Block-I Kalidasa: Shakuntala Shudraka: Mrichhakatika: M.A. English I Semester

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Mukthagangotri - 570 006 ªÀÄÄPÀÛUÀAUÉÆÃwæ, ªÉÄÊ¸ÀÆgÀÄ - 570 006
M.A. ENGLISH
I SEMESTER
INTER-DISCIPLINARY COURSE-I
(OPEN ELECTIVE)
INDIAN LITERATURE-I
Block-I
Kalidasa: Shakuntala
Shudraka: Mrichhakatika
Preface
Welcome to the Department of Studies and Research in English, Karnataka State Open University,
Mukthagangothri, Mysuru.
EL-1.1: INTER- DISCIPLINARY COURSE-I (OPEN ELECTIVE)

INDIAN LITERATURE-I
Block-I
Kalidasa: Shakuntala.
Shudraka: Mrichhakatika.
The SLM has been written in keeping in mind the needs of students studying M.A in English. The
SLM has been made in such a way that students will be fully guided to prepare for the exam in the most
effective manner, securing higher grade. It is necessary to work out the self-check exercises and those
given for self-study, so that you will grasp the essentials of effective communication, during revision and
preparation for the exam. The material is presented in Clear and Concise form and there are questions for
you to practice. A good dictionary is a good friend. Consulting a dictionary every now and then is a good
habit and worth cultivating. Learning can be a pleasurable experience, read with an openness of mind.
Hence the Learners sharpen their intellectuality, enhance literary sensibilities and develop usage of vocabulary.
Wish you all the best.
Dr.Nataraju.G
The Chairman
Department of Studies and Research in English
Karnataka State Open University, Mysore
Course Design Expert Committee
Prof.Vidyashankar.S Chairman
Vice-Chancellor
Karnataka State Open University
Mukthagangotri, Mysore – 570 006
Prof. Ashok kamble

Dean (Academic) & Convenor Member
Dr.Nataraju.G Member
Course Co-ordinator
Chairman, BOS in English
Chairman,DOSR in English
Editorial Committee
Dr.Nataraju.G Chairman
Senior Faculty Member
Program Co-ordinator
Prof. Vijay Sheshadri Member
External Subject Expert
Dr.Nataraju.G
Chairman,DOSR in English Member
Course Writer Course Editors

Prof.Vijaya Guttal (Units 1to 4) Dr.D.A.Shankar(Units 1to 4)
Dr.Nataraju.G(Units 1to 4)
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Block
1
Page No
UNITS 1 and 2
Kalidasa: Shakuntala 1-17
UNITS - 3 and 4
Shudraka: Mrichhakatika 18-35

Indian Literature - I
Block – I
Unit-1: Kalidasa – Shakuntala
STRUCTURE
1.0 OBJECTIVES
1.1 INTRODUCTION TO SANSKRIT DRAMA
1.2 KALIDASA AS A PLAYWRIGHT
1.3 SOURCE OF THE PLAY
1.4 PLOT OF THE PLAY
1.5 SUMMARY
1.6 GLOSSARY
1.7 QUESTION
1.8 REFERENCES
1
1.0 Objectives
1. To give the candidates an insight into the nature of Sanskrit Drama
2. To help to understand the contribution of Kalidasa to Sanskrit drama as a playwright.
3. To create an awareness of the importance of Shakuntala as Kalidasa’ s masterpiece.
4. To grasp the plot structure of the play Shakuntala for a better understanding of the drama
1.1 Introduction to Sanskrit Drama:

In Sanskrit literature poetry has been divided into two kinds, ‘Drishya’ i.e., what is capable of
being seen or exhibited and ‘Shravya’ i.e., what can only be heard or chanted. The form of drama falls
under the category ‘drishya’. All dramatic compositions in Sanskrit are known as Rupaka. The “Sahitya-
Darpana” divides the dramas into two main classes, the Rupaka and the Uparupaka. If the Rupaka is a
major form of drama, the Uparupaka is a minor form. There are ten types of the Rupaka and eighteen
types of the Uparupaka. The Rupaka has ‘Rasa’ as its substratum. Sanskrit plays consist of an interchange
of lyrical passages with prose dialogue and the use of Sanskrit for characters of higher class and of
Prakrit for lower class characters and women. Sanskrit drama is a fusion of the tragic and the comic
elements and the jester, the Vidushaka, plays a prominent part. There are no pure tragedies in Sanskrit,
for the emotions of terror, grief and pity, which are aroused in the audience, are always tranquillized by
the happy ending of the story. Lyrical passages abound in a drama as in the Shakuntala.
Sanskrit dramatists show considerable skill in weaving the incidents of the plot and in the portrayal
of individual characters and most often choose their subject from history or epic legend. Love is the
most common subject of Sanskrit drama. Every play begins with a “nandi” verse, which is a prayer sung
by the Sutradhara, invoking the deity for benediction. It is followed by a dialogue between the ‘Sutradhara’,
the stage manager, and one or two characters introducing the play and its author to the audience. A
Sanskrit drama is divided into acts, which are further divided into scenes. The play also closes with a
prayer for national prosperity addressed to the deity by a principal character.
Important Sanskrit playwrights like Kalidasa, Bhavabhuti, Shudraka and Shriharsha are supposed
to have lived and written between 5th and 8th century A.D.
Sanskrit dramatic tradition recognizes three essential constituents in drama and these are; (1)
‘Vastu’ or the plot of the play (2) ‘Neta’ or the Hero and (3) ‘Rasa’ or the sentiment. Generally the plot
must be taken from mythology or history, the characters must be heroic or divine, it should be written in
an elaborate style and full of noble sentiments with five acts at least, but not extending for more than ten.
Every dramatic work opens with a prelude or prologue, which is introduced by what is called the ‘Nandi’.
This Nandi sloka, according to some critics must suggest the gist of the whole plot.
1.2 Kalidasa as a Playwright:
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Kalidasa has been acclaimed to be the greatest of all Sanskrit dramatists and yet we know very
little about his life. Although there are claims that he belongs to a much earlier period, there are evidences
to surmise that he lived at the court of Chandragupta-II who was a patron of arts. Kalidasa is known as
the author of some of the best plays and poems in Sanskrit literature. Kalidasa is the author of four
poems, namely, Ritusamhara, Kumarasambhava, Meghasandesha and Raghuvamsa and three plays,
namely, Malavikagnimitra, Vikramorvashiya, and Abhijnana Shakuntala. There has been a debate
over whether the Ritusamhara is written by Kalidasa. But Indian tradition has always associated
Ritusamhara with Kalidasa. It is a poetic description of the seasons in about 160 verses. It may be said
that the poem celebrates youth. Meghasandesha, which is in two parts, tells a simple story of a Yaksha
in exile who suffers the pangs of separation from his beloved who is in the distant Alaka, his home city
and sends a message to his pining beloved with a cloud. The poem makes a profound appeal through the
richness of description and power of sentiment. The Kumarasambhava is an epic celebrating the
marriage of god Shiva with Uma for the birth of a son, Kumara, for the destruction of Tarakasura who
harasses the gods. The Raghuvamsa is a good example of an epic in 19 cantos, describing the race of
Raghu, and the life of Rama, one of the greatest Kings of the race.
Malavikagnimitra is said to be the first dramatic work of Kalidasa. This is a play in five acts
depicting the love between King Agnimitra and princess Malavika. Vikramorvasiya is also based on
the theme of love, the love of King Pururava and Urvasi, a heavenly nymph. The greatness of Kalidasa’s
plays is found in the masterly depiction of the characters and sentiments and the inimitable descriptions of
nature. The theme of love predominates the plays of Kalidasa and in Abhijnanashakuntala it attains
spiritual status. Shakuntala, the last of the three plays of Kalidasa is said to reflect the perfection of his
art. As English drama is made memorable by Shakespeare, so is Indian drama made memorable by
Kalidasa.
1.3 The Source of Play:
Sanskrit poets and dramatists invariably turn to the two great epics, the Ramayana and the
Mahabharata, Somadeva’s Kathasaritsagara and Khsemendra’s Brihatkathamanjari for their plots.
They always looked for a subject which contained an element of surprise. Like Bhasa and Bhavabhuti,
the other great dramatists in Sanskrit, Kalidasa too borrowed his subjects from the great Indian epics.
Scholars of Kalidasa are of the opinion that his Abhijnanashakuntala is based on the Shakuntala
episode in the Mahabharata. There are some others who think that he has borrowed it from the
Padmapurana. Although the Mahabharata appears the obvious source for Kalidasa’s Shakuntala,
yet there are glaring differences between the Mahabharata episode and Kalidasa’s play. Except for the
broad outline and the names, he does not owe much to this source. He has created new characters like
Anasuya and Priyamvada and also the Vidushaka, the policemen and others. On the other hand, there
are many similarities between the Padmapurana version and Kalidasa’s Shakuntala which seems to
suggest that he may have borrowed the Purana version for his play. But as has been pointed out by
scholars, the purana version appears to have made a rough summary of the plot of the Shakuntala for
the purpose of adding it to the Mahabharata version. All evidences point to the fact that it is more likely
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that Kalidasa borrowed the Mahabharata version and introduced his own innovations and the Purana
version may have been a later version.
1.4 Plot of the Play:
Act-I:
The play opens with the customary ‘Nandi’, the benediction verse by the ‘Sutradhara’ who is
the stage-manager and he informs the actress that the audience, composed mostly of learned men, will
soon be entertained by a new play of Kalidasa. After this prelude, the actress sings a charming song on
the beauties of the summer season. Dushyanta, King of Hastinapura, while pursuing a deer, in the course
of hunting, comes near Kanva’s ashram premises. The disciples of Kanva tell him not to kill the deer as
it belongs to the ashram. On his desisting, they bless him and invite him to the ashram to receive hospitality
from Shakuntala the foster-daughter of Kanva, as the sage himself had been away at Somatirtha. Coming
to the hermitage, he catches sight of the beautiful Shakuntala, who accompanied by her two maiden
friends, is watering the trees. He overhears their conversation and learns that she is the true daughter of
Vishwamitra and Menaka and so it clears his doubts. He is attracted to her and fallen in love with her.
The bee incident further confirms their attraction for each other.
Act-II:
The king, engrossed in the thoughts of Shakuntala, is tired of hunting and cancels the hunting-
programme. He requests Vidushaka to find some pretext of visiting the hermitage. Just then a deputation
of hermits comes and requests the king to protect their sacrifices as the demons were troubling them, in
the absence of Kanva. The king gladly consents and sends Vidushaka with his followers back to the
capital as his representatives to attend a religious ritual which his queen-mother had asked him to attend.
Act-III:
Shakuntala is suffering from love-fever and her life is at a very great risk. The king sees her at the
bower, nursed by Anasuya and Priyamvada to whom Shakuntala reveals her love for the king. They
approve of it and ask Shakuntala to write a love-letter to Dushyanta. The king who overhears all this
now presents himself and requests Shakuntala to marry him by the Gandharva form of marriage. Anasuya
and Priyamvada leave the lovers together until, Gautami, the hermitage matron, comes to inquire after
Shakuntala’s health.
The marriage is consummated as per the Gandharva rites and after a fortnight the king returns
to the capital. On the same day he returned, the sage Durvasa appeared at Kanva’s cottage demanding
hospitality, when Shakuntala was there alone absorbed in her thoughts about Dushyanta, and is not
aware of the arrival of the sage, Durvasa cursed her that her lover would not remember her. Anasuya
and Priyamvada hear the curse and beg for mercy and Durvasa relented and assured that a token of
recognition shown to the person would end the curse. Anasuya and Priyamvada decide to keep the
incident to themselves and not inform Shakuntala.
Act-IV:
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Kanva, after a lapse of five or six moths, returns from the Somatirtha and an aerial voice informs
him about the marriage and pregnancy of Shakuntala. Kanva approves of Shakuntala’s choice and
decides to send her immediately to Dushyanta. Shakuntala is given a very moving farewell by the
inmates of the hermitage, including even the trees, deers, and creepers. She is escorted by Gautami,
Sarangarava, and Saradvata.
Act-V:
The act opens in the court with a song by Hamsapadika, Dushyanta’s mistress, through which
she taunts him for neglecting her. Just then news is brought to the king of the arrival of the party sent by
Kanva. When he receives them ceremoniously with the Purohita, Sarangarava asks Dushyanta to receive
Shakuntala as his wife. The king under the influence of the curse denies all knowledge about her. In the
following heated argument, Shakuntala wants to convince the king by showing him the token of recognition
and finds that the ring is not there on her finger. Gautami suggests that it may have fallen in the Sachitirtha
where they halted on the way. Dushyanta laughs in derision when Shakuntala tries to tell him of some
incident known only to him and her. The king refuses all knowledge and says that he is not a sensualist
who can be trapped by wily women. Sarangarava finally decides to leave Shakuntala in the court and
return to the hermitage, saying to the king,” She is your wife; take her or leave her.” The Purohita then
suggests that Shakuntala should stay in his house till her delivery and if her son has characteristics of an
emperor, the king could admit her to his harem. Shakuntala leaves the court with the Purohita. He
immediately returns to report that Shakuntala was carried off by a flash of light near the Apsaratirtha. The
king takes no interest in it but his heart continues to trouble him.
Act – VI:
About six years have elapsed since the repudiation of Shakuntala by the king. One day the
police caught a fisherman trying to sell a ring engraved with the king’s name. Not believing the fisherman’s
story, that he found the ring inside a ‘Rohita’ fish caught at the Sacitirtha, the inspector takes the ring to
the king who immediately remembers the whole Shakuntala-episode. He feels bitter remorse and forbids
all spring festivities and spends most of his time watching the portrait of Shakuntala which he himself has
drawn.
Meanwhile the Prime Minister reports to him the case of a wealthy merchant Dhanamitra who
had died in shipwreck and was childless. The minister had suggested that his property should go to the
state. At the thought that he too was in a similar state of being childless, the king feels dejected and
orders to make inquiries to find out if any of the wives of Dhanamitra was with child. On being informed
that one of the wives of Dhanamitra was pregnant, the king passes orders and issues a general proclamation
that the king would be in the place of any law-abiding relative of the dead and would give all help to the
bereaved relatives. The thought of his own childlessness and that his ancestors will be denied their
libations after him disturbs him. Dushyanta sends away the portrait of Shakuntala with the Vidushaka as
queen Vasumati is visiting him. Just then a cry for help by the Vidushaka is heard and the king is informed
that Vidushaka is taken by an evil spirit on the top of the ‘Meghapratichhanda’ palace. The king hastens
there only to meet Matali, Indra’s charioteer, who conveys the desire of Indra that Dushyanta should
5
help him to destroy the Durjaya demons. The King prepares to go to heaven with Matali instructing, the
Prime Minister, Pisuna, to act for him in his absence.
Act-VII:
Having defeated the Durjayas and having received the signal honour of sharing Indra’s seat in the
presence of all gods, on his way back to earth, Dushyanta stops at Hemakuta mountain to visit the sage
Maricha. In the hermitage, he sees a boy dragging a lion-cub from its mother and the king is attracted
towards the boy. He comes to know that the boy was not the son of the sage and that he is a descendant
of Puru and his mother’s name is Shakuntala. But conviction came when one of the hermit-women found
the ‘protecting charm’ of the boy missing and the king seeing it fallen on the ground picks it up, before the
ladies could protest. The king learns that the protecting charm of the boy had magical powers and only
the parents could touch it. Otherwise, it would turn into a serpent and bite. The hermit-women go and
inform Shakuntala of the good fortune. Shakuntala meets the king who makes her a full apology and is
forgiven by her. They all go to see Maricha and his wife Aditi and receive the blessings of the sage. All
misunderstanding thus removed, Dushyanta and Shakuntala return to the capital with their son
Sarvadamana.
1.5 Summary:
Kalidasa has been acclaimed as the unrivalled poet of’ “sringara” rasa for which abundant evi-
dence can be found in his greatest play Shakuntala. The structure of Sanskrit drama as seen in the plays
of writers like Kalidasa has its own unique features like the “naandi”, the “Sutradhara”. The three essen-
tial constituents of Sanskrit drama are ‘vastu’ (plot), ‘nayaka’ (hero), and ‘rasa’ (sentiment).
The theme of love predominates the plays Kalidasa and in Shakuntala, it attains a spiritual
status. Kalidasa captures the spirit of Indian culture and tradition in this drama. “ The Mahabharata is
the main source of Shakuntala. Act-I which opens with the ‘naandi’ verse by the sutradhara , creates a
romantic atmosphere. Dushyanta enters the ashram premises on a hunting expedition and happens to see
Shakuntala, watering the plants with her companions. Captured by her incomparable beauty, Dushyanta
comes forward to protect her from the bee which is troubling her. This is the beginning of their love story.
Unable to bear the pangs of love much longer, they decide to get married by the Gandharva form of
marriage although Sage Kanva, her foster-father is absent from the hermitage. Soon after Dushyanta
leaves for the capital , giving a token-ring to Shakuntala. When sage Kanva returns and comes to know
of her marriage, he sends Shakuntala who is pregnant, to her husband. accompanied by Saranarava,
Saradvata and Goutami. The dramatic action reaches a climax in the Act V where due to the curse of
Durvasa, Dushyanta repudiates Shakuntala and her tragedy is further deepened as she has lost the token
ring given to her by Dushyanta.
The second half of the drama traces the repentance of Dushyanta and the final reunion of
Shakuntala and Dushyanta. After a life full of sorrow Shakuntala has become a tapasvini and the
sentiments of both have attained the power of purity. The final reunion emphasizes that true love is that
which has reached maturity and understanding
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1.6 Glossary:
1. Naandi: verse of benediction
2. Sutradhara: stage - manager
3. Prastavana: prologue
4. Abhijnana: token
5. Scriptures: holy wri1inp revered by a community.
6. Trishanku : suspended in between ( as Trishanku was suspended )
7. emaciated: grown thin gesticulate: make signs
8. gesticulate: make signs
9. penance: tapas
10. souvenir: token
11. Vanajyotsna, Navama1ika: different creepers in the ermitage of Kanva
1.7 Questions
1. Define the nature of Sanskrit drama.

Refer to 1.1 of the unit.
2. Assess the achievement of Kalidasa as a dramatist.

3. Which are the sources of the play Shakuntala?

Refer to 1.3 of the Unit.
4. What role does the curse of Durvasa play in the life of Shakuntala?
5. Comment on the repudiation of Shakuntala.

Refer to 1.4 of the Unit.
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1.8 References
1. Allardyce Nicoll, World Drama, Chambers, London, 1976.
2. John Russell Brown, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Theatre, OUP, USA, 2001
3.H.D.F. Kitto: Greek Tragedy.Routledge.1950.
4.C.M. Bowra: Ancient Greek Literature.Thornton Butterworth Ltd; First edition.1933.
5.Gassner: A Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama. Courier Corporation, 2002.
6.Bamber Gascoigne: Twentieth Century Drama.Hutchinson, 1974.
7.H.W.Wells: The Classical Drama of India., New York, 1963
Prof. Vijaya Guttal
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Block – I
Unit-2: Kalidasa – Shakuntala
STRUCTURE
2.0 OBJECTIVES
2.1 TITLE OFTHE PLAY
2.2 THEMATICTREATMENT
2.3 STRUCTURE OFTHE PLAY
2.4 CHARACTERS
2.5 SUMMARY
2.6 QUESTIONS
2.7 REFERENCES
10
2.0 Objectives:
1. This unit aims at explaining the true significance of the title.

