Chapter 3

SUDARSHANA. That is no free gift, but an extortion, of reward. I do not like to see you put on what was given in so indifferent a manner. Take it off--I give you my bracelets if you leave it here. Take these bracelets, and go now. [ROHINI goes out.] Another defeat! I should have thrown this necklace away,--but I could not! It is pricking me as if it were a garland of thorns-- but I cannot throw it away. This is what the god of the festival has brought me to-night--this necklace of ignominy and shame!

V

[GRANDFATHER near the door of the Pleasure House. A Company of MEN]

GRANDFATHER. Have you had enough of it, friends?

FIRST MAN. Oh, more than that, Grandpa. Just see, they have made me red all over. None has escaped.

[Author's note: During the spring festival in India people throw red powder on each other. In this play this red powder has been taken to be the symbol of the passion of love.]

GRANDFATHER. No? Did they throw the red dust on the Kings too?

SECOND MAN. But who could approach them? They were all secure inside the enclosures.

GRANDFATHER. So they have escaped you! Could you not throw the least bit of colour on them? You should have forced your way there.

THIRD MAN. My dear old man, they have a different sort of red specially to themselves. Their eyes are red: the turbans of their guards and retinue are red too. And the latter flourished their swords about so much that a little more nearness on our part would have meant a lavish display of the fundamental red colour.

GRANDFATHER. Well done, friends--always keep them at a distance. They are the exiles of the Earth--and we have got to keep them so.

THIRD MAN. I am going home, Grandpa; it is past midnight.[Goes out.]

[Enter a BAND of SINGERS, singing.]

/* All blacks and whites have lost their distinction And have become red--red as the tinge of your feet. Red is my bodice and red are my dreams, My heart sways and trembles like a red lotus. */

GRANDFATHER. Excellent, my friends, splendid! So you had a really enjoyable time!

SINGERS. Oh, grand! Everything was red, red! Only the moon in the sky gave us the slip--it remained white.

GRANDFATHER. He only looks so innocent from the outside. If you had only taken off his white disguise, you would have seen his trickery. I have been watching what red colours he is throwing on the Earth to-night. And yet, fancy his remaining white and colourless all the while!

SONG.

/* With you is my game, love, my love! My heart is mad, it will never own defeat, Do you think you will escape stainless yourself reddening me with red powder? Could I not colour your robe with the red pollens of the blossom of my heart? */

[They go out.]

[Enter the "KING" and KANCHI.]

KANCHI. You must do exactly as I have told you. Let there be no mistake of any kind.

"KING". There shall be no mistake.

KANCHI. The Queen Sudarshana's mansions are in the ...

"KING". Yes, sire, I have seen the place well.

KANCHI. What you have got to do is to set fire to the garden, and then you will take advantage of the bustle and confusion to accomplish your object straightway.

"KING". I shall remember.

KANCHI. Look here, Sir Pretender, I cannot help thinking that a needless fear is troubling us--there is really no King in this country.

"KING". My sole aim is to rid this country of this anarchy. Your common man cannot live without a King, whether a real one or a fraud! Anarchy is always a source of danger.

KANCHI. Pious benefactor of the people, your wonderful self- sacrifice should really be an example to all of us. I am thinking of doing this extraordinary service to the people myself. [They go out.]

VI

ROHINI. What is the matter? I cannot make out what is all this! [To the GARDENERS.] Where are you all going away in such a hurry?

FIRST GARDENER. We are going out of the garden.

ROHINI. Where?

SECOND GARDENER. We do not know where--the King has called us.

ROHINI. Why, the King is in the garden. Which King has called you?

FIRST GARDENER. We cannot say.

SECOND GARDENER. The King we have been serving all our life, of course.

ROHINI. Will you all go?

FIRST GARDENER. Yes, all--we have to go instantly. Otherwise we might get into trouble. [They go out.]

ROHINI. I cannot understand their words.... I am afraid. They are scampering off like wild animals that fly just before the bank of a river breaks down into the water.

[Enter KING OF KOSHALA]

KOSHALA. Rohini, do you know where your King and Kanchi have gone?

ROHINI. They are somewhere in the garden, but I could not tell you where.

KOSHALA. I cannot really understand their intentions. I have not done well to put my trust in Kanchi. [Exit.]

