Evam Indrajit (Badal Sircar)

 Introduction: Evam Indrajit is a three-act play by Indian dramatist and theatre director Badal Sircar, first translated in 1975. It was the first play which was performed by Sircar’s ‘Shatabdi’ group. It was because of the performance of this group, Badal Sircar came to be known as a ‘barefoot playwright’. Evam Indrajit is an abstract, absurdist play with a central theme of the monotony of a mechanical existence. It explores the writing process and the search for inspiration and something exciting to motivate creation. It was Sircar’s first drama after a string of comedies, and remains one of his most enduring works, especially outside of his native India.

As Sircar investigates into the problems of middle-class society, he reflects on the existential attitude of modern life through contemporary situations. This play catches the attention of almost all concerned in the society. It displays the passion, ambition and frustration of the youth. The characters in it feel quite happy, consoled and relieved while moving on to their way. In the play, Manasi is a woman character and Amal, Vimal, Kamal and Indrajit are young youths who keep changing their roles, language and dresses, etc. with the progress of the play.

The play is a tragicomedy, inventive and contemporary in spirit. Sircar’s focus is on the meaninglessness of existence which is filled with a sense of concerned guilt and responsibility, maladjusted persons who belong to the urban middle class, and a world which is full of violence and inhumanity. The play not only demonstrates the external world but also the internal world or the psyche of the characters. It displays a true picture of the contemporary society, the meaninglessness and pointlessness of modern life.

Discussion: It is clearly observed that all the conventions of drama are given up in this play. In the opening of the play, a writer is seen on the stage, scribbling something on the papers, sitting with his back to the audience. Evam Indrajit is about a Writer, who struggles a lot to write a play but all in vain. Being unable to write something meaningful, he gets frustrated and angry. He himself admits that, though he tries to write a play yet he is not aware of the downtrodden – the labourers in the mines and the fields, the snake charmers and the fishermen. At this juncture, he is introduced to a woman named Manasi, who asks him to select the characters for his play from the people he knows. She suggests him to write about those people who are sitting in the audience and who appears to be quite undramatic.

Hence the Writer gets inspired by the suggestion of this lady and beacons four late coming youths from the audience to come on the stage and asks their names. In response to his question, they give their names as Amal, Vimal, Kamal and Nirmal. Listening to them, Writer gets perturbed and yells at the fourth one and challenges him that his name can be anything but Nirmal. Finally, the fourth man is compelled to expose the reality and confesses that his real name is Indrajit. He does so not to invite disturbance by breaking the set rules of the society. As against Indrajit, the characters like Amal, Vimal and Kamal are seen to be entirely different in their approach towards life. They represent the mass getting themselves satisfied only with their worldly comforts and never wishing to bring any change in their fixed routine. Such people are counted as the intellectuals of the society as they are knowledgeable about science, arts and worldly affairs. Their only aim of life is to achieve as many comforts as they can, as it provides them with a higher social status. They keep on doing all this without making a single attempt to think of the significance of their existence. As their existence is meaningless, they may be regarded as dead. When the Writer inquires Indrajit about his existence, - whether he is dead. At this, Indrajit replies that he is not sure about it.

The structure of this play comprises various interviews of the four male characters Amal, Vimal, Kamal, Indrajit and the female character Manasi taken by Writer. The other female character in the play is the Auntie, who is a typical elderly woman, understanding nothing about Writer’s attempts of writing something meaningful and, thus, represents the mass who is unable to realize what Sircar is writing about. With the help of the character of Writer, Badal Sircar in this play, attempts to demonstrate the life of the middle-class people and focuses on the middle class set of values which is rendered absurd. The very title of the play, Evam Indrajit suggests that the identity of Indrajit is not ‘only Indrajit’ but ‘and Indrajit’ and is presented being associated to the society and not being independently associated to his own existence. This play presents the hollow and futile picture of the pseudo-modern existence. Today with the progress of science, we are living in a world which demands success from every individual. Man, being a social animal, has been completely lost to its requirements and, in this way, he has lost his own individuality. Having been on such a stage in place of defining society, man is defined by society itself. Now man is bound with endless problems and frustration.

The character of Indrajit is chosen by Writer as the hero of his play. There is a scope of relationship between Indrajit and Manasi. Indrajit’s love relationship with Manasi cannot be considered to be appropriate in a middle-class society of India. As she was his cousin, so it becomes a case of taboo. A daring attitude is demonstrated by Indrajit to protest against the rigid norms of society, but he does not find the same kind of co-operation from the side of Manasi. In the starting phase of the play, we find Indrajit being possessed with a romantic spirit, as he looks being interested in a world which is beyond geography but inch by inch, he is seen becoming disillusioned. Though he gets to London, ultimately, he has to come back to the same place to accept the same existing system. Abiding by the existing social system he marries a girl and leads a toiling meaningless life. Still, it is his sheer consciousness of the world in which he is living, and his independent existence in the callous social system which is a point of great concern. Indrajit represents a modern man, who is afraid of going beyond the existing system and so he assumes a name ‘Nirmal’ to go to the same order.

Though the play Evam Indrajit is seen to be an expression of despair yet the dreams of Amal, Vimal, Kamal and Indrajit project a ray of hope. The characters represent the common men of the society suffering from a lot of external and internal conflicts. Out of all these factors, the play Evam Indrajit is found to be unconventional. The play is contemporaneous, inventive and replete with absurdist elements. The characters of the play are seen raising a voice against man’s existential crisis, his absurdity, death-wish, unemployment and anarchy prevalent in the society. Life is to be lived with full enthusiasm, zeal and zest, in place of being relegated to death. So, the desire for death is rejected in the play along with some other negative forces as cruelty, brutality, hypocrisy and foolishness, etc. The language of the play is ironical mixed with lyrical tone and touch.

Conclusion: The conclusion of the play, suggests that the present life system is fixed and it goes on the same way as everybody follows it. Still, there are a few who make an attempt to come out of this mechanical routine and think of an entirely new and dynamic system, without being afraid of getting rejected from the so-called established system. Such kind of people are represented in the play through  the characters, Writer and Indrajit. The main focus of the play is also on the point of existentialism to brood over the significance and meaning of one’s existence. Though, materialistically, the twenty-first century’s youth may be in a better condition from the youth of sixties, existentially, the same question is lying for them which was felt there in the play by Amal, Vimal, Kamal and Indrajit regarding the need of their running blindly after material gains, without being aware of the meaning of their existence.

 

 

The Battle of the Books (Jonathan Swift)

"The Battle of the Books" by Jonathan Swift contains a satirical account of the controversy that had been going on for some time in England with regard to the comparative merits of the ancient authors and modern authors.

Swift gives the origin of the dispute between the two parties of books in the very beginning in allegorical terms. He regards the ancient authors and the modern authors as the occupants of two summits of a mountain called Paranssus (which was sacred to Apollo and the Muses), the summit occupied by the Ancients being higher than the one occupied by the Moderns. A feeling of jealousy leads the Moderns to challenge the right of the Ancients to occupy the higher summit. The quarrel between the occupants of the two summits, says Swift, then spread to the books lying on the shelves of St. James’s Library.