2. To give an insight into Kalidasa’s treatment of the theme.
3. To explain the unity of the plot structure.
4. To understand the characters in a proper perspective.
2.1 Title of the Play:
The title of the play is Abhijnana-Shakuntala. But it is commonly abbreviated as Shakuntala.
The term ‘Abhijnana’ stands for the token of recognition, which plays an important part in the play.
There is no doubt that the term ‘Abhijnana’ here refers to Dushyanta’s ring (Namamudra) given to
Shakuntala. The poet himself has used that expression in Act IV 1-27 and act V 21-3 to refer to the ring.
Some scholars hold the view that ‘Abhijnana’ refers to the Aparajita herb used as protective charm in
Act VII on the boy Sarvadamana. It is this which enables Dushyanta to recognize Sarvadamana as his
son. But this argument has no foundation. Besides it would give undue prominence to Shakuntala’s son,
which is not really the intention of the poet.
It is interesting to know how Shakuntala got her name. She was the daughter of Menaka, the
heavenly nymph and sage Vishwamitra. After her birth, Menaka had left her on the banks of
Malini and the child was cared for by the birds, “Shakuntas”, so she is called Shakuntala.
2.2 Thematic Treatment:

All critics agree that Shakuntala is the best play written by Kalidasa. It displays his dramatic
genius and artistic skill in all its glory. Rabindranath Tagore says that Shakuntala was meant “to elevate
love from the sphere of physical beauty to the eternal heaven of moral beauty… the poet has made the
two lovers undergo a long and austere ‘tapasya’ that they may gain each other truly, eternally”. The
words of Tagore aptly highlight the central issue of this drama. Kalidasa here dramatises the purification
and elevation of love from the merely passionate physical attraction to true love that has deeper roots in
the spirit. The ultimate goal of all Sanskrit literature is to portray the four purusharthas, of dharma,
artha, kama and mokhsa. Although Shakuntala begins as a pure romance, it ends as a consummation
of all the purusharthas. It stands as a paradigm of the entire life process seen against the background of
Indian tradition and culture.
The arrival of Dushyanta at the hermitage of Kanva brings him face to face with a life style that
is different from that of the capital. The simple, yet the matchless beauty of Shakuntala amazes him. He
yearns for her even before he knows who she is. The incident of the bee harassing Shakuntala brings
Dushyanta on the scene and one might trace a parallel between the bee and Dushyanta. Because his
heart hovers around her as does the bee. The encounter with Dushyanta has aroused passionate feelings
of love in Shakuntala and they give way to their emotions and yearning and soon take recourse to the
11
Gandharva marriage instead of waiting for a proper wedding. The rush of their feelings and power of
love find consummation in the III Act. The celebration of beauty and youthful love found in the first three
acts of Shakuntala have very few parallels.
But Kalidasa’s portrayal of love and romance of Dushyanta and Shakuntala is only one half of
his vision of reality. The curse of Durvasa injects the awareness that the living reality is more complex.
However, marvellous may be the experience of the exuberance of love and beauty as seen in the early
acts of the play, it is yet incomplete. Shakuntala’s losing the token ring given by Dushyanta in the pond,
Dushyanta’s loss of memory due to the curse and Shakuntala’s repudiation by Dushyanta bring us the
sense of the inexorable reality of life. The pain, shame and suffering that the pregnant Shakuntala undergoes
in the court of Dushyanta is indescribable. Only a mother’s presence can bring some solace and hence
Shakuntala is carried away by her mother from the place of anguish. The restoration of the ring removes
Dushyanta’s forgetfulness, but the memory of his disgraceful treatment of Shakuntala and the torment it
causes, eats away the heart of Dushyanta. They are given yet another chance to meet and rectify the
wrongs committed. Thus, Dushyanta on his return journey after helping Indra in his war against the
demons, meets Sarvadamana, his son and Shakuntala. There is a world of difference between the
Dushyanta and Shakuntala of the I Act and the last Act.
The passage of time and its harsh experiences have chastened them into a realization of truth.
Both have been matured in heart and mind by the grief and suffering they have undergone and their
attachment attains the purity of love. As Tagore says of Kalidasa, “He has made the physical union of
Dushyanta and Shakuntala tread the path of sorrow, and thereby chastened and sublimated it into a
moral union”. The theme of the play is the evolution of love into an awareness of the true, the beautiful
and the good. Kalidasa captures the eternal flashes of meaning by exploiting all the possibilities of
drama. He is truly original even when he conforms to ancient Indian tradition, in the treatment of his
theme.
2.3 Structure of the Plot:
Shakuntala is composed in accordance with the dramatic tradition of the time and exhibits the
unity of plot in its seven acts. The play holds a fine balance between the two halves of dramatic action.
The action begins in an ashram and finally it ends in an ashram and in between it portrays a whole gamut
of human emotions. The first act opens with the entry of Dushyanta, which is highly dramatic. A contrast
is set up between the tranquillity of the hermitage and the tumult of Dushyanta’s hunting expedition. The
hunting of the deer itself becomes symbolic of the hunting for the beauty of Shakuntala. The surrounding
beauty of nature assists the beginning of love and it is significant that the seed of mutual love between
Dushyanta and Shakuntala is sown in the first act itself. Each of them is attracted to the charming
personality and the physical beauty of the other. The first act of the play Shakuntala strikes an intensely
romantic note and the passionate lovers yearn for a union. The second act paves the way for a better
acquaintance and an opportunity to meet again. In the third act, the love-sick Dushyanta and Shakuntala
marry by the Gandharva form of marriage. The marriage is consummated and after nearly a fortnight
12
the king leaves for the capital. On the same day, the sage Durvasa visits the ashram demanding hospitality
when Shakuntala was alone and absorbed in the thought of the departed Dushyanta in IV act. The
absentmindedness of Shakuntala infuriates Durvasa who curses her that the one of whom she is thinking
may forget her. There is a contrast between the third and the fourth acts. The third act provides the
climax of the romantic love of Dushyanta and Shakuntala and the union of the lovers is threatened in the
fourth act by the curse of Durvasa and an uncertainty hangs over the fate of Shakuntala. If the third act
is filled with happiness of love, the fourth act is marked by foreboding and the pangs of separation. Sage
Kanva returns from Somatirtha and on learning of the condition of Shakuntala prepares to send her to
her husband. Shakuntala’s leave taking of all the inhabitants of the Ashram including the deers, fawns
and the trees and creepers is touched with tenderness and pathos. It appears as if this sorrow is only a
prelude to what is to come. Kalidasa excels in painting the picture of the harmony of man and nature in
this Act.
The fifth act is the most painful act in the whole play as it is marked by the repudiation of
Shakuntala by Dushyanta. There is a shift in the location also as it moves from the peaceful hermitage to
the crowded capital. It begins with a song of Hamsapadika where she complains to the king that he is
now ignoring her in preference for queen Vasumati. The poet sets the stage here for the tragic sequence
of the repudiation of Shakuntala by Dushyanta. This act also shows Dushyanta as a good king who
cares for his people. He receives Shakuntala, Sarangarava, Sharadvata and Gautami with respect and
solicitude. But the curse of Durvasa prevents him from recognising the pregnant Shakuntala. In spite of
a heated argument by Sarangarava, the king repudiates Shakuntala. Shakuntala is made to appear a
seductress and her companions also leave her to the mercy of the king. Dushyanta’s yearning for
Shakuntala in the first three acts is contrasted here with his repudiation of her, which causes her great
shame and suffering. When it was decided that she should stay with the purohit till her delivery, and if the
newborn child has signs of an emperor he would accept her that the bounds of her endurance break and
she repudiates him. It is at that moment that there is heavenly intervention and in a flash of light, she is
taken away at the Apsaratirtha.
The sixth act is an act of remorse on the part of Dushyanta after he happens to see the token ring
he had given to Shakuntala and which she had lost. His veil of forgetfulness is removed and he despairs
and feels guilty for the suffering he had caused to Shakuntala. Kalidasa exhibits great mastery of art in
the portrayal of anguish and grief of Dushyanta. This experience of anguish and remorse remove Dushyanta
from the groove of self-centredness and from a mere love of the exterior. What he undergoes is like a
‘tapasya’ and what is shown in him is implied in the case of Shakuntala also. The experience of sorrow
matures them and changes their outlook of life.
The VII act is of great dramatic significance as it marks a reunion of the separated Dushyanta
and Shakuntala, and it also exhibits the unity of plot structure. Like the I act, the action of the VII act is
set in an ashram and like the union of the lovers of the first half of the play, the reunion also takes place in
the midst of nature in a hermitage. His son Sarvadamana is made the agent of the reunion of the separated
husband and wife. The misunderstandings are removed and all conflicts are resolved in the blessings of
Maricha and his great wife Aditi.
13
The structure of the play Shakuntala in this way is complex and the unity of the plot is remarkable.
The first half of the play is set in contrast to the second half and the whole progress of the action traces
the process of the maturity of the minds. If the first half is set in the middle of nature in the surroundings
of the hermitage, the second is set in the capital in the surroundings of the city. This structure represents
the serene ashram culture on the one hand and the culture of the city-dwellers on the other. Dushyanta
loves Shakuntala in the hermitage and forgets her while in the city and is reunited with her again in the
hermitage of Maricha.
2.4 Characters:
The art of characterisation of Kalidasa in Shakuntala is to be seen in the background of Indian

culture and traditional vision of life. Both the major and the minor characters possess an identity of their
own and the marvellous quality of poetry is made memorable by the central human quality of the play.
The whole play is a celebration of beauty that is transformed into truth. The central characters pass
through the ordeal of life only to emerge more mature, stronger and pure.
Dushyanta:
Dushyanta is a great king who belongs to the race of Puru, and as a Kshatriya, he is the embodiment
of strength and valour. To Aditi, the wife of the sage Maricha, Dushyanta’s greatness conveys itself in his
appearance. He is the friend of Indra, the king of the Gods and helps him in battles against the demons.
In spite of his greatness, when it is brought to his notice that the deer he chased belonged to the hermitage
he immediately desists from hunting and honours the sanctity of a hermitage. He respects the request of
the hermit to guard them from demons. He displays great sensitivity in the manner of his advance
towards Shakuntala. He wins the favour and the confidence of the maidens by his dignified manner.
Kalidasa’s poetic imagination soars freely in the portrayal of the beginning of love between Dushyanta
and Shakuntala. Overborne by passionate love they marry according to the Gandharva custom and
their marriage is consummated. Before leaving for capital Dushyanta gives the token ring to Shakuntala.
Anasuya, Shakuntala’s friend worries that Dushyanta who loved her so much while in the hermitage does
not even send a letter when he returns to his capital. In the meanwhile the sage Kanva arrives and
divining Shakuntala’s condition prepares to send her to her husband.
Sarangarava, Saradvata and Gautami accompany her to Dushyanta’s court and witness the
most painful scene of the repudiation of Shakuntala by Dushyanta. The whole procession of events in
Shakuntala exemplify the vagaries of human fate and the tragic essence of human existence, and also
man’s courage and endurance in the face of tragedy. Dushyanta refuses to accept Shakuntala because
the curse of Durvasa spreads the veil forgetfulness on the eyes of Dushyanta. Although he admires her
beauty, as a righteous king and as he does not remember having married her, he refuses to accept her.
Dushyanta wrongs Shakuntala for a right reason. Although her sorrow and anger touch him, he is not
convinced that he married her.
Realisation of the mistake comes to him only with the recovery of the ring which plunges him into
14
a deep remorse. If the first three acts exhibit love for Shakuntala in all its romantic beauty, in the latter
part of the play, we observe love in separation. Dushyanta is filled with remorse for his cruel repudiation
of Shakuntala. His suffering refines his attachment and renders it pure. Dushyanta here is also seen as a
good king who takes the affairs of the country seriously. His illustrious reputation is further confirmed
when Indra, the king of heaven asks for his assistance to put down the demons. It is on his return
journey, from Indra that he visits the hermitage of Maricha where he is finally reunited with Shakuntala.
His humility is complete when he falls at the feet of Shakuntala to beg for her forgiveness. He grows in
his stature through remorse and suffering and is finally blessed with the happiness of reunion with his wife
and son who will be the illustrious successor of the Puru race. Dushyanta thus attains realisation through
suffering.
Shakuntala:
Shakuntala is the finest creation of the dramatic genius of Kalidasa. She resembles the youthful
heroines of Shakespeare in her innocence, tenderness and inexperience. She is unique in her purity and
freshness bred in the sacred atmosphere of the hermitage. She combines in herself both the power of
penance of the sage who has brought her up and the beauty of the nymph who gave birth to her. Shakuntala
is not only blessed with matchless beauty but also a tender heart. She is deeply attached to her friends
Anasuya and Priyamvada and is respectful towards her elders like Gautami and her foster-father Kanva.
Her attachment to the trees, creepers and animals of the hermitage is phenomenal. Even they sorrow
when she leaves the hermitage for the capital to join her husband.
At the outset, her encounter with Dushyanta is accidental and the bee-incident catapults her to
an experience totally out of her control. Her loving heart is smitten by love for Dushyanta, the great king,
who reciprocates with equal passion. The portrayal of the love of Shakuntala and Dushyanta by Kalidasa
has been as memorable for its beauty as Shakespeare’s depiction of the ardour of love of Romeo and
Juliet. All obstacles are swept aside and love is consummated by the Gandharva marriage followed by
Dushyanta’s departure soon after. After Kanva arrives, he prepares to send Shakuntala to her husband,
as she is pregnant. Her leave-taking scene in Act IV is extremely emotional and touching. It highlights
her affectionate and loving character.
The repudiation scene in the court of Dushyanta tests her patience and endurance. She tries her
best to convince and remind him that she is his wife. His harsh refusal to accept her and the implied
taunts and insults that she is a seductress, not only humiliate her but rudely awaken her to the cruel reality
of life. Dushyanta’s words sear her ears like fire. She grieves that the man who is her husband himself
calls the marriage in question. Her plight grows most pathetic when her companions leave her to the
mercy of her husband and the husband refuses her due to the curse and she is left with no place to go. It
is then that she prays to goddess earth to give her way as did Sita in the Ramayana. Her mother’s
power of love carries her away from the scene of sorrow.
15
Shakuntala is next seen only in the reunion scene where worn by sorrow and suffering she
appears like a tapasvini. She is a different Shakuntala from the young, innocent, and youthful maiden of
Kanva’s ashram and she accepts what fate brings with dignity. She accepts the reunion with her husband
too as part of the will of fate. She has grown from inexperience to equanimity, from tenderness to a deep
patience and endurance.
2.5 Summary
Although the theme of the play Shakuntala is low, Ka1idasa treats it in a new and different
manner. In this play, he extends the significance of love to include the whole gamut of life. At the point of
climax, the dramatic action seems to stand on the brink of tragedy. But the end of the play shows how the
playwright saves it 1i’om a tragic ending and instead the harsher realities of life chasten the hearts of
Dushyanta and Shakuntala and their attachment attains the purity of love.
Plot which is divided into seven acts, displays unity and the dramatic action may be neatly
divided into two halves. The first half of the play extends upto the IV Act and it is full of love, romance
and innocence and the love of Dushyanta and Shakuntala is set against the beauty of nature. Whereas the
second half of the action set in the capital, is adverse to the fu1fil1ment of love and opens up tragic
dimensions with the repudiation of Shakuntala. The hearts which were united in love in the middle of
nature are separated here, only to come together again in the end again in the middle of nature in another
ashram after attaining greater realization and maturity.
2.6. Questions:
i) Describe the hunting expedition of Dushyanta.
Refer 2.3
ii) Show how Kalidasa’s poetic imagination reaches its height in the portrayal of the scenes
of Dushyanta and Shakuntala’s love.
Refer 2.2
iii) Analyse the significance of Durvasa’s curse.
Refer 2.2
iv) Comment on the repudiation of Shakuntala’s by Dushyanta in his court in the capital.
Refer 2.3
v) Give a critical sketch of either the character of Dushyanta or Shakuntala.
Refer 2.4
vi) Write short notes on any two:
a) Shakuntala’s leave taking of the inhabitants of the hermitage.
b) The Title of the play.
c) The source of the play
d) The Reunion scene of Shakuntala and Dushyanta.
vii) Comment on the central theme.
Refer 2.
viii) Discuss the structure of the plot.
Refer 2.3
16
2.7. References:
1. Ahuja.R.L, Theory of Drama in Ancient India, Associated Publishers, Ambala, 1964.
2. Karmarkar.R.D, Kalidasa, Chaukhamba Sanskrit Prathishton, Dharwad, 1960.
3. Kedarnath Dasgupta, Sakuntala, MacMillan & Co. Ltd., Bombay, 1945.
4. Keith.A.B, A History of Sanskrit Literature, Motilal Banarsidas, New Delhi, 1924.
5. Hiriyanna, Sanskrit Studies, Create Space Independent Publishing Platform, London, 1954.
6. Jhala.G.C, Kalidasa – A Study, Popular Book Depot, Bombay, 1949.
7. Aurobindo, Kalidasa, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1956.
Prof. Vijaya Guttal
17
Indian Literature -I
Block – I
Unit-3: Shudraka - Mrichhakatika
STRUCTURE
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Shudraka
3.2 Title of the Play
3.3 The Source and Date
3.4 Plot of the Mrichhakatika
3.5 Technical Aspects
3.6 Summary
3.7 Glossary
3.8 Questions
3.9 References
18
3.0 Objectives
1. To understand the importance of Shudraka as a playwright