ROHINI. What is this dark affair going on amongst these kings? Something dreadful is going to happen soon. Shall I too be drawn into this affair? [Enter AVANTI]

AVANTI. Rohini, do you know where the other princes are?

ROHINI. It is difficult to say which of them is where. The King of Koshala just passed by in this direction.

AVANTI. I am not thinking of Koshala. Where are your King and Kanchi?

ROHINI. I have not seen them for a long time.

AVANTI. Kanchi is always avoiding us. He is certainly planning to deceive us all. I have not done well to put my hand in this imbroglio. Friend, could you kindly tell me any way out of this garden?

ROHINI. I have none.

AVANTI. Is there no man here who will show me the way out?

ROHINI. The servants have all left the garden.

AVANTI. Why did they do so?

ROHINI. I could not exactly understand what they meant. They said the King had commanded them to leave the garden at once.

AVANTI. King? Which King? Rohini They could not say exactly.

AVANTI. This does not sound well. I shall have to find a way out at any cost. I cannot stay here a single moment more. [Goes out hurriedly.]

ROHINI. Where shall I find the King? When I gave him the flowers the Queen had sent, he did not seem much interested in me at the time; but ever since that hour he has been showering gifts and presents on me. This causeless generosity makes me more afraid.... Where are the birds flying at such an hour of the night? What has frightened them all of a sudden? This is not the usual time of their flight, certainly, ... Why is the Queen's pet deer running that way? Chapata! Chapata! She does not even hear my call. I have never seen a night like this! The horizon on every side suddenly becomes red, like a madman's eye! The sun seems to be setting at this untimely hour on all sides at the same time. What madness of the Almighty is this! ... Oh, I am frightened! ... Where shall I find the King?

VII

[At the Door of the QUEEN'S Palace]

"KING". What is this you have done, Kanchi?

KANCHI. I wanted to fire only this part of the garden near the palace. I had no idea that it would spread so quickly on all sides. Tell me, quick, the way out of this garden.

"KING". I can tell you nothing about it. Those who brought us here have all fled away.

VII

KANCHI. You are a native of this country--you must know the way.

"KING". I have never entered these inner royal gardens before.

KANCHI. I won't hear of it--you must show me the way, or I shall split you into halves.

"KING". You may take my life by that means, but it would be a very precarious method of finding the way out of this garden.

KANCHI. Why were you, then, going about saying that you were the King of this country?

"KING". I am not the King--I am not the King. [Throwing himself on the ground with folded hands.] Where art thou, my King? Save me, oh, save me! I am a rebel--punish me, but do not kill me!

KANCHI. What is the use of shouting and cringing to the empty air? It is a much better way of spending the time to search for the way.

"KING". I shall lie down here--I shall not move an inch. Come what will, I shall not complain.

KANCHI. I will not allow all this nonsense. If I am to be burnt to death, you will be my companion to the very end.

FROM THE OUTSIDE. Oh, save us, save us, our King! The fire is on all sides of us!

KANCHI. Fool, get up, lose no more time.

SUDARSHANA. [entering] King, O my King! save me, save me from death! I am surrounded by fire.

"KING". Who is the King? I am no King.

SUDARSHANA. You are not the King?

"KING". No, I am a hypocrite, I am a scoundrel. [Flinging his crown on the ground.] Let my deception and hypocrisy be shattered into dust! [Goes out with KANCHI.]

SUDARSHANA. No King! He is not the King? Then, O thou God of fire, burn me, reduce me to ashes! I shall throw myself into thy hands, O thou great purifier; burn to ashes my shame, my longing, my desire.

ROHINI. [entering] Queen, where are you going? All your inner chambers are shrouded in raging fire--do you not enter there.

SUDARSHANA. Yes! I will enter those burning chambers! It is the fire of my death! [Enters the Palace.]

VIII

[The Dark Room. The KING and SUDARSRANA]

KING. Do not be afraid--you have no cause for fear. The fire will not reach this room.

SUDARSHANA. I have no fear--but oh, shame has accompanied me like a raging fire. My face, my eyes, my heart, every part of my body is being scorched and burnt by its flames.

KING. It will be some time before you get over this burning.

SUDARSHANA. This fire will never cease-will never cease!

KING. Do not be despondent, Queen!

SUDARSHANA. O King, I shall not hide anything from you.... I have another's garland round my neck.

