AHALYA

(A PLAYLET)

PRAPANJAN

Translated from Tamil by P. RAJA

[The stage is plunged in darkness when the curtain rises. When darkness gives way to light, a woman is seen sitting. She seems to be engrossed in some thought, unmindful of her surroundings. From the left of the stage enters sage Viswamitra. He is followed by Rama and then Lahshmana. Viswamitra goes near the woman and calls her by her name “Ahalya.” But since she sits motionless he raises his voice a few decibels and calls her again.]

Viswamitra: Ahalya ... Ahalya ...

Ahalya: (with a shudder) Oh! (looks at the guests)

Viswamitra: Meet Rama and his younger brother Lakshmana, sons of Emperor Dasaratha.

Ahalya: Most welcome princes. Let your visit bring peace and bliss. Be seated.

(The two princes salute her with both their hands, before all the three sit around Ahalya)

Rama: Ahalya! I was told about your life only on the way.

Ahalya: What was said about me ?

Rama: I was told that Indra had fooled you before violating you. As a result your husband abandoned you. It was also said that you had become hardened like a stone, devoid of all feelings.

Ahalya: Not a word is true.

Rama: What? What is not true?

Ahalya: You said that Indra had fooled me before violating me. It is a lie. You said that Gautama, my husband, had abandoned me because of that. It is another lie. You further said that I had become hardened like a stone. That is also a lie. From whom did you hear all these blatant lies?

(Rama looks askance at Viswamitra)

Viswamitra: It was I who narrated your story, Ahalya. Why do you deny the truth? Didn’t Indra enjoy you? Didn’t Gautama forsake you? Is it not true that you avoid food and sleep? Is it not true that you have stopped adorning yourself with flowers? Is it not true that you avoid your friends and relatives? Speak.

Ahalya: Oh, sage! You are a friend to every living being in the world. But I can’t understand why you have turned an enemy to me! (She stands up and moves forward) These trees on the earth and those birds in the sky and that cascade over there never fail to understand mankind. But it is only man who fails to understand man.

Viswamitra: Have I misunderstood you? Do you think so?

Ahalya: I said you have not understood me properly. Listen, O sage! Rama is brought here to do justice to me. If the case is not elucidated to the judge, there is all likelihood of his passing a wrong verdict ... Rama! On what basis of law do you propose to try me?

Rama: According to the code of laws given by Manu and the emperors and wise men for the benefit of mankind.

Ahalya: (Laughing) Oh, is it so? So you accept that your laws are meant only for tribes of men and not for individuals.

Rama: What is man? He is only a part of mankind, a fraction of the whole.

Ahalya: O, judge! Your view is fundamentally wrong. You look at man as a part, a fraction. But every individual blessed to live on earth is a whole, a complete being.

Rama: I fully agree with your view that the life of every individual is complete in itself. But he or she must obey the laws made with the greater purpose of uplifting and guiding mankind.

Ahalya: Oh, prince! You are blessed with a kingdom to rule. The diamond-studded crown and the throne await you. Those who are born to rule either follow blindly what their ancestors have given or simply make laws that are in every way beneficial to them.

Rama: I belong to the first category. It is my duty to maintain what my father Dasaratha and his ancestors have given.

Ahalya: I scoff at you, your ancestors and your blind laws. You never can understand men in the light of their feelings and their attachments, their joys and sorrows. You find fault with men only for their deeds and try them only to give lopsided verdicts.

Viswamitra: Ahalya! What you have said is wrong. Rama is an establisher of truth.

Ahalya: He tries to establish his truth on others.

Viswamitra: Ahalya! Your words are contradictory to truth. Remember that that will destroy truth.

Ahalya: Your words only highlight your fear, O sage! You are viewing my case by substituting the women of your family in the place of Ahalya. You suspect the young men who study under you as Indras. You look at yourself as Gautama, who involves himself in prayer all the time and thinks of his wife when his flesh craves for flesh. Am I not right? (No reply) Speak, O sage, speak.

Viswamitra: Mistakes have to be rectified but not to be justified.

Ahalya: (Comes back to her seat. Darkness engulfs the stage. W hen the spotlight is flashed, a painting is seen. It shows a sage with his wife begging alms from a man with hands stretched out.)