2. To explore the proper source and date of the play Mrichhakatika
3. To understand the plot of the play in detail.
4. To analyse its technical aspects
3.1 Shudraka:
The chronology of most of the writers and their works in Sanskrit literature is uncertain. The
dates of very few writers are given by themselves or by their contemporaries. Consequently in the
majority of cases, they have to be inferred from a mass of literary material. The Indian tradition has
attributed the authorship of the Mrichhakatika to Shudraka whose name is shrouded in mystery as
there is no clear evidence. Some details of his life are mentioned in the “Prastavana” of the play itself. In
these slokas, we are told that Shudraka was a king who was brave and handsome. He knew Rigveda,
Samaveda, Mathematics, etc. He was a devotee of Siva and performed the Ashwamedha Yajna and
died at the ripe old age of a hundred years and ten days and had composed the love-story of Charudatta
and Vasantasena. Although scholars consider this “Prastavana” as an interpolation in the play, it is
commonly believed that king Shudraka is the author of the play Mrichhakatika (The Clay-Cart). King
Shudraka is supposed to be the founder of the Andhrabhritya dynasty (200 BC or may be a king of
Ujjayini described by Dandin (56 BC). Shudraka is known to have written only the Mrichhakatika.
3.2 Title: Mrichhakatika
Scholars have observed that dramas of writers like Bhasa, Shudraka and Kalidasa, being earlier
productions were composed before the strict rules of Sanskrit dramaturgy were fully evolved. Therefore,
their plays do not precisely conform to all the minute requirements of drama elaborated in the rhetorical
treatises. One of the dramatic rules as laid down in tradition is that a ‘Prakarana’, a type of drama,
should be named after the hero and the heroine. Although Mrichhakatika is a “prakarana”, it has been
named after an incident in Act VI where Charudatta’s son Rohasena is crying because he was given a
clay-cart (Mrichhakatika) to play with when he wanted one of gold. Vasantasena gives him her ornaments
out of which he is asked to get a golden cart made for himself. Since those very ornaments afterwards
served as the final and damning proof of Charudatta’s supposed crime, the poet’s choice of the title
Mrichhakatika here seems appropriate.
3.3 The Source and Date of the Play:
Two sources of the Mrichhakatika have been identified (1) the story of Charudatta and
Vasantasena in the Brihatkatha (2) Bhasa’s play Charudatta.
Bhasa’s Charudatta is thought to be the main source of Shudraka’s Mrichhakatika. It may be

observed that the first four acts of Mrichhakatika are substantially the same as acts of Charudatta of
Bhasa. The only difference is that while Bhasa’s Charudatta consists of only 4 acts, the Mrichhakatika
19
of Shudraka is enlarged into 10 acts. What is interesting is that identical words, expressions, sentences,
stanzas, ideas and similes are to be found in both plays.
Although Mrichhakatika appears like an enlarged version of the Charudatta, we may see that,
it overcomes the faults of Charudatta, which because of its short span does not include a proper
denouncement. Therefore, it fails be a complete and well-developed play. In giving a more polished and
a completer form to the work of his illustrious predecessor Bhasa, Shudraka has not only preserved the
original almost intact, but has made it a successful play on the stage by expanding it. The changes
Shudraka made, both in the manner of relation and in the subject matter of the drama, serve to heighten
the originality of treatment.
Scholars have arrived at the conclusion that Bhasa belongs to 6th century BC and Shudraka who
represents a stage of literary style that was prevalent between Bhasa and Kalidasa, is understood to
have lived around 2nd century BC.
3.4 The Plot of the Play:
The plot of the Mrichhakatika exhibits great skill in construction and the author has welded
together successfully a variety of incidents to maintain the interest of the spectator to the end. The
Mrichhakatika stands foremost among all Sanskrit plays in providing a plot that is highly ingenious. The
plot centers round a love-story and involves a series of adventures, which are outside the conventional
class of the superhuman agency and insipid intrigues. The Mrichhakatika is a drama of ten acts based
on the story of the love of Charudatta, a prominent but a poor inhabitant of Ujjayini, and Vasantasena, an
exquisitely beautiful but pure-minded courtesan of the same city.
Act-I:
In the Prelude (Prastavana), after the Benedictory stanza (Nandi), the Sutradhara gives some
interesting particulars about the author of the play which he is about to stage. A conversation between
him and his wife (Nati), which follows, is intended chiefly to lead up to the entrance of the Vidushaka
(Maitreya), at which point the action of the play properly begins. Maitreya is a poor Brahamana and an
honest and sincere friend of Charudatta, a wealthy citizen of Ujjayini who, however, no longer possesses
his former wealth, having spent it all in noble and charitable deeds. One Churnavriddha, who is Charudatta’s
friend, sends a cloak by Maitreya with instructions to give the same to his master. Charudatta enters, and
the cloak is duly handed over to him. Their conversation for a while turns upon Charudatta’s poverty;
then Vasantasena comes upon the scene. She is being pursued by Sakara ( Samsthanaka) the brother-
in-law of king Palaka of Ujjayini, and the villain of the piece. He is a debauchee, a coward and a fool,
with an exaggerated idea of his own importance and power; he is accompanied by two of his followers,
Vita and Cheta. They entreat, cajole and threaten Vasantasena by turns, but all the same with great
indignation she rejects Shakara’s suit. She takes refuge in Charudatta’s mansion and in the darkness of
the night her pursuers light on Radanika, a maid in Charudatta’s employment, mistaking her for the object
of their search. Maitreya intervenes and turns them all out. Vasantasena is next introduced to Charudatta;
20
she had already heard of his virtues and fallen in love with him, contrary though it was to the profession
of a courtesan to become attached to a penniless man. Wishing to keep up the acquaintance, she
employs an ingenious device; she leaves her ornaments with Charudatta, ostensibly for safe custody, but
really with the object that they should serve as an excuse for further communication with him. She then
leaves, escorted by Charudatta who on returning makes over the ornaments to Maitreya for safekeeping.
Act-II
Vasantasena, talking in confidence with her maid Madanika, reveals the warmth of her feeling for
Charudatta, and also the real reason of depositing those ornaments with him. Then follows a scene
introducing a number of gamblers, one of them, Samvahaka, is running away without paying his debt,
and is being pursued by his creditor and the master of the gaming house. Assisted by another gambler,
Samvahaka escapes and takes shelter in the house of Vasantasena, who in her kindness pays his debt for
him and rids him of his pursuers. Samvahaka is tired of gambling, and leaves after declaring his resolve
of donning the robes of a Buddhist mendicant (Bhikshu). One of Vasantasena’s servants then enters and
relates how he had just rescued a Bhikshu and how his brave act was rewarded by Charudatta by the gift
of his own cloak. This affords her another proof of the noble generosity of the worthy Charudatta; she
takes the cloak and wears it herself, for she loves everything belonging to her beloved and worshipped
hero.
Act-III:
There was a Brahamana in Ujjayini named Sarvilaka who having fallen in love with Madanika,
the slave-maid of Vasantasena, wanted to pay her ransom and marry her. Being himself poor, he had
turned a burglar to obtain the necessary amount of gold. He breaks into Charudatta’s house by night
when all are wrapped in the arms of slumber, and happens to steal those very ornaments of Vasantasena
which Maitreya had to keep with himself. The theft is soon discovered. Charudatta is distressed by the
loss, not because the money meant anything to him, but because the ornaments were kept with him as a
deposit, which he was bound in honour to return on demand. His wife Dhuta, however, whose nobility
is on par with her husband’s, hands over her own necklace to help him out of the difficulty. Charudatta
thereupon asks the Vidushaka, to go to Vasantasena with that necklace, which he was to offer to her in
exchange for her own ornaments, which, he was to state, were lost by his master at gambling, under the
belief that they belonged to himself.
Act-IV:
Sarvilaka calls upon Madanika with a view to buy her freedom with those stolen ornaments. On
being questioned as to the source of his sudden accession to wealth, he half-confesses that they belonged
to Charudatta. Madanika, however, had recognized them as the property of her mistress; she recommends
that Sarvilaka had better return them to where he had taken them from. Sarvilaka, however, could not
face Charudatta as a declared thief; as an alternative, therefore, she urges him to see Vasantasena and
offer them to her, professing that Charudatta had sent them back by him, as his house was thought
21
unsafe. Sarvilaka does so; but Vasantasena, who has listened to the preceding conversation, is not taken
in by the pseudo-messenger. Nevertheless in her goodness of heart she bestows Madanika on her
adventurous suitor. Sarvilaka has to leave suddenly in a hurry to go to the assistance of his friend
Aryaka, whom king Palaka had imprisoned for fear he might become the king, as a seer had predicted
he would. Vasantasena is next visited by Maitreya, who, it may be remembered, is deputed by Charudatta
to offer her his wife’s necklace in exchange for those lost ornaments. Vasantasena is deeply touched by
this fresh proof of Charudatta’s nobility, and she sends word with the Vidushaka that she would be
calling upon Charudatta that evening.
Act-V:
Vasantasena pays her promised visit, in spite of a terrible thunderstorm raging in the streets.
(This gives the poet an opportunity to introduce several fine stanzas descriptive of rain, thunder and
lightning). On reaching Charudatta’s house, she returns those ornaments to him under the plea that she
had lost his necklace, just as he had formerly lost her ornaments, thereby intimating that she had seen
through the ruse, well meant though it was. The lovers have now come together, and there is nothing left
that can mar their happy union, with which consummation the central theme of the play reaches its climax.
Act-VI:
Vasantasena passes the night in Charudatta’s house, in his company. In the morning Charudatta
leaves home early with instructions to his servant to bring Vasantasena to the Pushpakarandaka garden
in carriage. Before that is done, we have a touching scene, where Rohasena, Charudatta’s son is described
as crying because he was given an earthen toy-cart (Mrichchhakatika) to play with, instead of a golden
one desired by him. Vasantasena gives him her ornaments out of which the boy is to get a toy-cart made,
and thus sends him away happy. This is the incident that gives the play its title. Then the servant
Vardbamanaka comes in and announces that the carriage is ready; Vasantasena asks him to wait, while
she finishes her toilet. He, however, suddenly remembers that he has forgotten the carriage cushions,
and goes back to bring them. In the meanwhile there comes in Shakara’s servant, Sthavaraka, who, too,
is driving his master’s carriage in the same direction. Vasantasena gets into his carriage, by mistake,
without his being aware of it, and is thus taken to the garden where she reaches later than she was
expected to do.
Just at this time Aryaka, whom Palaka had imprisoned, has escaped from his cell; he happens to
meet the carriage of Vardhamanaka as the latter was coming back. While the back of the driver was
turned, Ayraka gets into his carriage. Vardhamanaka believes that it was Vasantasena who has entered.
Thus they drive on, but are shortly stopped by two of the city’s guards who insist upon inspecting the
carriage. One of them, Chandanaka, looks in first; he recognizes the prisoner, but promises to help him
to escape; he therefore deliberately picks a quarrel with the other guard, Viraka, whom he beats and
drives off. The road now being clear, Aryaka escapes in safety, Vardhamanaka never discovering all the
while whom he was really driving.
22
Act-VII:
Vardhamanaka brings the carriage to the Pushpakarandaka garden, where Charudatta is awaiting
Vasantasena; as it is, however, it is Aryaka, and not Vasantasena, who steps out of the carriage. True to
the innate generosity of his heart, Charudatta promises him safety and advises him to proceed further in
the same carriage, as that would allay suspicion; they two part the best of friends, Aryaka in gratitude and
Charudatta in the consciousness of a good deed performed. Charudatta leaves without further waiting
there for Vasantasena, for he did not like to be seen there after he had assisted in the escape of Aryaka,
which was virtually treason towards the king.
Act-VIII:
The Bhikshu (Samvahaka) visits the Pushpakarandaka garden to wash his robe, where he is
variously harassed by Shakara and finally driven away. Shakara is waiting for his carriage, which at
length arrives; he is surprised to find Vasantasena inside, though of course it is a very welcome surprise,
as it affords him an opportunity to renew his attentions to her. She spurns him; whereupon Sharaka, like
the fool that he is, conceives the idea of killing her by way of punishment. He asks his followers, Vita and
Cheta, to do the killing, which they promptly and emphatically refuse. Shakara then decides to kill her
himself; he gets rid of Vita and Cheta under one pretext and another, and then strangles the helpless girl.
She falls down senseless, though not dead; he however, believes that he has killed her. On the return of
Vita and Cheta on the scene, Shakara boasts of his exploit; Vita is disgusted with his master and his
ways, and leaves him to join the newly formed party of Aryaka. Shakara orders Cheta to go to his
palace, where he intends to hold him a prisoner, lest he might give out the secret concerning the real
author of the crime. Finally, he hits upon the idea of proclaiming Charudatta as the murderer of Vasantasena;
this would be a sweet and complete revenge; for Charudatta was his rival in her affections, and it was for
his sake that she spurned him, as he believed. On the departure of Shakara, the Bhikshu comes back to
the spot to dry his robe, and discovers Vasantasena. He restores her by rendering her first-aid, and
takes her to a convent (Vihara) hard by.
Act-IX:
The scene is now shifted to the court of justice, where in the presence of a presiding Judge and
two assessors, Shakara formally charge Charudatta with having enticed Vasantasena to his garden and
there murdered her for the sake of her ornaments. The Judge opens the case by calling for Vasantasena’s
mother, who gives evidence about the existence of a love affair between her daughter and the citizen
Charudatta; she also states that so far as she knew Vasantasena was then supposed to be in Charudatta’s
house. Next Charudatta himself is sent for, who denies any exact knowledge of Vasantasena’s movements.
In the meantime Viraka arrives to lay charge against his fellow-guard Chandanaka who had mauled and
assaulted him while he was trying to inspect a carriage, which belonged to Charudatta and in which
Vasantasena was supposed to be travelling in the direction of Pushapakarandaka garden. The Judge
sends him to find out if a woman’s dead body was lying in the garden. As ill luck would have it, a dead
body of a woman was lying there, who had been accidentally killed by the fall of a tree. Viraka comes
23
back and reports what he has seen. This is sufficient evidence to charge Charudatta with Vasantasena’s
murder; he, however, makes no very serious effort to establish his innocence, so much weighed down he
is with the thought that now that Vasantasena was no more, life would be without interest to him, and
further that he, being penniless, would not be believed in what he would say to the contrary and that the
Judge would not give him a fair hearing. As a matter of fact, the Judge is quite favourable, but he has to
investigate the truth; the guilt of Charudatta is already apparent by his half silence; and further damning
evidence is unwittingly given by Maitreya who brings with him Vasantasena’s ornaments, the same that
she had given to Rohasena; the ornaments are pointed out by Shakara as the motive of the crime, and
they belonged to Vasantasena and came from Charudatta’s house. The chain of evidence is now practically
complete. Charudatta does not give any satisfactory explanation, and the Judge has to declare him
guilty. King Palaka, thereupon, pronounces the death-sentence upon the murderer, as Charudatta is
now adjudged to be. He is to be taken to the cemetery and there impaled as a warning to all similar
wrongdoers.
Act-X:
Charudatta is being taken to the cemetery by two Chandalas, who are to act as his executioners,
though they don’t much relish their job. Charudatta’s guilt is proclaimed at each proclamation-station on
the way. Maitreya brings in Rohasena so that his father might have a last look at his son’s face; Maitreya
entreats the Chandalas to release Charudatta, which of course they cannot. Shakara’s servant Cheta,
whom his master had put in irons, hears the proclamation; anxious to declare the truth, he resolutely
jumps into the street, chains and all, from the room wherein he was confined. He denounces Sakara as
the guilty party, but the latter arrives there at this juncture and somehow manages to prove, to the
satisfaction of the simple-minded Chandalas, that the Cheta was a thief and a liar and that therefore his
statement was not be relied on. Then they reach the place of execution, where Charudatta is now about
to be impaled. But the Bhikshu accompanied by Vasantasena arrives there in the nick of time; the charge
of murder falls through and the innocence of Charudatta is at once fully established, as also Shakara’s
guilt. Sarvilaka then enters and announces that Aryaka had killed the wicked king Palaka and installed
himself on his throne as his successor. For the valuable aid rendered by him in times of need, Aryaka
rewards Charudatta with the gift of the kingdom of Kusavati. The title of ‘wife’ is conferred upon the
virtuous Vasantasena, to whom the stigma of being called a courtesan would now no longer attach.
Similar suitable honours are also conferred upon Samvahaka, Sthavaraka, the Chandalas, Chandanaka,
and even the villainous Shakara, for Charudatta was not the person to revenge himself on a fallen enemy.
After this happy conclusion, the play terminates with the usual stanza (Bharatavakya) containing an
expression of goodwill towards all and unhappiness for none.
3.5 Technical Aspects:
Mrichhakatika belongs to the type of dramatic composition technically known as “Prakarana”
in Sanskrit literature. The plot of the Prakarana should be neither legendary nor historical, but one of the
poet’s own invention. The hero should either be a minister, a Brahamana, or a merchant who is
“Dheerashanta” i.e. calm and self-controlled in nature. He is seen to be undergoing misfortune, but is a
24
man of virtue; pleasure and wealth are his chief objects, according to the definition of a Prakarana. The
heroine should be either a highborn lady or a courtesan; it is permissible to introduce both these types in
the same play but not present them together on the stage. A “Prakarana” is considered “Shuddha” or
pure if it has the first kind of heroine and “Vikrata” impure if it has the second kind and “Sankirna” or
complex, if it has both. The “Sankirna” variety abounds in rogues. In other respects of rasa and sandhi,
the Prakarana does not materially differ from a Nataka.
Accordingly the plot Mrichhakatika is fictitious; the hero is a brahamana, dignified and calm in
adverse circumstances and engaged in the pursuit of the purusharthas of dharma, artha, kama and
moksha. There are two heroines, Dhuta, Charudatta’s wife, a highborn lady and Vasantasena, a courtesan
and they meet on the stage too. This Prakarana is of the ‘Sankirna” kind, built on complex variety and
it is full of rogues, gamblers and even a burglar.
The ‘Vastu’ or the plot of the play here is two-fold: (1) Principal and (2) Subordinate. The
principal plot is the love-story of Charudatta and Vasantasena and the subordinate plot consists of the
dethronement of King Palaka, of Ujjayini and Aryaka’s accession to the throne. The predominant rasa
is Shringara (love) assisted by the occasional introduction of “karuna”, “Hasya” and also “Bibhatsa”.
The play begins with a ‘Nandi’ (Prayer), followed by a prastavana (prelude) in which the
sutradhara introduces the author and the play to the audience. The play is divided into ten acts and the
acts follow in succession without any interval and this is a noteworthy feature of the play. At the close of
the play, there is the usual “Bharatavakya” or the valedictory, verse. There are five subdivisions or the
‘angas’, of the development of the plot, which are named as “Sandhis”. (1) The “Mukhasandhi”, (the
first movement) is a combination of the ‘bija” (seed) and Aarambh (beginning) and it extends up to the
end of the first Act. The seed of the dramatic action is here contained in the meeting of Charudatta and
Vasantasena in Cupid’s shrine which takes place before the play begins. The play begins with the
incident where Vasantasena, pursued by Shakara finds shelter in Charudatta’s house.
II. Pratimukha Sandhi:
This indicates the further development of the plot where the respective characters of Charudatta
and Vasantasena are developed and the virtues and the generosity of heart of each of them is brought
home to us through various incidents which include Vasantasena’s kindness towards Madanika and
Sarvilaka and Charudatta’s honesty in sending his wife’s ornaments in place of the lost ornaments of
Vasantasena. Thus this Sandhi extends up to Act-IV.
III Garbha Sandhi:

It consists of the V Act where the lovers come together. This section is characterized by the
consummation of the love of Charudatta and Vasantasena.
IV Avamarsha Sandhi:
This part covers events of the next four Acts where the subordinate plot of the dethronement of
Palaka and accession of Aryaka comes to a fruition. The imprisoned Aryaka escapes in a drama manner
25
and Charudatta faces the charge of the murder of Vasantasena and the action proceeds through several
intrigues.
V Nirvahana Sandhi:
In this Sandhi all the events of the play converge to produce the desired goal and the events of
the Act X form part of this section. Aryaka succeeds in dethroning King Palaka and Charudatta is freed
from the murder charge when the living Vasantasena is produced before the Judge. The play finally
resolves where the King bestows the title of a “Wife” on Vasantasena, which leads to a permanent union
of the lovers.
The love theme and the political theme are combined and balanced by the plot, which lends it
complexity of constructed. The Mrichhakatika has been immensely admired for its technical excel-
lence.
3.6. Summary
Tradition attributes the authorship of Mrichhakatika to Shudraka although his identity cannot
be clearly established. The title of the play is based on a minor incident where Charudatta’s son Rohasena
is given a clay cart to play with. Two sources of Mrichhakatika have been identified and these are
Bhasa’ s play Chrudatta and the Brihatlratha. But scholars agree that Bhasa’s Charudatta is the main
source.
The plot of the play is skillfully constructed so that it includes both an element of romance and
also a portrayal of the contemporary social and political rea1ity. The play builds up the romantic love
stoty of Charudatta and Vasantasena but also focuses on the tyrannical rule of King Palaka which
permits men like Shakara to harass women in broad day1ight. The realistic portrayal of the society of
the time adds a new dimension to Sanskrit drama. It depicts characters from a wide variety of social
classes. If Charudatta comes from a 1raditional Brahmin family, Vasantasena is a courtesan; Madanika
is Vasavadattats maid servant and Sarvilaka, her lover, steals Vasavadattat’s ornaments from the
house of Charudatta ; Alyaka, Shakara and Palaka represent the political aspects of Ujjayini. The play
is also full of rogues and gamblers. Yet Mrichhakatika is a social comedy which aims at restoring
order and justice in the society.
3.7 Glossary:
1. Mrichhakatika: clay cart

2. penury: poverty
3. concubine: a woman kept by a man without marriage
4. collyrium: eye-wash
5. chaplet: gold string
6. oblation: holy offering
7. decked: decorated
26
8. gardabhi: she-ass
9. gamester: gambler
10. Bhikshu: Buddhist monk
3.8 Questions:
1. Write a short note on Shudraka.