Before describing the actual battle fought by the books, Swift takes the opportunity to attack Richard Bentley who was the keeper of the aforesaid library and a champion of the Ancients, Swift satirizes Bentley for his discourtesy towards those who wanted to borrow books or manuscripts from the library and for his inability to think clearly or to keep the library books in proper order.

Swift then turns to the books themselves and the dispute which was taking place between them. One of the Ancients, says Swift, had tried to settle the matter by arbitration but had failed in his effort to assuage the tempers. This ancient author had pointed out that the writers belonging to his side were really wiser than those of modern times and that they were entitled to greater respect because of their antiquity. But the Moderns did not accept this argument and went so far as to claim that of the two parties the Moderns were the more ancient.

Swift then proceeds to describe an important event that occurred at this juncture. A bee, finding a hole in a broken window-pane of the library, came inside and landed upon a spider’s cobweb. This invasion by the bee led to a dispute between the two (the spider and the bee). The spider spoke to the bee in a contemptuous tone, pointing out that while he himself owned an impressive palace(namely, his cobweb) the bee had no property or substance at all except a pair of wings and a drone pipe. The bee in reply said that heaven had given to him the power to fly and the power to sing, and that he visited all the flowers and the blossoms of the field and the garden, gathering the required materials for his use. The bee also alleged that the spider’s palace, while exhibiting “method and art”, was absolutely devoid of “duration and matter”. The bee went on to say that all that the spider produced was poison while the bee produced honey and wax.

Aesop now speaks and states that whatever the bee had said in favour of himself could be applied to the ancient authors and that whatever the bee had alleged against the spider could be applied to the Moderns. According to Aesop, the Moderns have no real grounds for boasting of their genius or their inventions because, even if they possess method and skill, they have only produced works which will soon be forgotten because the materials of which those works are made have come out of the authors themselves and are therefore no better than dirt. The Moderns cannot claim to any genuine productions of real value. Much in their work can be described as mere wrangling and satire which may be compared to the spider’s poison. As for the Ancients, they have their imaginative flights and their language. The Ancients collected their materials from every corner of Nature and they have produced works full of honey and wax which have contributed to mankind two of the noblest things, which are sweetness and light.

Swift then goes on to mention the books which took part in the battle. However, instead of naming the books by their titles, he names the authors of the books which took part in the fight. When the two armies of warriors had thus got ready for the battle, Fame, who had at one time an important position in the library, flew up straight to the chief god, Jupiter, and gave him a faithful account of what was happening below on the earth. Jupiter immediately called a meeting of the gods and goddesses in order to decide upon a course of action. However, there being a difference of opinion among the gods and goddesses, Jupiter privately consulted the Book of Fate and gave appropriate orders to his agents to go down to the library and manipulate events in accordance with those orders.

Momus, the god of jealous mockery, who at the conference of the gods and goddesses had taken the side of the Moderns, now enlisted the support of a goddess known as Criticism. This goddess was very malignant and she lent her full support to the Moderns.

Swift then goes on to describe the battle itself. He tells us that the first to start the offensive was Paracelus who attacked Galen with a javelin but who was himself wounded by Galen’s counterattack. Then Aristotle shot an arrow at Bacon, but Bacon escaped being injured and the arrow hit and killed another modern philosopher whose name was Descartes. Now it was Homer’s turn to launch an attack upon the modern epic poets. Next came Virgil, another ancient epic poet. He found himself face to face with the modern poet, Dryden who also had attempted epic poetry (by writing a translation of Virgil’s Aeneid). Dryden, however, acknowledged Virgil’s superiority to himself as an epic poet, and sought a compromise with the enemy.

Yet another ancient epic poet, by the name of Lucan, now attacked two Moderns who also had attempted epic poetry. These Moderns were Richard Blackmore and Thomas Creech. Then the ancient poet, Pindar, the famous writer of Odes came forward and killed such modern writers of Pindaric Odes as John Oldham and Afra Behn, and Abraham Cowley. Then comes the last episode in The Battle of the Books. The central figures in this last episode are Bentley and Wotton (who were the champions of the Moderns), and Temple and Boyle (the champions of the Ancients). Swift pours all his scorn and ridicule upon Bentley and Wotton. These moderns see Phalaris and Aesop lying fast asleep in the distance, but they do not have the courage to attack them. Wotton even fails in his attempt to quench his thirst at the spring known as Helicon. The two friends then encounter Charles Boyle who attacks them with a lance and kills both of them at one stroke. According to Swift’s satirical account, then, Temple and Boyle had been victorious in their support of the Ancients as against Bentley and Wotton who had opposed the Ancients and given all their support to the Moderns.

 

Bye-bye Blackbird (Anita Desai)

 Introduction: Anita Desai is an Indian novelist and short story writer. She is known for the portrayal of the inner life of the characters. She is deeply concerned with human problems. She uses different techniques to narrate her story. She has won ‘National Academy of Letters Award’ and ‘Winifred Holtby Memorial Prize’ for her work “Fire on the Mountain”. Her novel, “Bye-bye Blackbird”  mirrors the complexity of human relationship. There are three major characters named Dev, Adit and Sarah. The novel mainly deals with the problem in immigrants, alienation, love-hate relationship, lack of adjustment and existentialism.  Anita Desai makes use of various techniques such as contrasting characters, the use of Hindi words, rhetorical skills, slogans, psychological analysis, and poetry in this novel.

Plot of Bye-bye Blackbird: In Desai’s third novel, Bye-Bye, Blackbird, like has a tripartite structure: arrival, “Discovery and Recognition,” and “Departure.” The three main characters are Dev, who has recently arrived in London from India when the novel begins, his friend Adit, with whom he is staying, and Adit’s British wife, Sarah. All three characters are in conflict with their environment. Sarah is an unstable wife who finds herself playing two roles, that of an Indian at home and that of a Britisher outside; all the while, she questions who she really is. Dev and Adit are, in a sense, doubles like Nirode and Amla. Dev is the more cynical and aggressive of the two, while Adit, though essentially the same, is muted at the beginning. The novel follows a pattern like that of Henry James’s The Ambassadors (1903): Adit, who thought he had felt at home in England, returns to India, while Dev, the militant cynic who has reviled Adit for staying, takes Adit’s place after his departure, accepting a job in Adit’s firm and moving to Adit’s apartment. Bye-Bye, Blackbird is a satisfying novel partly because Desai builds an inevitability into the narrative; characters are subordinated to pattern and rhythm. Dev’s and Adit’s decisions have not been fully explained. Their conflicts are not resolved so much and the pleasure at the end is as much formal as it is emotional.

