare in Comparative Literary other hand, thinks that Caliban represents the Studies untamable beast in man, whereas Ariel stands for man’s indomitable urge for sublimity and i The dramatic works of Kalidasa, Ibsen, Shaw, divinity. Prospero receives no spiritual wisdom, Brecht and also of leading Assamese but can pronounce an eternal promise of the playwrights of the formative years of modern human soul: ‘It’s new to thee’ (V.i). He is aware Assamese drama are often discussed with of the transitoriness of things, of the fast paces reference to those of Shakespeare, and the of time, and yet he can remain an eternal Assamese scholars and critics to have adorer of the new. This renaissance spirit contributed outstandingly in this field are Gohain sees lacking in Sakuntala. The garbing

Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 5 of an uncouth social reality with the curse of an woman is Miranda. Barthakuria quotes arrogant Brahmin and Tagore’s support to it Ferdinand’s words to Miranda in this does not appear proper to Gohain. connection: ‘Full many a lady I have ey’d with In this essay of his early youth, Gohain uses best regard; and many a time the harmony of sarcasm and banter against all those who are their tongues hath into bondage brought my not satisfied with Shakespeare’s too diligent ear; for several virtues have I liked anthropocentric spiritualism. Without naming several women never any with so full soul’ Tagore, but meaning him, he says: (III.i). Mystics are very fortunate because they From a materialistic point of view, both are quite sure that they possess a rare Dusyanta and Ferdinand are high-placed and insight and a monopolistic right to do wealthy members of society, whereas neither away with all the sufferings and agonies Sakuntala nor Miranda is in good material of man and eliminate all conflicts, conditions of existence; yet the difference in wealth and status does not stand in the way of discriminations and injustice from the universe and make them a part of an the growth of their love. This, according to indivisible infinite. But Shakespeare’s Barthakuria, proves the genuineness of their humanistic spiritualism was not so sure. love. Barthakuria points out that, though (Gohain, 1964: 25) Sakuntala had seen human beings of both sexes before meeting Dusyanta, the life she led was Apurba Chandra Barthakuria, however, does one of complete austerity. Feeding the deer not see much ideological difference between and watering the plants were all she did before Kalidasa and Shakespeare at least in their meeting Dusyanta. Her scope of mixing with treatment of love. In an article in Asam Sahitya men – even with Kanva – was very limited. Yet Sabha Patrika, he writes: ‘The ideology of soon after seeing Dusyanta she confesses: ‘I Kalidasa’s Abhijnana Sakuntalam is the same as can’t say why, after having seen the stranger, I that of The Tempest. These two great have been so overpowered by an unusual dramatists of the world have surprised all by sensation – a sensation hitherto unfelt by a upholding the greatness of love’ (Barthakuria, tapobaniii-dweller like me’. Miranda’s is a worse 1973: 33). case than Sakuntala’s, writes Barthakuria. She Barthakuria has compared some speeches of had not seen any woman except her own Dusyanta to Sakuntala with Ferdinand’s to reflection in the glass (and, therefore, did not Miranda and has attempted to prove that both know how other women felt in male contact) of them are earnest in love. Barthakuria quotes before meeting Ferdinand. Yet, as soon as she Dusyanta saying to Anasuya and Priyambada, sees him, the eternal woman in her rushes out two female mates of Sakuntala: “Though I have and compels her to say to Ferdinand: ‘I would many wives I consider only two – this earth not wish any companion in the world but you’ with the sea as her garment and your friend (III.i). Sakuntala worthy of my lineage.” Barthakuria is all praise for both Kalidasa and The earth is just a metaphor for a woman, unfit Shakespeare in transforming love at first sight to occupy the place of a ladylove. Barthakuria, into permanent love. As such, both of them thus, proves that Sakuntala is the only woman endow their heroines with rare physical beauty, the polygamous Dusyanta really loves. All other in addition to extraordinary mental resources. women he married were simply his wives, not In Assamese literary criticism, there exists no his love. But Sakuntala is an exception, his wife negligible amount of comparison between the and love in one. characters, themes, ideas, etc. in regional Ferdinand, in the same way, came across many literary productions and those in Shakespeare. women in his life, liked several of them, but The fact that Shakespeare was the most liked only one ‘with so full soul’ and that formidable influence on the Assamese

Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 6 playwrights of the formative period of modern Sarma and Satyaprasad Baruah discover Assamese drama justifies such comparisons, Shakespeare’s influence on Jyotiprasad’s though many of these do not go far. In depiction of Bapura by looking at the character Padmanath Gohain Baruah’s play Jaimati from a different perspective. Baruah says that, (1900), Jaimati, Gadapani’s wife, was put to as Shakespeare’s treatment of the common death by the Ahom king Chulikfa, better known man with adequate importance did influence as Lora Raja, for no fault of hers. The king, in the Assamese playwrights also, Shakespeare fact, wanted to kill Gadapani, the absconding must have been in Jyotiprasad’s mind as he was prince of the Tungkhung clan, but, failing to nab sketching the character of Bapura (Baruah, him, put his pregnant wife, Jaimati, to death 1999: 42). Sarma, on the other hand, observes under the ill-advice of his ambitious minister, that Jyotiprasad’s Bapura, like Shakespeare’s Rajmantri Phukan (Atan