Kudiyattam Program

India in the Artist’s Eye

Kudiyattam Sanskrit Theater FRIDAY–SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 3–4, 2017 • 8PM Jackson Hall Stage, Mondavi Center, UC Davis India in the Artist’s Eye Festival is curated by Professor Archana Venkatesan, Chair, Department of Religious Studies and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature in partnership with The Robert and Margit Mondavi Center for the Performing Arts, UC Davis.

Pre-Performance Talk Speaker: Professor David Shulman Renee Lang Professor of Humanistic Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem

The artists and fellow audience members appreciate silence during the performance.Please be sure that you have switched off cellular devices. Videotaping, photographing and audio recording are strictly forbidden.

mondaviarts.org/india-artists-eye religions.ucdavis.edu

PROGRAM NOTES Friday, November 3 Himakara, Cool-rayed Moon This famous sequence, lyrical and action-packed, is taken from the fifth act of the Sanskrit play by the medieval Kerala poet Śaktibhadra, Āścarya-cūḍāmaṇi, “The Jewel Worn on the Head,” a south Indian reworking of the Rāmāyaṇa epic. The fifth act, a complete aesthetic unit in its own right, is known as the Aśokavanikāṅkam, “The Act of the Aṡoka Grove,” and is normally performed over some 15 nights (roughly 60 hours). As this act opens, Rāvaṇa, the ten-headed demon king of Laṅkā, has kidnapped Rāma’s wife Sītā and is holding her in his garden of aśoka trees. Rāvaṇa is madly in love with Sītā, tormented by desire, and despite his demonic nature he cannot bring himself to touch her or to force himself on her. We first see him imagining her in minute detail in his mind, then recalling an episode in which her hair wins a beauty contest with a peacock’s feather.

He addresses the moon, whose cold rays only intensify his overheated state. This apostrophe to the moon is the textual core of the episode.

The minister Citrayodhi enters with bad news: at Rāma’s command, an army of monkeys is searching everywhere for Sītā. Rāvaṇa finds this idea ludicrous, and in the course of his conversation with Citrayodhi, he enacts several of his own heroic feats, including the time when he uprooted the immense mountain, Kailāsa.

Ravana enters, seats himself and starts to think of Sita, lingering over each element of her body from hair to feet (pañcāṅgam, the five main body parts). He is utterly fascinated by her beautiful hair. It seems that her hair had defeated its rival in beauty, the peacock’s feather, and was honored by Brahma, the Creator. How did this happen?

The peacock’s feather looks with jealousy at Sita’s hair and says, “Don’t be too proud. I am more beautiful than you.”

Sita’s hair speaks: Go away.

Feather: Let us go to Brahma and ask him. (It reaches Brahma’s abode, Satyaloka.)

Feather: O, Brahma, am I not beautiful?

Brahma: You are beautiful.

The feather becomes proud.

Brahma, seeing the hair coming, receives it with love. Puts it on his lap and starts caressing it.

Feather: Brahma, you should not do this.

Brahma gets irritated and says: “I told you just now that you are beautiful.”

Feather: Oh! We are competing with one other. You should not favor one of us over the other.

Brahma gets angry and drives the feather away.

He then adorns the hair with flowers and sends it away in a kindly manner. That is how her hair defeated the peacock’s feather in beauty.

Pañcāṅgam description of Sita continues: eyes, face, breasts, and feet. Ravana is aroused with passion for Sita, faints in the excess of desire. The moonlight falling on him and the slight breeze make him think, “Alas! This moon, standing right in front of me, hurts me. What should be done? Let me speak to him.

“Oh Moon!”

No answer.

Ravana thinks: He may not hear me. Let me call him once again.

“Oh Moon, can’t you hear me? Have you become deaf?”

Hm, he is not responding.

Now, angrily: “ Oh Moon!”

Sensing some response from the moon, Ravana says: “Let me start talking to him.” [recites and performs the verse himakara with hand gestures.] himakara hima-garbhā raśmayas tāvakīnāḥ mayi madana-nidheye yena vahniṃ vamanti na tava balam anaṅgasyāpi vā duḥkha-bhājo janaka-duhitur eṣā śarvarī-nāthat śaktiḥ “Oh ! Moon, your rays, which give coolness to all people, burn me like fire.”

Don’t be proud that you’ve defeated me. It is not due to your power. You are very insignificant. You are only pus from the eyes of sage Atri, who created you. It is not due to the power of Kama either. All this is only because of Sita’s power.

What is she like?

When she was living with her husband, I forcibly took her away and brought her here. Because of that, she is in great distress.

[Takes on the role of Sita: “When can I see my husband?”]