Analysis of Bye-bye Blackbird:

Fascination for England: Dev is a Bengali student. He arrives in England to enter the famous London school of Economics. He wanted to get higher education. At the very beginning, he starts to seek the job for him. He stays with Adit and Sarah. Nevertheless, he has high prejudice against English snobbery. After arrival, he starts to seek the job for him. Initially he is frustrated but gets the job of a sales representative in a bookshop. At the beginning of the novel, we find Adit Sen and his English wife Sarah live very happily. Adit  settled down at this alien shores. He is the hero of this novel. He was born in a middle class. He comes to England to enjoy the freedom. Here he falls in love with English girl Sarah and get married. Hence London is fascinating and captivating for him. Thus, Adit  has transformed himself entirely to the English culture.  He has fully adopted the lifestyle of Britain.

Feeling of Alienation and Nostalgia: Feeling of alienation is the other side of identity crisis and uncertainty. In the novel “Bye-Bye Blackbird”, Dev’s alienation and spiritual agony are objectified in his hellish experience in London at the tube station. He is in dilemma as whether he stays on in London or return to India. It is the world which makes him nostalgic for India. India is that place for him full of familiar faces, sounds and smell. For him London is the thickly populated place. Even Adit does not escape from the feeling of alienation and nostalgia. Adit’s nostalgia is caused by his visit of in-laws. It is also intensified by the unexpected outbreak of the Indo-Pak war. Gradually his nostalgia takes a dreadful turn. It makes him ill and suffocating in English surrounding. He gets visions like one who is a psychotic. He is lost in the memory of India. He carves for the Indian twilight. Like a child, he wants to see an Indian sunset with rose, orange, pink and lemon colors in the sky. He becomes so homesick that he visualizes the Indian rivers. He also desires to see the bullock-carts, monkey-walah and marriage procession of India. He declares to his wife… “I can’t live here anymore…, our lives, here have been so unreal…..”

In the case of Sarah, she feels uprooted even from her own culture because of her marriage with Indian immigrant. Basically, she is a great lover of India. She came to know about Indian life from the glimpses of pictures on the stamps. Emma is her co-sharer. Both Sarah and Emma are fond of Tagore’s poetry, Himalayan flowers, Henna patterns on the palms of ladies, food items, music of Bismillah Khan and Ravishankar. In this way, Sarah is very close to India. Nevertheless, she puts away all her wishes. She feels her face only a mask and her body only a custom. Her own people like Mrs. Miller, insults her.  Thus, she is culturally alienated and her marriage with a ‘wog’ obliges her to keep “to the loneliest path”.

Identity Crisis: All the principal characters are not sensitive but introvert. Dev hangs with a sense of uncertainty. His problem starts from the sort of treatment, which Indian immigrants get from the English people. Dev is full of excitement and agitation. He feels divided within. Because English people treat him very badly. He becomes a victim of insult and abuse at the hands of English people. Indian immigrants are even not allowed to use a lavatory of the English. The London docks have three kinds of lavatories meant for Ladies, Gents and Asiatic. He wants to return to India because he can never bear to be unwanted. Once a peddler refuses to tell Dev the price of Russian icon because he considered Dev too poor an Indian to purchase it. That peddler thinks that India is known for its poverty. Their typical and narrow-mindedness towards Indian immigrants is very sharp. Dev hates the label ‘Indian Immigrant’. He feels like a stranger in England. Yet Dev is sceptic and realistic about everyone who believes in oriental wisdom. When therefore, he was called ‘wog’ by white boy, Dev sharply reacts and addresses him as ‘paji’. Dev feels alienated in the beginning but at the end of the novel, he is very happy. In contrast to this, Adit feels nostalgic for India. In the beginning of the novel Dev is in confusion between either to stay or to return to his homeland. He reveals his prejudices for the foreign land. Dev thinks that he is losing his real identity.

Adit understood well the line of reconciliation between these two cultures i.e. the eastern and the western. Once upon a time, he has a great fascination for England but the same feeling makes him suffocated. At Christine Longford’s wedding the symptoms of his nervous breakdown is seen. A question torments him “Who is he and where is he?” He wants  to be seen under labels ‘wog’  ‘Asiatic’, ‘Indian Immigrant’ anymore. He carves for his identity. He feels alienation. He feels that he is losing his real identity. He wants to return to the motherland. His nostalgia acquires a dreadful dimension and illness. He fed up with the life in England. Ultimately he decides to return India with his wife.

Like Dev, Sarah too is in search of identity. She is portrayed as a traditional wife. Her situation is more complex. She cannot decide her real identity. There are numerous adjustments of Sarah in the novel. She hates English People’s love of privacy and narrow-mindedness. She thinks herself as puppet in the hands of Adit, though Sarah is fully devoted to her husband. She readily makes Indian food for her husband. On her husband’s demand, though she has problem in wearing Indian attire and ornaments, she wears Sari. She prepares herself for her husband every time. Her marriage is successful but she lives a disturbed life by her contact with Adit. She is fed up with this unhappy life. She avoids answering the personal questions from her neighborhood. She lost the harmony of her life. She cannot join English group in conversation, jokes and laughter. Her rituals and beliefs are very different from those English people. As a result, she remains as an alien in her own land. She felt mismatch herself among these English people. Sometimes she feels ashamed of her husband and sometimes she feels afraid of being tortured. She is always ready to care her husband but there is still some lack of liveliness between them. She has to face many taunts from colleague because she has broken the social code by marrying a brown Asian. She felt uncertain in her own society. Adit too notices in Sarah “an anguish loneliness”. That is why she tries to keep herself away from English people. She does not know where she belongs. She feels uprooted. In fact, she is caught between two worlds and she belonged to none. She is a pathetic figure. Many critics consider that her problem is rooted in her cross culture marriage and that is why she only suffers the pathos of an alienated girl

Thus, Dev, Adit and Sarah are in search of identity. Dev and Adit are strangers in an alien land. Whereas Sarah is an exile in her own native land.  Adit feels nonbelongingness in England. The same feeling was felt by Dev in early part of the novel. Adit has much emotion for his motherland in the later part of the novel. At the end of the novel, he rejects the western culture and society. Adit wants to escape from the unreal and artificial life, which he is leading. The Indo-Pak war is the last stroke to finalize Adit’s decision to return his own clan. Therefore, Adit, with his wife Sarah leaves England and goes to India.

Conclusion:

Thus, Anita Desai in “Bye Bye Blackbird” deals with the tropical problem of adjustment. It is the story of Indians who have immigrated to England for the better prospects of life. Some critics consider the present novel as an autobiography as it describes Desai’s own experiences whatever she felt, observed, and lived in England. The novel, in fact,  is a combination of personal experiences as well as the experiences of all immigrants. In true sense, the novel reveals alienation encountered by Indian immigrants in England. In the novel, identity crisis is portrayed through three characters namely Dev, Adit and Sarah. In the novel, there are so many situations in which the characters feel alienated. The cross-cultural encounters and human relationship experienced by the characters in this novel are common to any Indian immigrant in the western lands.