Buragohain), who was, Fool, is both a clever servant and a faithful then, pursuing a ruthless policy of massacring companion to his master. He is very witty, all able-bodied princes, including Gadapani, to though he looks like a fool, as a Fool in have his own path to the throne clear. Shakespeare is (Sarma, 1875: 765). Gadapani was, thus, instrumental to the Karengar Ligiri is a passionate love-story in fulfilment of his minister’s desire, as Macbeth is which Sundar, a prince, is resolute on making often supposed to have been instrumental to Sewali, a slave-girl (ligiri), first the princess and the fulfilment of the desire of his wife. The then the queen of his palace. He has promised Ahom King had some prick of conscience before that he will marry Sewali and compel killing Jaimati, just as Macbeth had a strong everybody to do obeisance to her. In a society mental conflict before killing Duncan. In an based on intense socio-economic inequality article in Asam Sahitya Sabha Patrika, such resolutions hardly materialize. Naturally, Dimbeswar Sarma makes this comparison sharp Sewali had to be mopped up from the stage as and clear, and while doing that, he does not Ophelia had to be. Though the situations of forget to point out that Shakespeare’s device of Hamlet and Karengar Ligiri are entirely showing Macbeth’s inner conflict was far different, it was the intention of neither stronger than Gohain Baruah’s and, therefore, Shakespeare nor Jyotiprasad to resolve the Shakespeare’s Macbeth could retain its crisis through marriage. In an interesting article structural unity till the end of the drama, on Jyotiprasad, Duara distinguishes between whereas Gohain Baruah’s Jaimati failed to do the devices used by Shakespeare and so. Shakespeare could give a very strong Jyotiprasad for mopping up Ophelia and Sewali soliloquy to his Macbeth on the eve of killing respectively. Shakespeare sends Ophelia into Duncan, but Gohain Baruah could not endow madness and lets the current of a river take his King with any such gift simply because he away her body whereas Sewali is made to was a lesser genius. Gohain Baruah, therefore, disappear in a way unknown to anybody. should have shown the King’s repentance not Though the disappearances of both Ophelia before, but after, Jaimati’s death, Sarma has and Sewali are reported on the stage, there is suggested (Sarma, 1971: 31). Among the not even an iota of mistiness as to how Ophelia Assamese literary characters to have fascinated disappears; on the other hand, one might be a good many Assamese writers is Bapura in required to wrestle a lot with his unyielding Jyotiprasad Agarwala’s play Karengar Ligiri (The imagination as to be able to understand how Slave-Girl of the Palace) and the Shakespearean Sewali might disappear. Towards the end of the character with whom he is usually compared is play, some Naga girls appear on the stage Falstaff. While Makhan Prasad Duara, who is mourning that Sewali has been swept away by almost a worshipper of Jyotiprasad, asserts that the current of a fountain, but sometimes later Bapura is an Assamese out and out, and there they say that she has been taken away by some cannot be any comparison between Falstaff spirits. It is possible, Duara says, that Sewali’s and him (Duara, 1982: 62), Satyendranath disappearance is nothing but her suicide, but

Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 7 there is an element of mistiness about it, which death, Bora says, is more significant to the is not found in Ophelia’s case. modern man than the death of Antigone. Despite the dearth of any serious comparative Though the works of Aeschylus and Sophocles study between Shakespeare and Tagore in acquaint one with the deepest agonies of man, Assamese, there are casual remarks here and Agamemnon, as compared with Hamlet, is a there that can be used to construct a stranger to the modern man. The love between comparison between the two. In an article in Romeo and Juliet touches our heart much more Navayug, Jajneswar Sarma quotes lines from As than the love episode of Paris and Helen. You Like It and says that though Shakespeare Shakespearean characters, Bora observes, are crept ‘like snail, unwilling to school’ (II.vii), he not mere puppets in the hands of destiny, was ‘learned’. Both Shakespeare and Tagore though a Shakespearean character as if were disdainers of customary education and Gloucester is sometimes heard crying: yet were ‘gentle’ and ‘learned’ like As flies to the wanton boys, are we to Shakespeare’s Orlando (Sarma, 1964: 27). In Gods, another article in the same weekly, Sunil Kumar They kill us for their sport. (King Lear, Barthakur says that Shakespeare’s poaching of IV.i) a deer in Thomas Lucy’s garden at Stratford-on- Avon and his subsequent emergence as a Speeches of this kind, made by other characters dramatist in London is comparable with the also, do not represent the totality of the bandit Ratnakar’s emergence as the epic-poet playwright’s attitude to life. Hamlet or Macbeth Valmiki or the fool Kalidasa’s becoming a great is more independent of the control of Destiny poet at the blessing of Saraswati. Like Sarma, than Oedipus in Greek tragedy. Having already Barthakur also compares Shakespeare and asserted that Shakespearean characters are not Tagore from a biographical point of view. He mere puppets in the hands of destiny, Bora maintains that, when in London, Shakespeare neither proclaims that nor are they puppets in had to depend a lot upon the patronization of the hands of Shakespeare. Shakespeare creates the aristocracy and had to remain in deep them only once, the rest is done by the attachment with them till he was about forty. It characters themselves. took time for him to forgo the comfort he While Bora, obviously influenced by Clifford received from the rich men of his time. This was Leech (1964: 292), gives utmost importance to not