Dhanurdas

DHANURDAS
[Playlet]

D. V. KRISHNA SASTRY
(Translated from Telugu by B. RAJANIKANTA RAO)

CHARACTERS

Bhagavan Sri Ramanuja                                                            Vishnuchitta
Dhanurdas:                                           Wrestler Maruti
Hemangi:                                              His wife                        Balayya
Madhava:                                             His servant                   Andhra Purna
Parasara                                                                                   Gomatharya
Srinivasa Pilgrim devotees’ chorus.
Choodamma Pilgrims Beggar
Nancharamma
Seenayya A party of dancing girls.

PROLOGUE (A HYMN)

In him, who is mysteriously playful
in creating, nourishing and destroying the whole universe,
In him, who has sworn to be the protector of all
species of beings who supplicate to him;
In him, who is the unborn being shining above the
message of scriptures, in Srinivasa
In that Supreme Soul, let my brilliance
in the shape of unswerving devotion, ever remain!

SCENE I

[Place: Nichulapuri, that is Uraiyur. Home of Dhanurdas. Dhanurdas is seen in a humming mood.]

Hemangi: So the madness has come down to the stage of singing too!

Dhanurdas: (Tunefully) Hemangi, O Hemangi! Hema, Hema, Hemangi! Doesn’t speak; give it up!

Hemangi: How can one speak? If one is called half a dozen times in one single breath, how can one respond? If at all I can guess whether it is a song or a calling.

Dhanurdas: How can I rest without calling you...after such a long time since you went inside?

Hemangi: Such a long time? That’s making much of things! It couldn’t be more than ten minutes.

Dhanurdas: Why do you say that? Why should it be even ten minutes? Hema! Don’t you have a yearning to look at me? You don’t seem to be having as much affection as I have for you.

Hemangi: (Coyly) Should you say like that? Can I care less? You speak in that manner! Will it look nice if I expose myself to such madness as you do?

Dhanurdas: May it be ten minutes! But, how can you remain without looking at me?

(Sound of knocking at the door and calling “Dhanurdas!”)

Hemangi: Right thing at the right moment. Wouldn’t I see how you are kept away?

Dhanurdas: Can you say the fellow who calls me like that has any brains? If I catch him by the neck and shake just once, be would fall down like a lily stem.

(From outside–servant calling “Dhanurdas, O Dhanurdas!”)

Dhanurdas: Buddy, come. Come inside; don’t shout! What are you excited about? Why are you dying for breath?

Madhava: That wrestler from Kerala has arrived. Looks like invincible. Six feet height! Broad shoulders. And legs like steel girders!

Dhanurdas: Enough! Shut up. Arrange for this evening. Let Chennappa meet him in the bout...in our arena itself.

Madhava: All right. But...

Dhanurdas: Get out. (Shouts. Madhava is frightened and runs away)

Hermangi: My God! How loud you have shouted, my lord! If you go on looking at me even while you were talking to Madhava, what would he think of us?

Dhanurdas: Care two hoots about his dirty face. He is a monkey.

Hemangi: No. Please think of it a while. Will it be good, if you go on looking at a thing, always, however charming it might be? One must divert one’s looks to other things also. Only thereafter your charming object will be more charming to look at.

(“Dhanurdas ... Dhanurdas!” call from outside. Hemangi laughs, shaking the whole body.)

Dhanurdas: Now this fellow will be strangled to death in my hands like a crane, like a frail fox. Calls me not less than ten times whenever be chooses...this wretched fellow Madhava! ... come in … come in (shouts)

Madhava: (Panting for breath) Comes from Maharashtra...an elephant; big mountain!...this wrestler looks quite sleek and sound.

Dhanurdas: Stop! Don’t describe further. Assign our Muneyya to challenge him. Go. Why Don’t you go away? (Exit Madhava)…Hemangi…!

Hemangi: (Laughing) Your one single yelling catapults him into the street. My lord, can our people fight with all these wrestlers?