 

Non-literary Text Translation

Literary and non-literary Texts: The substantial difference between the two is that whereas non-literary text is concerned with information, facts and reality, literary text comprises the world of the mind, i.e. ideas and feelings and is grounded on imagination. While non-literary texts are primarily about objects from the extra-linguistic reality, literary texts usually revolve around fictitious characters, being ontologically and structurally independent from the real world. Even though literary texts attempt to represent reality, they only imitate it at their best, which makes them mimetic in nature. While non-literary texts are based on precision, reason and can be characterized by more or less logical argumentative progression, literary texts as the product of author’s imagination sometimes in vagueness of meaning, ambiguity and multiple interpretations. Besides, non-literary texts are written to be skimmed or scanned. Non-literary texts are expected to fulfil a certain pragmatic function while literary texts, on the other, are not intended for any specific purpose. Concerning linguistic properties of the investigated textual genres, the language of literary texts is susceptible to getting old quicker because the text’s stylistic layer is burdened more in comparison to non-literary text. By contrast, what is getting old in non-literary text is actual text information only. Further, in terms of lexical specificities, vocabulary of non-literary texts is based on a high degree of notionality, standardized language schemata and clichés with no register blending permitted.
Non-literary Text and Translator’s Tasks: Contrasting non-literary and literary texts from a translational point of view, some radical dissimilarities can be observed. Firstly, rendering non-literary text demands frequently complete faithfulness to the SLT and utmost precision in terminology, not admitting a very creative participation for the translator. Especially the translation of institutional-legal text, constituting a partial subject of interest of this publication, is heavily controlled and governed by norms. Hence non-literary translation may be considered a science.   Secondly, in non-literary texts the author’s personality is hidden to say the very least, whereas in literary texts writer’s personality is fully exposed given the communication of his/her world-views, attitudes, and convictions. Thirdly, the interpretation aspect in the non-literary text fulfils only an auxiliary function in stark contrast to literary translation Consequently, the non-literary translator is required to be an expert in the field in which he/she translates in order to be able to perform an adequate intrasemiotic translation. Peter Newmark sums up the difference between non-literary and literary translation as follows: Literary and non-literary translation are two different professions, though one person may sometimes practise them both. They are complementary to each other and are noble, each seeking in the source text a valuable but different truth, the first allegorical and aesthetic, the second factual and traditionally functional. They sometimes each have different cultural backgrounds, occasionally referred to as ‘the two cultures’, which are detrimentally opposed to each other. Taking a critical approach, he then goes on to assert that while “literary [translation] is viewed as traditional, old-fashioned, academic, ivory-tower, out of touch, the non-literary is philistine, market-led, coal in the bath [and] uncivilized”.
Types and features of Non-Literary translation.
Types:
Non-literary translation may be of  different types. We may broadly speak of technical, journalistic, commercial and  official translation. There is also a category of terminological translation which cuts across all these types. In technical translation, we include not only translation of  scientific texts from medicine, engineering, physics, chemistry and mathematics but  also translation from social sciences such as psychology, sociology, history,  anthropology, linguistics etc. Journalistic translation will include translation of news,  interest stories, editorials for all kinds of mass media including radio and TV. Commercial translations include translation of advertisements, notices  and formative Literature of all kinds, for example, information for tourists, publicity  materials and instruction manuals. Official translation consists of legal, diplomatic and military work. It also includes interpreting, a task which involves a native-like control on both the languages involved.
Features
There are several important features which distinguish literary and non-literary translation.
1. A non-literary translation is addressed to a specific section of society. A poem or a short story may be read by every literate member of the target group but translation of scientific or an office text is used by the specific group for which it is meant.
2. A non-literary translation is generally done only once. A play of Shakespeare or   Kalidas may be translated afresh by every age but a science or social science text will generally be translated only once. In fact, one of the major reasons to translate non-literary texts is to overcome the gaps that may exist in the cumulative knowledge of the target language group.
3. Translators of non-literary texts need to know not only the two languages involved but also the subject itself. Unless you know physics well, for example, it will be difficult for you to translate a physics text competently.
4. Non-literary translation often involves introducing a few terminological and conceptual machinery in the target language. The sources a translator of non-literary texts must explore to coin appropriate terms is indeed a very challenging task.
5. A non-literary text makes far greater demands in terms of reproducing the original as sincerely as possible.
 

Literary Text Translation

 

Literary Text: Literary texts include all forms of literature whether written in prose or verse. They are the short story, the novel, the drama, the essay and the critical text. Although all these kinds of literary texts apparently differ in form and content, yet they all have shared universal characteristics which distinguish them from other manners of writing.

Translating Literary Text: Translating a literary text involves the reshaping of words from one language to another. The text translation has always witnessed a substantial significance in the history of translation. According to the readers, the translation of Holy books like Bible, Quran and others, into local languages have been identified as big milestones in the course of time. Thus, it is recognized as an impactful conduct in terms of all the cultural, social, religious, and political approach.

Translator and the Literary Text: The translator is known as efficient personnel, who has the ability to produce text with the same impression as the original text. It has been, therefore, considered necessary for the literary translators to contemplate the aesthetic aspects of the translated text in order to maintain the style and laxity of the original content. Therefore, the translators are expected to have acquired extensive artistic skills along with efficient language abilities. The competence of a translator in the performance of translating a text from source to target language must be highly proficient. It is considered that the target text, which is finally shared with the target audience, is basically the perception and final resolutions of the translator towards the material. Thus, the translation is realized and regarded more as a product rather than the process.

Translation Problem: The transformation of a text from one language to another has been a challenging task, particularly when dealing with sensitive materials that may have strong impacts on society. The problems related to literary translation have been considered as factors involving a multilingual environment responsible for attracting maximum attention. The issues related to translation have been expanded to encompass various regional, national, individual identities and power concerns.

Recognizing the characteristics such as special language, expressive function, suggestive power, form, and timelessness and placelessness in a literary text will enable the translator to be at least partly qualified to fulfill his task with much more accuracy. Moreover, the remaining rate of accuracy can only be achieved if the translator himself has had the fundamental literary qualifications. If so, he can transform to the target text nearly most of the syntactic, stylistic and aesthetic elements originally found in the source text, in a way which creates that desirable artistic correspondence, or rather the most acceptable equivalents. So it appears that the process of literary translation can never be just an automatic one narrowly restricted to merely finding words and sentences in the target language that correspond to those in the source language. The fact is that a literary text is more likely to bear an extra message usually concealed behind the apparent and surface linguistic structures. Quite often such a message takes shape by the interaction of certain words and syntactic structure with each other in part or in whole, rather than by these apart. Also it is worth remembering that translation is always concerned with the matter of co-existing cultures. Truly there are always distinctive differences between them in respect of folklore, mythology and symbolism of which the cleverest or the most qualified translator should be well-informed. Once again, being only aware of them is insufficient. He has indeed to recognize some historical or social facts about such culture distinction in order to be on a safer side when interpreting the text as properly as possible. Consequently, he had rather, whenever possible, acquaint himself with almost every piece of information related to the etymology or semantic development over decades and centuries; especially when translating older literary text.

What is translation?