Refer to 3.1
2. Point out the significance of title Mrichhakatika

Refer to 3.2
3. Discuss the source and date of the play.

Refer to 3.3
4. Summarise the central incidents of the plot of the Mrichhakatika

Refer to 3.4
5. Comment on the structure of the plot.

Refer 3.5
3.9 References
1. Allardyce Nicoll, World Drama, Chambers, London, 1976
2. John Russell Brown, The Oxford Illustrated History of the Theatre, OUP, USA, 2001
3.H.D.F. Kitto: Greek Tragedy.Routledge.1950.
4.C.M. Bowra: Ancient Greek Literature.Thornton Butterworth Ltd; First edition.1933.
5.Gassner: A Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama. Courier Corporation, 2002.
6.Bamber Gascoigne: Twentieth Century Drama.Hutchinson, 1974.
7.H.W.Wells: The Classical Drama of India., New York, 1963
Prof. Vijaya Guttal
27
Indian Literature -I
Block – I
Unit-4: Shudraka - Mrichhakatika
STRUCTURE
4.0 OBJECTIVES
4.1 CENTRAL IDEAS
4.2 SOCIALRELEVANCE
4.3 CHARACTERS
4.4 SUMMARY
4.5 CRITICAL REMARKS
4.6 QUESTIONS
4.7 REFERENCES
28
4.0 Objectives
1. To understand the special feat11res of tile play.
2. To construct the social and political realism of Mrichhakatika.
3. To analyse Shudraka’s art of characterization.
4. To unravel the critical insights into the theme and plot.
4.1 Central Ideas:
In Mrichhakatika, the romantic love-story of Charudatta and Vasantasena is placed at the
centre of an extremely anarchic social and political situation. Bhasa’s play of four acts expands into a
play of ten acts in the hands of Shudraka mainly because of the disturbing political atmosphere prevalent
at the time.
Shudraka admirably weaves together two love stories in the play, that of Charudatta and
Vasantasena, on the one hand and Sarvilaka and Madanika, on the other. It is the theft attempt of
Sarvilaka in the house of Charudatta in order to buy back Madanika whom he loves, which juxtaposes
the two stories, which finally end happily. This is where Bhasa’s play ends. But Shudraka’s treatment of
Vasantasena’s love for Charudatta opens up a different dimension. Her love evokes the jealousy and
wrath in Shakara, who is the King’s relative. It is thought unnatural for Vasantasena who is a courtesan
to fall in love with one man and Charudatta, being a poor brahmin cannot have a claim on her. Shakara
tries to capture her by force and even when rogues pursue the court dancer at night on the streets of
Ujjayini, no body bothers. It exemplifies the social situation of the time. The fact that she finds shelter in
the house of Charudatta in the darkness of the night attaches different sets of values to Charudatta, a
virtuous and generous brahmin although poor, and Shakara, the king’s relative, who stands for immorality
and anarchy. It reflects on the political anarchy in the reign of king Palaka.
Mrichhakatika is built around the themes of the love of Charudatta and Vasantasena and the
dethronement of the king Palaka leading to the accession of Aryaka to the throne. Sarvilaka hastens to
help Aryaka, imprisoned his friend even as Vasantasena frees Madanika. There is a prophecy that
Aryaka will become the future king which had lead Palaka to keep him under arrest. There is a social
and political revolution at the heart of the Mrichhakatika. The love theme is inseparably connected with
the political theme in the play. The play demonstrates economic prosperity on the one hand, and political
chaos seen in burglary, murder, gambling and the sale of slaves, on the other.
The political theme of the play leads to a social and political revolution. Mrichhakatika exposes
the evils of the prevalent social practices and points to the changes made possible by the revolution. The
King Palaka becomes the symbol of the existing injustice and exploitation at all levels of the society and
the arrest and the impending punishment by death of Charudatta signifies the extremity of chaos. With
King Palaka’s removal, and with the accession of Aryaka to the throne, new hopes of change dawn. In
29
this context, Mrichhakatika may be described as a play which begins with a social and political upheaval
and ends in harmony. When the play opens, Vasantasena is a wealthy courtesan who lives a life of luxury.
Yet a courtesan does not enjoy the same respect as does a legally wedded wife. The revolutionary
nature of the play is also seen in the manner in which she is honoured as a “wife” at the end, in recognition
of her generosity of heart and kindness. Madanika who was a slave becomes free. Charudatta, a poor
brahmin, becomes the king of small kingdom.
Mrichhakatika impresses upon us as a play with great social relevance. It is the genius of
Shudraka which envisages here a society that stands not on caste hierarchy or the power of wealth and
family but affirms the life generating values. Mrichhakatika sees life and its ideals in the background of
social reality. The anarchic rule of King Palaka finds voices of protest in Aryaka and Sarvilaka. But
Charudatta who is different from Aryaka and Sarvilaka, does not protest in a similar manner. But one
may see the power of protest in men like Sarvilaka and Aryaka and the power of ethical values in a man
like Charudatta. A harmonious society needs men of both kinds who become part of its life and culture.
Thus Mrichhakatika is a unique play in the sense that it envisages a vision of change.
4.2 Social Relevance:
Unlike most other well-known Sanskrit plays, Mrichhakatika tackles many of the social issues,
which concern the common people. These Sanskrit plays must be read in the light of ancient Indian
tradition and culture. Mrichhakatika exposes the social reality of its time and within its dramatic
framework what appears as a romantic story, is, in fact a story that leads to a social revolution.
This play tries to expose the consequences of the rigidities of traditional social customs and
affirms the need for change. Although Vasantasena is a well-known courtesan of Ujjayini, while enjoying
unlimited wealth, yet falls in love with Charudatta for his goodness and generosity, though poor. She may
be a courtesan by family tradition, but Shudraka sees her as a human being capable of emotions and
attachments like any other person. Her character is not decided here by the caste to which she belongs.
Her love for Charudatta and her kindness towards others display her love of goodness and not of
money. She rejects the attentions of Shakara, the king’s brother-in-law, as she knows that he is immoral
and lacks the basic sense of humanity. For her constancy and loyalty in love, she is finally rewarded with
the title of a legally wedded wife. Mrichhakatika is unique in displaying such an openness of mind and
broad vision and achieves the impossible in recognising a courtesan as a wife. It is a significant contribution
of the play.
The political anarchy is reflected in the social disorder in terms of Shakara’s harassment of
Vasantasena, the presence of the roguish gamblers, and burglars. Although Sarvilaka steals gold, yet we
also see his loyalty to Aryaka whom he helps. The confusion of the carriages, Shakara’s attempt to kill
Vasantasena and put the blame on Charudatta, Aryaka’s escape, all these incidents reveal the breakdown
of order in Ujjayini under the rule of Palaka. The king’s tyranny is shown in the manner he has imprisoned
Aryaka because of a prophecy. The decadence and the disorder give way to protest as seen in Sarvilaka,
Aryaka and all those lesser characters who let Aryaka escape from the city.
30
The ninth act gives a glimpse of judicial administration, and the judges are impartial and go by the
evidence against a crime. Caste-system is upheld in general and the brahmanas are held in reverence.
The play shows that Buddhism, though on its decline was yet flourishing, patronised by kings and the
Bhikshus were respected.
Slavery was still in practice and slaves could be bought and sold or at times ransomed as in the
case of Madanika.
4.3 Characters:
Charudatta:
Charudatta is the hero of the play. He is a young brahmana who belongs to a well-known family
known for its affluence once but now Charudatta lives in poverty. The loss of property is partly due to
the extreme generosity of his own nature. The play shows that he spent large sums of in deeds of charity
and when he was left with nothing to give, he parts with the very cloak he is wearing. When the ornaments
of Vasantasena left in his custody are lost, his high sense of honour and the generosity of his wife Dhuta
make them replace the stolen ornaments by a costly necklace. His noble deeds endear him to the
courtesan Vasantasena who is rich and beautiful.
He mourns his poverty because he is unable to help others, and not because he wants money for
his own enjoyment. When he is charged with murder in the court, he remains silent and does not protest
effectively. It has been explained that his despair at the news of the death of Vasantasena makes him feel
that there was no meaning in life. He is considered an honour to the city. He is so large-hearted that he
could even admire a burglar for his skill and so kind that he is prepared to incur punishment for helping
Aryaka. He has great regard for truth and valued honour above life. He is seen in the play as an
embodiment of all great virtues and a counterfoil to men like Shakara.
Shakara:
In Shakara, the poet has created a unique character in the whole of Sanskrit literature. In him, he
combines the fool and the villain of the worst kind. The Vidushaka as the conventional fool is put in the
background and it is the boastful talk and empty nonsense of Shakara, which constitute the chief elements
of humour in the play. His very mannerisms of speech are enough to arouse laughter.
He is the king’s brother-in-law and is always surrounded by servants and parasites. Shakara is
a villain in the sense that he is a pervert and indulges in debauchery. He is also cruel and a coward. He
openly pursues Vasantasena in the first act on the streets of Ujjayini. He is boastful and remorseless.
When he finds her in his carriage by mistake, he harasses her. When she refuses his attentions, he
attempts to murder her and put the blame on Charudatta. Thus he intends to take revenge on both
Charudatta, his rival and Vasantasena. He deceives his own followers Vita and Cheta. He displays great
cunning in seizing the opportunity to point out the ornaments as evidence against Charudatta and also in
the manner he deceives the Chandalas. But his villainy finally fails to save him. When he is fully exposed
31
at the end, he begs for mercy and Charudatta once again shows generosity and saves him
Vasantasena:
Vasantasena, the heroine, is a professional courtesan born and bred as such; but she is as pure-
minded as any lady of noble station. She falls in love with Charudatta the very first time she sees him at
a festival in Cupid’s shrine (p. 68), and from that time onward she cannot tolerate the very idea of
entertaining any other suitor; it is needless to remark that upon such as Shakara she looks at with loathing
and contempt. She is generous-hearted, as is shown by her readily paying off the debt of Samvahaka (p.
92) and releasing Madanika from her bondage (p. 150) with equal alacrity. Her passion for Charudatta
grows so intense in the end that she goes to visit him as an abhisarika (p. 190), in spite of a raging
thunderstorm; when in his house she gives a further proof of her generous nature by handing over her
own ornaments to her lover’s son for making a golden toy-cart. When, finally, in Act VII., Shakara
persecutes her with his attentions, she is ready even to accept death at his hands rather than prove
faithless to one that was enshrined in her heart; and, to all appearances, she dies with his name on her lips
(p. 288). She thus gives the greatest possible proof that lay in her power of the depth of her affection and
the loyalty of her love, for which she receives recognition later at the hands of king Aryaka, who bestows
upon her the title of a Vadhu (p. 402). The development of Vasantasena’s passion has been delineated
by the poet with touches of such tenderness as raise her character to a very high degree in our eyes;
compare, for instance, her behaviour (p. 218) when Rohasena, the innocent-minded son of Charudatta
declines to consider her as his mother because she happened to be wearing ornaments. In fact, the more
one sees of Vasantasena the more one thinks of her as a Kulstree and the less as a Ganika, so far
removed she is from the ways that one naturally associates with the latter.
Maitreya:
The Vidushaka in this play differs from the Vidushakas one meets with in the works of later
poets; in these he is generally depicted as a glutton and a buffoon; not that he entirely lacks these qualities
(see pp 20, 48, 108, 162, 180 and c), but he possesses them in such a small degree that they sink into
insignificance before his other and noble qualities. In Mrichhakatika he appears in the role of the hero’s
faithful friend and retainer, ready to defend him at all times (p. 48) and even prepared to lay down his life
for him if need be (p.364). The sorrows and joys of his friend arouse corresponding emotions in his
beast (p. 54). He is a simple minded, guileless and lovable companion, and it is his blunders (pp 18,
188), rather than his jokes, which raise a laugh among the spectators. He does not think very highly of
the reckless liberality of his friend (p. 130), nor does he approve of his attachment to a courtesan (p.
182); he protests against both, feeling it his duty to do so, but never carries his protests to the point of
offence (p. 115). His behaviour in the last Act, including his offer of self-immolation in precedence (p
400) to Dhuta, is a further proof of his dogged and faithful affection for his friend and patron.
Other Minor Characters:
As we have already observed, Sudraka has skilfully invested each one of even his minor characters
with some special trait that distinguishes him or her from others. Thus, Dhuta is shown to be a devoted
32
wife who gives her most valuable ornament to her Lord in his hour of need (p. 128); in fact she is
represented as a type of the old Pativrata, who regards her husband’s good as her all-in-all and is ready
to minister to his comfort even at the sacrifice of her own comfort and weal; thus she receives without a
word of complaint a courtesan as a rival (p. 216), and later even greets her as an equal (p. 402).
Rohasena is the son of Charudatta and Dhuta, a young child who cries for a golden toy cart. But
he is given a clay toy cart. It is his desire for the cart which gives the title to the play.
4.4 Summary
The dramatic plot centers round the two love stories which provide the romantic element of the
play. But the true emphasis of this play is on the social reality. Mrichhakatika is also a drama .that is
concerned with the social and political revolutions which bring change into the world of anarchy that
prevails in Ujjayini at the time. In this play what is unique is that Vasantasena, a courtesan by birth, not
only falls in love with Charudatta, a poor Brahmin but she is also conferred the of a wife and an honourable
lady. Sarvilaka, who loves Madanika, turns a thief for the sake collecting money to free her. Charudatta’s
honesty and sincerity and Vasantasena’s kindness and loyalty are established; Similarly, Shakara’s arro-
gance, the King’s justice, and lawlessness in the city are realistically descn1x:d. Mrichhakatika suggests
as no other drama in Sanskrit literature, that it is possible for a courtesan to become a respeGtab1c lady
and an ordinary but an able man like Aryaka to become a king. The play breaks the bounds of caste and
class barriers and goes beyond the rigid social restrictions to make way for change.
4.5 Critical Remarks:
Among the known dramatic compositions of the Hindus, the Mrichchhakatika of Sudraka
occupies a very high and distinguished position. It is a creation of outstanding brilliance, not unworthy of
being classed with the productions of acknowledged masters of the dramatic art, such as Bhasa and
Kalidasa. By virtue of its high dramatic charm and its great literary excellence it has endeared itself to
generation of spectators and readers; the play has been adapted in many Indian languages, and in that
modern form still continues to draw admiring crowds to witness its performance, when the fortunes of
Charudatta and Vasantasena are followed with the same breathless interest as when, over two thousand
years ago, the play was staged for the first time, probably in Ujjayini. Mrichhakatika possesses several
unique features, which have enabled it to achieve such unqualified success and assure to itself an ever-
widening circle of readers. Pre-eminent among those is its cleverly conceived and successfully constructed
plot; it is a picture of contemporary society, not a dull narration of the doings of divine or semi-divine
personages; and its interest is heightened by a variety of stirring episodes that arouse alternating emotions
of joy, curiosity, wonder, pity and even fear, among the spectators. It is owing to a lack of such variety
of action that the majority of later Sanskrit plays lack the dramatic flavour and read more like dramatic
poems than dramas, which should be word-pictures of real life. No other Sanskrit play exhibits such a
large array of enlivening incidents or thrilling dramatic situations as go to make up the ingeniously wrought
story of Mrichhakatika. Thus, we see in the first Act Vasantasena being pursued in the dark of the night
33
by a group of hooligans, one of them a royal brother-in-law. Vasantasena flies in terror before them “like
a doe pursued by huntsmen,” and finally takes shelter in Charudatta’s house. In the second Act, there is
a similar scene where the gambler Samvahaka is pursued by his creditors; there is a hand-to-hand fight
on the stage (p. 84), which is an incident that always appeals to a certain section of the audience; the
playwright who aims at being successful must seek to please a mixed house, the intellectuals as well as
the unlettered simple-minded folk; moreover the fight is not a forced one, but quite a natural sequence of
a quarrel among low characters, especially a quarrel over monetary transactions. In the third Act we
have the burglary scene, where Sarvilaka is seen stepping in stealthily in the stillness of the night and
proceeding scientifically to demonstrate the art of housebreaking. The fifth Act is staged amidst thunder,
rain and lightning. The sixth contains the exciting episodes of the interchange of the carriages and the
flight and pursuit of Aryaka; in the eighth there is the strangling of Vasantasena, which only a realistic
writer of the caliber of Sudraka would have dared to introduce, and which for the moment strikes the
audience dumb with the appalling brutality of the crime. The ninth Act describes Charudatta’s trial, and
the tenth his being taken to the place of execution, which, however, is averted at the last moment by the
opportune arrival of Vasantasena. The interest thus never flags from Act to Act, and the humour and
variety of the events of the earlier Acts and the pathos of the later Acts, which form a virtual tragedy,
make the play throb with life and action and constitute its chief charm. “From farce to tragedy, from
satire to pathos, runs the story, with a breadth truly Shakespearian”.
4.6 Questions
1. Discuss the central ideas that govern the dramatic action in Mrichhakatika.
Refer 4.1.
2. Point out the importance of the two love stories in Mrichhakatika.

Refer 4.1
3. Highlight Shudraka’s treatment of the political theme.

Refer 4.1
4. Comment on the social relevance of the play.

Refer 4.2
5. Trace the revolutionary nature of the plot.

Refer 4.3
6. Show how Shudraka is progressive in his treatment of Vasantasena.

Refer 4.2 and 4.3
7. Discuss the theme of the establishment of order in Mrichhakatika.