Dhanurdas: Yes, they can. But, there is one fellow in Andhra country. If he comes, I alone will match.

Hemangi: Whyhave so many wrestlers arrived here now, my dear?

Dhanurdas: They are on their way to the spring festival in Srirangam.

Hemangi: Is it a fact? Is it a fact? (Affectionately) Then my dear, I have a desire. Will you do it? Promise! It is not enough if you just say “yes.” (Laughing) Don’t nod your head. You would be diverted from looking at me. Say “Promise” and lay your hand in mine.

Dhanurdas: Promise. (Lays his hand in hers)

Hemangi: Shh! Ahh! don’t pinch my palm dear...(with pain)

Dhanurdas: Hey Madhava! We are leaving for Srirangam. Make arrangements.

Madhava: Then, how about the wrestling bout in the evening?

Dhanurdas: Get out...dragging your feet like a cadaver. You dare advise me with your brains and servant’s status. What a dirty face!

(Madhava goes out. Dhanurdas sings. Exit Hemangi and Dhanurdas.)

SCENE II

[Noises of festival crowd. Lord Sriranganatha of Srirangam is at the head of a procession. From a distance is heard sonorous Nagaswaram recital along with drum and bronze-beat. Dhanurdas and Hemangi enter the procession. People go about, moving in groups and talking.]

Parasara: Seenu, how far is the festival procession? What a huge crowd!

Srinivasa: Look here Parasara! Procession seems to have reached the turning. It is alright, but, who is he? What is the fun of his holding the umbrella to her, while keeping on looking at her eyes? Is he a poet? He does’t seem to care about the festival.  

Parasara: Oh! It is Dhanurdas … of Uraiyur. Well-known wrestler. She might be his wife or a mistress. People refer to her as Hemangi.

Srinivasa: Whosoever it might be, what is this show of umbrella and all that?
(The crowd laughs)

Choodamma: Dear me! Dear me! Have a look at that couple, Nancharamma.

Nanchar: May you have the pleasure, Choodamma, of staring at that pair of love-birds?

Choodamma: It is alright if he holds the umbrella for her. He is the he-man, what else? He might do whatever he likes. However much accomplished she might be, should she not feel shy? What is this coquetry and fashion parade in the middle of the street? Would it not be uncomfortable for us to witness? She must know how to feel shy.

Nanchar: O blessed woman! What is all this? Out of all, why should you feel uncomfortable? Poor dear! For her part, she appears to be feeling shy. Although, Choodamma, what is it that has come to your mind?
(Laughter of women’s crowd)

Seenayya: My God! this blessed couple is pushing me aside! What is all this public flirtation? This festival and procession do not seem to mean anything to them. He has trampled upon my foot. He has hurt my eye with his umbrella. Why do you carry it in this congested crowd? Don’t you have brains! O my God! what a bone-breaking push!
(Laughter of crowd)

Dhanurdas: Hemangi, don’t turn your head like that.

Sways over your eyes, the cool shade of the blue umbrella held in my hand;
Envelops around you, the warm shade of the stainless umbrella of my sleepless and ever wakeful love;
My dear, do not bend even a wee bit this side or that.

Hemangi: Shhh...What is this...even here? People will laugh at us My lord, to which village does that Bhajan party belong?

Srinivasa: Looks like a poet. Poor fellow. I have already thought of it.

Parasara: That is not the thing. The Bhajan party is coming.

Bhajan Party:

To the heavenly city on earth, you’re welcome O my lord;
Bring all the treasures of priceless gems, you are having with you;
For your sake and my sake and for the welfare of us all.
The boon-giver has left the heaven, so, there he blesses us all!
In the fountain stream of Cauveri, have a dip in the
Collecting a variety of blossoms from the temple yard;
For worshipping our Lord Hari, who presided over there
Along with consort having a heart more delicate than fragrance!

Hemangi: Oh, what a deep devotion is yours! Where do you come from?