Rama! Listen to this story now. Being a town-dweller you would hardly have heard of this since it is that of a forest-dweller.

Once it so happened that the kingdom of the Kurus was struck by lightning and was turned to ashes. A sage by name Sakrayana who left the place with his young wife halted in a village of mehouts out of sheer hunger and fatigue ... They came across a mahout eating horse-gram and asked him thus:

Sakrayana’s Voice: Oh, mahout! Hunger has numbed my senses. The life- breath is struggling to release itself from this cage. Give me something to eat.

Mahout’s Voice: I have nothing to offer you except the left-overs.

Sakrayana’s Voice: Help me and my wife by offering at least that.

Ahalya’s Voice: Sakrayana and his wife shared the food offered. No sooner did they finish eating than the mahout said:

Mahout’s Voice: Drink this water and quench your thirst too.

Sakrayana’s Voice: No! It is defiled by you. I can’t drink it.

Mahout’s Voice: What! Was not the horse-gram you have taken just now defiled by me?

Sakrayana’s Voice: Had I not taken that, I would have died of hunger. Now that I have eaten to sustain my life-breath, drinking the water offered by you would be an act of greed.

(The lighting is stronger now and all the four are seen. Ahalya gets up and moves towards the downstage)

Ahalya: Sakrayana and I were dying of hunger, 0 Rama! Sages like Sakrayana have killed the desire in them for accumulating wealth and developed the quest for greater knowledge. The kings must have seen to it that such sages were fed properly, as fathers do to their children. Instead they provided no food for the hungry and no water for the thirsty. That was why he had to beg for food from the mahout. Now coming to my case, he, who married me in the presence of Agni, God of Fire, and solemnly vowed to be by my side both during joy and sorrow, remained a burnt-out wood when my body was burning with desire. I was to him only a servant and never a wife. He only expected me to collect the dried twigs to keep the sacrificial fire going and gather edible fruits and herbs to him but nothing more ... nothing more. A wife is a companion, you say. But in what way did he allow me to remain as his companion? Am I allowed to start the sacrificial fire? Or am I allowed to nourish the fire by pouring clarified butter? Answer me, O sage, you who wish to conquer death, yet wander the earth mortally afraid of it.

Viswamitra: The mind must never be guided by the senses. Know this and try to have a hold on your mind.

Ahalya: Why? What for? What for is this enticing beauty? Why am I blessed with this tempting bosom? What for are these hands? The desire to embrace all things on earth is bubbling in me. What is the reason, O sage? Why did Gautama, who had complete control over his mind, need a wife? Didn’t he have disciples more than enough to answer his beck and call? Why did he need me?

Viswamitra: (After a silence) Gautama might have made a mistake. But you were unfaithful to him.

Ahalya: (Comes back and sits facing Viswamitra) Ah! How well are the words coined and stocked only to be used at our whims and fancies! O sage of sages! I was never unfaithful to anyone.

(The stage is covered again by darkness. The spotlight is at work. To the left is seen a painting which shows Indra and Ahalya in their prime of youth standing vis-a-vis.)

Indra’s Voice: Ahalya, my sweet! I feel restless if for a moment I forget you and do not join myself with you. Though I am physically present in my firmament, my mental presence is with you. I wish you to be my wife and companion.

Ahalya’s Voice: O Indra ! From the day I shed my girlhood and reached womanhood, only you have been in my mind. Your youth is my food. To caress you and be one with you has become my life. You are my husband. Enjoy me, for I am yours. And even as you enjoy me, I too will enjoy you and satisfy my hunger.

(Ahalya’s voice continues but in a different tone) It is true that I loved Indra. It is also true that he loved me. But my father hated him. It was he who didn’t allow us to live together. My own father wrecked my life. I considered Indra my husband. But my father married me to Gautama against my wish. With fun and fanfare he set me on fire while friends and relatives stood witnessing it. Marriage alone cannot bind a woman to a man. Is it not foolish to believe that the thread that binds two different flowers binds their scents too? What my father has bestowed upon Gautama is not me, but only this physical frame born of his loins. What father marries off his daughter according to her wish? What man sleeps with his wife respecting her feelings? The man who milks his cow only twice a day, doesn’t hesitate to milk pleasure out of his wife any number of times.