KING. That garland, too, is mine--how else could he get it? He stole it from my room.

SUDARSHANA. But it is his gift to me: yet I could not fling this garland away! When the fire came roaring on all sides of me, I thought of throwing this garland into the fire. But no, I could not. My mind whispered, "Let that garland be on you in your death." ... What fire is this, O King, into which I, who had come out to see you, leaped like a moth that cannot resist the flame? What a pain is this, oh, what agony! The fire keeps burning as fiercely as ever, but I go on living within its flames!

KING. But you have seen me at last--your desire has been fulfilled.

SUDARSHANA. But did I seek to see you in the midst of this fearful doom? I know not what I saw, but my heart is still beating fast with fear.

KING. What did you see?

SUDARSHANA. Terrible,--oh, it was terrible! I am afraid even to think of it again. Black, black--oh, thou art black like the everlasting night! I only looked on thee for one dreadful instant. The blaze of the fire fell on your features--you looked like the awful night when a comet swings fearfully into our ken-- oh, then I closed my eyes--I could not look on you any more. Black as the threatening storm-cloud, black as the shoreless sea with the spectral red tint of twilight on its tumultuous waves!

KING. Have I not told you before that one cannot bear my sight unless one is already prepared for me? One would want to run away from me to the ends of the earth. Have I not seen this times without number? That is why I wanted to reveal myself to you slowly and gradually, not all too sudden.

SUDARSHANA. But sin came and destroyed all your hopes--the very possibility of a union with you has now become unthinkable to me.

KING. It will be possible in time, my Queen. The utter and bleak blackness that has to-day shaken you to your soul with fear will one day be your solace and salvation. What else can my love exist for?

SUDARSHANA. It cannot be, it is not possible. What will your love only do? My love has now turned away from you. Beauty has cast its spell on me--this frenzy, this intoxication will never leave me--it has dazzled and fired my eyes, it has thrown its golden glamour over my very dreams! I have told you all now--punish me as you like.

KING. The punishment has already begun.

SUDARSHANA. But if you do not cast me off. I will leave you

KING. You have the utmost liberty to do as you like.

SUDARSHANA. I cannot bear your presence! My heart is angry at you. Why did you--but what have you done to me? ... Why are you like this? Why did they tell me you were fair and handsome? Thou art black, black as night--I shall never, I can never, like you. I have seen what I love--it is soft as cream, delicate as the shirisha flower, beautiful as a butterfly.

KING. It is false as a mirage, empty as a bubble.

SUDARSHANA. Let it be--but I cannot stand near you--I simply cannot! I must fly away from here. Union with you, it cannot be possible! It cannot be anything but a false union--my mind must inevitably turn away from you.

KING. Will you not even try a little?

SUDARSHANA. I have been trying since yesterday--but the more I try, the more rebellious does my heart become. If I stay with you I shall constantly be pursued and hounded by the thought that I am impure, that I am false and faithless.

KING. Well then, you can go as far from me as you like.

SUDARSHANA. I cannot fly away from you--just because you do not prevent my going. Why do you not hold me back, hold me by the hair, saying, "You shall not go"? Why do you not strike me? Oh, punish me, strike me, beat me with violent hands! But your unresisting silence makes me wild--oh, I cannot bear it!

KING. How do you think that I am really silent? How do you know that I am not trying to keep you back?

SUDARSHANA. Oh, no, no !--I cannot bear this--tell me aloud, command me with the voice of thunder, compel me with words that will drown everything else in my ears--do not let me off so easily, so mildly!

KING. I shall leave you free, but why should I let you break away from me?

SUDARSHANA. You will not let me? Well then, I must go!

KING. Go then!

SUDARSHANA. Then I am not to blame at all. You could have held me back by force, but you did not! You have not hindered me--and now I shall go away. Command your sentinels to prevent my going.

KING. No one will stand in your way. You can go as free as the broken storm-cloud driven by the tempest.

SUDARSHANA. I can resist no more--something in me is impelling me forward--I am breaking away from my anchor! Perhaps I shall sink, but I shall return no more. [She rushes out.]

[Enter SURANGAMA, who sings]

SURANGAMA. What will of thine is this that sends me afar! Again shall I come back at thy feet from all my wanderings. It is thy love that feigns this neglect--thy caressing hands are pushing me away--to draw me back to thy arms again! O my King, what is this game that thou art playing throughout thy kingdom?