Devotee: From the country of Kalinga. We belong to Pithapuram, mother. (Bhajan party moves away)

Hemangi: Who are they, my Lord?

Dhanurdas: Hema, come under the umbrella.

Hemangi: Poor dear! How far are these widows coming from?

Widows chorus’:

Cauveri Ranga Ranga, my Lord, Kasturi Ranga Ranga
Would not your queen appraise you of our supplication and save us?
Life is reduced to half, my Lord, it’s a burden unbearable;
A guilt awaits at every step, father, save us from fear!
Having left the heavenly city, father, having crossed all universes;
To wipe away my tears, have you come to protect me?
Unique compassion is yours, my Lord, unique deity are you!
Unique poor woman am I, father, incapable of even this song!

Hemangi: Oh, what a nice song! Which is the country you come from?

Widow: We come from Orugallu in Telengana.

Dhanurdas: Hemangi, why do you go far away?

Hemangi: Wait a minute...a blind beggar is singing a good philosophic lyric. Please listen.

Beggar: May it be of green leaves, or even of golden bars,
Why do you choose to live in a cage, O parrot?
May you ascend the ladders of light,
ever, brightening the blue heavens parrot!
In the heavenly city on the banks of the Viraja
There is a park of orchids, parrot!
Hidden behind the leaf and flower is
The fruit of immortality, parrot!

Hcmangi: Take this, old man. Which is the village you come from?

Beggar: My mother, my mother, I come from Kamalapuram in Karnataka.

Hemangi: My Lord, look at that group of dancing girls. How nicely she is acting before the Lord! Which is the native place of this party?

Voice: We arc from Kanchi. Our leader is Kamasundari.

(Song of the dancing girls’ party)

What is the worth of a woman’s birth?
O woman it is but futile!
What is the worth of one thousand
jasmine-white garments?
Of what worth is it to don
the garlands of nine gems?
Of what use, if one decorates
herself full of blossoms,
If she is not in union with
Lord Kasturi Ranga!
(Different voices from the pilgrims’ crowd in the procession)

“Arrives, the Lord Arrives! The Lord is giving Darsan”
Garudalvar! Garudalvar!” Is this not the day of lion-riding
for the Lord? “O my father Ranga, Rangasayi,
Ranganatha, Rangayya, Ranga, Ranga”
“Oh, look up there! there comes Sri Ramanuja!”
The great Yatiraja is amidst the devotees!
Oh, he shines like the moon amidst the stars.”

(Then the party reciting the Dravida devotional lyrics arrives)
(Dravidian devotional lyrics)

May anyone wanting to know about Kannan,
understand that it means nothing else except
the sacred name of Lord Narayana!
with the body shining like the saphire hill, the mouth like the coral reef and the eyes like the red lotus
the indisplaceable, worshipped by the immortals, and a pet of the cowherds;
rather than giving up the taste of his grace, I wouldn’t mind refusing the taste of even Indra’s Heaven. O Lord of Srirangam;
the garden full of the buz of the bees,
the garden where the peacocks revel in dance,
the garden where the blue clouds throng;
the garden where the cuckoos sing,
the garden where the Almighty presides,
that is what Srirangam is…a locket-piece on the bosom of the earth!
Snatch away the edibles from the ignorants;
better feed the dog with them (Tondaradippodi Alwar)

(The noises of the procession, etc., move away further)

Sri Ramanuja: Vishnuchitta!

Vishnuchitta: Yes, your worshipful!

Sri Ramanuja: Who is that-man with the halo?

Vishnuchitta: Whom is your worshipful referring to?

Sri Ramanuja: He who holds the umbrella to the eyes of that woman.

Vishnuchitta: He is awrestler called Dhanurdas.

Maruti: He comes from Uraiyur, master!

Balarya: The woman is Hemangi, his wife.

Andhra Purna: Day and night, he keeps on looking at her eyes and worshipping them. How do your worshipful see a halo around him?
Maruti: Out of all people, if your worshipful speak in that manner…

Balarya: He is a mere womaniser.