Refer 4.1.
34
4.7 References
1. Ahuja.R.L, Theory of Drama in Ancient India, Associated Publishers, Ambala, 1964.
2. Keith.A.B, Sanskrit Drama, Motilal Banarsidas, New Delhi, 1924.
3. Mankad.D.R, Types of Sanskrit Drama, Karachi, 1936
4. Kulkarni.K.P, Sanskrit Dram and Dramatists, Satara, 1927.
Prof. Vijaya Guttal
35
Karnataka State Open University PÀ£ÁðlPÀ gÁdå ªÀÄÄPÀÛ «±Àé«zÁå¤®AiÀÄ
Mukthagangotri, Mysore- 570 006 A ªÀÄÄPÀÛUÀAUÉÆÃwæ, ªÉÄÊ¸ÀÆgÀÄ - 570 006
M.A. ENGLISH
I SEMESTER
INTER-DISCIPLINARY COURSE-I
(OPEN ELECTIVE)
INDIAN LITERATURE-I
Block-II
Jawaharlal Nehru: An Autobiography
Ram Mohan Roy:
Letter to Lord Amherst
Macaulay:
Minutes on Indian Education
Vivekananda:
Address to the Parliament of Religions
Preface
Welcome to the Department of Studies and Research in English, Karnataka State Open University,
Mukthagangothri, Mysuru.
Block II
Jawaharlal Nehru: An Autobiography

Ram Mohan Roy: Letter to Lord Amherst
Macaulay: Minutes on Indian Education
Vivekananda: Address to the Parliament of Religions
The SLM has been written in keeping in mind the needs of students studying M.A in English. The
SLM has been made in such a way that students will be fully guided to prepare for the exam in the most
effective manner, securing higher grade. It is necessary to work out the self-check exercises and those
given for self-study, so that you will grasp the essentials of effective communication, during revision and
preparation for the exam. The material is presented in clear and concise form and there are questions for
you to practice. A good dictionary is a good friend. Consulting a dictionary every now and then is a good
habit and worth cultivating. Learning can be a pleasurable experience, read with an openness of mind.
Hence the Learners sharpen their intellectuality, enhance literary sensibilities and develop usage of vocabu-
lary.
Wish you all the best.
Dr.Nataraju.G
The Chairman
Department of Studies and Research in English
Karnataka State Open University, Mysore
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Block
2
Jawaharlal Nehru: An Autobiography 1-30
Ram Mohan Roy: Letter to Lord Amherst 31-41
Macaulay: Minutes on Indian Education 42-55
Vivekananda: Address to the Parliament of Religions 56-73

M.A. English
Indian Literature-I
Block -II
UNIT - 1
Jawaharlal Nehru
AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Structure:
1.0 Objectives
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Background to Nehru’s Writings
1.3 Nehru’s Childhood and Early Life
1.4 Back Home in India
1.5 Check Your Progress - I
1.0 Objectives
These Units will help you explore the world of Jawaharlal Nehru , a great statesmen and
man of letters , whose life merged with the life of the nation.
At the end of working through this unit, you should be able to:
* Assess Jawaharlal Nehru as a writer
* Explain the role of Autobiographies in Indian writing in English
* Analyse the first few chapters of the Autobiography
1.1 Introduction
Broadly speaking , an Autobiography is a coherent narrative of an individual ‘s life, and is

an attempt at reconstructing life in the circumstances in which it was lived. It can also be defined as
a shaping of the past , shaping an individu al’s life through certain stages of the writer’s life span.
However, though an Autobiography is at times called a ‘memoir ‘ or ‘reminiscence ‘, it stands apart
as a work of art embodying a distinctive attitude on the part of the writer. A significant difference
between a biographer and an autobiographer is that, whereas the former begins with actual facts
about a person and works towards an interpretation ofthe person’s life, the later does not merely
relate facts but experiences too. So, this intimate disclosure of an individual’s private life is what
makes the reading of an autobiography far more interesting. We have also the gradual unfolding of
the personality of its author, and subjective as it may seem, the nature of his achievement is put forth.
The example that readily comes to mind is that of Jawaharlal Nehru, for whom the political
achievement had meaning, as it had an essential relationship with his personal conviction. Theo, of
course, we have the natural comparison with Mahatma Gandhi, whose autobiography was more of
a self-discovery, whose political achievement came in relation to the spiritual source from which it
sprang. Gandhi as an autobiographer, simply did not relate facts, but presented the inner core of
himself.
The literary renaissance that began with India’s contact with England made a remarkable
contribution in so far as it excited and stimulated the autobiographical impulse in Indians. Ithas to
be borne in mind that the period of the rise and growth oflndian English autobiography corresponds
with one of the most dynamic periods in the history of India, characterized by a sharp conflict
between the values of two great cultures, one ancient and the other modem. It is not without
significance that Raja Ram Mohan Roy, often recalled with reverence as the father of modern
Indian writing, wrote a short account of his life in English. When the struggle for freedom intensified
and the whole nation was charged with new energy and inspiration, the time was ripe for a rich
harvest of autobiographical writings . It was during this period of national resurgence, that the
foundations of a truly great tradition of Indian autobiographies were laid.
But before that, with the introduction of English education in the beginning of the nineteenth
century, a favorable climate was, however, created for the growth of modem autobiography in India
. The new system of education, in the words of Nehru “opened the doors and windows of the mind
to new ideas and dynamic thoughts”. The western concept of the importance of the individual, the
equality of men and the primacy of conscience and reason entered into the Indian consciousness .
Political ideas like personal Iibetty and the rule oflaw, which were implicit inall English literature,
stimulated tilL’ ducated Indian mind. English, as well asEuropean literature, which the Indians read
with interest and attention, included a fair sprinkling of autobiographical writings. And moreover,
English was being used by an ever increasing number of Indians both for practical and creative
purposes.
To briefly trace the growth of autobiographies in India, Raja Rammohan Ray wrote a short
sketch of his career in 1833. In this autobiographical sketch, the Raja wrote about his ancestry and
education; of how he came to oppose the perverse and pernicious practices eating into the vitals of
the Hindu society. Soon after this, in 1834, Kasiprasad Ghose wrote a brief account of his life in a
letter to Rev. James Long. He wrote about his love for poetry, about his caste and its “mythological
origin”, and a few details of his domestic life. However, it was Lutfullah who was credited to have
written the first, complete autobiography in 1854. He led quite an adventurous life, prompting him
to bring out an autobiography. He worked for the East-India Company and this gave him an
opportunity to come in close contact with he English. That is when he began to show interest in
learning English. After a short stint in the postal service, he beg to teach Persian and Hindustani to
English officers. This helped him to reach the shores of England in 1844. But the amazing part was
that Lutfullah had no formal education inEnglish, and yet, inthe company of English scholars, he
went on to master the English language. Though born to an Orthodox Muslim family, he shed his
superstitious beliefs and developed a truly critical and independent outlook on life and religion. He
speaks against evil practices prevailing both among Hindus and Muslims. He comes down heavily
upon the practice of circumcision among Muslims, the pain of which he had himself suffered. At the
same time, he bitterly opposes the system of ‘Sati’ among Hindus. Though full of praise for the
English, for their liberal (}nd disciplined life style, he is critical of the haughty Englishmen and the
liberty given to women in English society. The next autobiography worth a mention is that of Lal
Behmi Dey, written in 1876. Then we have a noteworthy autobiography by Seetharam, a retired
soldier, who rose to be a Subedar from an ordinary sepoy. Interestingly, he wrote in Hindi, but the
sheer intensity of his presentation brought him recognition, and soon there was an English
translation, aptly named From Sepoy to Subedar. It proved to be a runaway success, and had several
editions printed in a short span oftime. Towards the close of the century, Maharshi Devendranath
Tagore wrote his autobiography in Bengali. The book exercised a considerable influence on the
course of Indian English autobiography.
Moving on to the twentieth century, we have autobiographies with patriotic sentiments

being expressed. Stalwarts like La!a Lajpat Rai and Shaym SunderChakravathy, men of great political
will, wrote autobiographies that presented their contribution to the freedom struggle. In The Story of
my Deportation, Lala Rajpat Rai gives a tonid account of the physical suffering he had to face in the
hands of the British raj. He wrote two more autobiographical fragments: The Story of My Life,
which described his early involvement in the Arya Sarnaj movement, and Indian Revolutionaries
in the United States and Japan. The publication of an English version of Rabindranath Tagore ‘s
autobiography in 1917, constitutes a landmark in the history oflndian English autobiography. This
was perhaps the first time that an Indian poet had ventured to write at length about his poetic career,
to see life as a poet. Another Bengali writer, Ravindra Kumar Ghose, a well-known revolutionary
too, wrote about his harrowing experience in The Tale of my Exile ( 1922). He was sentenced to
transportation for life and sent to the Andamans in 1909. But in Dhan Gopal Muketjee’s Caste and
Outcast (1923), there is a refreshing change in the theme. His autobiography revolves around a
conscious effort to explain the real meaning of the Hindu customs and rituals to the Western audience.
He was obviously writing under the influence of the Hindu revivalist movement.
Two more autobiographies were written in the first quarter of the century. They were
Surendranath Banerjee’s A Nation in Making (1925) and Mahatma Gandhi’s The Story of My
Experiments With Truth (1927). Obviously, all eyes were on the Mahatma’s book. He was prevailed
upon to write the story of his life, apparently by his fellow-workers. But more than that, it was by
an ‘inner compulsion’ that made the Mahatma set the ball rolling. As Gandhiji himself explains- “I
simply wanted to tell the story of my numerous experiments with truth, and as my life consists of
nothing but those experiments, it is true that the story will take the shape of an autobiography”. The
rest is history! Jawaharlal Nehru’sAnAutobiography made its mark, which turned out to be a
landmark, in the history of Indian English autobiography. It was written in jail, from June 1934 to
February 1935, and published in 1937.
1.2 Background to Nehru’s Writings:
I would like to share with you some of former President Radhakrishnan’s thoughts on
Nehru. He said thatJawaharlal Nehru’s greatest contribution to India has been an intellectual one.
All through his forty-four odd years in public life, Nehru tried to create in his countrymen a rational
approach to politics and to government, and even to life itself. In the years prior to Independence,
he wrote and preached that Indians must think about their future in national and scientific and not
in traditional terms. He taught that man is the instrument of his own destiny and not a toy in the
hands of fate. Nehru continued to teach the revolutionary doctrine of”seeking truth by trial and
error and by experiment, of never saying that this must be so, but trying to understand why it is
so.....ofhaving an open mind, which tries to imbibe truth wherever it is found”. As President
Radhakrishnan said in a speech to the nation mourning the death of Nehru; “his life and work have
had a profound influence on our mental makeup, social structure, and intellectual development
........As a maker of modern India, his services remain unparalleled”. A study ofNehru, the writer,
thus becomes by necessary implication a study also of the man, and of modern India awakening
from the stupor of the centuries of Colonial rule, and taking the first firm steps in the direction of
the future. Nehru’s writings give us some measure of the man, and the easy means of knowing him
intimately. He was a thinker and a modernizer, a statesman and a rolitician, a multifaceted personality
indeed. Due to other preoccupations, Nehru could not pay much attention to writing. He always
maintained that whatever he had written might be called some kind of journalism! Apart from the
political interest Nehru’s works arouse in the readers, their literary value can not be denied. Itis in
his Autobiography that we find Nehru at his literary best.
Jawaharlal Nehru has this to say about his autobiography: “It may still be of general interest
to many people in India because it deals with a period of our national struggle in which many of us
were personally involved. This is past history but sometimes it is worthwhile knowing that past, in
order to know better the present”. In the preface he writes- “The primary object in writing these
pages was to occupy myself with a definite task, sonecessary in the long solitudes of goal life, as well
as to review past events in India, with which I had been connected, to enable myself to think clearly
about them. I began the task in a mood of self-questioning , and, to a large extent this persisted
through out’’. He reminds the readers that the book was written during “a particularly distressful
period of my existence”. He insists- “if the writing had been done under more normal conditions, it
would have been different. ......”. Nehru maintained that he was not writing “deliberately for an
audience”, but he always had his own people in mind. He clarified that his “attempt was to trace, as
far as I could, my own mental development and not to write a survey of recent Indian history”.
Nehru’s Autobiography is perhaps the most widely read book and one of the outstanding
prose works in the annals oflndian Writing in English. As C.D. Narasimhaiah observes: “Nehru is
bound up so intimately with India that we tend to think he is India and that India’s failings are his
failings”. Interestingl y, the writer originally called his work as In and Out of Prison, with a sub-title
An Autobiographical Narrative with musings on recent events in India. But, his English publisher
called it Jawaharlal Nehru- An Autobiograph y. Nehru’s own aim and objective is clearly stated
both in his preface and at several places in the Autobiography. First and foremost, in order to make
constructive use of time spent in prison, Nehru decided to write as extensively as possible, for he
realized that mental discipline was the need of the hour, for a man incarcerated in prison . As he
observed, “I managed to accustom myself to the gaol routine, and with physical exercise and fairly
hard mental work, kept fit”. At another place in the book , the author asks himself the question:
“Why am I writing all this sitting here in prison?” but anwers it himself by stating; “I write down my
past feelings and experiences in the hope that this may bring me some peace and psychic satisfaction”.
The Autobiography reveals another side of Nehru’s personality by offering several illuminating
glimpses of his rich emotional and imaginative nature. Gandhiji ‘s autobiography was already being
claimed as a world classic, when Nehru’s autobiography necessarily invited comparison. One is
reminded of what Everton Brydges, a well-known critic, had to say on Nehru: “Many have written
autobiographies, but few have had the courage to let them appear during their lives”.
I would now like to move on to the textual details.
1.3 Nehru’s Childhood and Early Life:
Note how the autobiography begins with a striking sentence; “An only son of prosperous
parents is apt to be spoilt, especially so in India”. Born with the proverbial ‘silver spoon’, he had a
sheltered childhood. He was left to himself; to weave his private fancies and invent his own solitary
games in the formative years of his life. Loneliness became part of his being. Like other children, he
listened to stories from the Indian epics, and participated in many of the religions festivals. But he
liked best the celebration of his birthday, where he was always the central figure. The most vividly
recollected figure of his childhood is his father Motilal Nehru, loved and admired, but at the same
time, feared. The towering personality that Motilal was, always made the junior Nehru be at his
best. The author cites the incident of his stealing a pen from his father’s writing table, and being
severely punished for it. His birth, ancestry, the religious and intellectual ethos of the times are all
told in one page. In spite of his anger against the British regime, Nehru had no feeling of ill-will
towards individual English men. In fact, he was born in a family inwhich English manners and
values were advised and followed. Most of his tutors and governesses were English. It was F.T.
Brookes, an Irishman who instilled into him the love of books and initiated him into the mysteries of
science. From Brookes’s talks on Theosophy, Nehru came to realize the value of Hindu religion.
One of the besetting dangers of an autobiography is the tendency of the writer to project himself. But,
no one was more conscious of it than Nehru himself. At the age of thirteen, he became a member of
the Theosophical Society and attended its convention at Banares. This is what Nehru says: “Mrs.
Annie Besant visited Allahabad in those days and delivered several addresses on theosophical subjects.
I was deeply moved by her oratory and returned from her speeches dazed and as in a dream. When
I went to ask father’s permission he laughingly gave it. .. I was a little hurt by his lack of feeling.
Great as he was in many ways in my eyes, I felt that he was lacking in spirituality. SoI became a
member of the Theosophical society, and Mrs. Besant herself performed the ceremony of initiation,
which consisted of good advice and instruction in some mysterious signs, probably a relic of free
masonry. I was thrilled ...”
In a couple of candid lines, Nehru remembers that at the age of fourteen he became more
conscious of the opposite sex. He is disarmingly frank when he says :
Fresh thoughts and vague fancies were floating in my mind and I began to take a little
more interest in the opposite sex,.......sometimes at Kashmiri parties, where pretty
girls were not lacking, or elsewhere, a glance or a touch would thrill me. ( )
Although he says his knowledge of Sanskrit and Latin was pitiful, he boldly claims that he
was well up in Children’s and Boy’s literature, and his interests were wider than those of English
boys who always talked of games:
I was well up in children’s and
boy’s literature; the Lewis carroll books
were great favourites, and The Jungle Books
and Kim. I was fascinated by Gustave
Dare’s illustrations to Don Quixote, and
Nausen’s Farthest North o·pened out a new
realm of adventure to me. I remember
reading many of the novels of Scot, Dickens
and Thackeray, Mark Twain and Sherlock Holmes
stories. Brookes also initiated me into the
mysteries of science. We rigged up a little
laboratory and there I used to spend long
and interesting hours working out experiments
in elementary Physics and Chemistry.(Ch :III)
At the age of fifteen, he was sent to Harrow and then on to Cambridge. Even the famed
Harrow seemed “too narrow and restricted” for those big ideas in one’s mind. He writes:
I got used to Han·ow and liked the place, and yet somehow I began to feel that I was outgrowing it.
The University attracted me. Right through the years 1906 and 1907 news from India had been
agitating me. I got meagre enough accounts from the English papers .....There was Lala Rajpat’s
Rai’s and S. Ajit Singh’s deportation, and Bengal seemed to be in an uproar, and Tilak’s name was
often flashed from Poona, and there was Swadeshi and boycott. ..... but there was not a soul in
Harrow to whom I could talk about it. (Ch . III)
And then the prize he won at school :
A prize I got for good work at school was one of G.M. Trevelyan’s Garibaldi books.
This fascinated me and soon I obtained the other two volumes of the series and
studied the whole Garibaldi story in them. Visions of similar deeds inIndia came
before me, of a gallant fight for freedom, and in my mind India and Italy got strangely
mixed up. (Ch. III)
Trinity college, Cambridge, had the wliterelated. This was mainly because being an
undergraduate gave him a great deal of freedom , compared to school. He took the Natural Science
Tripos , Chemistry, Geology and Botany, but his interests were not confined tojust these. Brilliant
at General Knowledge, Nehru evinced keen interest in political developments all around the world.
Analyzing his attitude to life at that time, Nehru says, “it was a vague kind of cyrenaicism”, partly
due to youth, partly the influence of Oscar Wilde and Walter Pater. He got the opportunity to
discuss sex with his friends. He never attached any idea of sin to it nor felt constricted by any
religious inhibition. But he found himself timid where sex was concerned and his knowledge of it
continued to be theoretical for many years after he had left Cambridge.
While still a student at Cambridge, his interest in national affairs back home further increased
and before long, he realized that his academic pursuits had no relevance in the national context.
From 1907 onwards, for several years, India was seething with unrest and trouble.
For the first time since the Revolt of 1857,India was showing fight and not submitting
tamely to foreign rule. News ofTilak ‘s activities and his conviction, of Aurobindo
Ghose and the way the masses of Bengal were taking the Swadeshi and boycott
pledge stirred all of us Indians inEngland. Almost without an exception we were
Tilakites or Extremists, as the new party was called in India. The Indians in Cambridge
had a society called the ‘Majlis’, and we discussed political problems. Frequently I
went to the Majlis, but during my three years I hardly spoke there. I could not get
over my shyness and diffidence. (Ch.V)
Nehru found it difficult to decide about his future career, for conflicting pulls created some
doubts in his mind. The Indian Civil Service had an undeniable glamour, but the state of political
events and unrest back home and the burning desire to participate in them negated the idea of entering
the civil service. It was Jawaharlal’s father who convinced him that the legal profession would be
the best for him at this stage, and so he joined the Inner Temple where Gandhiji had studied law
some twenty years before. Nehru ‘s English years helped develop in him a political outlook. As he
says, all the demonstrations and the activist movements taking place in England itself made him
even more determined to join the mainstream of the National Freedom struggle in India. George
Bernard Shaw’s active involvement in the Fabian society had inspired Nehru to a great extenct. It
helped Nehru to identify himself with the struggling masses oflndia. Nehru’s visit to Ireland in
1910 brought him under the spell of the Irish patriotic movement and the early beginnings of Sinn
Fein . He also listened, with a great deal of interest, to Indian politician s of the day, who visited
England and talked about the freedom movement gathering momentum in India. So we get the
impression that Nehru was in a great hurry to tell us readers more about his political career rather
than his formative years.
1.4 Back Home in India:
After a stay of over seven years in England, Nehru returned home to practice law at the
Allahabad High Court. He was not exactly ‘at home’, though. He had this ‘gut feeling’ that his
place was more appropriate amongst the Indian masses and in the ‘thick’ ofthe political struggle.
The catalyst seemed to be the advent of Mahatma Gandhi on the national scene and that convinced
Nehru tojoin the political main stream. Nehru first met Gandhi at the Indian National Conference at
Lucknow in 1916. Gandhi had put forth the progra mme of Civil Disobedience against the Rowlatt
Act, and Nehru followed the movement with great enthusiasm. But the idea of giving his time
totally to the freedom movement was objected to by his father, Motilal Nehru
For many days there was this mental conflict, and because both of us felt that big
issues involving a complete upsetting · of our lives, we tried hard to be as considerable
to each other as possible . I wanted to lessen his obvious suffering if I could , but I
had no doubt in my mind that I had to go the way of Satyahagraha. Both of us had a
distressing time, and night after night I wandered about alone, tortured in mind and
trying to grope my way out. Gandhiji came to Allahabad at father’s request and they
had long talks at which I was not present. As a result, Gandhiji advised me not to
precipitate matters or to do anything which might upset father.
Nehru did join the non-co-operation movement, and it gave him immense satisfaction to be
working for the freedom of the country :
I became wholly absorbed and wrapt in the movement, and large numbers of other
people did likewise. I gave up all my other associations and contacts, old friends,
books, even newspapers, except in so far as they dealt with the work in hand.
There is this interesting episode about how Nehru runs into, quite inadvertently, the likes
of General Dyer, the ‘rogue’ of Jallianwala Bagh , towards the end of 1919. I would like you to
read about it in the author’s own words:
I travelled from Amritsar to Delhi by the night train. The compartment I entered was almost
full and all the berths, except one upper one, were occupied by sleeping passengers. I took the
vacant upper berth. In the morning I discovered that all my fellow-passengers were military officers.
They conversed with each other in loud voices which I could not help overhearing. One of them
was holding forth in an aggressive and triumphant tone and soon I discovered that he was Dyer, the
hero of Jallianwala Bagh, and he was describing his Arnritsar experience. He pointed out how he had
the whole town at his mercy and he had felt like reducing the rebellious city to a heap of ashes, but he
took pity on it and refrained. He was evidently coming back from Lahore after giving his evidence
before the Hunter Committee of inquiry. I was greatly shocked to hear his conversation and to observe
his callous manner. He descended at Delhi station in pyjamas with bright pink stripes, and a dressing
gown. (Ch.VII)
The Non-co-operation movement had a great impact on Nehru. He says that the moral and
ethical side of the movement, which included satyagraha, gave him a great deal of satisfaction. But
the writer makes it clear that he did not give an absolute allegiance to the doctrine of non-violence,
nor was he prepared to accept it forever. Nehru always kept in mind the fact that the ultimate goal
of non-co-operation was national freedom and the ending of the exploitation of the underdog.
Itgave him a sense of personal freedom.
1.5 Check Your Progress :I
a) Write a note on Nehru’s childhood days.
b) Give a detailed account of Nehru’s academic pursuits at Harrow and Cambridge.
c) Towards the end of his stay in England, what kind of a dilemma did Nehru face?
M.A. English
Indian Literature-I
Block - 2
UNIT - 2
Structure:
2.0 Objectives
2.1 Nehru - Gandhi Relationship
2.2 Life in Prison
2.3 Other facets of Gaol Life
2.4 The Political Struggle
2.5 Check Your Progress- II