[Reverts to being Ravana, addresses the moon again:] You, who are the husband of night, should be well aware of the pangs of the separation.

Ravana exits.

Citrayodhi, Ravana’s minister, enters: Now I am going to see my Lord Ravana.

Then Ravana re-enters the stage, sits on the stool and shows his imagination of Sita’s body, limb by limb, and is overpowered by desire. Then he feels as if Sita has come near to him. (He enacts embracing Sita) At the same moment Citrayodhi, the minister, enters and bows to him: “Long live your highness!” Ravana, without hearing this, continues embracing Sita in his mind. Suddenly he feels as if he has heard a noise. He thinks: “What did I hear? Yes. Cuckoos that are separated from their lovers are crying.” Again Ravana embraces Sita in his mind. Citrayodhi again says, “Long live your highness!” Then Ravana realizes, “Oh! That is what I heard. It is not cuckoos. It resembles the minister’s voice. I have ordered Citrayodhi to come. Did he come?” On seeing Citrayodhi, Ravana feels shy and thinks, “He disturbed my happiness. Let me send him away soon.” Looks proudly at Citrayodhi. The drumming is stopped.

Ravana and Citrayodhi enter into dialogue.

Ravana : Oh Citrayodhi, is there any news that is unusual?

Citrayodhi: Yes. Ravana: Yes, there are many unusual things. I have lifted and played with the Kailasa mountain; I have defeated the Lord of Death (Antaka). I wasn’t asking about all that. [Dialogue resumes] After I have kidnapped Sita and brought her here, has something unusual happened?

Citrayodhi: Yes. Here Ravana mocks him, saying “ Yes, Yes, Yes ...“ Angrily, he asks: “What yes?”

Citrayodhi: People are talking about ...

Ravana : Oh, Rama has killed Bali, the monkey king. After that he depended on Sugriva, Bali’s brother. (When Ravana renders the name ‘Rama’ he shows the gesture for a worm, and for ‘Sugriva’ he shows the gesture ‘monkey’ in mockery). This is what I heard.

Citrayodhi: There is some special news.

Ravana: Tell me.

Citrayodhi: According to Rama’s order, the army of monkeys is on the move, searching everywhere for Sita.

Ravana: (Angrily): What? The “army” of monkeys is on the move, is that so? Then you see ...” [Here he renders and enacts a verse (not in Śaktibhadra’s original text] ahi-bhavana-pidhānān āyudhī-kṛtya śailān amara-jayini-sainye rakṣasām ātta-kakṣye katham iva raṇa-bhūmau vartate vānarāṇām upavana-taru-vallī-pallavonmāthi yūtham “Oh, Citrayodhi, what you said about the monkeys being an army is not right. When the army of Rakshasas have girded themselves for war and are in the field, how can the monkeys withstand them? Look at the army of Rakshasas. The mountains used to block entrance to Patala (the world beneath the earth) are their weapons. They are not weak. They have conquered Indra, king of the gods, and all the rest of the gods. When they pluck huge mountains and use them as weapons, the monkeys can’t stand up to them. What are the monkeys like? They scrape leaf buds with their hands and, on seeing the red color, run away frightened, thinking that it is blood. So mentioning monkeys as an ‘army’ is not right. Oh Citrayodhi, you should say ‘an army of Rakshasas, and a herd of monkeys’.”

Ravana: You may go now.

Citrayodhi: As you order.

Cithrayodhi exits.

PROGRAM NOTES Saturday, November 4 Abhijnānaśākuntalam Kālidāsa, who probably lived in the first half of the fifth century A.D., is the most famous Sanskrit playwright, and the Abhijnāna-śākuntalam is his most famous play. The story of love lost and love regained between a beautiful woman in a hermitage and a handsome king is based on an episode from the Indian epic, the Mahābhārata. Śākuntalā, abandoned by her parents—Sage Viśvāmitra and the celestial beauty Menakā—grows up into a beautiful woman in Saga Kaṇva’s hermitage. One day King Dushyanta, while hunting in the forest, chances to see her and is charmed by her beauty. They get married, and shortly thereafter he leaves for his palace after presenting her with a ring.

Sage Durvāsas, while visiting the hermitage, finds Śakuntalā lost in thought and not taking care to receive him. This angers the sage, who curses her that the king will forget her.

Later he calms down and tells her that King Dushyanta will recall her when he sees the ring he had given her.

But on the way to the palace Śakuntalā loses her ring in a stream. And when she reaches the palace, the king refuses to acknowledge her, indeed claims not to know who she is. But later a fisherman happens to find the ring and presents it to the king, who immediately recalls Śakuntalā but cannot find her anywhere.