Vishnuchitta: He does all this in the very presence of Lord Ranganatha.

Sri Ramanuja; Vishnuchitta. Andhra Purna, my son Balarya, look at his single-minded devotion which is not practicable even to a great sage. Maruti, now, you say he isa slave of that woman’s eyes. By evening today he will become a slave of the divine pair of eyes. Gomatha, this evening you go to the choultry where he is putting up and bring him to the temple of Sriranganatha, on our invitation.

Maruthi: Master!

Balarya: Lord!

Vishnuchitta: Acharya, will he come?

Gomatharya: Should he be brought to the temple?

Sri Ramanuja: Yes. Without fail, he will come. I know, my son. I am visualising clearly. Dhanurdas is a great devotee. Oh, what an affection! What a determination! What a concentration! Dhanurdas is the best of all devotees.

(From a distance, music on Nagaswaram rises triumphantly and in an exciting manner.)

SCENE III

[Evening. Ringing of the temple bells is heard. In the temple of Sriranganatha, in the sanctum sanctorum Sri Ramanuja sitting in meditation heads a congregation of devotees who, at a distance, stand in attention.]

Gomatha: Come on Dhanurdas, come into the temple. Why do you hesitate?

Dhanurdas: Master, may I know your good name?

Gomatha: Gomatharya.

Dhanurdas: May I guess that you are a disciple of Srimad Ramanuja?

Gomatha: I am a particle of dust of the great teacher’s sacred feet.

Dhanurdas: Sir, really is it me, that the great teacher has invited?

Gomatha: Yes, my son. It is his order. Unless one is virtuous one rarely gets it. Why do you hesitate like that, Dhanurdas?

Dhanurdas: Master, should I come?...Hema, Hemangi...are you also coming?…Master, why does that bell ring continuously like that?…Sir, are all these people devotees? Oh! Oh! This sweet fragrance...does it come from the burning incense and lights from within the sanctum? ...Hemangi, are you accompanying me? Please be with me. Master, are they preparing here the sandal paste for Lord Sriranganatha? How nice! Who has needled these garlands? How nicely they have placed them in clusters! Sir, why are this ringing of the bells, these fragrances, and the brilliance of all these lights getting mixed up…getting merged into one halo in my mind? Master, why so many lights?…Hemangi don’t leave my hand. My God, what a crowd of pilgrims! Master, are all of them devotees of the Lord? Is that the sanctum! Oh, ah…there, there...who...who...(hesitating)

Gomatha: Dhanurdas, it is he, the great Guru, Srimad Ramanuja.

(Starts in a slow soft distant voice, becomes gradually louder as if coming nearer, in deep bass like thunder, melodiously set to a Raga, the prayers of Srimad Ramanuja in respect of the Lord’s cansort and the Lord are heard.)

Sri Ramanuja: (Prayer to Goddess Lakshmi)

Whosoever is bestowed with own form, beauty, talents, pomp, prosperity, character, and all other endless, innumerable auspicious attributes quite appropriately manifested according to the will of Lord Narayana, whosoever resides in the lake of lotuses, Goddess, the presiding deity of riches, eternally unendangered, unblemished, the divine consort of the Lord of all immortals, the mother of all the universes, my mother, the only refuge to the one, who has no refuge, to her I surrender, and take refuge in her. (Silence for a moment)

Dhanurdas: (With fear, in whispering voice) Master, shall I too come in. Come in, Hemangi.