2.1 Objectives
By the end of reading through this unit, you should be able to:
Explain the complexities in the Nehru- Gandhi relationship.
Describe Nehru’s life inPrision.
Identify his role in Indian politics.
2.2 Nehru- Gandhi Relationship
Jawaharlal Nehru admired and respected Mahatma Gandhi, though they did have their
differences :
In spite of his unimpressive features,

loin-cloth and bare body, there was
a royalty and a kingliness in him
which compelled a willing obeisance
from others. (Ch.X)
And Nehru portrays the whole man, not only the man who became a symbol in his life-time,
but also the Gandhi, whom Nehru felt, had his share of weaknesses. As one of Gandhi’s closest
associates, Nehru presents a dispassionate picture of the man. For, the author even ‘complains’
against Gandhi for not training the nation to ‘think’ and asks whether the way of faith is the right one
in running the affairs of a nation. Nehru was conscious of the tremendous influence Gandhi exercised
on him in spite of their differences:
It was clear that this man of poor physique had something of steel inhim, something
rocklike which did not yield to physical powers, however great they might be. His
voice, clear and limpid would purr its way into the heart and evoke an emotional
response. (Ch.X)
Yet, Nehru always had a deep emotional attachment to Gandhi. So, in the Autobiography,
the presentation of the Nehru-Gandhi relationship (often on the brink of a breakdown) is ultimately
based on mature endurance. Nehru did try to-clarify his position to Gandhi:
Regarding certain objectives like sufficiency of food, clothing, housing and education,
these should be the minimum requirements for the country and everyone .........It is
with these objectives in view that we must fmd out how to attain them speedily.
And ‘speedily’ to Nehru meant modernization, industrialization, building of big dams,

establishing institutional infrastructure for science and technology. This was, according to Nehru,
the only way of catching up wioth the west.
Gandhi’s priorities for development, were village development and village industries. He
identified with the poor and said: “Whatever cannot be shared with the masses is taboo to me ...My
loin cloth is an organic evolution in my life...”Development to Gandhiji was abolition of poverty,
misery and fear. Nehru, on the other hand, strongly believed that it was not possible for India to be
really independent unless she was modern, scientific and technologically advanced. Nehru was
reluctant to start the development process with villages and village industries. This brought about
deep intellectual and attitudinal differences between Gandhi’s and Nehru’s approach to development.
In fact, the author has this to say:
We cannot stop the river of change or cut ourselves adrift from it, and psychologically
we who have eaten the apple of Eden cannot forget the taste and go back to
primitiveness.(Ch.X)
Gandhi was not impressed by the technological achievements of the West, as Nehru seemed
to be.
The reality of the Indian masses was their abject poverty, a sense of helplessness and fear-
“pervasive oppressive strangling fear; fear of the police, the official, money lender, fear of
unemployment and starvation”. Gandhi’s vision of development seemed to emerge from these
millions. Speaking their language, voicing their concerns he drew attention to their appalling
conditions. But , the author acknowledges the power of Gandhi and his hold over the masses :
Gandhi’s words, his use of pious phrases, may sound platitudinous, but make no
mistake, there is power behind his words. Gandhi came to represent India to an
amazing degree and to express the very spirit of the ancient and tortured land . To the
millions, he was India. (Ch.XI)
And yet, this is how the author reacts, when once Gandhi went on fast:
If Bapu died! What would India be like then and how would her politics run? There
seemed to be a dreary and dismal future ahead and despair seized my heart when I
thought of it. ......confusion reigned my head and anger and hopelessness and love
for one who was the cause of this upheaval. (Ch.X VIII)
During a political crises in the Congress Working Committee, when Gandhi had put in his
resignation, the author din’t like to precipitate a crises:
And even if we disagreed with him, what could we do? Throw him over? Break from
him? Announce our disagreement? That might bring some personal satisfaction to an
individual but it made no difference to the final decision. (Ch. XVIII)
At this juncture, I would like to share with you an extract from Nehru’s The Discovery of
India, where he traces the circumstances in which Gandhi appeared on the Indian political horizon:
World War I came. Politics were at a low ebb, chiefly because of the split in the
congress between the two sections, the so-called Extremists and the Moderates. Yet
one tendency was marked; the rising middle class among the Moslems was growing
more nationally minded and was pushing the Moslem League towards the Congress.
They even joined hands ..., World War I ended at last, and the peace, instead of bringing
us relief and progress, brought us repressive legislation and martial law in the Punjab.
All the unending talk of constitutional reform and Indianization of the services was a
mockery and an insult when the manhood of our country was being crushed and the
inexorable and continuous process of exploitation was deepening our poverty and
sapping our vitality. We had become a direlict nation Yet, what could we do, how to
change this vicious process? We seemed to be helpless in the grip of some all-
powerful monster. The peasantry were servile and fear-ridden, the industrial workers
were no better. The middle classes, the intelligentia, who might have been beacon-
lights in the enveloping darkness, were themselves submerged in this all-pervading
gloom, Large numbers of them, declasse intellectuals , cut off from the land and
incapab1e of any kind of manual or technical work, joined the swelling army of the
unemployed, and helpless, hopeless, sank ever deeper into the morass ...What could
we do? How could we pull India out of the quagmire of poverty and defeatism
which sucked her in...?And then Gandhi came. He was like a powerful current of
fresh air that made us stretch ourselves and take deep breaths ... He did not descend
from the top; he seemed to emerge from the millions of India, speaking their language
and incessantly drawing attention to them and their appalling condition ... The essence
of his teaching was fearlessness and truth, and action allied to these, always keeping
the welfare of the masses in view. The greatest gift for an individual or a nation, so
we had been told in our ancient books, was abhaya ‘ (fearlessness), not merely
bodily courage but the absence of fear from the mind. But the dominant impulse in
India under strangling British rule was that of fear— pervasive, oppressing, strangling
fear; fear of the army, the police, the wide-spread secret service . ..It was against this
all-pervading fear that Gandhi’s quiet and determined voice was raised: Be not
afraid.
This was the kind of awe and respect with which Gandhi was looked upon, by millions
oflndians, and Nehru acknowledges it, as is evident from the above extract.
To conclude this aspect of the unusual but true relationship between Gandhi and Nehru , I
would like to brief you about what Motilal Nehm had to say about Gandhi. Evidently, after a brief
political estrangement in the middle of 1924, Nehru recalls the old relations between his father
and Gandhi were resumed and they grew even more cordial. However much they differed from one
another, each had the warmest regard and respect for the other. In a brief Foreword that Motilal
contributed to a booklet called Thought Currents, containing selections from Gandhi’s writings,
this is what he had to say:
I have heard of saints and supermen, but have never had the pleasure of meeting
them, and must confess to a feeling of scepticism about their real existense. I believe
in men and things manly. The ‘Thought Currents’ preserved in this volume have
emanated from a man and are things manly. They are illustrative of two great attributes
of human nature- Faith and Strength. (Ch.XVIII)
Obviously, Motilal Nehru wanted to stress on the fact that he diq not admire Gandhi as a saint
or a Mahatma, but as a man . As Nehru says, strong and unbending himself, Motilal admired the
strength of spirjtin the Mahatma. And continuing with the description of Gandhi, Nehru writes:
Consciously and deliberately meeM and humble, yet he was full of power and
authority, and he knew it, and at times he was imperious enough, issuing commands
which had to be obeyed. Whether his audience consisted. of one person or a thousand,
the charm and magnetism of the man passed on to it, and each one had a feeling of
communion with the speaker. (Ch.XVIII)
This was the kind of relationship that existed between the two greatest luminaries of the Indian
polity.
2.2 Life in Prison
As mentioned earlier, Nehru does remark that the “long solitudes of gaol life” forced him to
take up writing his autobiography in right earnest. But what was life like in prison and how does he
share those moments with us?
In fact, Nehru is at his best while writing about his jail experiences. He spent several years
behind bars and the fact that he wrote most of his autobiography injail has set the tone of the book.
Boredom is an inevitable experience in the solitude of ajail, but the author kept himself occupied
in reading and writing. One feels the absence of many things in prison, but the absence of women’s
voice and children’s laughter is felt most acutely, observes Nehru. (which again reminds me that the
original title of this book was “In and out of prison”!) Once in the Lucknow District goal, he
suddenly realized that he had not heard a d<?g bark for many months! !
Nehru, in a frank and forth right manner says that he enjoyed some privileges over most of
the other prisoners. InDebra Dun prison, for example, the political prisoners headed by Nehru were
kept in an old lock-up outside the gaol walls, but within the gaol compound. Though he remained in
the gaol compound, Nehru remarks that “coming outside the walls gave us a view of the mountains
and the fields and a public road at some distance”. He reminds us that only a prisoner who has been
confined for long behind high walls can appreciate the extraordinary psychological value of the
outside walks and open views.
During the monsoon, when the rain came down in torrents, Nehru found pleasure in walking
about in ankle-deep water. He gazed at the mountains that he loved, while out on his walks, and
though he could not see them from his cell, he had them pictured in his mind. As Nehru writes:
Its solidity (the mountain’s) and imperturbability looked down upon me with the
wisdom of a million years, and mocked at my varying humours and soothed my
fevered mind
And observe how Nehru writes about the spring in the Debra valley:
The winter had denuded almost all the trees of their leaves, and they stood naked and
bare. Even four magnificent peepal trees, which stood in front of the gaol gate, much
to my surprise, dropped nearly all their leaves. Gaunt and cheerless they stood there,
till the spring air warmed them up again and sent a message oflife to their innermost
cells. Suddenly there was a stir both in the peepals and the other trees, and an air of
mystery surrounded them as of secret operations going on behind the scene; and I
would be startled to find little bits of green peeping out all over them. It was a gay
and cheering sight...Ihad never noticed before that fresh mango leaves are reddish-
brown, russet coloured, remarkably like the autumn tints on the Kashmir hills. But
they change colour soon and become green. How wonderful is the sudden change
from bud to leaf! (Ch.XXX)
And about the rains:
The monsoon rains were always welcome, for they ended the summer heat. ..Dehru
Dun is one of the favoured haunts of the rain god ...but it was not pleasant to sit
cooped up in a little narrow place trying to avoid the water dripping from the ceiling
or rushing infrom the windows. (Ch.XXX)
It is obvious that, prevented from indulging in normal activities, Nehru digs into his keen sense of
observation, and presents us Nature and its abundance, or, call it bountifulness ina poetic manner.
Nehru also writes about the little insects that caught his eye, something that we wouldn’t
have even noticed . And with disarming frankness, he comments:
I realized that while I complained ofloneliness, that yard, which seemed empty and
deserted, was teeming with life. All these creeping or crawling or flying insects lived
their life without interfering with me in any way. (Ch.XXX)
He goes on to describe the wasps and the hornets and even the bats. He writes about a
venturesome squirrel, which would (while he sat reading without moving for a considerable period
of time) climb on to his knee and have a look around-”and then it would look into my eyes and
realize that I was not a tree or whatever it had taken me for. Fear would disable it for a moment and
then it would scamper away”. Then we have the tale of a little puppy dog which was looked after
by the author, and nursed because of a violent distemper. The monkey, corning to the rescue of its
little one, inspite of the jailors and convict overseers wielding sticks, is an amusing incident narrated
by Nehru.
Even the birds do not escape his attention, for he describes the plight of the poor male in the
world of birds:
There would be fierce quarrels between two male parrots over a lady parrot, who
sat calmly by waiting for the result of the encounter and ready to grant her favours to
the winner! (Ch.XLV)
Then, the richness of Nehru’s auditory perception is brought to the forefront, when he
describes ajumble of singing and lively chattering and twittering, and ven the plaintive call of the
lwel. The amazing persistence of the Brain Fever bird, and why it was so named, is shared with the
readers. The author obs rves that the bird kept repeating the same notes “in daytime and at night, in
sunshine and in pouring rain”. The relentless nature of its cry almost gets on to his nerves, but the
author takes pleasure in saying that the bird could be heard but not seen! (One is almost reminded of
Shelley’s poem· a Skylark”, and the line, “Thou art unseen, but yet I hear thy shrill delight”). But
the animal that really holds ur attention is the Pangolin. For most of us readers, this animal is very
new, I am sure. This is how he describes it:
We noticed a man carrying a strange animal. The gaoler sent for him , and I saw
something between a lizard and a crocodile, about two feet long with claws and a
scaly coveting. This uncouth animal, which was very much alive, had been twisted
around in a most peculiar way, and the owner had passed a pole through this knot and
was merrily earring it in this fashion. (Ch.XLV)
Nehru reflects on how different countries have adopted different animals as symbols of
their character- the eagle of the United States of America and of Gennany, the Lion and Bulldog of
England, the fighting Cock of France, the Bear of Old Ru ssia , and so on. But he strikes a note of
caution when he observes:
It is not surprising that the people who grow up with these examples before them
should mould themselves consciously after them and strike up aggressive attitudes,
and roar and prey on others. Nor is it surprising that the Hindu should be mild and
non-violent, for his patron animal is the cow. (Ch.XXX)
2.3 Other facets of Gaol life
In the chapter entitled “Naini Prison”, we have yet another exan1ple of the author’s observant
eye, when he describes the architecture of the prison- its circular rather than the rectangular shape,
adding to the sen se of oppression, like being at the bottom of a well; his cell called ‘Kuttaghar’,
15ft. high, drab and ugly building with narrow cells- his bed “heavily chained up lest I might get up,
and walk away”! He also described the sounds of the ptison, patticularly the night calls:
The nocturnal chorus of convict overseers, who guarded the main wall, frequently
shouted to each other in varying keys, sometimes lengthening out their cries till they
sounded like the moaning of a distant wind ...
And these poetic lines looked through the eyes of a prisoner: Upon that little tent of blue
which prisoners call the sky, And at every drifting cloud that went with sails of silver hy. (Ch.
XXX)
The Pole star peeping over the wall, “sun·o’unded by a revolving sky, it seemed to be a
symbol of cheerful constancy and perseverance”. Nehru also mentions his conversation with the
prisoners serving out their life sentence in prison. Many of them had asked him the question-
“What of us, lifers? Will Swaraj take us out of this hell”? Some of the observations made by Nehru
are worth quoting:
From time to time the prisoner’s body is weighed and measured. But how is one to
weigh the mind and the spirit which wilt and stunt themselves and wither away in
this terrible atmosphere of oppression? People argue against the death penalty, and
their arguments appeal to me greatly. But when I see the long drawn out agony of a
life spent in prison, I feel that it is perhaps better to have that penalty rather than to
kill a person slowly and by degrees. (Ch.XXX)
Very thoughtful words indeed, coming from a man with a golden heart and a human touch.
Looking at a prison from the outside world, one can hardly imagine the plight of various categories
of prisoners. For Nehpl, one of the most saddening features of the prisons, was the large contingent
of boys, from fifteen years of age and upwards, who were imprisoned. Many had a bright look
about them, and as they were illiterate, a beginning had been made to teach them to read and write.
But otherwise, li.fe was prosaic, with no recreation, no newspapers nor books of any kind. Interviews
were permitted once in three months, as were reading of any sort of mail. Then there were the
individuals sentenced for revolutionary activities, for long terms of imprisonment and were kept in
solitary confinement. This, inspite of the fact that their behaviour was exemplary. As Nehru explains,
solitary confinement, even for a short period was a “most painful affair”. It meant a slow and
continuous deterioration of the mind where:
It begins to border on insanity and the appearance of a look of vacancy, or a frightened

animal type of expression. It is the killing of the spirit by degrees, the slow vivisection
of the soul.
In stark contrast, European and other foreign prisoners had a much better time, where they
got much better focxl, lighter work and more interviews and letters. Nehru rounds offhis observation
by stating that the police methods in India have long been suspect, particularly in political matters.
One sees in prison the inhuman side of the State apparatus of administrative repression at its worst.
But, all said and done, Nehru sums up his many days in prison as being “very fortunate”.
He received all the courtesy from his own countrymen, from total strangers, and even the English.
They included gaolers, policemen who escorted him from place to place, and the ones who arrested
him in the first place. The author notes that the bare fact he had received his education in an English
public school, gained him more respect and popularity, much to his embarrassment. In the same
breath , he quickly reminds us that, still, a gaol was a gaol, and the ‘oppressive’ atmosphere of the
place was sometimes almost unbearable. The very air that one breathed was full of violence and
‘meanness’. He reiterates that it was only through reading and writing that he could keep himself
occupied. He reached a stage when summons came for him to go to prison, he would view it with
incredible detachment, with a quotation from Shakespeare;
Absent thee from felicity a while
And for a season draw they breath in sorrow.
Or, in a depressed state of mind, he quotes T.S.Eliot:
This is the way the world ends,
Not with a bang, but a whimper.
Amidst all this, Nehru never lost his sense of humour-something that went hand in hand
with pathos. There is the account of his being led along the streets, like a dog hand-cuffed, with a
friend and remaining like that throughout the night and part of the next day! His description of
S_ir Tej Bahadur Sapru sitting on the first step of the swimming pool in fifteen inches of water,
refusing absolutely to go forward even to the second step and shouting loudly if any one tried to
move him. Such little anecdotes helped him to keep his morale high.
2.4 The Political Struggle:
You must have realized by now that we have a number of chapters on events that should
really not interest students of literature. We have general topics like “The Kisans”, “The Agrarian
Troubles”, “No Tax Campaigns”, and other politically related problems. But having been drawn
into the very vortex of the political maelstorm, the author comments on Satyagraha as the basis for
political action:
Satyagraha was a definite, though non-violent form of resistance to what was