 Introduction: Translation is an anglicized form of a Latin word. In it, ‘trans’ means ‘across’ and ‘latum’ means ‘to carry.’  In literal terms, it is an art of carrying across boundaries and carriers without losing the material that is carried over. In literary terms, to translate means to make another language like one’s own, to preserve meanings and significances across vocabularies, grammars             and      syntaxes.  [In other word,] it is an art of carrying across the matters of one Source Language (SL) into a             Target Language (TL).

 Translation in the Present: In the past, there were few books on “Translation.” Now, it is a different scenario.  In present, there are countless theories and hundreds of books on Translation.    “The theories of translation developed from purely linguistic approach of the sixties to textual focus of seventies, have now yielded place to the culture-based theory.” The terminology debated has added to the complexity involved in the Art of Translation. Some scholars such as Theodore Savory define translation as an “art”; others such as Eric Jacobsen define it as a “craft”; while other describe it as a “science’. Horst Frenz even goes to extent of saying that “translation is neither a creative art nor an imitative art but stands somewhere in between the two.”

Translation and Translator: The knowledge of the theory of translation will certainly help a practicing translator. Yet his grounding in principles and procedures leads him to decide upon or determine or invent his own translation method. SL and TL cultures and their cultural demands and pressures, nature of the text, the dominant trends in the field are the other forces that influence a translator’s decisions.

Translation in India: In the Indian context, translation assumes added significance in view of the fact that India is a multilingual country.  Indian culture is a mosaic of different sub-cultures in their linguistic plurality comprising different lingual regions, their regional literatures, and styles. Indian literature has had a rich tradition. Without translation a large number of master pieces in each one of the Indian languages will remain locked up treasures to the readers not acquainted with the languages in which they are written. Even national integration will remain a dream if the best of the country is not circulated through translation. It is only due to translation, the thinkers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Viyasa, Tolstoy, Chekov, Isben and so many other famous writers and thinkers have come to limelight and enlightened the people of the world with their ideals.

Importance of  Translation: It is only because of translation The Ramayana, The Mahabharata, Thirukkural and Gitanjali are available to the people all over the world.  Reading the translated texts one can understand that there are so many good and best works written in other languages besides his mother tongue. Above all to catch up with the developed nations to become modern and to be ready and updated, we need translations of the latest books on Science, Technology, Trade, Business Management and so on. Moreover, translation is not, in the modern context, secondary to the original literature. It has an independent existence of its own. It is not reproduction alone but a recreation also. This is possible due to the development in the fields of Linguistics and Literary Criticism. Hence it could be stated that translation has now become “New Literature” or “Literature Three”.

Definitions:

Translation according to Sussan Bassnett, involves “the rendering of a Source Language Text (SLT) into the Target Language Text (TLT) so as to ensure that the surface meaning of the two will be approximately similar and the structures of the SL will be preserved as closely as possible but not so closely that the TL structures will be seriously distorted.

Eugene Nida says that “translation is a process by means of which a person who knows both the Source Language and the Receptor Language; decodes the message of the SL and encodes it in the most appropriate form in the RL. [Nida calls the Target language (TL) as Receptor Language (RL)]

Peter Newmark says that “translation is a craft, consisting in the attempt to replace a written message or statement in one language by the same message or statement in another language”.

The Bible Translation

 Introduction:

The Bible has been translated into more than 2000 languages. About 95% of the world’s population have access to the Bible through their respective languages. The two parts of the Bible namely ‘The Old Testament’ and “The New  Testament’ have been translated. The Old Testament talks about man’s existence - about his origin, his purpose and his end either in Heaven or in Hell. So men find an emotional connection with the pages of the Old Testament. In fact, the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew language and then it was translated into most of the world’s languages.  The New Testament contains the history of the birth of Christ, his life, his death, his resurrection and also his teachings. Therefore, the New Testament also finds a special place in the lives of people of the world.

 History of the Bible Translation:

Third Century: In this period the Old Testament was translated into Greek language from Hebrew language and was known as the Septuagint.

Fourth Century: St. Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damascus in 354 A.D. to translated the Bible from Hebrew into Latin and it was known as Vulgate. The Vulgate was the first translation of the whole Bible into Latin. It was a sense for sense translation.

Fourteenth Century: The first English version of the Bible (the New Testament) was made from Latin by John Wycliff.

Fifteenth Century: John Purvey revised the first edition of Wycliff’s The New Testament and brought out the second edition of it in an intelligent, idiomatic version.

Sixteenth Century: William Tyndale translated the New Testament from the Greek. The 16^th century saw the invention of the printing press and Tyndale printed it in 1526. The 16^th century saw the translation of the Bible into a large number of European languages.

Seventeenth Century: Coverdale completed the incomplete version of Tyndale’s Old Testament and produced the first completely printed English Bible in 1563. In 1538, Cromwell ordered that every church should contain Bible for general use. To meet the demand a revision of the Matthew Bible was made by Coverdale. It was known as the Great Bible. The first Geneva Bible which was translated by William Whittingham, John Knox and others appeared in 1560. The RC church produced their own Bible which as known as the Douai Bible.  Archbishop Parker disapproved with the puritan notes found in Great Bible and Geneva Bible and appointed a panel to edit the Bible. This was known as Bishop’s Bible and appeared in 1568. The German Bible of Martin Luther gave top priority to  meaning than grammar.

Eighteenth Century: The Authorized Version of the Bible King Jame’s Bible of 1611 became the accepted Bible. It paid more attention to the spirit and meaning of the original. Then revision of the Authorized Version of Bible was made.

Nineteenth Century:  The nineteenth century is often called the century of missionaries. The Christian missionaries first prepared word lists and grammatical descriptions of the languages of the conquered people in the colonial empire. This helped them to translated the Bible into some hundreds of languages.

Twentieth Century: The 20^th century saw the setting up of Summer Institute of Linguistics. It has 3700 members working on 675 languages in 29 countries. Linguistic research was undertaken as a first step to Bible translation. An important organization known as United Bible Societies came into existence. Eugene Nida served as its Secretary and produced three books on translation: 1. Bible Translating, 2. Towards a Science of Translating, and 3. Theory and Practice of Translating.

Function of Language in Bible Translation:

The early translators of the Bible lacked the naturalness of the style of the Receptor languages, slavishly imitated the syntax of the original and translated the same word of the original by the same word in spite of the different contexts in which it appeared. Hence Nida along with Taber goes on to underline the three basic functions of the language: 1. The informative function, 2. The expressive function, and 3. The imperative function. All these three functions are necessary for an understanding of the Bible.

The Informative Function: It is not enough to understand the message. It is important that the message should not be misunderstood. The translation should convey the information in the simple unambiguous language. For example the Bible expression ‘sons of Belial’ should be translated into ‘ wicked people’ and not into ‘ the sons of a man called Belial’.