Sri Ramanuja: (Prayer to God Narayana)

One who is opposed to all detestable things,
Concentration of all that is auspicious,
Who is the personification of boundless, unspecified knowledge
–specifying of all objects whether pertaining to self or beyond;
Who takes the only form conforming to one’s own conception;
Who is of unthinkable, divine, wonderful, eternal,
unblemished, unsurpassed brilliance, beauty,
sweet fragrance, delicateness, elegance, youthfulness
and other heavenly attributes;
endless wonder of a variety of rarities appropriate to
one’s own self; eternal unblemished, unsurpassed
fragrance, unsurpassed sense of happiness of touch;
who is decorated by the crown, crown-piece, ear-rings,
necklaces, garlands, armlets, mole and amulet,
pearls, the yellow silk lower garment and the golden zone,
and who has been the Almighty, the Super-man, the Lord of Vaikuntha,
O Lord, there is no other refuge for me excepting the pair of
your sacred feet, before which, I surrender myself!

(Sri Ramanuja gets into ecstasy, as he goes on further)        

O the great one wearing on his person, the sun, the moon and the stars
like the most precious jewels, the brilliance of which
makes him look most elegant,
decorated withbracelets anklets, crown, necklaces
and shining ear-rings, the magnificent effulgence
of which encompasses the boundless horizons,
to you, I bow, to you, I bow, to you, I bow!
(Silence for one moment)

Gomatharya: Master of masters! Dhanurdas istaking refuge in the pair of your sacred feet.

Sri Ramanuja: My son, Dhanurdas.

Dhanurdas: Master, I have come. My Lord, have you graciously ordered me to come? Is that really me?...Hema ...are you there?

Sri Ramanuja: (Affectionately) Dhanurdas, have you come?

Dhanurdas: Master! Is it me that you have ordered to come?

Sri Ramanuja: Dhanurdas, why have you taken so long?

Dhanurdas: My Lord, quickly I came up to the temple campus. Ever since the morning, my mind has not been quiet. It was not steady. When even the blind and deaf destitutes and beggars were calling “Ranga”, “Ranga” I was not courageous enough to enter the temple.
In spite of all, I could not stay away my Lord; was it me that you asked to come?

Sri Ramanuja: Yes, it is very much you; I wanted Dhanurdas to come.

Dhanurdas: Master! It is me that you sent word for! How fortunate!

Saying,             “Come, come and nourish us
O compassionate master”
as the deaf and blind destitutes
waiting at the threshold
raise their beads and cry aloud,
some vague fear or hesitation
inside the heart pushed me behind
then and there rang out the resonance of
your sublime invitation saying
“O Dhanurdas, come in, my dear, come!”

Sri Ramanuja: (Smiling with graciousness)

My son, you do not know the way in which Sriranganayaka’s graciousness manifests itself!

Standing at the threshold
in the precincts of the home of
the Lord who lies down on the submarine serpentine couch
and raising his full-throated voice,
if even the worst sinner calls aloud
“Ranga, Ranga,” the heaven certainly
comes down with all parental affection!
Dhanurdas, who is this woman?

Dhanurdas: My wife, Hemangi.

Sri Ramanuja: A real beauty. Fine eyes! Dhanurdas, when our Lord Srirangadeva was moving in procession, were you not there in the festival?

Dhanurdas: Yes...Yes...Master...I... I…(stops hesltatlngly)

Sri Ramanuja: You…?

Dhanurdas: Myself and Hemangi. Hemangi is my wife.

Sri Ramanuja: If that is so, Dhanurdas, why should one come to the spring festival and to the august presence of the Lord? Your looks do not appear to have been turned at all to the Lord. Poor dear! How steadily you were holding the umbrella to your wife! Were you not holding it only to protect her eyes? Dhanurdas, why did you hold the umbrella to her eyes?

Dhanurdas: (Starting with hesitation and picking up courage gradually) My Lord, there are no eyes more beautiful than those of Hemangi. I am living for them. I cannot divert, even for a moment, my attention from them. I do not know how long would I thrive, and what would happen to me later…Diverting my look towards any other object, I don’t want to miss even a single moment.

Sri Ramanuja: Dear me! Dear me!...In case there are eyes more beautiful than hers?

Dhanurdas: There can’t be! They are nowhere.

Sri Ramanuja: If at all there are?