so in Tagore’s case, Barthakur writes. He Shakespeare’s characters, Pona Mahanta, in his says: ‘In Shakespeare’s case, cultivation of art comparative study of Shakespeare and Brecht, was not a mere pursuit, but a profession, a does not forget to point out that Brecht gave business. He was not a self-supporting little importance to dramatic characters in litterateur like Tagore. He could live on his own general and Shakespearean characters in and write with self-confidence only when he particular. What was important to Brecht was was about forty’ (Barthakur, 1964: 46). the social conditions that contained these Mahendra Bora’s editorial of the April 1964 characters, not the characters themselves edition of Monideep deals with a number of (Mahanta, 1975: 11-6). Shakespeare-related topics, including a Ananda Barmudoi seems more interested in comparison between Greek tragedy and the ventilating Shaw’s amusing remarks on tragedies of Shakespeare. He is of the view that Shakespeare than in making any serious Shakespeare has surpassed the Greek comparative study of the two. But there does tragedians at least in his ability to become exist a comparison between the dramatic closer to the modern man. It is a devices used by Shakespeare and Ibsen in Shakespearean character, not a character of Barmudoi’s essay in Gariyoshi (February 1994). the Greek tragedy, with whom the modern man But this comparison, again, is mainly based on would like to identify himself. Desdemona’s what Shaw thought and what he did not think

Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 8 about these two great dramatists of the world. pleasures of the palace and gone to the forest Shaw was an admirer of Ibsen, not of with Rama, had to seek peace in the bowels of Shakespeare. But Ibsen used some of the the earth, in the long run. Devee’s essay devices that Shakespeare had already used. considers Sita and Desdemona to be two Naturally, Shaw is of the opinion that pathetic victims of man’s suspicion about Shakespeare is still surviving not owing to women. whatever he had in common with Webster but Shakespearean Sonnets in Comparative owing to whatever he had in common with Studies Ibsen. Ibsen’s plays do not end with a large number of dead bodies on the stage, as the Do the sonnets of Shakespeare glorify love or Elizabethan tragedies did. But Shaw thinks that express sexual perversion amounting to there is an attempt in some plays of Ibsen to homosexuality? The Assamese writers and glorify death. Barmudoi then raises a very critics would vote for both the answers. While pertinent question: ‘Did Oswald, Rosemar, admitting that Shakespeare glorified love in Rebecca and Hedda Gabbler die natural deaths, some of his sonnets (e.g. in sonnet no CVI), or were they killed as per the method Upendranath Sarma reminds his readers of Shakespeare used?’ (Barmudoi, 1994: 36). such sonnets as contain frank sexual expressions like ‘Be anchor’d in the bay where It was not possible for Shaw to answer this all men ride’ (CXXXVII), ‘The sea all water, yet question; but there was Barmudoi to answer it receives rain still’ (CXXXV) and ‘I guess one’s for him. Barmudoi writes: angel in another’s hell’ (CXXXIV) (Sarma, 1980: Ibsen’s dead bodies are the dead bodies 66, 68). In his sonnet beginning with ‘Two loves of tired and devastated persons. Ibsen I have of comfort and despair’ (CXLIV), Sarma, did not kill Hilda the way Shakespeare like many other Shakespearean critics, has had killed Juliet. ... Had Ibsen written traced strong homosexual implications. Since Hamlet, only one person would have the poet’s friend was transformed into a man died in the last scene of the play and from woman by no other than nature (sonnet that is Horatio. Angry at his no. XX), this homosexuality must have been incompetence, Fortinbrass, with an guided by the principle of love for beauty. open sword in hand, must have There was an undercurrent of this removed all the crumbled pieces of homosexuality in Hellenism as well as in Horatio’s ethics. (Barmudoi, 1994: 36) Michaelangelo’s life and sonnets. This is the We do not have much feministic – even proto- reason why the great grandson of feministic – approach to Shakespeare studies in Michaelangelo took care to change the gender Assamese. Yet we cannot ignore Hiranmoyee of the poet’s beloved in the first edition of the Devee’s contribution in this field through poet’s sonnets that he published. Oorooli, women’s first Assamese fortnightly, in Shakespeare’s sonnets were first published in 1964. In her essay on Desdemona, Hiranmoyee 1609 by Thomas Thorp, though Shakespeare himself was not in favour of their publication Devi (1964) observes that treating of women (even of those who are chaste and innocent) because of these homosexual implications, with cruelty by their suspicious husbands is an writes Sarma (Sarma, 1980: 63). eternal and global fact. Devee observes that the Though Shakespeare was well-aware of the absolutely unjust kind of punishment that prevalence of an excess of falsehood in love Desdemona had to suffer is a common and of his ladylove’s habit of lying, neither did experience of the average Indian women. he think that he should stop lying with his Desdemona, who sacrificed everything to have ladyloveiv nor did he consider his deceitful a peaceful life with Othello, could not have ladylove to be less appealing than any other even a peaceful death in his hands. And what woman in the world: about Sita? Sita, who had abandoned the

Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 9 And yet, by heaven I think my love as Which alters when it alteration finds, rare Or bends with the remover to remove: As she belied with false compare. ... (CXXX). Love’s not time’s fool, though rosy lips This love for the Dark Lady reminds Sarma of and cheeks Mirabell’s love for Millamant in William Within his bending sickles compass Congreve’s play The Way of the World, where come; the former says, ‘for I like her with all her faults; nay, nay like her for her faults’ (Act I). Love alters not with his brief hours and Shakespeare’s knowledge of falsehood in love weeks, was no hindrance to his becoming a great But bears it out even to the edge of connoisseur of the permanence of love. doom. Observing that Shakespeare was well-aware of both positive and negative, bright and dark (b) Shakespeare in Comparative Cultural sides of love as John Donne was, Sarma points Studies out that there are many lines in Shakespearean There exists an exciting study by Jajneswar sonnets that might remind one of the following Sarma (1978) in this field.vi Sarma points out lines in John Donne’s poem ‘The Anniversary’: that both the Rangali Bihu (the Assamese All other things to their destruction spring festival) and Shakespeare’s birthday are draw, in April, with only ten days to go between the two. He, then, quotes passage after passage Only our love hath no decay; from different comedies (and some tragedies This, no tomorrow hath, nor yesterday, also) of Shakespeare to prove that man’s craving for beauty in nature, for a happy Running it never runs from us away, conjugal life, for a gratifying sexual relationship, But truly keeps his first, last everlasting and for the enjoyment of the pleasures of this day. world are suitably expressed through both vii While Sarma compares Shakespeare’s Shakespeare and the Bihu. The essay contains conception of the permanence of love with that original ideas, though the author refrains from of John Donne, Apurba Chandra Barthakuria citing lines from Bihu songs probably because compares it with that of Bhavabhutiv. (i) he was more interested in highlighting the Barthakuria quotes lines from Bhavabhuti’s affinity between the spirit of the two than in Uttar Ramcharita and from Shakespeare’s citing corresponding lines from Bihu songs; and sonnet CXVI and shows their thematic (ii) he thought that lines from some well-known proximity (Barthakuria, 1973: 23). Bihu songs would not be enough to represent the total spirit of the festival. Lines from Bhavabhuti’s Uttar Ramcharita: In late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Bihu came under severe Rama: Happy and fortunate is he that puritanical condemnation and was charged hath perceived through sufferings that with spreading unbridled vulgarism. Kharaiya huge treasure of love. It doth not alter Bezbaruah’s famous line in Assamese ‘Ilihi with the alteration of time. It remains machhat yimanei kaint, tathapi sarah bhag steadfast in weal and woe. It is soothing telal’ (‘The hilsa fish may have bones, but the in all situations. Age cannot stop its greater part of it is oily’) – this could have been shower of bliss. the most appropriate answer of the lovers of Lines from Shakespeare’s sonnet CXVI: the Bihu to the charge of obscenity against it, writes Sarma. This brings to Sarma’s mind Love is not love Shakespeare’s famous line in Henry V: ‘There is

Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 10 a soul of goodness even in things evil’ (IV.i). outer nature also. When ‘a lover and his lass’ – ‘Dost thou think, because thou art virtuous, a deka and the gabharu of his heart – get there shall be no more cakes and ale?’(II.iii)viii is united in the celebration of spring on the an eternal question of all the revellers of this painted meadows of this earth, shouting reba, world to the puritans, who oppose revelry. The reba – a 'hey' and a 'ho’, it remains no more revellers of the Bihu and those in the Twelfth difficult for Sarma to understand why ‘Sweet Night have scant respect for puritanical lovers love the spring’. ‘Love is crowned with morality. Bihu as a festival defies not only the prime/ In the springtime’, Sarma quotes puritanism, but also starvation of any kind – from As you Like It and says that crowning of physical or mental. If beauty gets austerely love is the object of the Bihu also. united with virginity, posterity will get B. Shakespeare in Influence Studies dissociated from beauty (cf. ‘For beauty, starv’d with severity, – /Cuts beauty off from all No history-based study of modern Assamese posterity’ – Romeo and Juliet, I, i). So, it is not drama is possible without reference to unyielding virginity but liberal beauty that Shakespeare, say hosts of Assamese scholars, needs to be celebrated and this celebration critics and theatre experts. Jogen Chetia writes: deserves to be well-supported by feasting, The influence of Shakespeare’s singing and dancing. There is an abundance of drama on modern Assamese such ideas in Shakespeare also and Sarma in drama – especially when it was Assam feels never fatigued of taking note of at its formative stage – is that. immense and long-lasting. The Blooming flowers and singing birds are two works of no other foreign great treasures of spring. Sometimes they playwright have been translated become one, even in names. In Love’s Labour’s or approximated as much as Lost, there is a song in which the cuckoo bird Shakespeare’s have been. The and the cuckoo-bud occur simultaneously and structure of Shakespearean intensify the glory of spring: drama was imitated by the modern Assamese playwrights. When daisies pied and violets The division of Assamese blue historical and mythological plays And lady-smocks all silver-white into five acts, and then the And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue division of each act into six or seven scenes, were made under Do paint the meadows with the influence of Shakespearean delight, drama. Shakespeare was The cuckoo then on every tree responsible for the origin of Assamese romantic comedy. Mocks married men.... (V, ii) Making of dialogues in both Sarma notes that birds and flowers having prose and verse, setting of light common names and capable of increasing joy or comic situations immediately and merriment are not uncommon in Assam after serious ones, intermingling also. Bihu songs are replete with the names of of ordinary men and women birds and flowers and some of them are with high personalities and common names for both birds and flowers, e.g. setting of short scenes after long keteki and kapou. ones and, thereby, demonstrate the acceleration of action, Spring in Assam and spring in England bring the running of sub-plots parallel or same joy to the lovers’ minds. It unites the opposite to the main plots for youth in man and the youth in woman with a intensifying the effect of the youthful bond of love, while there is youth in

Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 11 main story – these and such juxtaposition of light scenes with serious ones other devices used in in Assamese drama, Sarma says that it might Shakespearean drama were used happen under the influence of Shakespeare, in Assamese drama also. because even Ben Jonson did not use this Assamese dramatists including device. The light and rustic characters – mainly even Lakshminath Bezbaroa from the lower orders of society – that abound introduced Fools in their plays in in Shakespeare’s plays are the modifications of imitation of Shakespeare. There the porters, the grave-diggers and the were soliloquies in Sanskrit watchmen in Shakespeare. Sarma, however, drama, but they were used to maintains that most of these devices and reveal some motives, intentions characteristics were borrowed into Assamese etc., not to acquaint the via Bengali (Sarma, 1881 SE: 197). audience with the inner In this article of the mid-twentieth century, questions, self-analysis, Sarma expresses dissatisfaction over the emotional experiences and abundance of sentimentality and the use of philosophical perceptions of the soliloquy and aside in Assamese historical and characters, as they were done in mythological plays till that time. Sarma does western drama. The device of not consider these devices and characteristics unfolding characters by making to be natural and holds mainly Shakespeare them pass through external responsible for these, maintaining, at the same turmoil and inner agonies was time, that they were borrowed from borrowed into the Assamese Shakespeare via Bengali (Sarma, 1874 SE: 397). drama from the West. Shakespeare continued to be the While evaluating Shakespeare’s influence on foremost influence on the Bezbaroa, Pona Mahanta quotes lines from Assamese drama till social and Bezbaroa’s autobiography (Mor Jivan realistic drama in the language Sonwaran) to show that Shakespeare had been could attain maturity. (Chetia, a great inspiration to him (Bezbaroa) right from 1979: 31-2) his student life: ‘I had Shakespeare’s Hamlet, King John, Henry IV and A Midsummer Night’s Chetia’s observation does not differ remarkably Dream on the list of my college textbooks. I from Satyendranath Sarma’s. Though (i) started dreaming of enriching Assamese Sanskrit playwrights showed no special literature by writing two or four plays like fascination for dividing a drama into five acts, them’ (Mahanta, 1975:12). and (ii) Elizabethan playwrights other than Shakespeare did also use five acts, it was Bezbaroa attempted to write two plays after mainly Shakespeare whom Sarma holds Shakespeare in his early youth, namely responsible for the supposed indispensability of Hemchandra (after Hamlet) and Dinar Sapon five acts in the formative period of modern (after A Midsummer Night’s Dream), but Assamese drama, because the Assamese completed none. He, then, wrote some farces playwrights of this period were more exposed and satires to expose the weaknesses of the to the plays of Shakespeare (through school Assamese race; but, in his mature age, he and college curricula etc.) than those of any switched over to writing serious dramas after other British playwright. Sarma notes that this Shakespeare with a view to infusing moral and tendency of the Assamese playwrights cultural resilience in the race. He wrote three (particularly during the formative years of historical plays, namely Belimar (Sunset), modern Assamese drama) was so strong and Chakradhvaj Simha and Jaimati Kunwari incurable that even farces were made (Jaimati the Princess) with Shakespeare as his unnecessarily lengthy so that they could ideal and the historical plays of Shakespeare as become five-act farces. As regards the his model (Mahanta 1975: 11-6).

Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 12 1671 is an important year in the history of Poins, Peto, Gadshill and Bardolph) have Assam. Aurangzeb’s army advancing towards become the common friends of Priyaram and the Ahom Kingdom then ruled by Chakradhvaj Gajapuria (namely Takou, Tokora, Japara and Simha was strongly resisted by the Ahom force Siddhiram) in Bezbaroa’s Chakradhvaj Simha. at Saraighat in Assam. There is an interesting Like Falstaff, Gajapuria also is corpulent, play titled Chakradhvaj Simha by Laksminath eloquent, bacchic, ready-witted and a coward. Bezbaroa on this subject. Chakradhvaj Simha is Satyendranath Sarma and Pona Mahanta have the Ahom king whose soldiers have to fight discussed such similarities and dissimilarities in back the aggressive Mughals under the detail. generalship of Lachit Barphukan at Saraighat Pona Mahanta discovers a stronger affinity (1671). But there are cowards and drunkards between Gajapuria and Falstaff. Both of them among the defenders of the land who are aptly make their maiden appearance on the stage in represented in the drama by Gajapuria and his the second scene of the First Act. And the friends – Takou, Tokora, Japara and Siddhiram – places where they make their maiden who loathe fighting. Satyendranath Sarma, appearances are the political capitals of their Pona Mahanta, Satyaprasad Baruah and hosts respective kingdoms: Falstaff at London and of other scholars observe that