The Expressive Function: In this, the readers should not only understand the meaning but also they should feel about what is said. The translation should convey the feeling, mood, and the tone of the speaker. For example:

                        “Thy money perish with thee”  (King Jame’s Version [KJV])

                  "May you and your money go to hell” (Good News Bible [GNB] by American                                    Bible Society)

                  “To hell with your money!” (J.B. Phillip’s New Testament in Modern English                                        [JBP])

In Hebrew the four lettered word YHWH is for God and traditionally known as Jehovah. In English tradition, Lord is preferred to Jehovah. The English Standard Version and American Standard Version used Jehovah but it did not prove popular. The Revised Standard Version has come back to the use of Lord as in the place of King Jame’s Version.

The Imperative Function: It assumes that the SL text is not an ordinary document but mean to guide humanity. This function is prominent in the translation of sacred texts not in scientific texts. The functions of language and the priorities in translation should be considered in Bible translation:

                        ‘paraloka samrajyam’ to ‘irai arasu’

                        ‘cuvi cesham’ to ‘narceythi’

                        ‘thirkatharasi’ to ‘iraivakianar’

Many translators consider it as impious to replace the Sankritized words by Tamil.

To avoid many problems, Nida makes a rather but practical suggestion that we have three types of scripture:

    An ecclesiastical translation for use in churches

    A translation in the present-day literary language

    A translation in the popular or common language which is at the same time applicable to the                     publication.

A Note on Tamil Translation: Even in Tamil Nadu, people have a feeling that the old version has a holiness and that it should not be changed. The Christian Tamil has been known for its mixture of Sanskrit words with Tamil words. The Tamil Christians are against purifying Christian Tamil. They are for retaining Sanskrit words. 

Major Themes in Far from the Madding Crowd

Unrequited Love

The theme of unrequited love exists in most of the romantic relationships in Far from the Madding Crowd. Gabriel Oak's  first proposal of marriage to BathSheba Everdene is greeted with refusal. When she refuses, telling him that it's "no use" and that she doesn't love him, he replies that he will keep loving her till his death. In the course of the novel, Gabriel keeps this promise. Despite her refusal, he becomes her shepherd. He returns after she fires him, and he offers her his friendship, advice, and support. This loyalty remains when she is expected to marry Boldwood, when she does marry Troy, and when again she might marry Boldwood. Gabriel defends her when others speak ill of her, works steadfastly to support her farm and her well-being, and he does so despite her mistreatment of him. His love, unlike the others, is rewarded ultimately. Eventually, Bathsheba returns his love. The final chapter of the novel sees them married.

William Boldwood's love for Bathsheba is in vain, and its consequences are tragic. His first proposal to Bathsheba is rejected. Despite all of the logical reasons to marry him, Bathsheba refuses. After Sergeant Troy is thought to be dead, Boldwood again pursues Bathsheba. His unrequited love for Bathsheba leads him to obsession and even murder, and subsequently, Boldwood loses his freedom and nearly loses his life.

Fanny Robin also experiences unrequited love. Sergeant Troy has treated her poorly. She is left without resources, poor, alone, and she died after giving birth to a baby in her unwed condition. Her letter to Gabriel indicates that she expects that her love will lead to happiness. However, there is no wedding. Troy's affection for her does lead him to go after her to offer her money when he sees her on the road, but by then it is too late. He has carried a curl of her hair with him, and he spends what money he has  to purchase a grave marker for Fanny. The love between Troy and Bathsheba may not be unrequited, but it is destructive. Fanny's love for Troy leads to her destruction; his after-the-fact love for her leads to his marital strife and departure.

Marriage as a Trap

The theme of marriage is also prevalent in Far from the Madding Crowd. As in many pastoral novels, love and matrimony are central concerns. In this case, marriage is a trap. When Bathsheba receives her first proposal from Gabriel Oak, she rejects it immediately. She knows that marrying would mean ceding many of her legal rights to her husband. Her refusals of the proposals from Gabriel Oak and from William Boldwood, and her intent to end her relationship with Sergeant Troy, all support this claim. Bathsheba and Troy both appear to get caught in a trap that pulls them to the altar. When Troy meets her in the field, their second meeting, his initial insincerity gives way to something genuine. This new passion pushes him to court her in earnest, and he appeals to her vanity. On the events precipitating her marriage, Bathsheba admits that Troy had told her that he'd seen a woman more beautiful than her. Troy's clever trap works, as she explains: "And then, between jealousy and distraction, I married him!" After the marriage, Troy's demeanor changes, and she begins to learn his true character. She quickly comes to regret having married in haste.

More broadly, love is described as a labyrinthine trap. The implication therein is that marriage cures people of love. That is certainly true in the case of Bathsheba and Francis Troy's marriage. They have affection and fascination between them prior to marriage, but after they wed, they have discord. Additionally, many of the characters express similar skepticism about marital bliss. William Boldwood, at 40, has been a bachelor and successful in his career. His decline comes with his pursuit of marriage. Laban Tall is something of a caricature: his wife answers for him when he is asked about work, and she is repeatedly represented as domineering. In fact, he is called "Susan Tall's husband" on nine separate occasions.

Women's Independence

The story of Far from the Madding Crowd concerns issues of women's independence, which is both a strength of the novel and a source of some of its early criticism. Bathsheba Everdene, like many of Hardy's female protagonists, is not a passive woman. When Gabriel Oak first sees her, she is objecting to paying a toll. His next encounter with her is merely watching her as she breaks from the accepted forms for a woman rider.  Gabriel also sees that Bathsheba does not ride sidesaddle, nor does she ride poorly in her seat. When there are no witnesses, she rides with the sort of grace that Gabriel compares to graceful creatures of nature. Her circumspections show that she is aware that she is not following the dictates of behavior for women. 

Likewise when Bathsheba speaks to her employees, she is overt in her statements that she knows that there will be doubts because she is a woman. At the market, the talk of her independence is dismissive, minimizing her capabilities and focusing the commentary on her appearance. Her desire to handle her farm independently is belittled as being "headstrong," but the men turn to her positive traits in their estimation: she is "shapely." Her business skills are expected to be lacking, but she is beautiful. This is all the men at the market expect of her. Bathsheba must face this stereotype about women throughout the novel—and Hardy faced the same from his critics.

Bathsheba insists on exploring the freedom of her peculiar station. Beyond her stated objection to marriage—the overt legal restrictions that a woman in the 19th century would undoubtedly face—she values the unusual enjoyment of independence.  Bathsheba exercises her rights and allows herself some pleasure in the knowledge of it.

Far from the Madding Crowd (by Thomas Hardy)

 Summary

Far from the Madding Crowd opens with an introduction to Gabriel Oak, a farmer in his late 20s who has experience with shepherding. Currently in debt, he tends his own flock to be best able to manage them and turn a profit. A wagon arrives with Bathsheba Everdene and her aunt, Mrs. Hurst. Bathsheba loses her hat, argues about paying a toll, and ultimately, Gabriel pays the two pence toll. Bathsheba, about 20 years old, is beautiful and strong-willed. When Gabriel next sees her, she rides astride a horse skillfully. They meet, exchange words, and not long afterwards, she rescues him. Gabriel has fallen asleep with the smoke trapped in his cottage; had Bathsheba not noticed and acted, the smoke inhalation would have killed him. She is calm as she does so. In short order, he decides he loves her and will propose. Bathsheba refuses his offer. Not long after she leaves for Weatherbury, his flock dies. Gabriel travels in pursuit of work, and a hiring fair leads him to the same town where Bathsheba lives. A crop fire draws him in, and for no reason beyond it being the right thing to do, he steps up and leads the efforts to save the crops. Afterwards, he learns that the farmer—a woman—needs a shepherd. The farmer is Bathsheba. He becomes her employee.

