Assignment Topic : The purpose
Roll
No. : 32
Submitted
to : M.A Department of English
MKBU
Bhavnagar University
Batch
Year : 2016-18
Purpose :-
Thantavar
paramasive kailasam was a playwright and prominent writer of Kannada
literature. Born on 29 July, 1886 in Mysore. His contribution to
Kannada theatrical comedy earned him the title "the father of
humorous plays" and later he was also called "kannadakke
obbane Kailasam" meaning one and only kailasam for Kannada.
- T.P. kailasam is famous for his many popular plays such as :
- Fulfillment
- Purpose
- The Brahmin's curse
"Purpose"
is one of the most famous plays by kailasam. The origin of the play
is Mahabharata by ved vyas. Writer pick up the characters from
Mahabharata and tried to put his own ideas and imagination.
In
our great epic Arjuna is the hero and great archer. But T.P. Kailasam
deconstruct the character of Arjuna and made him villain. Eklavya is
the protogonist of the play. He is the protector of the nature and he
has the very good quality of disciple and archer.
T.P.
Kailasam portrays the subaltern society in this play. He puts the
character of Eklavya into center and Arjuna at the periphery. He
gives the voice to Eklavya a low cast Nishadda boy. subaltern doesn't
have the voice. Here we find caste conflict between Arjuna and
Eklavya.
"The
purpose" is a mythical play which shows many facts like
religion, evil customs, ancient time of India. According to
Nietzsche's prospective every writer has their own perspective to
look towards the history and mythology.
In
pre independent era there were many social evil custom which required
to cleanse such as caste system, child marriage and sati pratha. T.P.
Kailasam has dealt with the caste conflict of the society of his
time. For this purpose he attempted to bring into limelight
marginalized characters such as Eklavya and Karna. The story is based
on Adiparva from the Mahabharata. The writer shows that even
marginalized character such as Eklavya can be equal or superior from
high caste Arjuna in Archery.
The
story moves around Eklavya and Arjuna and their purpose behind
learning archery. Both learn archery from the great Dronacharya. But
only the sons of King can learn from the great guru as Eklavya
belongs to low cast Nishadda boy, he is not able to learn archery
from Dronacharya.
Eklavya's
purpose is pure and selfless behind learning archery while Arjuna's
purpose is self centered as he wants to become great archer in the
world. Drona is a skilled teacher renown through out the land for his
wisdom and skill. Arjuna is a prince of a great kingdom. Eklavya is a
tribal boy from a relatively far away area.
One
day as Drona is training Arjuna, Eklavya comes out of the forest and
observes them from a distance. When Drona looks less busy Eklavya
approaches him and asks for permission to learn archery. Drona in
fact wholeheartedly wishes to help him to Fulfill his goal.
Eklavya
is the prince of his caste and lives in the center of his a great
forest. Near his house there are many fawns that him and his mother
care for and occasionally feed. He protects that fawns. It is for
this purpose that he wishes to mastery the skill of archery.
Drona
is utterly wooed by the boy's selflessness. But he is bounded by his
vow that he will make the Arjuna the greatest archer of the world for
this reason He could not teach Eklavya.
Kailasam
has depicted Arjuna as bad fellow who gets into a small fight with
Eklavya and insults his caste telling him that he is low born and
hence, unable to ever compete with somebody of his own level. Very
cleverly Eklavya replies that :
"According
to you the only thing that one has to be proud of in being an Aryas,
is that one is not a Nishadda, if then there were no Nishadda, at all
in this world you poor Aryans would have nothing to be proud of in
being born as Aryas ?"
It
shows the logical power and Sharpness of the mind of Eklavya. Eklavya
tells to Arjuna that according to the guru there are only five
requirements to become a good archer :
1 A
perfect mastery of the ground work of archery.
2 A
power to concentrate.
3 A
deep and fervent love for one's guru.
4 The
guru's whole hearted agreement to teach.
5 Assiduous
practice.
Eklavya
states that nowhere in these criteria is caste mentioned and hence he
should have an equal opportunity. but honor bound guru has promised
to Arjuna that he will make him the greatest archer hence guru has no
choice to turn Eklavya away.
After
rejected by guru Eklavya makes the holy statue of Drona and learn
archery from that statue. After six years later, when Drona and
Arjuna wandering through the forest suddenly they see a wolf
screaming with at least 30 arrows through its skull. They both are
surprising and recognize that he is Eklavya.
Eklavya
tells to Dronacharya that he has learnt archery from him but Drona is
still in dilemma that how can Eklavya learns more than he himself
knows. To this Eklavya responds.
“A
pupil can learn more from his guru than what the guru himself knows
if the purpose of the pupil for learning is nobler than what the
purpose of the Guru's was when he learnt from his guru"
Arjuna
continues to taunting and insulting Drona. Eklavya can not see the
insult of guru and he gives his thumb as gurudakshina and without
thinking for a while Eklavya cuts of his right thumb.
After
that Eklavya overcome with a sense of grief. He remembers his fawns,
the purpose of his entire endeavor that he had just destroyed his
purpose.
Eklavya
was caught between loyalty to his guru (who had made his purpose
possible) and a loyalty to his purpose (for which he needed the guru)
it shows the moral conflict of Eklavya.
The
title of the play is well chosen. As every character has different
purpose for their action. The purpose of Eklavya is noble one as he
wants to protect the fawns and animals of the jungle. While purpose
of Arjuna, is selfish he wants to show off himself as great archer.
He just wants to learn archery because he can win the wars.
Eklavya's
loyalty to his guru is quite admirable but at the end he gained
nothing as being loyal to his guru. So what does one really get out
of bring loyal ? This is the mind of the viewer through out the play.
“In
a desperate attempt to maintain his loyalty to the guru, he gave away
what was not his to give, his purpose”
- Citation:
- Material of the text.
T.P.
Kailasam put marginalized character into center and give voice to
marginalized society. The writer portrays
the character of Eklavya very effectively.
Eklavya's moral conflict is the central attraction of the play. T.P.
Kailasam deconstuct the character of Arjuna in such way that it
gives the another charm to the play. We can find the origin of the
play in our great epic Mahabharata but there is a difference between
the characters of Mahabharata and there is difference between the
purpose of the characters. and Eklavya becomes the real hero of the
play.
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