Gajapuria and his Gajapuria at Gargaon. Though there are friends externally resemble Shakespeare’s altogether eighteen scenes in the first part of Falstaff and his drunken comrades. In Henry IV and twenty-four in Chakradhvaj Bezbaroa’s play Mistress Quickly has been Simha, the two groups of drunkards – one presented as Gajapuriani, i.e. Gajapuria’s wife, comprising Prince Hall, Falstaff and their though in Henry IV, Mistress Quickly is not friends, and the other comprising Priyaram, Falstaff’s wife, but the owner of a tavern. There Gajapuria and their companions – appear in were no taverns in seventeenth-century Assam equal number of scenes: six, Mahanta has as there were in seventeenth-century England, noted (Mahanta, 1975: 12-3). and Gajapuriani, therefore, is seen supplying drinks and smokes to the frequenters of her All these resemblances, however, do not make house for these things. Gajapuria, just like one an exact counterpart of the other. Falstaff Falstaff, pretends to have died in the battlefield is inimitable, observe both Sarma and Mahanta. by lying motionless among dead soldiers. He, Scholars and critics, including these two, have again, falsely claims to have killed Rasid Khan competently dealt with the fact that Bezbaroa with his own hands just as Falstaff had falsely created many other characters also under the claimed to have killed Hotspur and Henry Percy influence of Shakespearean characters. They in the battle. Sarma maintains that there is a have traced shadows of Shakespeare’s Ophelia, character named Mahabharata in Atul Chandra Miranda and Ferdinand on Bezbaroa’s Pijou, Hazarika’s Rukmini-Haran, whose behaviour Dalimi and Gadapani respectively. The similarity resembles that of Falstaff on the battlefield. between Miranda and Dalimi has inspired With a view to saving his own life he remains Maheswar Neog to look upon Dalimi as lying motionless with dead soldiers on the Miranda’s sister (Mahanta, 1975: 14). battlefield, but claims later on that he fought valiantly in the battle, killed hundreds of A woman disguised as a man is something enemies and proved to be a terror to them. unusual in Sanskrit drama. This, however, is Priyaram in Chakradhvaj Simha resembles quite usual in Shakespeare. On the basis of this Prince Hall in Henry IV. The only son of the study, Sarma points out that the disguising legendary Ahom general Lachit Barphukan,ix women in Padmanath Gohain Baruah’s Lachit he got spoilt by joining the drunken company of Barphukan, Kamalakanta Bhattacharya’s Gajapuria just as Prince Hall had been spoilt Nagakonwar and Sailadhar Rajkhowa’s Pratap through his friendship with Falstaff. And the Simha bring to one’s mind the disguising common friends of Hall and Falstaff (namely women in Shakespearean plays like As You Like It, Twelfth Night and Cymbeline. In some

Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 13 Assamese plays also, we see some women receiving importance in the drama of this characters getting their missions fulfilled by language. disguising themselves as male servants (Sarma, In an article, Satyendranath Sarma (1881 SE) 1881: 197). writes that Atul Chandra Hazarika’s Ashrutirtha, Sarma has discussed Shakespeare’s influence though in blank verse, is a huge departure from on some other Assamese playwrights also in the original Shakespeare. In this play, King Lear some of his writings in Ramdhenu (Sarma, 1874 is approximated as Pratap Simha, king of SE) and Asam Sahitya Sabha Patrika (Sarma, Kamrup; the Duke of Albany for Darangiraja, 1881 SE). Prominent among them are king of Darrang; and the Duke of Kent for Jyotiprasad Agarwalah and Indreswar Kundilpati, ruler of Kundil. Dukes, barons, etc. Barthakur. The mob scene in Julius Caesar has a do not fit into the Indian situation and, great appeal to every educated Assamese. In naturally, such substitutions were inevitable, Indreswar Barthakur’s play Sribatsa Chinta, Sarma asserts. A widow making amoral there is a character named Shani who induces advances towards her sister’s husband is not the mob to violence, something that Antony unusual in any part of the globe; but in a typical does in Rome after Caesar’s death. In a scene in Assamese society it is never made as brazenly Jyotiprasad Agarwala’s Sonit Kunwari, as Regan does in King Lear. Hazarika, therefore, Chitraleka brings Aniruddha from Dvaraka refused to accommodate the barefaced amoral under the hypnotic spell of her music just as advances of the widowed Regan towards her Ariel brings Ferdinand to Miranda mesmerizing sister’s husband in his adaptation of King Lear. him with his song: ‘Come unto these yellow According to Sarma, one would be able to trace sands,/And then take hands’ (I, ii). Most of nothing but the bare outline of the original these views of Sarma are shared by many critics Shakespearean story in Hazarika’s Ashrutirtha. and scholars of Assam, including Satyaprasad A person who is not getting honey has to be Baruah, Ram Goswami and Pona Mahanta, satisfied with molasses; and the average though each of them has his own share of Assamese reader incapable of understanding contribution in this field. Shakespeare’s King Lear has to be satisfied with In an article on Shakespeare, Satyaprasad Hazarika’s Ashrutirtha, Sarma observes. Baruah (1999) writes that Sundar Kunwar, the In an article in Asam Sahitya Sabha Patrika, hero of Jyotiprasad Agarwala’s play Karengar Dimbeswar Sarma (1976) traces Shakespeare’s Ligiri (The Slave-girl of the Palace) is a highly influence on many parts of Kamatapur Dvansa, individualized character, with a fatal flaw, like a long poem, written in 1899 by Hiteswar any great Shakespearean hero. He becomes a Barbaruah. There is a profound influence of tragic victim of his own obstinacy, which, Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet on this poem. according to Baruah, is his fatal flaw. Piyali After Golapi’s