At the same time, one of her employees, Fanny Robin, vanishes. Gabriel meets the woman as she is leaving and he gives her money for her needs. As time passes, Fanny meets up with the man who has been courting her, Sergeant Francis Troy, and pursues the marriage he has promised her. As a prank, Bathsheba sends an anonymous valentine to the farmer of the adjacent farm, William Boldwood, stating "Marry me." Her identity is found out, and Boldwood begins to think of marriage. At this same time, Gabriel receives a letter from Fanny. She reports that she is going to get married and sends back his money. That wedding does not happen. Bathsheba and Gabriel continue to have a rapport, and he defends her to the locals who are less than impressed by her independence. At this time, Boldwood proposes, and Bathsheba refuses. He presses her to consider. Not long after the first, he proposes again, and they agree that she will think on it while he is away for the next five to six weeks.

While he is away, Bathsheba meets a soldier, Sergeant Troy, who flatters and charms her. He conducts a sword demonstration for her only, cuts a curl of her hair to keep, and kisses her. Soon she is in love, sends a letter to Boldwood, who is temporarily away at Bath, and continues to develop a relationship with Troy. Gabriel advises against this relationship and warns her that Troy is not the admirable man he claims to be. Boldwood returns, demands that Bathsheba answer his questions, and curses Troy. Bathsheba goes to Bath, intending to end her relationship with Troy out of fear for his safety, but she marries him instead. When they return, Troy buys his way out of the army but has little work ethic regarding the farm. He spends Bathsheba's money on gambling and brandy. Boldwood sinks into depression over the loss of Bathsheba and lets his crops rot.

Meanwhile, Gabriel sees a storm coming that will threaten the crop. He takes it upon himself to save the crops yet again (this being half the year's yield), and Bathsheba comes to help. Troy and the employees are uselessly drunk. This action occurs, notably, eight months after the night when Gabriel saved the crops from fire. Troy and Bathsheba quarrel when they see a woman (Fanny) along the road, and Bathsheba realizes that he knows her. At this point, Bathsheba doesn't realize the woman on the road is Fanny or that Bathsheba's husband is the soldier Fanny loved. Troy makes arrangements to go to Fanny to give her money several days later, but she is already dead. Bathsheba and Troy quarrel when she sees a lock of golden hair in his possession.

Word comes to Bathsheba that her former servant Fanny is dead while Troy is in Casterbridge to meet Fanny. Bathsheba sends for Fanny's body. Before Troy returns, she discovers that Fanny and her child are both in the coffin. Her husband's former lover and child arrive dead in her own house. Distraught, as is Troy when he returns and discovers the circumstances, Bathsheba argues with him, and they separate. He goes to have a grave marker made, and Bathsheba leaves the house. Francis Troy does not return. He sleeps at the churchyard, plants flowers that wash away, and has the stone set for Fanny. Afterward, he goes for a swim. The current carries him away, and he ends up being rescued by a ship with passage to America. (Later, the narrator reveals that Troy works as a "Professor of Gymnastics, Sword Exercise, Fencing, and Pugilism" once in America).

Troy is presumed dead. Bathsheba is presumed a widow. Within the year, Boldwood again proposes to her, this time with the belief that she owes him. She points out that her husband might not be dead, and it would be years until she could marry. Boldwood asks her to still be engaged, expressing that he will wait. They agree that she will decide if she can accept his proposal—and a multiple-year engagement—by Christmas. Gabriel continues to advise Bathsheba and run her farm. He takes on the management of Boldwood's farm, too. Troy, meanwhile, returns to Weatherbury. He decides to reveal himself to his wife, and he chooses to do so at Boldwood's party where Bathsheba has just agreed to marry Boldwood if her husband is, in fact, dead. When Troy reveals himself, Bathsheba, clearly stunned, lets out a cry as he grabs her. Boldwood draws a gun from above the fireplace and kills Troy. He attempts to kill himself, too, but a servant stops him. He then reports to prison.

Bathsheba has her husband's body taken home, cleans and dresses him, and collapses after the surgeon and parson come. She has her husband buried with Fanny and their child, and she has the stone that he purchased for Fanny amended to include him. The discovery of clothing and jewelry labeled for "Bathsheba Boldwood" serves as proof that Boldwood is not of sound mind, and he is spared death. Gabriel continues to run both farms. However, he tells Bathsheba that he will be quitting, possibly going to America. His resignation arrives at Christmas, a year after Troy's death and Boldwood's imprisonment. She confronts Gabriel about his resignation, and he reveals that people spoke ill of him and of her, suggesting that he was waiting around to wed her and take over her farm. In the conversation, she reveals that he ought to ask her, and soon after, they have a private, quiet wedding.

 

The Dumb Dancer by Asif Currimbhoy

 Introduction:  “The Dumb Dancer”,  a highly acclaimed Psychological play of an Indian playwright Asif Currimbhoy, is a fascinating story of a Kathakali dancer’s emotional plight in the competitive world. The central characters in this play seem to be affected with Schizophrenia. The text has elaborate footnotes and numerous illustrations to explain to a foreign reader the history and tradition of Kathakali dance. The play was written in 1961 and was staged in 1965 in United States later it was staged at the British Drama League Festival. The kathakali dance with the accompaniment of drums, cymbals, gongs and songs can easily hold the foreign audience spellbound. Currimbhoy recalls its effect on the audience when it was staged at the British Drama League Festival: The timing and the tone of the play were just right. Everything was bizarre to the point of fascination and the audiences were absolutely thrilled. I don’t think we will ever forget the experience.”

Discussion: “The Dumb Dancer” is a story of a Kathakali dancer Bhima, who plays the mythological role of Bhima and over identifies himself with the role to the extent of forgetting his own identity in this world. He gradually turns insane and becomes a patient in a mental asylum. Bhima, the kathakali dancer is under the delusion that he is the real Bhima of the Mahabharata, who had avenged the humiliation of his beloved wife Draupadi by killing Duryodhana. He becomes mentally deranged at the thought of his having become a murderer, the victim in his insane fantasy. Dr. Prema, the psychiatrist who treats him, becomes so strongly involved emotionally with his problem that, instead of curing him, she herself becomes insane. While treating him she gradually starts identifying herself with Draupadi, the beloved wife of Bhima and slowly turns insane.