SUDARSHANA. [re-entering] King, O King!

SURANGAMA. He has gone away.

SUDARSHANA. Gone away? Well then, ... then he has cast me off for good! I have come back, but he could not wait a single instant for me! Very well, then, I am now perfectly free. Surangama, did he ask you to keep me back?

SURANGAMA. No, he said nothing.

SUDARSHANA. Why should he say anything? Why should he care for me? ... I am then free, perfectly free. But, Surangama, I wanted to ask one thing of the King, but could not utter it in his presence. Tell me if he has punished the prisoners with death.

SURANGAMA. Death? My King never punishes with death.

SUDARSHANA. What has he done to them, then?

SURANGAMA. He has set them at liberty. Kanchi has acknowledged his defeat and gone back to his kingdom.

SUDARSHANA. Ah, what a relief!

SURANGAMA. My Queen, I have one prayer to make to you.

SUDARSHANA. You will not have to utter your prayer in words, Surangama. Whatever jewellery and ornaments the King gave me, I leave to you--I am not worthy to wear them now.

SURANGAMA. No, I do not want them, my Queen. My master has never given me any ornaments to wear--my unadorned plainness is good enough for me. He has not given me anything of which I can boast before people.

SUDARSHANA. What do you want of me then?

SURANGAMA. I too shall go with you, my Queen.

SUDARSHANA. Consider what you are saying; you are wanting to leave your master. What a prayer for you to make!

SURANGAMA. I shall not go far from him--when you are going out unguarded he will be with you, close by your side.

SUDARSHANA. You are talking nonsense, my child. I wanted to take Rohini with me, but she would not come. What gives you courage enough to wish to come with me?

SURANGAMA. I have got neither courage nor strength. But I shall go--courage will come of itself, and strength too will come.

SUDARSHANA. No, I cannot take you with me; your presence will constantly remind me of my shame; I shall not be able to endure that.

SURANGAMA. O my Queen, I have made all your good and all your evil my own as well; will you treat me as a stranger still? I must go with you.

IX

[The KING OF KANYA KUBJA, father of SUDARSHANA, and his MINISTER]

KING OF KANYA KUBJA. I heard everything before her arrival.

MINISTER. The princess is waiting alone outside the city gates on the bank of the river. Shall I send people to welcome her home?

KING OF KANYA KUBJA. What! She who has faithlessly left her husband--do you propose trumpeting her infamy and shame to every one by getting up a show for her?

MINISTER. Shall I then make arrangements for her residence at the palace?

KING OF KANYA KUBJA. You will do nothing of the sort. She has left her place as the Empress of her own accord--here she will have to work as a maid-servant if she wants to stay in my house.

MINISTER. It will be hard and bitter to her, Your Highness.

KING OF KANYA KUBJA. If I seek to save her from her sufferings, then I am not worthy to be her father.

MINISTER. I shall arrange everything as you wish, Your Highness.

KING OF KANYA KUBJA. Let it be kept a secret that she is my daughter; otherwise we shall all be in an awful trouble.

MINISTER. Why do you fear such disaster, Your Highness?

KING OF KANYA KUBJA. When woman swerves from the right path, then she appears fraught with the direst calamity. You do not know with what deadly fear this daughter of mine has inspired me--she is coming to my home laden with peril and danger.

X

[Inner Apartments of the Palace. SUDARSHANA and SURANGAMA]

SUDARSHANA. Go away from me, Surangama! A deadly anger rages within me--I cannot bear anybody--it makes me wild to see you so patient and submissive.

SURANGAMA. Whom are you angry with?

SUDARSHANA. I do not know; but I wish to see everything destroyed and convulsed in ruin and disaster! I left my place on the throne as the Empress in a moment's time. Did I lose my all to sweep the dust, to sweat and slave in this dismal hole? Why do the torches of mourning not flare up for me all over the world? Why does not the earth quake and tremble? Is my fall but the unobserved dropping of the puny bean-flower? Is it not more like the fall of a glowing star, whose fiery blazon bursts the heavens asunder?

SURANGAMA. A mighty forest only smokes and smoulders before it bursts into a conflagration: the time has not come yet.

