Pre script: While searching for a file on my laptop, I came across this one. (Incidentally, ever wondered why searching for a file on your PC takes much much longer on a 80 GB hard disk than what Google will take to scan millions of GB space with billions of pages?)
This was a play I had written for an inter-collegiate festival. The topic was ‘Rewriting Myths and Histories’. However, this one was banned and never saw the light of the day, so to speak.
I am producing a much-edited version, giving only a gist of the play, so as not to bore the reader. Wherever, I have edited, I have written in red to carry the story forward. No offence meant to the devout and faithful.
Ravanayana:
Scene 1
Ravan, Vibhishan, Few Courtiers, Soorpa. Setting - In Ravan’s court.
(The play opens with Ravan sitting on his throne and facing Vibhishan and other courtiers. It is evening outside.)
They discuss Meghnath’s health, following a snakebite. He is recovering, says Ravan. Ravan commiserates with the snake, as he believes it was unnecessarily killed.
‘It was a cobra, highly venomous. But I guess, he encroached its habitat. Poor animal. I wish it wasn’t killed by others, instead let off in the forest at the edge of the kingdom.’
R then discusses the abundant rains and is happy at the prospect of bumper harvest. Then turns towards V.
‘And I have finished tilling our part of the land today. (Others notice a tinge of bitterness in the King’s voice directed at his younger brother. V looks down as if he has found something of more interest in the floor near his feet. R turns towards another courtier.) You tell me if any of our citizens need help in the farms. Vibhishan will assist them from tomorrow.’
As the court adjourns, a woman comes running into the court, with blood on her face and clothes, crying loudly. Enter Soorpa (Known to us as Soorpanakha, Swaroopa?)
R grieves and demands to know what happened to her.
S: (In between cries): Brother, an arrogant Aryan named Laxmana cut off my nose. The long story that we are all aware off.
R orders a few people to take her to the physician. As some courtiers demand revenge, V advises restraint, instead putting the blame on their sister.
‘And as it is we cannot defeat the Aryans. They have more powerful Gods than we do. Or at least their Gods do come to their rescue more often than ours. They are unbeatable.
R: (Shouting) You coward, even a snake defends its territory. Our forefathers lived across the length and breadth of the land. Now we have been forced to move much south and hide behind the Vindhyas. They address us as Rakshasas, mlechhas and asuras¹, conveniently forgetting that it is our land they are trampling on. I have studied their Vedas. Their Gods are much lowly than us. However, they win because they are more skilled and better organised in warfare than us. (R orders V to attack Ram and Laxmana, but V dithers and finally refuses.) You have no love for your motherland, your blood does not boil at the humiliation of your sister. You do not work with the rest of us on the fields and now at nightfall, you will slink away to drink alcohol. I will go and avenge my sister.’
Scene 2:
Ravan, Sita, Jatayu. Setting - In a forest dwelling.
R abducts Sita after not being able to find Ram and Laxman, of course there is no Laxman rekha, R here introduces himself to Sita as a king of thousand villages and promises her that no harm will come to her as he only wants to avenge his sister by slaying Laxman. He leaves a message for Ram and Laxman asking Laxman to surrender before him The messenger incidentally is Jatayu, a forest dweller and not a bird.)
Scene 3:
Ram, Laxman, Bali, Sugriv and a few more forest dwellers. Setting - An open land.
Ram kills Bali, befriends Sugriv and in turn gets a promise that he will help him in the war against Ravan. Of course, these are no monkeys but forest dwelling humans.
Scene 4:
Ravan, Vibhishan, a few courtiers. Setting – Ravan’s court.
V and a few cronies have tried to kill Ravan and his family, but have been caught. R chides his brother for plotting to kill him when an Aryan enemy was upon them.
‘I have treated you like a son and had given you freedom to do whatever you desired. Including excusing you for not working on the fields along with the rest of us.’
The courtiers demand capital punishment, but R decides not to put him to death, only banish him.
Scene 5:
Ram and Vibhishan. Setting - An open land
Vibhishan promises Ram that he will help him in defeating Ravan. In return, he will be made king of Lanka.
Scene 6:
Ram and Ravan. Setting – An open land.
Ram and Ravan meet to discuss if any compromise is possible. Ravan insists on cutting off Laxman’s nose before returning Sita back to him. Ram refuses and tells him the matter will be decided on the battlefield. Ravan chides Ram for using poor gullible adivasis in his endeavour.
Scene 9:
Ravan, Mandodari. Setting - A chamber.
M grieves over the death of her son, Meghnath. R consoles her. He tells her that he will take on the might of the Aryan army the next day and probably get killed. He advises her to run away with a few bodyguards to her parents’ place.
‘I am not afraid of death, but I know my legacy will be tarnished. I will be treated as a villain, for it is the winners who write history…’
Post Script:
I wrote this play while I was in college. Then I was very young, very brash and very arrogant. I believed I was more intelligent, more knowledgeable than most people I met. I believed I was ordained to change the world. Maybe even the Messiah. I got married as soon as I was out of college.
Very soon, I turned the opposite corner. I was very depressed, I smoked, I doped, I drank. And I was out of work. I wallowed in self-pity. So much, that my wife threw me out of the house. I lived on my brother like a parasite.
Then, one day, I ran. And kept running for 18 hours. I thought by doing so, I will remove all the unwanted toxins from my body. I fell down unconscious owing to dehydration. It took more than 8 months for my ankle, shin and hamstring to recover from the tissue damage that I sustained.
Now, I am not so young, a bit mature and somewhere in between the two extreme states. I am still arrogant when it comes to my work, but I do listen to others and take their views. Finally I may even incorporate them, but I still believe my version was better. My wife has accepted me back. I once asked her why. She said, whenever she looks at me, I remind her of the worst mistake of her life. And she couldn’t make a worse one at that, even if she consciously tried. I doubt she was just joking.
I still believe Ramayana is not a tale of victory of good over evil (I don’t know what those terms mean anyway.) For me, it’s a tale of Aryans v/s the aborigines, known as Dravidians.
Any hero/superhero can only be as great as his villian. A Batman needs a joker. Ram needed a Ravan.
¹ Some experts think that asura refer to Assyrians who stayed here. Given the extensive usage to the term in Indian mythologies, others speculate that Aryans got to know Assyrians during their nomadic days and used the term derisively in the sub continent. However, another batch that marched into Iran used the term (it became Ahura) with respect, connoting their Gods.
This is a work of fiction. But I believe it has an equal probability of actually having happened as any of the more popular versions. Or, dare I say, possibly more.
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