Dhanurdas: Only to them, day and night, I offer my service.

Sri Ramanuja: Well, Dhanurdas, first of all, look at me steadily.

Dhanurdas: (After a second’s silence) Master, why are you looking at me like that? Something within me is getting, dissolved. Some unknown power is possessing me. My Lord, My Lord!
(Pause for a few moments)

Sri Ramanuja: (Steadily and in deep bass voice) My son, Dhanurdas, look at that side...there, the divine pair of eyes of Lord Sriranganayaka favouring us with his august presence
...Oh great Lord, Srirangadeva!…
One eye is the stupendous solar corona
emitting ferocious fumes of summer heat;
While the other autumnal lunar halo
of cool misty veil;
You are the sovereign of the universes, and
my beloved merciful master;
and now, where is the fear, if you open
the pair of eyes at once, O Ranganayaka!”

(Speaks in a whispering voice) ... Dhanurdas!

Dhanurdas: Aha! (In a low ecstatic whisper) Aha!
(Voices of people standing around exclaiming):
“Aha, aha” “Oho” “Oho” “Look, Dhanurdas swooned!
Oh, what an enigma! Sri Ramanuja is toofurious and
too cool at the same time”…Look, look, Dhanurdas
regains consciousness and rises.” (Silence for a moment.)

Dhanurdas: O Great Lord, Sriranganayaka (weeping)
“Have you no compassion at all?
Why have you hidden all these days,
the lilting dance of the lightning curve of your
loving looks
within the corners of your eyes
unravelling your mysterious playfulness?
Had I ever witnessed the same wouldn’t I have
spurned and come out of the stony immobility?
O Lord of Srirangam, ocean of blissful beauty,
wouldn’t I have danced in raptures like a peacock?
(Still weeping) Father, what a gracious favour you have
extended to this Dhanurdas?
O my father, my life is a wilderness burnt up since long;

Let the cool stream of showers dropping

from the festoon of monsoon clouds
which is verily the same as your side long glance
shining with your graciousness be sprinkled at least once,
so that, the fire of thirst is quenched and life becomes
a bit cool...my Lord!

(Still weeping)

If the eyes become lily blossoms,
the line of collyrium ... a warm of bees
and the fine look an arrow ...
what else will be the outcome
except devastation, deceit and distress? …
O unexpendable ocean of compassion,
would it unveil the paths inside the blind oblivion
or erect new heavens before me, O Ranganayaka?
Merely one may perceive some things
to be eyes; or some to be blue lilies, but,
doesn’t the coolness of a myriad dewy rays
surpass and contain the effulgence of a myriad suns?
As I go on staring at,
where can I discern your eye or sky?
what is the basement of your feet?
where is the basement of the sea?
I am unable to know how could your formless self
at all be contained in this pair of eyes?
Do you look without or do you look within
and from now on,
may it be without or within
is it light or delight
O Lord of Lakshmi,
I am unable to know
whether it is blue depths or blue heights!

Sri Ramanuja: Dhanurdas, here is the sacred water sanctified by the touch of Lord’s feet; come on, have it. Child Hemangi, you too have it. Come on, come here. Parasara, Balarya, Gomatha and Vishnuchitta, all of you have it. Child Hemangi, come here.

(Devotional Chorus)

May you triumph, may you triumph!
Lord of Lakshmi, may you triumph!
Auspicious ideal, may you triumph!
No disease, no death, may you triumph!
Let good hopes only prevail ever
Having the pair of feet ever washed by
Honey dripping from the blossoms which
Decorate the heads of Suras and Asuras
May you triumph, may you triumph!
You are the harbour protecting ever
Movable and immovable beings,
O Lord full of grace, may you triumph!
O Lord with sacred pair of feet,
Painted red by the shining rubies
Of the looks of holy sages
O Lord wearing the garland of gems
Comprising the sun, the moon and stars
Lying on the serpent couch in milky-way
May you triumph, may you triumph!

(Temple bells)

FINISH