Viswamitra: But you can’t deny that you lived with Gautama.

Ahalya: Never, O sage! Never have I lived with Gautama. I have lived only with Indra. It was only his light that opened the lids of my virginity. Whenever Gautama embraced me I found in my arms only Indra. The body that lay heavy on me was only with him. My soul had intercourse with him and with no one else.

That was what happened on that night too. All the forest dwellers point their accusing finger at me because of that incident. And on that night...

(Lights go off the stage. To its right is seen a painting which shows a large full moon with a dark background)

Ahalya’s Voice: On that auspicious night the full moon was flooding the forest with light. It was a little before daybreak and a cool breeze was flowing into the hermitage. Though my physical eyes were closed, the inner eyes were wide awake. I was dying to see the face I was looking for. I was chanting the name of Indra in the way Mantras are chanted. All my five senses were praying to my master who had enslaved me. Gautama had already left to continue his work - paving his way to the heavens. And I was left alone. Loneliness is my shadow that is born with me and grows with me.

The dream of my heart, the desire of my life, came to be fulfilled on that day, Rama! He came - my Indra - in the form of a tiny round light, like a tilak on the forehead. The tiny light sprouted within me, put forth leaves and finally sent the roots deeper. I became a cloud, while he, the Sun of Wisdom, tore into me. Darkness was devouring us. We were devouring ourselves.

Gautama returned to his hermitage after finishing his morning ablutions. The presence of an unexpected usurper infuriated him. He cursed us. He called me a whore. I laughed. How can I ever be a whore? I have but lived with one man. No woman is a whore if she lives with only one man.

Gautama who once called me his sweet one, now called me a stone. So be it.

(The lighting is stronger now and all the four are seen seated as before. Ahalya gets up and moves towards the downstage and faces the audience.)

Ahalya: O sage! Lord of the Kosala country! You accuse me of having committed a sin? But why are you blind to the sins of Gautama? (Flaring up) Gautama lived with one who had no mind to live with him. Is he not a sinner? My father married me to Gautama against my wish. Is he not a sinner? Many women desire to keep paramours, yet don’t do so for fear of public opinion. Aren’t they sinners? Many women commit adultery, yet go unnoticed. Aren’t they sinners?

Why does your moral balance fail to weigh them? Are your rules, laws and regulations made only for the innocents? Rama! Never be under the impression that Thataka was the only one who disturbed the meditating sages.

Viswamitra: (in a calm voice) Ahalya! You have hurled a stone into the pond. It is sure to create ripples. The lashings of your tongue will certainly disturb the peaceful life of the people here.

Ahalya: Let it do so ... What is peace, O sage? Life is peaceful only to those who are bold and valiant. Peaceful life is founded on the strength of the sincerity of one’s mind. Fake customs, false rites and blind faiths do not pave the way to the citadel of peace.

(While Ahalya is still seated, all the other three get up)

Rama: I consider the position of Gautuma. Ahalya! You argued for and against your own case. Gautama believes that I will be able to find a solution to your problem.

Ahalya: And you think you have found the solution?

Rama: I don’t think so. At this moment I believe no one will be able to solve anyone else’s problem.

Ahalya: And finally what do you advise?

Rama: Advice? How can I advise you? Act according to the dictates of your conscience. It is not meritorious to act hastily and then die a slow death in the hands of a guilty conscience. It is meritorious to act after a thoughtful while and feel happy later. To you, your life is your own virtue ... Let me take leave of you.

Ahalya: Good! May you be blessed with a life of bliss.

(Exit Rama and Lakshmana)

Viswamitra: I too shall take my leave. May your words of blessing come true in Rama’s life! We are on the way to settle his marriage. (As Ahalya salutes him with both her hands, he raises his hand as in blessing) May you lead a long married life.

Ahalya: (Peering at Viswamitra) With whom? With Indra or Gautama? (Viswamitra laughs before he moves away ... Ahalya sits as in the beginning of the play. Her eyes are fixed in a gaze. Engrossed in deep thought she forgets herself.)

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