suicide at the very presence of Phukan, a great patriot of nineteenth-century Nilambar, the poet himself says that Golapi’s Assam, fought heroically against the British, death is comparable with the deaths of Juliet ignoring the reality that he was physically and Ophelia. crippled. Baruah traces the shadow of Shakespeare influenced not only Assamese Shakespeare’s Richard III, who disregarding his drama, but also Assamese poetry and fiction. In physical disability, fought for his country, on an article in Asam Sahitya Sabha Patrika, Nanda this Piyali, the hero of Piyali Phukan (Goswami, Talukdar traces Shakespeare’s influence on the 1999: ka & kha). Again, in the Assamese rhyme-pattern of some sonnets of Padmanath playwrights’ tendency to give importance to Gohain Baruah (Talukdar, 1971: 58-63). Though the common person in drama, Baruah discovers Gohain Baruah employed different rhyme a silent inspiration from Shakespeare. Bapura in schemes in different sonnets, sometimes he Karengar Ligiri and Narayan in Piyali Phukan are used Shakespeare’s rhyme scheme also, either two finest specimens of lower-class people thoroughly or with minor modifications. For

Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 14 example, the rhyme-scheme used by Gohain Goswami, Ram. ‘Shvekspiyerar Natakar Baruah in his sonnets ‘Kavita’, ‘Sonor Sansar’, Janapriyata’ (‘Popularity of Shakespeare’s ‘Harinath Gogoidev’ etc. is fully Shakespearean Plays’). Dainik Asam, Guwahati, 25 April 1999 (abab cdcd efef gg), whereas the rhyme- Leech, Clifford. ‘The Implications of Tragedy’. scheme in his sonnet ‘Aideo Aikan’ ( abab cdcd Shakespeare’s Tragedies: An Anthology of efef ef) is a modification of the Shakespearean Modern Criticism. Ed. Laurence Lerner. rhyme-scheme. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1964 References Mahanta, (Dr) Pona. ‘Bezbaruar Natakat Barmudoi, (Dr) Ananda. ‘Barnard Sva aru Shvekspiyerar Prabhav’ (‘Shakespeare’s Natakar Shilparup Nirman-aushal’(‘Bernard Influence on Bezbaroa’s Plays’). Asam Sahitya Shaw and the Craft of Drama’). Gariyoshi, Sabha Patrika, April 1975 February 1994, Guwahati Sarma, Dimbeswar. ‘Gohain Baruar Natya Barthakur, Sunil Kumar. ‘Sarbasadharanar Pratibha’ (‘The Dramatic Talent of Padmanath Shvekspiyer’ (‘The People’s Shakespeare’). Gohain Baruah’. Asam Sahitya Sabha Patrika Navayug, 27 May 1964, Guwahati (38.3), Jorhat, 1971 Barthakuria, Apurba Chandra. ‘Kalidasa, – , ‘Kavyakirti Hiteswar Barbaruah’ (‘Hiteswar Bhavabhuti aru Shudrakar Natya Sahityat Barbaruah’s Great Poetic Achievement’). Asam Premar Svarup’ (‘Treatment of Love in the Sahitya Sabha Patrika, 1976, Jorhat Drama of Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti and Shudraka’). Sarma, Jajneswar. ‘Bihu aru Chhekspiyer. Asam Sahitya Sabha Patrika, 1973, 30 (3), “Bachhare Bachhare Barhi Ya”’ (‘May Bihu and Jorhat Shakespeare Have a Sound Growth Every Baruah, Satyaprasad. ‘Shekspiyer’ Year’). Prakash, 1 April 1978, Guwahati (‘Shakespeare’). Shatabdir Natyacharcha, – , ‘Svekspier’ ( ‘Shakespeare ’). Navayug, 3 Sivasagar, 1999 June 1964, Guwahati Duara, Makhan Prasad. ‘Mor Manar Jyotiprasad Sarma, Satyendranath: ‘Asamiya Natyasahitya’ aru Tekhetar Sannidhya’ (‘The Jyotiprasad of (‘Assamese Drama’), Ramdhenu, Bhada-Ahin, My Mind and His Company’). Prakash, Special 1874 SE Issue on Jyotiprasad, January 1982, Guwahati – ‘Jyotiprasadar Jeuti: Natak’ (‘The Talent of Chetia, Jogen. ‘Asamiya Adhunik Natakar Oprat Jyotiprasad: Drama’), Ramdhenu, Phagun, 1875 Pashchatya Natakar Prabhab’ (‘Western SE, p. 765 Influence on Modern Assamese Dharma’). Rangamancha, Jorhat, 1979 –, ‘Asamiya Sahitya O Chekspiyer, Part 3 (‘Assamese Literature and Shakespeare’, Part Devee, Hiranmoyee. ‘Shvekspiyarar 3), Asam Sahitya Sabha Patrika. Puh-Chot, 1881 Desdemona’ (‘Shakespeare’s Desdemona’). SE Oorooli, 16 October 1964, Guwahati. Sarma, Upendranath ‘Svekspiyarar Sanet’ (‘The Encyclopaedia Britannica, vols. 2 and 6. Sonnets of Shakespeare’), Prakash, September Chicago: The University of Chicago, 1990 1980a, Guwahati, p. 66, 68 Gohain, (Dr) Hiren. ‘Svekspiyer aru –,‘Svekspiyarar Sanet’ (‘The Sonnets of Adhyatmabhav’ (‘Shakespeare and Shakespeare’), Prakash, September 1980, Spirituality’). Navayug, May 1964, Guwahati Guwahati, p. 63 Gogoi, (Dr) Leela, ed. Bihugeet aru Banghosa: A Tagore, Rabindranath. Rabindra Rachanavali, Collection and Compilation of Assamese Bihu vol. 3. Calcutta: Visvabharati, 1407 BS Songs. Delhi: Ajanta Prakashan, 1985

Jana. Space and Culture, India 2015, 2:4 Page | 15 Talukdar, Nanda. ‘Gohain Baruar Sonnet’ (‘Gohain Baruah’s Sonnets’). Asam Sahitya his eyes. … In The Tempest there are oppression, Sabha Patrika, Jorhat, 1971 domination and subjugation; in Sakuntala, there are love, peace and goodwill… A Biographical Note In The Tempest there is no attempt by man to achieve greatness by spreading himself Jyotirmay Jana (b. 1953). M. A. and LL. B. from throughout the universe with love and goodwill. Calcutta University; Ph.D. from Rabindra He tries there to rule the universe by Bharati University. Subject of Ph.D. thesis: dominating it and subjecting it to its rule. He Images of Marginal Workers in Nineteenth- tries to reduce its strength. At the heart of The Tempest there is a strong passion for power that Century Britain and Colonial India: A Study in leads to conflict. Deprived of his kingdom, but Contemporaneous Literary Culture and armed with his magic, Prospero emerges there Journalism of East and West. Dr Jana has to his as a ruler of nature. Ferocious nature is a mute credit a large number of articles published in sufferer there like the tortured and leisure- respectable English, Assamese and Bengali denied Caliban from whose teeth and nails poison never goes...The title of the play The journals, newspapers and periodicals and two Tempest is perfectly in keeping with its subject- published books in Assamese, viz. Devasur