considered wrong. It was, in effect, a peaceful rebellion, a most civilized form of
warfare, and yet dangerous to the stability of the State. It was an effective way of
getting the masses to function,and it seemed to fit in with the peculiar genius of the
Indian people. It put us on our best behaviour and seemed to put the adversary in the
wrong. It made us shed the fear that crushed us, and we began to look people in the
face as we had never done before, and to speak out our minds fully and frankly. And,
finally the method of peace prevented to a large extent the growth of those terribly
bitter racial and national hatreds which had accompanied such struggles and thus
made the ultimate settlement easier. (Ch.XXIX)
One of the most revealing chapters in the book is the description of his first experience of a
lathi charge; it was in 1927, the year of the Simon Commission:
My own instinct had urged me to seek safety when I saw the horses charging down
upon us, it was a discouraging sight. But then, I suppose, some other instinct held me
to my place and I survived the first charge, which had been checked by the volunteers
behind me. Suddenly, I found myself alone in the middle of the road; a few yards
away from me, in various directions, were the Policemen beating down our volunteers.
Automatically, I began moving slowly to the side of the road to be less conspicuous,
but again I stopped and had a little argument with myself, and decided that it would
be unbecoming for me to move away. All this was a matter of few seconds only, but
I have the clearest recollections of that conflict within me and the decision, prompted
by my pride I suppose, which could not tolerate the idea of my behaving like a
coward. Yet the line between cowardice and courage was a thin one, and I might well
been on the other side.
But these few chapters do not impair the flow of the narrative. Nehru mentions the fact that
the struggle for freedom continued, irrespective of the fact that the leaders were imprisoned on the
slightest pretext. It was this repression without a break and with ever-increasing intensity, which
demonstrated the basis of British rule in India. As he observes:
It was better that we should be governed thus, we thought, .than that we should sell our souls and
submit to spiritual prostitution
During the years of civil disobedience, there were two attempts to hold the Congress sessions,
one at Delhi and the other at Calcutta. But the organization could not meet normally and free of
tensions. They invariably ended up in conflict with the police, which meant the lathi being wielded
to disperse the meetings, and large numbers of people being arrested. Even Nehm ‘smother was
arrested, while on her way to the Calcutta session, along with Pandit Malaviya and others. Though
frail and ailing, she showed tremendous ‘guts’ in being able to cope with the worst.
Nehru makes no secret of the fact that he was drawn to Socialism and Communism of the
Russian type which appealed to him. But he is quick to point out that there were things about Soviet
Russia that he did not like, particularly the ruthless suppression of all “contrary opinion” and the
unnecessary violence in carrying out various policies, quite opposite to the non-violent and
democratic values cherished in the Indian polity. Not withstanding these apparent weaknesses,
Nehru realized that Soviet Russia had triumphed over enormous difficulties and taken great strides
towards a “new order”. It was at this stage that the foundation was laid for a strong and enduring
relationship between Soviet Russia and India, which had to begin with, to do more with economic
co-operation. As a political leader with a modern and visionary outlook, Nehru adapted the ‘Five
Year Plan’ ofthe Soviets, to the Indian context. But he was careful not to blindly copy what had
taken place in Russia because India needed a revolutionary plan to the two related questions of
land and industry, without compromising on democratic values. The Marxist interpretation of
economy and history came to have a new meaning for Nehru, who looked at the essential freedom
from dogma and the scientific outlook that appealed to him. About this time, there was an economic
crisis and a slump, the world over. To him, the Marxist analysis offered a satisfactory answer and
also seemed to have a real solution. On this realization, Nehl11 was excited at the various possibilities
of the world marching towards overcoming the problem of stagnation. He linked it directly to the
Indian national struggle, about which he said “became a stage in the longer journey”. Nehru goes
a step further and writes:
But still the communist philosophy of life gave me comfort and hope. How was it to
be applied to India? We had not solved yet the problem of political freedom, and the
nationalistic outlook filled our minds. Were we to jump to economic freedom at the
same time or take them in tum , however short the interval might be? World events as
well as happenings in India were forcing the social issue to the front, and it seemed
that political freedom could no longer be separated from it.
Time and again, Nehru seems to think of Gandhi’s role in the national struggle. Confused at
times, he nevertheless acknowledges that Congress revolved round the presence of the Mahatma.
Yet, Nehru gives us an idea about how he constantly viewed the Mahatma’s ways:
Ideologically he (Gandhi) was sometimes amazingly backward, and yet in action he

had been the greatest revolutionary of recent times in India. He was a unique
personality, and it was impossible tojudge him by the usual standards, or even to
apply the ordinary canons oflogic to him. But because he was a revolutionary at
bottom and was pledged to political independence for India, he was found to play an
uncompromising role till that independence was achieved.
But the Congress was not above board, as the author observes. The Communists kept a
hawk’s eye on them, as it were, and accused them of bringing pressure on the British Government in
order to obtain industrial and commercial concessions in the interests oflndian National Movement
from European Labour standards. They were used to the repeated betrayals of the labour movement
by the labour leaders, and thus applied the anology to India. Nehru reminds his critics that the Indian
Na,tional Movement was not a change in the social order. In 1921, Mahatma Gandhi almost single
handedly carried the Congress and plunged it into the non-co-operation movement. And yet, there
were ill-informed people who criticized Gandhiji on a personal level, which hurt Nehru :
To attack Gandhiji ‘s bonafides is to injure oneself and one’s own cause, for to the
millions of Indians, he stands as the embodiment of truth, and any one who knows
him at all realizes the passionate earnestness with which he is always seeking to do
right.
We are also told about Gandhi’s twenty-one-day fast, his discharge from prison, and the
suspension of Civil disobedience movement for six weeks. The aggression of the British Government
only increased with time, and in the Andaman islands, political prisoners convicted for acts of
revolutionary violence, were on huger strike on the question of treatment, and many lay dying.
Even those who addressed meetings in India in protest of what was happening in the Andamans
were themselves arrested and sentenced. Nehru was distressed and surprised at the news that Gandhi
had called off the mass Civil disobedience, but individual Civil disobedience was permitted, and at
the same time all ‘secret’ methods were barred. There was also some talk about ‘peace’ with the
government after Gandhi sent a telegram to the Viceroy seeking for an interview. But Nehru wonders
about how this so-called ‘peace’ could be attained when the Government was ruthlessly trying to
crush the nation in every way and prisoners were starving to death in the Andamans. So Gandhi’s
moves to offer the ‘Olive branch’ to the British regime was not taken well by Nehru .
2.5 Check Your Progress- II
a) Write a detailed account of the Nehru-Gandhi relationship (in your own words)
b) Comment on Nehru’s description of Nature, and its importance for him
c) How much do you learn about animals from the pages of this Autobiography?
d) Write a note about the various categories of prisoners that Nehru came across during
his stay in different prisons.
M.A. English
Indian Literature-I
Block - II
UNIT - 3
Structure:
3.0 Objectives
3.1 Religion and Secularism
3.2 And in the End .......
3.3 Miscellaneous Musings
3.4 Questions for Self-Study
3.5 References
3.0 Objectives
In this, the third unit of this block, you will have to:
* Assess critically the Autobiography as a literary expression of a man at the
helm of affairs.
** Discuss the last few chapters for their political and social merits.
* Evaluate why critics have called Jawaharlal Nehru as the man who came to
represent India, and how ‘he was India’ to the millions.
3.2 Religion and Secularism
My religion is the tolerance of all religions
creeds and philosophies
From a recent article in a book called Nehru Revisited, published by Nehru Centre, I found
an interesting reassessment of Nehru by Karan Singh, which I would like to share with you. Singh,
strangely though, recalls Mark Antony’s tribute to Brutus in the play Julius Caesar:
His life was gentle and
the elements so mixed in
him that nature might
stand up and say to all
the world: this was the man.
Had the editors of this volume been a little more imaginative, they might have included contribution
of a different kind, charging Nehru with the inclinations of a Caesar and concluding that India did
not need Caesars! Moreover, Nehru did not live to see writings that were very critical of his ways,
and even more devastating than he would have imagined. Another example is the book Nehru, the
Lotus Eaterfrom Kashmir (on which I would not like to elaborate as the very title says it all!)
Be that as it may, let us concentrate on the text prescribed for your study. Nehru was a bit
annoyed with Gandhi’s decision for ajoint electorate for the ‘Depressed Classes’. He felt that this
was a recognition, and in part an acceptance of the Communal Award and the general scheme of
things as sponsored by the government. He believed that this was not consistent with Non-co-operation
and Civil Disobedience movements. He was more concerned with Gandhi’s religious and sentimental
approach to a political question, and his frequent references to God in connection with it. Gandhi
even seemed to suggest that God had indicated the very date of a fast and Nehru wryly observes that
this was a terrible example to set, what with the entire nation looking up to you. But strange things did
not happen to Nehru, and overcoming an emotional crises and conflicting thoughts, he says that he
felt calmer and the nation’s future seemed not so dark. So even ifBapu died, he was confident that the
struggle for freedom would go on.
For Nehru, India was supposed to be a religious country above everything else, where the
Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs and others took pride in their respective faiths. But what filled Nehru
with ‘horror’ was organized religion which he condemned, religion where dogma, bigotry,
superstition and exploitation formed the preservation of vested interests. He always maintained
that organized religion is an empty form devoid of real content. Giving an example from the West,
Nehru says that the church of England is perhaps the most obvious example of a religion which is
not a religion in the real sense of the word. He notes that in India, the Church of England was
almost ‘indistinguishable’ from the government. The priests and chaplains were the symbols of
imperial power, and were officially paid out of Indian revenues. This Church was a conservative
and reactionary force in Indian politics and was generally opposed to reform.
But Nehru makes it clear that he does not mean that men of religion do not have the highest
moral and spiritual spirit. It is here that religion becomes an ‘asocial’ quest for God or the Absolute,
and the religious man is concerned more with his own salvation than with the good of society. And,
once again, organized religion invariably becomes a vested interest and thus a reactionary force
opposing change and progress. According to him, the word religion has lost its precise significance,
and only causes confusion and gives rise to interminable debate and argument. So, why not drop the
word “religion” altogether, and use words with limited meanings, such as theology, philosophy,
morals, ethics, spirituality etc., ruminates Nehru? What then is religion? To explain in Nehru’s own
words:
Probably it consists of the inner development of the individual, the evolution of his
consciousness in a certain direction which is considered good. What that direction is
will again be a matter for debate. But, as far as I understand it, religion lays stress on
this inner change and considers outward change as but the projection of this inner
development. There can be no doubt that this inner development powerfully
influences the outer environment. ..A man who is the victim of economic
circumstances, and who is hedged and restricted by the struggle to live, can very
rarely achieve inner consciousness of any high degree ...A nation which is politically
and economically subject to another and hedged and circumscribed and exploited
can never achieve inner growth. (Ch. XLVII)
Then he quotes Gandhi who said “No man can live without religion”. But “there are some
who in the egotism of their reason declare that they have nothing to do with religion. But that is
like a man saying that he breathes, but that he has no nose”. And then the famous statement of
Gandhi :
My devotion to truth has drawn me into the field of politics; and I can say without the
slightest hesitation and yet in all humility, that those who say that religion has nothing
to do with politics do not know what religion means.
While Gandhi spoke of secularism from the religious perspective, Nehru was the first to
accept the western notion of secularism and he advocated the separation of religion from politics.
His ideas of secularism found great approval among the intellectuals. Though Nehru was an agnostic
and thus indifferent to religion, he was fully aware of the contribution of religion to society and its
grip over the minds and hearts of the people. Once, at Oxford University, when he was asked as to
how he would defme secularism, Nehru replied, “equal protection by the State to all religions”. This
was quite an insightful answer, keeping in mind the Indian context. Itwas for this reason that even
those who had a profound faith in religion, were attracted to his concept of secularism. But Nehru
makes no bones of the fact that he was totally against organized religion. In fact, I would like to
draw your attention to the chapter “What is Religion ?”,where the author quotes from the reknowed
essayist G.K. Chesterton, who has this rather complicated analogy about religion, where he compares
religion to a “fossil which is the form of an animal or organism from which all its own organic
substance has entirely disappeared, but which has kept its shape, because it has been filled up by
some totally different substance. And even where-something of value still remains, it is enveloped
by other and harmful contents”. This also shows that Nehru was wary of the hold of religion on the
minds of the people. He goes on to say:
Nor am I greatly interested in the after life, in what happens after death. I find the
problems of this life sufficiently absorbing to fill my mind. The traditional Chinese
outlook, fundarnently ethical and yet irreligious or tinged with religious scepticisms,
has an appeal for me ....... It is the Tao, the path to be followed and the way oflife that
interests me... (Ch.XLVII)
If anything can describe Nehru’s attitude towards religion, it is the phrase used by him-
”religious scepticism”. He was greatly drawn towards Buddhism and concerned himself more with
the question of removing dukkha, i.e. suffering in a spiritual and material sense. Passionately
committed to democracy, secularism and freedom of thought, he fought for these ideals. It is this
kind of secularism which is still relevant to India. It promotes life- affirming values and accepts
change and progress. He condemned the unyielding religious orthodoxy and communalism in all
communities. He demolished the claims of communal organizations to be religious and cultural in
nature. He said: “What are communal organizations? They are not religious although they confine
themselves to religious groups and exploit the name of religion. They are not cultural and have not
done anything for culture, although they talk bravely of a past culture. They are not ethical or moral
groups, for their teachings are singularly devoid of all ethics and morality. They are certainly not
economic groupings for there is no economic link binding their members and they have no shadow
of an economic programme. As a matter of fact they function politically and their demands are
political, but calling themselves non-political, they avoid the real issues and only succeed in
obstructing the path of others”. And about the sensitive issue of communalism, he firmly believed
that it was dangerous to democracy and must be weeded out to maintain and strengthen the secular
character of democracy. Moreover, the author always felt that secularism would become stronger
with the spread of education, science and technology.
3.2 And in the End ..........
And so does Nehru write, explaining, recapitulating, anticipating, regrets mingling with
hope, darkness paling into the dawn. Sarojini Naidu had some touching words to say about Nehru on
his fiftieth birthday :
You are a man of destiny born to be alone in the midst of crowds, deeply loved but
little understood.
One of the most poignant personal moments is found in his reference to the death of Kamala,
after much suffering due to her prolonged illness:
But after leaving Cairo and flying, hour after hour, over this desolate desert area, a
terrible loneliness gripped me, and I felt empty and purposeless. I was going back
alone to my home, which was no longer home for me and there by my side was a
basket and that basked contained an Urn. That was all that remained of Kamala,
and all our bright dreams were also dead and turned to ashes. She is no more, Kamala
is no more, my mind kept repeating.
Compare that to these light-hearted thoughts of Nehru about his wife:
After eighteen years of married life she had still retained her girlish and virginal
appearance: there was nothing matronly about her. But I had changed vastly, and
though I was fit and supple and active for my age, my looks betrayed me. I was
partly bald, and my hair was grey ....The last four years with their troubles and worries
had left many a mark on me. Often, in these later years when Kamala and I had gone
out together in a strange place, she was mistaken, to my embarrassment, for my
daughter. She and Indira looked like two sisters!
Nehru’s autobiography is the most central of his works, mainly because the public and the
private images of him are organically interfused in it. As Mulk Raj Anand points out “Nehru seems
to have adopted his own life as an experiment in history -making and written this famous book”.
And the words ofC.D. Narasimaiah come to my mind:
The total impression therefore is that it is a brave book, that is, the record of a brave
man who has suffered much and even carries a note of subdued but confident triumph
of the spirit.
We may also note that there is hardly any aspect of Nehru’s life—physical, intellectual,
moral and spiritual—which he has not written about with finesse and candour. OfNehru’s political
philosophy and ideology, the attainment of complete independence was obviously the comer stone,
and it is a fact that he was the chief architect of the Congress resolution demanding the same, in
1930. “The real question before us in India is whether we are aiming at a new state or merely at a
new administration”, said Nehru.
Interestingly, let me share with you a thought about Terrorism as an ideology very briefly
mentioned by Nehru. In the pursuit of Puma Swaraj he finds terrorism futile because it “usually
represents the infancy of a revolutionary urge in a country. That stage passes, and with it passes
terrorism as an important phenomenon”. (This statement was with particular reference to Bhagat
Singh’s amazing popularity for his violent ways). Nehru was not impressed, and we get the
impression that he used the word ‘terrorism’ to show that he did not approve of violent means to
attain freedom. He writes :
Terrorists have flourished in India, off and on, for nearly thirty years, and at no time,
except in the early days in Bengal, did any of them attain a fraction of that popularity
which came to Bhagat Singh. (Ch.XXIV)
And then he further adds: (My sentence)
India has undoubtedly passed that stage, and no doubt even the occasional outbursts
will gradually die out. But this does not mean that all people in India have ceased to
believe in methods of violence. They have, very largely, ceased to believe inindividual
violence and terrorism .........violent methods may be necessary for gaining freedom,
as they have often been necessary in other countries. (Ch.XXIV)
Needless to say, and as you may have realized, the very concept of ‘terrorism’ has undergone
a sea-change over the years, mainly because, today, a terrorist is an anti-national element.
Towards the end of the book, Nehru confesses:
I have become a queer mixture of the East and West, out of place everywhere, at
home nowhere. perhaps my thoughts and approach to life are more akin to what is
called Western than Eastern; but India clings to me, as she (does to all her children,
in) innumerable ways ...they also create in me a feeling of spiritual loneliness, not
only in public activities, but in life itself. I am a stranger and alien in the West. I can
not be of it. But in my own country also, sometimes, I have an exile’s feeling...
(Postscript)
Here surely is the secret of the autobiography’s appeal for us- “the animating idealism and the
extraordinary views of a life devoted to action, always allied to thought”. In the Epilogue, we have
Nehru writing- “I have reached the end of the story. This egostical narrative of my adventures through
life, such as they are, has been brought up to to-day, February 14, 1935...”. But later, he was asked
by his publisher to add a new chapter, which he did with some new thoughts of getting into the groove
once again:
I wrote my autobiography entirely in prison, cut off from outside activity. I suffered
from various humours in prison, as every prisoner does, but gradually I developed a
mood of introspection and some peace of mind .... ..
There is a mention of Kamala’s death and his mother’s death, later, in the last chapter. These
two events left an indelible mark in the over-burdened mind of Jav.,aharlal Nehru. It almost ended
a chapter of his existence, and took away much from his life. Thus ends a great classic.
3.3 Miscellaneous Musings:
Jawaharlal’s Autobiography has been widely acclaimed, for readers like Madame Change
Kai-shek of undivided China wrote to him, and thanked him for his autobiography, which had made
her “enforced stay in bed, tolerable”! Rabindranath Tagore was “intensely impressed” by this great
book in which he said, “runs a deep current of humanity “. Let us not forget the astonishing range of
quotations in the book, which is the hallmark of a person who has read a variety of books on literature
and other disciplines.M.K. Naik observes:
He (Nehru) quotes from poets as different from each other as Swinburne and T.S.
Eliot (whom, at the time when the Autobiography was written, few people in India,
even in .the Universities had really discovered), de Ia Mare and Hopkins, Blake and
Roy Campbell. The Upanishad, The Gita and Rajatarangini are here, and so is the
Chinese poet, LiT’ ai Po. An interesting omission is fiction, of which the the sole
representative is Anatole France’s novel, Penguin Island- that too quoted only in the
context of a political controversy.
In a letter to his sister, Krishna, Nehru once said: “The success of a book ultimately depends
on certain immaterial and insubstantial factors which one cannot easily measure ...., but over and
above there comes a certain sincerity in writing, combined with restraint, which colours a book and
makes it liked”. In a frank and forthright manner, Nehru does give vent to his inner thoughts and
feelings: “I dislike British imperialism, and I resent its imposition on India ...But I do not hold
England or the English people as a whole responsible for this. They are as much the victims of
circumstances as we are”. Or when he said : “personally I owe too much to England in my mental
make-up, even to feel wholly alien to her”. Such statements did bring about its share of criticism,
but Nehru was ready to face the flak it generated. He maintained that these facets were something
that he acquired while in school and college in England. Once again, I would like to share with you
M.K. Naik’s critical observation: “Apart from thus revealing several facets of Nehru’s personality,
the Autobiography also gives us an unmistakable sense of the growth of the writer’s mind, which is
another mark of a successful autobiography “. When Nehru is deeply moved, his emotive power is
there for us to observe, as in the following account of the cremation of his father:
As evening fell on the river bank on that winter day, the great flames leapt up and
consumed that body which had meant so much to us who were close to him as to
millions in India...Then all of us crept silently home. The stars were out and shining
brightly when we returned, lonely and desolate.
But critics have observed that the last quarter of our leader’s life, when the sphere of activity
expanded further as the Prime Minister of an Independent India, should have been covered. Mahadev
Desai observes: “Although Nehru is sincere, we have a feeling of something missing, something
being kept from us”. Then there is the criticism that Nehru’s coverage of the political events was a bit
too extensive.
Then I have for you critical thoughts from a recently published book on Nehru: Jawaharlal
Nehru: A Communicator and Democratic Leader. The writer, A.K. Damodaran, quotes at length
from Nehru’s letters and writings, projecting him as a communicator and democratic leader. A
belief in Freudian psychology should make it easier to concede the possibility of Nehru’s irresistible
appeal having had an impact on the freedom. Damodaran mentions that leaders of the national
movement came from three groups- the religious and social reformers, the radicals within the system
and the militant revolutionaries who sought to destroy the system. In fact, the rebel in Nehru was
exploding with fury in the autobiography, while recollecting the sight of a mounted white policeman
charging at a gathering of freedom fighters. Writing about Nehru’s skill as a communicator, a Readers
Digest article said that he wrote and spoke English “which a dozen men alive cannot match”. There
were other demands on the Indian psyche during the freedom movement and response came principally
from Nehru and Gandhi._ A lot ofNehru’s attention was occupied with the international scene, and
so much of time had to be set apart for this.
Not withstanding all this, the book indubitably ranks among the major autobiographies in
modem world literature.
3.4 Questions for Self-Study
a) Comment on Nehru’s reminiscences of his childhood and early days in his