The play begins with a scene in the operation theatre of a mental asylum where ‘a dance sequence from Duryodhana’s slaughter’ is enacted with the sane on one side and the insane on the other side as its audience. The surprising thing is Bhima, a Kathakali dancer but an inpatient in the hospital plays the role of Bhima. No one knows this fact till Prema, the doctor who is treating Bhima reveals it to Dilip a house surgeon. Through the conversation between Prema and Dilip, one comes to know the illness of Bhima and his over identification with the mythological character Bhima to the extent of forgetting his real identity. “Your patient is a Schizophrenic who calls himself Bhima and identifies himself with a mythological character in a historical play. The case is not an uncommon one.” When Dr. Dilip asks Dr. Prema why she had allowed the patient to enact the violent scene, Dr. Prema explains that she gives him a shock therapy which would bring back to his real-self. To give Bhima a shock treatment Dr. Prema wishes him to go through the performance again, as close to reality as possible.

Act II is a flash-back which takes us to the training center where Bhima is exposed to the strict and rigorous training in kathakali center. He often lapses into contemplation and tries to identify himself with Bhima of “The Mahabharata” who stands for courage, strength and ferociousness. He is very ambitious to achieve perfection in his art. In “thundering accents” he recites a few verses from the vow of revenge from “The Mahabharata” and performs the kathakali dance. His competency with a co-student, the singer Madhu a blind one, his intimacy with Guru’s daughter Shakuntala, his mental illness in the budding stage which from time to time is corrected by Guru, his fierce act of cutting his tongue to become greater than Madhu and also the greatest in the art field, he gradually turning insane and becoming a patient in asylum are seen in the second act. The verses chanted by Madhu, a blind pupil in the kathakali training centre, and a rival to Bhima are intended to give the background of the play. In a moment of elation, Bhima asks his Guru if he will ever attain the greatness of Madhu at all. The teacher says ‘No’. Then Bhima becomes upset and insists his Guru to explain why and how Madhu is greater? Then the Guru says, perhaps Madhu’s genius is due to his blindness, as those who lack one of the senses develop an unerring accuracy in another. He advises Bhima to – get back to work ‘since there can be no greatness without sacrifice. He also tells Bhima that his speech interferes his practice. Bhima who wants to excel Madhu is instructed by the Guru to practice dance ‘silently’. He grows restless, contorts his body into an agonizing dumb dancer and cries out. The dumb dancer…the dumb…dancer …These words electrify the situation and express the mental agony of Bhima. Immediately, he recedes into darkness, cuts his tongue and emerges again into the flickering light and throws his severed tongue at the feet of his Guru.

The III Act consists of Prema’s efforts to bring Bhima back to normalcy. She wants to place a dead corpse with torn abdomen in the place of Duryodhana to give a kind of shock therapy to Bhima to bring him back to normalcy. As a part of shock therapy, Dr. Prema keeps the corpse with a mask of Duryodhana on it when Bhima is playing the role of roudra (ferocious) Bhima getting ready to kill Duryodhana. Dr. Prema’s fascination for Bhima grows stronger and stronger and she slowly starts identifying herself with Draupadi, the beloved wife of Bhima. Her identification is interrupted by Shakuntala whom Bhima identifies as Draupadi. She feels jealous of her. Sensing that she is drawn very much towards the dumb dancer, Dr. Dilip wonders at her behaviour and asks her to come out of this illusion. In the final scene, Dr. Dilip finds Dr. Prema standing with her tresses dripping blood, on her head with the hands of Bhima who stands impassive. With wild eyes she declares that she has killed Shakuntala for her complete identification with Draupadi. The play ends with Prema turning insane, identifying herself with Draupadi. Prema, the superintendent of the mental asylum murders Shakuntala, her rival in order to own Bhima. In her ecstasy of identification, she puts Bhima’s arms around her, making his hand caress her hair.

The drama symbolically displays the indispensable struggle between the real self and the self that is projected and takes the audience to the inner depths of mind to show that alienation is an indispensable factor in the human life. Bhima the kathakali dancer and Prema the psychiatrist who treats him are the characters that show this inner struggle which in turn turns them insane. Through these two characters Currimbhoy presents the conflict between the real-self and the projected self in human mind which leads to the contemplation of human existence. Bhima feels comfortable in the dark and feels it difficult to come into light. This symbolically presents the conflict of real self and projected self in Bhima and he retreating himself into the inner depths of mind to find the real identity. As the degree of identification grows he forgets his existing identity in the world and becomes insane in the eyes of society.

Prema is another rare and sensitive individual who is aware of the conflict between the natural self and the image projected. Dr. Dilip comments on the tension in her mind. The more she thinks in terms of exercising her psychiatric skills the more she grows restless and is drawn towards Bhima. She tells Dilip about the restlessness in her mind. She develops emotional intimacy with her patient and even feels jealous of Shakuntala for her hold on Bhima who considers Shakuntala as his Draupadi and is very tender to her. Such behaviour is against her professional ethics as dictated by the society in which she lives.

Thus the play highlights conflicts in man. Currimbhoy uses one of the moods in the Kathakali dance “Distraction” it is the mood that symbolizes the man growing mad by lapsing into the inner depths of mind. When Shakuntala asks Bhima to show the mood Distraction, he immediately recedes into darkness and tells he can’t come out of it. He invites Shakuntala to come into it. Shakuntala rejects as it is a terrifying world full of darkness and so many masks hanging on the wall. Shakuntala goes back but Prema ventures, she goes into it comes with the mask. She is comfortable in. Inner depths of mind are a vertex. Once you get into it, there is no point of returning. For Prema “Distraction reaches higher than Sanity.”

The element of suspense makes the play more and more interesting. In the very opening scene one does not know why the pantomime is tried and why the psychiatrist is very anxious to make clinical assumptions about the dancer. The audience may be very much interested to know why Dr. Prema asks Dr. Dilip to conduct a shock therapy. The audiences are kept in suspense in act III where the nurse tells Dr. Dilip that a scalpel is missing. After the conduct of autopsy, one hears a scream in darkness and Dr. Prema tells Dilip that she has killed Shakuntala because she thought that she stood as a snag in reaching Bhima. In the end, she goes to Bhima and puts his arms around her. A faint echo Draupadi… Draupadi is heard and we do not know who has called out the name. Thus suspense engages the audience throughout the play.

Currimbhoy uses some effective theatrical devices in the play. He uses kathakali dance as a powerful dramatic device. Light and shadow, music, and masks are used to draw the narrow line between the two worlds – the sane and the insane; conscious and subconscious; external and inner life. By using all these modern theatrical devices and experimenting with the form and content Currimbhoy displays the universal questions related to human behavior and existence. And the play has attracted a great deal of critical attention, an interest which is certainly due to Currimbhoy’s attempt to combine the theatrical code of kathakali with western dramatic form.

Conclusion: The central characters in the play suffer from alienation. They dramatize man’s need for belongingness and the sense of identification. Thus, the play “The Dumb Dancer” portrays the frustration of the kathakali dancer, Bhima to achieve perfection in his art, his sense of insecurity, and his inarticulate groping for identity in the competitive world. And Dr. Prema identifies herself with Draupadi but in the process she finds Shakuntala as an obstacle, and to make her identification complete, she murders Shakuntala. The play ends with the sane psychiatrist turns insane.