aru matter. There are conflicts between man and Dui Jati (Devas, Asuras and Two Nations) and nature as well as between man and man. Rudraram Bordoloir Bangal Bangalani Natak: Acquisition of power is the root cause of all Mool Natak aru Alochana (Rudraram Bordoloi’s conflicts in The Tempest. There is unrest all over The Tempest. ... Human nature, when unruly, Bangal Bangalani Natak: The Main Drama with does also raise a tempest. It can be Critical Comments on It). With Dr Manju Laskar domesticated, as a ferocious animal can be, by as his collaborator, he has also edited an means of suppression, domination and torture. Assamese book on women’s education, titled But prevention of force by force is just an ad hoc Sunil Akash and Sonali Diganta (The Blue Sky policy. Our spiritualism does not consider it to be the ultimate policy. The goal of our and the Golden Horizon). Though he retired as spiritualism is the complete annihilation of vice an Associate Professor of English, Nowgong with love, sense of beauty and goodwill... Girls‘ College in 2013, he is still serving the [In Sakuntala] Kalidasa extinguishes the college as a guest teacher in the post-graduate indomitable fire of the impulses with tearful section of its Department of Assamese. Dr Jana repentance of the human heart. He does not discuss the disease much. He gives a hint of it has proved his mettle as a journalist also by and lays a cover over it. What could have winning the prestigious M.L. Kathbaruah Award happened in usual course has been made to for Rural Reporting for 2 consecutive years, happen there with Durbasa’s curse ... (Tagore, 1991 and 1992. 1407 BS: 726-8) 3 A tapovan is a secluded place in a forest for meditation Declaration and study; a hermitage. In Indian mythology stories of love affairs are sometimes associated with some The writer of this paper is the translator of all tapobans. the passages cited in English from Assamese 4 Making pun of the word ‘lie’ he wrote: ‘Therefore I lied and Bengali. with her as she with me’ (CXXXVIII). 5 According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Bhavabhuti Notes flourished in AD 700 (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2, 1990: 187). 6 1According to Encyclopaedia Britannica, Kalidasa Sarma’s essay is titled ‘Bihu aru Chhekspiyer: “Bachhare flourished in c. fifth century AD. (Encyclopaedia Bachhare Barhi Ya”’. ‘Bachhare Bachhare Barhi Ya’ is part Britannica 6, 1990: 692) of the sentence ‘Lau kha, bengena kha bachhare 2 In his essay ‘Sakuntala’, Tagore wrote: bachhare barhi ya’ (‘Eat pumpkin, eat brinjal and have a Nature, in The Tempest, appears as Ariel in sound growth every year’), which is chanted every year human form. This Ariel does not build up any on the day of Goru-Bihu, i.e. the day on which cows are relationship with man; rather he keeps a bathed and given turmeric, vegetables etc. to eat, distance from him. He is reluctant to be a slave wishing their growth and well-being. Sarma sees no to man. He is held in bondage and compelled to difference between the spirit of the Bihu and the spirit of serve man as his slave, though he wants to be the Shakespearean comedies and, hence, he desires the free. There is no love in his heart and no tears in growth of both the spirits.

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7Sarma quotes passage after passage from Shakespeare – Red and red and red are they all – to show how these ideas occur in his writings. We give The leaves of coral tree are red; below only some examples from his writing, though the We’ll be singing and you’ll be dancing, list of the examples cited by him is much longer: Twisting your waist, my loved. Do nothing but eat, and make good cheer, 8 Sarma has misquoted the sentence as ‘Because there is And praise God for the merry year; virtue in the world there should be no cakes ale?’ (Sarma, When flesh is cheap and females dear, 1978: 81) And lusty lads roam here and there 9 Lachit Barphukan is an icon of patriotism like Rana So merrily. Pratap, who fought against Akbar, or like Sivaji, who (Silence in Henry IV: Part II, V. iii ) fought against Aurangzeb. When daffodils begin to peer, With heigh! The doxy over the dale, Why, then comes in the sweet o’ the year; For the red blood reigns in the winter’s pale, The white sheet bleaching on the hedge, With heigh! The sweet birds, of how they sing! Doth set my pugging tooth on edge; For a quart of ale is a dish for a king, The lark, that tirra-lirra chants, With, heigh! With, heigh! The thrush and the jay, Are summer songs for me and my aunts, While we lie tumbling in the hay. (The Winter’s Tale, IV. ii) Though Sarma does not cite lines from Bihu songs to show correspondence between the spirit of the Bihu and the spirit of some parts of Shakespearean comedies (and of some of his tragedies also), we can cite some lines from Bihugeet aru Banghosa: A Collection and Compilation of Assamese Bihu songs, edited by Gogoi, (Dr) Leela, Delhi: Ajanta Prakashan, 1985: Kukura katilon, lahe lahe kari chapi ahan nachani, Nachanir jeuti charil, lahe lahe kari chapi ahan nachani, Nachanir jeuti charil, lahe lahe kari chapi ahan nachani, Anagoi bichani Kaloino karichha laaj (Gogoi, ed., 1985: 74) – We have killed a cock. So, come dancing to us slowly. Now you are flashing with delight; come dancing to us, my dame. Come slowly, but dancing and dancing and dancing. Do fetch a fan (because I am getting excited). Why do you feel so shy? Eta batit naharu eta batit panaru Eta batit khuturia shak; Moorar chuli chhingi ashirbad karichhon Chenai toi kushale thak. (Gogoi, ed., 1985: 63) – With garlic in this cup and onion in that And cress in yet another; I bless you, I bless you and bless you heartily Be happy, my chenai, my dear. Rangali madarar pat oi nachani Rangali madarar pat; Kankal ghurai ghurai naach oi nachani Lagaichon naamare jaat. (Gogoi, ed., 1985: 62)