SUDARSHANA. I have thrown my queen's honour and glory to the dust and winds--but is there no human being who will come out to meet my desolate soul here? Alone--oh, I am fearfully, terribly alone!

SURANGAMA. You are not alone.

SUDARSHANA. Surangama, I shall not keep anything from you. When he set the palace on fire, I could not be angry with him. A great inward joy set my heart a-flutter all the while. What a stupendous crime! What glorious prowess! It was this courage that made me strong and fired my own spirits. It was this terrible joy that enabled me to leave everything behind me in a moment's time. But is it all my imagination only? Why is there no sign of his coming anywhere?

SURANGAMA. He of whom you are thinking did not set fire to the palace--it is the King of Kanchi who did it.

SUDARSHANA. Coward! But is it possible? So handsome, so bewitching, and yet no manhood in him! Have I deceived myself for the sake of such a worthless creature? O shame! Fie on me! ... But, Surangama, don't you think that your King should yet have come to take me back? [SURANGAMA remains silent.] You think I am anxious to go back? Never! Even if the King really came I should not have returned. Not even once did he forbid me to come away, and I found all the doors wide open to let me out! And the stony and dusty road over which I walked--it was nothing to it that a queen was treading on it. It is hard and has no feelings, like your King; the meanest beggar is the same to it as the highest Empress. You are silent! Well, I tell you, your King's behaviour is--mean, brutal, shameful!

SURANGAMA. Every one knows that my King is hard and pitiless--no one has ever been able to move him.

SUDARSHANA. Why do you, then, call him day and night?

SURANGAMA. May he ever remain hard and relentless like rock--may my tears and prayers never move him! Let my sorrows be ever mine only--and may his glory and victory be for ever!

SUDARSHANA. Surangama, look! A cloud of dust seems to rise over the eastern horizon across the fields.

SURANGAMA. Yes, I see it.

SUDARSHANA. Is that not like the banner of a chariot?

SURANGAMA. Indeed, a banner it is.

SUDARSHANA. Then he is coming. He has come at last!

SURANGAMA. Who is coming?

SUDARSHANA. Our King--who else? How could he live without me? It is a wonder how he could hold out even for these days.

SURANGAMA. No, no, this cannot be the King.

SUDARSHANA. "No," indeed! As if you know everything! Your King is hard, stony, pitiless, isn't he? Let us see how hard he can be. I knew from the beginning that he would come--that he would have to rush after me. But remember, Surangama, I never for a single moment asked him to come. You will see how I make your King confess his defeat to me! Just go out, Surangama, and let me know everything. [SURANGAMA goes out.] But shall I go if he comes and asks me to return with him? Certainly not! I will not go! Never!

[Enter SURANGAMA]

SURANGAMA. It is not the King, my Queen.

SUDARSHANA. Not the King? Are you quite sure? What! he has not come yet?

SURANGAMA. No, my King never raises so much dust when he comes. Nobody can know when he comes at all.

SUDARSHANA. Then this is--

SURANGAMA. The same: he is coming with the King of Kanchi.

SUDARSHANA. Do you know his name?

SURANGAMA. His name is Suvarna.

SUDARSHANA. It is he, then. I thought, "I am lying here like waste refuse and offal, which no one cares even to touch." But my hero is coming now to release me. Did you know Suvarna?

SURANGAMA. When I was at my father's home, in the gambling den

SUDARSHANA. No, no, I won't hear anything of him from you. He is my own hero, my only salvation. I shall know him without your telling stories about him. But just see, a nice man your King is! He did not care to come to rescue me from even this degradation. You cannot blame me after this. I could not have waited for him all my life here, toiling ignominiously like a bondslave. I shall never have your meekness and submissiveness.

XI

[Encampment]

KANCHI. [To KANYA KUBJA'S MESSENGER.] Tell your King that he need not receive us exactly as his guests. We are on our way back to our kingdoms, but we are waiting to rescue Queen Sudarshana from the servitude and degradation to which she is condemned here.

MESSENGER. Your Highness, you will remember that the princess is in her father's house.

KANCHI. A daughter may stay in her father's home only so long as she remains unmarried.

MESSENGER. But her connections with her father's family remain intact still.

KANCHI. She has abjured all such relations now.

MESSENGER. Such relationship can never be abjured, Your Highness, on this side of death: it may remain in abeyance at times, but can never be wholly broken up.