Years later, after King Dushyanta returns from heaven where he had gone to battle the demons, he chances to see Śakuntalā and their son, and they are happily reunited.

Only the first scene, where the king sees Śakuntalā and falls in love with her, is being presented here.

King Dushyanta and his charioteer enter in their chariot.

Dushyanta is aiming his bow and arrow at a running deer.

Charioteer (looking at the King and then at the deer in turn): My Lord, the sight of you standing poised to kill this deer reminds me of Lord Śiva about to release his arrow at a deer.

King Dushyanta: O Charioteer, this deer is taking us far away.

As it grazes it turns around at the sound of the chariot. Then it flees at the sight of my bow and arrow. Darbha grass falls from the mouth of the frightened deer. Then it races toward the horizon. Charioteer, how does this deer suddenly appear so far?

Charioteer: O Lord, this terrain has ups and downs and the chariot has slowed down as I hold tight the reins. Thus the deer has gone far. Now that we are on level ground we are going fast.

King Dushyanta: Please make haste.

Charioteer: As you order (steers the chariot) King Dushyanta: Here’s the deer (aiming his arrow) A voice is heard: King, this deer belongs to a hermitage; please do not kill it.

Śakuntala: Oh! Friends Look at the jasmine that has wound around the mango tree. It’s at the right time that this tree and the jasmine found a match. The jasmine has flowered and is in its youth. The mango tree has also grown beautifully and shines with tender shoots.

King Dushyanta: I am retracting my arrow (hastens to do so).

Charioteer, Please steer the horses fast. Let me cleanse my soul by visiting the holy monastery.

(Sakuntala admires the jasmine’s beauty, she notices a bee drinking nectar from the jasmine flower and is about to water the plants when a bee buzzes around her face and she swats it away.)

Charioteer: So be it. (steers the chariot)

Śakuntala: Look these bees are coming at my face.

King Dushyanta: Here is the hermitage.

King Dushyanta: O bee, how fortunate you are! On seeing this beautiful maiden I am debating the rights and wrongs of approaching her while you race to her and touch her ears as though telling a secret. You kiss her lips even as she shoos you away. And I stand here forlorn!

King Dushyanta: We must not disturb the inmates of this hermitage; so stop the chariot here. Let me get down.

Charioteer (stops the chariot): Please alight My Lord.

The verse (1.20): King Dushyanta: Charioteer, please wash these horses by the time I return from the hermitage.

Charioteer: So be it (he exits) King Dushyantha: Here is the hermitage. Let me go in (he enters).

Dushyantha goes round the stage watching the hermitage and is surprised.

The deer cub drinking milk from the mother tiger.

A voice is heard: Ladies, please come here.

King Dushyanta: I can hear some voices on the south of this garden. Let me go there.

Enter Śakuntala as though accompanied by her chaperones.

calâpāṅgāṃ dṛṣṭiṃ spṛśasi bahuśo vepathumatīṃ rahasyâkhyāyîva svanasi mṛdu karṇântikacaraḥ | karaṃ vyādhunvatyāḥ pibasi rati-sarvasvam adharaṃ vayaṃ tattvânveṣān madhukara hatās tvaṃ khalu kṛtī || Again and again you touch the tremulous edges of her eyes. You murmur softly in her ear, as if sharing some deep secret, and though she waves her hand wildly, you gobble up every bit of goodness from her lips. You’re just a bee, god damn it, but you’ve got everything you wanted, while I’m still busy trying to figure things out.

Sakuntala (again swatting the bees away): My friends, this cruel bee is torturing me. Please save me.

Śakuntala: Ladies, please come here.

King Dushyanta (angrily): While I slay the cruel and protect this earth, who are you to trouble this hermit’s daughter?

Starts watering the plants.

(The king swats the bee away.)

Śakuntala: Please come here my friends. Look, this ilanji (mimusops) tree with its tender shoots swinging in the breeze is beckoning me. Let me go near that tree.

Śakuntala and King Dushyanta see each other and instantly fall in love, struck by the arrows of Desire.

Enter King Dushyantha whose eyes fall on Sakunthala and he is bewitched by her beauty. Lovelorn Dushyantha goes on to describe her beauty.

(The actor here enacts Panchangam—a concept in Koodiyattam when a love-struck hero describes his beloved with an aesthetic description of her hair, eyes, face, breasts and feet.)

Dushyanta: Her lips are as beautiful as tender leaves, hands as dainty as a plant’s branches, her body as soft as a flower. And brimming with youthfulness. Śakuntala continues to water the plants. Goes near a jasmine vine.