Preface ats my fs play. Lwroeeitin 1960. The plas have written since then—with the exception of Anjumalige—have all bee tanlated into Engl and included in the two volumes of my Collected Plays But have nots far allowed Ynatabe published in English although excelent transition was produced by Priya Adakar a ei 8 the ‘mid-sies For some reason, [lt uncomfortable with the work and decided to teat it as part of my juvenii.The play howere as been translated nto diferent Indian languages and continues tobe staged, The had to face complaints from students of Indian theatre a well as those wishing to stage it about the non-avalablity of the tet in English. Hence thi version Confronting the pla again, the temptation to tinker with thas been inressibe Batt would be not jus sly but dsastrous otc at the age of syne play Thad writen a twenty-fvo. 1 would haveto rewrite itentirely. On theater hand, when wrote Thad no experience of theatre and over the years have been fortunate to have received comments from the professionals who have actually staged it, such as Satyadey Dubey, De Shreeram Lagoo and CR, Sima Tt ‘would have been uni not to incorporate their insights into the ext. before makingitavalubletoa new pubic Bat thee sgpeted revisions, small a they were, were scattered through the play. So instead ofbothering Adarkar again, 1 decided to translate the revised text yselTwould ie to express my sincerest hanks to Adar forthe earlier tansation, | lived in Dharwad when T wrote the play and among the ‘many institutions that made the ct virally the cultural eapitel of north Karnataka in those dae was the publishing fem, Menohasa Geantha Mala, The Mala wat started, more as a vocation an asa business enterprise, by an unusual perso called GB, Joshi in 1995, when ‘oder Kanade hterature was stil ying wo fnd its feet Readership for Kannada boks wastiny and only someone qustices Josh would ‘entazeto publish contemporary Scion, esi promised gpod.tastfal erature ofa certain number of pages per year fora Bixed scription sndabout 1500 readers rusted hisjadgment On tisentily informal understanding, he had been able to discover some ofthe bes writers of that period and bring out books which are today acknowledge ‘lasses. Tobe published by the Mla wa gain mma recopnion, ‘But Joshi wat alo besotted with theatre and ad squandered age Potton of his personal fortune on that pasion Toshis own tastein iterate was eratc and the xl tile brought ‘out by the Mala vatid in quality. Inthe mid-fities, however, Jesh scqured a youthful adviser wit vision called Kitnath Kurth A ‘stadetof English iterature Kertkotibad an insider’ famasiy with Kannada, Sanskrit and Marathi literatures and impeccable judgment, He transformed the Mala inco a moder, vibrant. ritaly aware Publishing rmand the Mala transformed Kurthtiintoa major erie. ‘This was fortunate for me For having writen Yaa Lead i ith immense trepidation, to esi He tookthe manuseripthome with 8 grace characteristic of that ea and reared i two days late with the mysterious comment, “The maid's monologue in the lst at ery welowriten'Tacceped that va polit eetion, ‘Within the next few weeks, eft for Britain, caeying the play with me.I continued to ide with i there, and discovered an ncn st anole forme eink the pay fw oh eek fom Rieder soupy mela we ar Tom gdb youre Ofelia ny Hed mel hin esto hate ogee pconac neato heh the tate of Ege ONL Ts rose ame Ser we Eng aden rer Ni rin Bees a snd bee oases going ey typing i een yeh ned epee tnlditKart aro onthe he phi ws inety winced ety yh preprint ese Bienen hb so mean un ee any sen Kanata sted ry caer ng ng) Johnette lyvichwsaneotinmene egy ‘Necratancen arma nathan ron Tontva nents berets ete seroma chit The penn Karna nd rm {vel yan vee enn eu enn freien nposbleto me Caco pope tony unde ong sea Dey Hef lnc met Tse Ui "omy fo sin rw d more oe De ke Chg fh Sl Shon of rama fad en nd ade Se in! yA pose n Boy wih haa bccn nh ot engrave ite Ind engugs Our eo gow Te crc eter hops cue al Dey ey eed Sno dene tse no tng sm Ei How n yore snyhigremtgiin tang ound yy wna ota Egan had aed nna wg Engh ht es em ooDDubey'stice fl. Abashed, he asked meif would read out my play thi, Aer thee-year struggle to get the right budget and cast, Dubey presented Yasin Hindi magnificent production with Amish Par Jn the eponymous roe Te speak for the ently altered place of English in the Indian theatre today that Dubey has aot only produced many English plays since then but hs eeenty writen one hime, | woul ike to se this occasion to acknowledge the immense oad of gratitde owe the three whe shaped theif of tht ply: Boshi, Kirinath Kuskot and Satya Dabe. My danksare also due to Sona Pradhan in New York (te orginal Devayani) and Arundhati Raja of the Artist’ Repertory Theat, ‘Banglore, who persuaded me wo take a seriou look at translating it into English, ‘June 2007 Girish Karna Bangalore YAYATIPrologue The Sutadhara enters and address the audience, SUTRADHARA: Good evening. Iam the Sutrdhara, which literally ‘means ‘the holder of strings It hasbeen argued by some scholars that this tide exabishes my neage back othe puppeteer theranipuator of marionettes. But others, equally eminent, ave saith string being sn instrument of measurement, ataly points to my descent om ‘thecarpenter the rop-makror the architect. neff Lam the person wo has conceived the structures here, whether of rick nd mortar or of words. Ihave designed and consecrated the tage. Iam responsible for the choice ofthe text. And here Lam now, to introduce the performance and wo ensure that takes place without any hindrance. ‘Our ply this evening dake with a ancient myth. But, let me rash ‘© cplan itis nota ‘mythological: Heaven forbid A mythological aims to plunge ws into the sentiment of devotion. I sets out to prove the thesoleeason for our suffering inthis words that we have osshen ‘ur gods. The mythological is Bere convinced tat all suring is rmerelya calculated test devised by the pods tcheck out our willingness to submit to thelr wil. Ife crush our gos and give ourselves up ia surrender, divine grace will descend upon ws and redcem us, There arene deaths in mythological for no mater howe hard you ty, deathcannot ive meaning to anything that has gone before. ltmerelyemtis| Iie of meaning (Ourpliy has no gods. Anditdeals with death. key element nits plot isthe ‘Sanievan’vidya—the art of reviving the dead, which Promises redease from the lmitations ofthe etng i thief istapped in. The gods andthe rkshasas have been Kling each other fom the beginning of time fr the possession ofthis at. Humans have been struglingtomasterit Sadly, we aspire tobecomse immortal but xnnot achieve the locity necesay to understand eternity, Death eludes