autobiography.
b) Discuss the trilateral relationship between Mahatma Gandhi, Nehru and his father
Motilal .
c) Consider why critics have called Jawaharlal Nehru a multifaceted personality, with
particular reference to his description of nature, animals and thoughts about
modernizing India.
d) Examine the literary merits of An Autobiography.
3.5 References
1. Jawaharlal Nehru. A Communicator and Democratic Democratic Leader. Radiant .1999.
2. C. D. Narasimhaiah. Jawaharlal Nehru Indian writers and their works.Rao & Raghavan,1959.
3. M. K. Naik.Dimensions of Indian English Literature. Sterling, 1984.
4. Shzshi Tharoor. Nehru : The Invention of India. Arcade.2012.
M.T.Bopaya
M.A. English
Indian Literature-I
Block -II
UNIT-4
RAJA RAM MOHAN ROY'S:
"LETTER TO LORD AMHERST"
Structure:
4.0 Objectives
4.1 Introduction
4.2 The Man- Raja Ram Mohan Roy
4.3 The Letter (Text)
4.4 Textual Analysis
4.5 Questions For Self-Study
4.6 References
4.0 Objectives
After going through this Unit, dear student, you should be able to,
describe the arguments putforth by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in favour of English Education in India.
evaluate Raja Ram Mohan Roy as a writer of English prose.
state and place the importance of Raja Ram Mohan Roy's Letter to Lord Amherst to the flowering
of English language and Literature in India.
4.1 Introduction
To understand the importance of Raja Ram Mohan Roy's Letter to Lord Amherst, dear student, it is
essential to have knowledge of the circumstances that lead to the introduction of English Education
in India.
The genesis of Indian Writing in English could be considered as a bizarre literary happening. India
is a country rich in tradition, Culture, Language, and literature since time immemorial. In spite of
this, India has paved way for the flowering of a literature whose language and texture is undoubt-
edly novel to the country. The English Language has very minimal impact and influence at the time
of its setting foot in India. Due to remarkable literary productions in regional languages, English it
appeared would not survive for long as a powerful creative medium in India. But the arrival of the
British in India, one must note here, is a remarkable instance that shows how language and power
go hand in hand. It took many years for English Language to cement its position in India. English
Language has subsequently become our "own" Language and its literature is today vibrant, alive
and kicking. The flowering and achievement of Indian English Literature amazes any keen student
of English literature.
Cross Culturalism provided no doubt room for new awakening. This aspect in fact remained and
even today remains as a basic source for the entire modern writing, be it in regional languages or
English language in India.
To start with, English Language was introduced in order to cater to the administrative needs and to
spread religious education. In a way Christian Missionaries were the harbingers of English Lan-
guage. By the turn of the eighteenth century, English as a medium of instruction introduced by the
Christian Missionaries gained popularity in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta. Towards the end of the
18th Century, a number of private English Tutorials mushroomed in and around Calcutta. The
desire to learn English was on the high - Prince Dwarakanath Tagore, Grand father of Rabindranath
Tagore was a product of these private Tutorials. These schools tutored and tailored students to gain
placements in East India Company. There was even a plea to the government by some Englishmen
to install English Medium Institutions to inculcate European knowledge to usher in "light and
happiness" to the "crude" and "barbaric" civilization of the Indians. Hence, one is tempted to pose
a question here. What kind of a milieu and mood went into the making of English Language pos-
sible in India, a language which was comparatively new to Indian Cultural ethos?
At the outset, the East India Company was only interested in strengthening its objectives and mot-
toes. It did not want to meddle with the Socio-economic and religious aspects of India. In fact, it
necessitated Indians to pursue Oriental studies. In spite of such an attitude, people like Sir William
Jones, Sir Edward Hyde East, Jonathan Duncan, Warren Hastings, David Hare and Raja Ram Mohan
Roy, to mention a few, established Centres of learning such as the Calcutta Madrassa(1780), The
Royal Asiatic Society (1784), The Benares Sanskrit College (1791) and The Calcutta School which
later became the Hindu College (1917), a prestigious institute in the early decades of Nineteenth
century which produced well known writers in Indian Writing in English. Another important insti-
tution is the Fort William College, established by Lord Wellesly, to impart English Education and to
prepare English textbooks.
In spite of all these, the East India Company did not evince much interest in the sphere of Educa-
tion. The growth of English Education unofficially did come to the notice of the government and
subsequently the parliament in 1813 directed the East India Company to involve itself in Public
Instruction. One lakh Rupees was sanctioned to promote literature, to encourage educated and
learned Indians and for introducing and promoting science subjects.
Since the company was preoccupied with military expansion, it took almost a decade for it to
involve in Public Education. A Committee of Public Instruction was set up to scrutinize and review
the methods of Public Institutions and to develop a strategy for improving instruction. But the
company opted for a revamping in archaic educational techniques. It founded a Sanskrit college at
Calcutta and two oriental Studies colleges at Delhi and Agra. On the recommendations of the com-
mittee, English was introduced as an additional subject. European Arts and Sciences were taught in
Sanskrit and Arabic translations. The Committee realized that the people were more interested in
English Studies rather than Oriental Studies. The success of English Education experimented in
Hindu College founded by Sir Hyde East stood as a testimony for the increasing interests in English
Studies.
Due to the tremendous success of English Education and the failure of the methods of the commit-
tee of public instruction, serious differences among "Orientalists" and the "Angliscists" erupted.
The tentative approach that the company and the Committee had vis-à-vis English Education and
the Parliament's attitude such as this (in the words of a Member of Parliament), "We have lost our
colonies in America by importing education there and we dare not do so in India too" were the key
issues that led to the controversy. The Indian evincing interest in learning English Language and the
indifference of the Colonizer is succinctly summed up by Mr. Howell in his book Education in
British India. According to Mr. Howell, "it is one of the most unintelligible facts in the history of
English Education in India that at the very time when the natives were themselves crying out for
instruction in European Literature and science and were protesting against a continuance of the
prevailing Orientation- a body of English gentlemen appointed to initiate Sic system of education
for the country was found to insist upon the retention of Oriental learning to the practical exclusion
of European Learning."
Thus, between 1823 and 1825, English Education in India was dangling in mid air. The future of the
people of India-to have access to knowledge, light and happiness or to live in darkness and the
static in traditions depended on the availability of English education in India until Lord Macaulay
recommended introduction of English Studies in India. Earlier to Macaulay's recommendation,
Raja Ram Mohan Roy was the man who ushered in modernity to India through his letter to Lord
Amherst, a Cardinal document vis-à-vis the History and flowering of English Language and Litera-
ture in India.
4.2 The Man-Raja Ram Mohan Roy
Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1774-1833) is a vital figure in the history of Indian Renaissance. Com-
monly referred to as the Father of Modern India, Ram Mohan Roy remains till today, a noteworthy
religious, social and educational reformer of India. He was the prophet of a new age with a meticu-
lous vision of the future of India. He was conversant with oriental and occidental languages. He
was the first writer of Bengali to employ the polemical style. The translation of the Bhagavad Gita
into Bengali verse done by him is quite well known. He has also composed some devotional songs.
His Bengali Grammar is a period piece. He is the founder of the Brahmo Samaj, an organization for
social cause. He was very well versed in Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic. He learnt English out of his
own interest and this honed his sensibility and helped him immensely to cogitate about religious,
social and educational ideas. His scholarship in both Oriental and Western Literature and Philoso-
phy gave him an edge over others to size up two cultures. His knowledge of modern Scientific
Education helped him to have a critical inquiry into the obsolete traditions and values of India. He
translated Hindu Scriptures into English to have a perspicuous comprehension and perspective. In
his own words: "to convince my countrymen of the true meaning of our sacred books" and rouse
them from "their dream of error." His intellectual dynamism is very much evident in his writing, be
it Religious aspects or Social problems such as Sati. He employed rhetorical prose. His style of
writing was akin to that of rational thinkers like James Stuart Mill. Observe dear student, the com-
ments of Jeremy Bentham: "But for the name of a Hindoo, I should certainly have ascribed to the
pen of a superiorly educated Englishman." Raja Ram Mohan Roy's acumen coupled with the creed
of ratiocination enabled Hindu College, at that time, to establish itself as a centre for English Lan-
guage learning and teaching. Popular figures of Indian Writing in English such as Michael
Madhusudan Dutt and Khasi Prasad Ghose were products of this college. Henry Derozio was on
the teaching faculty of the college at the age of eighteen. The popularity of the college provided the
necessary impetus for the mushrooming of English learning and teaching at such places like Patna,
Benares and Dacca. Ram Mohan Roy also wrote on issues like Freedom of Press, Christianity,
Revenue and Judicial System in India with poise and finesse.
4.3 The Letter (Text)
MODERN ENGLISH PROSE: A SELECTION

Two letters
Raja Ram Mohan Roy
Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1772-1833) is usually referred to as the Father of modern India. He is one of
India's greatest religious, social and educational reformers and the prophet of a new age. He was
also the first writer of Bengali to use the polemical Style. He translated the Bhagavad-Gita in to
Bengali verse and composed some devotional songs. He knew several oriental and occidental lan-
guages. His Bengali Grammar, the best available in his time, remains in some aspects unsurpassed
even today.
Realizing that a radical reform of the existing educational system was necessary to modernize
Indian society, in his letter (reproduced below) to the Governor- General Lord Amherst, he argued
in favor of initiating a new type of education on modern lines including the sciences and arts as in
the progressive countries of western Europe, rather than establishing a Sanskrit school of the tradi-
tional type. The second letter, addressed to Lord Minto, brings out another aspect of British rule -
The racial arrogance of the colonial regime.
(1)Letter to His Excellency the Right honorable William Pitt, Lord Amherst
My Lord,
Humbly reluctant as the natives of India are to obtrude upon the notice of Government the senti-
ments they entertain on any public measure, there are circumstances when silence would be carry-
ing respectful feeling to culpable excess. The present rulers of India, coming from a distance of
many thousand miles to govern a people whose language, literature, manners, customs, and ideas
are almost entirely new and strange to them, cannot easily become so intimately acquainted with
their real circumstances, as the natives of the country are themselves. We would, therefore, be
guilty of a gross dereliction of duty to ourselves, and afford our Rulers just ground of complaint at
our apathy, did we omit on occasions of importance like present to supply them with such accurate
information as might enable them to devise and adopt measures calculated to be beneficial to the
country, and thus second by our local knowledge and experience they're declared benevolent inten-
tions for its improvement.
The establishment of a new Sanskrit school in Calcutta evinces the laudable desire of Government
to improve the Natives of India by Education, a blessing for which they must ever be grateful: and
every well wisher of the human race must be desirous that the efforts made to promote it should be
guided by the most enlightened principles. So that the stream of intelligence may flow in to most
useful channels.
When this Seminary of learning was proposed we understood that the Government in England had
ordered a considerable sum of money to be annually devoted to the instruction of its Indian Sub-
jects. We were filled with sanguine hopes that this sum would be laid out in employing European
Gentlemen of talents and education to instruct the natives of India in Mathematics, Natural Phi-
losophy, Chemistry, Anatomy and other useful Sciences, which the Nations of Europe have carried
to a degree of perfection that has raised them above the inhabitants of other parts of the world.
While we looked forward with pleasing hope to the dawn of knowledge thus promised to the rising
generation, our hearts were filled with mingled feelings of delight and gratitude; we already offered
up thanks to Providence for inspiring the most generous and enlightened of the Nations of the West
with the glorious ambitions of planting in Asia the Arts and Sciences of modern Europe.
We now find that the Government is establishing a Sanskrit school under Hindu Pundits to impart
such knowledge as is already current in India. This Seminary (similar in character to those which
existed in Europe before the time of Lord Bacon) can only be expected to load the minds of youth
with grammatical niceties and metaphysical distinctions of little or no practicable use to the pos-
sessors or to society. The pupils will there acquire what was known two thousand years ago, with
the addition of vain and empty subtleties since produced by speculative men, such as is already
commonly taught in all of India.
The Sanskrit language, so difficult that almost a lifetime is necessary for its perfect acquisition, is
well known to have been for ages a lamentable check on the diffusion of knowledge; and the
learning concealed under this almost impervious veil is far from sufficient to reward the labor of
acquiring it. But if it were thought necessary to perpetuate this language for the sake of the portion
of the valuable information it contains, this might be much more easily accomplished by other
means than the establishment of a new Sanskrit College; for there have been always and are now
numerous professors of Sanskrit in the different parts of the country engaged in teaching this lan-
guage as well as the other branches of literature, which are to be the object of the new seminary.
Therefore their more diligent cultivation, if desirable, would be effectually promoted by holding
out premiums and granting certain allowances to those most eminent Professors, who have already
undertaken on their own account to teach them and would by such rewards be stimulated to still
greater exertions.
From these considerations, as the sum set apart for the instruction of the Natives of India was
intended by the Government in England, for the improvement of its Indian subjects. I beg leave to
state, with due deference to your Lordship's exalted situation. That if the plan now adopted be
followed. It will completely defeat the object proposed: since no improvement can be expected
from inducing young men to consume niceties of the Byakurun or Sanskrit Grammar. For instance,
in learning to discuss such points as the following: Khad signifying to eat, Khadut, he or she or it
eats. Query, whether does the word Khaduti taken as a whole convey the meaning he, she or it eats,
or are separate parts of this meaning conveyed by distinct portions of the word? As if in the English
language it were asked how much meaning is there in the 'eat', how much in the 's'? And in the
whole meaning of the word conveyed by those two portions of it distinctly, or by them taken jointly?
Neither can such improvement arise from such speculations as the following, which are the themes
suggested by the Vedant; In what manner is the soul absorbed into the deity? What relation does it
bear to the divine essence? Nor will youths be fitted to be better members of society by the Vedantic
doctrines which teach them to believe that all visible things have no real existence; that as father,
brother, etc, have no actual entirety, they consequently deserve no real affection and therefore the
sooner we escape from them and leave the world the better. Again no essential benefit can be
derived by the student of the Meemamsa from knowing what it is that makes the killer of a goat
sinless on pronouncing certain passages of the Veda and what is the real nature and operative
influence of passages of Veda, etc.
Again the student of Nyaya Shastra cannot be said to have improved his mind after he has learned
it into how many ideal classes the objects in the Universe are divided, and what speculative relation
the soul bears to the body, the body to the soul, the eye to the ear, etc.
In order to enable your Lordship to appreciate the futility of encouraging such imaginary learning as
above characterized, I beg your Lordship will be pleased to compare the state of science and litera-
ture in Europe before the time of Lord Bacon with the progress of knowledge made since he wrote.
If it had been intended to keep the British nation in ignorance of real knowledge, the Baconian
philosophy would not have been allowed to displace the system of the schoolmen, which was the
best calculated to perpetuate ignorance. In the same manner the Sanskrit system of education would
be best calculated to keep this country in darkness if such had been the policy of the British Legis-
lature. But as the improvement of the native population is the object of the Government, it will
consequently promote a more liberal and enlightened system of instruction, embracing mathemat-
ics, natural philosophy, chemistry and anatomy with other useful science which may be accom-
plished with the sum proposed by employing a few gentlemen of talents and learning educated in
Europe, and providing a college furnished with the necessary books, instruments and other appara-
tus.
In representing this subject to your Lordship I conceive myself discharging a solemn duty which I
owe to my countrymen and also to that enlightened Sovereign and Legislature which have extended
their benevolent cares to this distant land actuated by a desire to improve its inhabitants and I
therefore humbly trust you will excuse the liberty I have taken in thus expressing my sentiments to
your Lordship.
11th December 1823 I have, etc.
Ram Mohan Roy
4.4 Textual Analysis
Raja Ram Mohan Roy's Letter to the Right Hon'ble William Pitt, Lord Amherst, Governor General,
written on 11th December,1823, is a momentous historical document which shaped the destiny and
future of a whole people of India. Ram Mohan Roy begins the letter with a note of caution:
"The present Rulers of India, coming from a distance of many thousand miles to govern a people
whose language, literature, manners, customs, and ideas are almost entirely new and strange to
them, cannot easily become so intimately acquainted with their real circumstances, as the natives of
the country are themselves. We would, therefore, be guilty of a gross dereliction of duty to our-
selves, and afford our Rulers just ground of complaint at our apathy, did we omit on occasions of
importance like the present to supply them with such accurate information as might enable them to
devise and adopt measures calculated to be beneficial to the country, and thus second by our local
knowledge and experience their declared benevolent intentions for its improvement."
Ram Mohan Roy's insight and assessment of the British Government's decision to spend a "consid-
erable sum of money" to establish a Sanskrit School and to employ Hindoo Pundits to impart such
knowledge as is already current in India comes out quite vividly in:
"This Seminary (similar in character to those which existed in Europe before the time of Lord
Bacon) can only be expected to load the minds of the youth with grammatical niceties and meta-
physical distinctions of little or no practicable use to the possessors or to society. The pupils will
there acquire what was known two thousand years ago, with the addition of vain and empty subtle-
ties since produced by speculative men, such as is already commonly taught in all parts of the
world."
Ram Mohan Roy, in his letter, analyses how "almost a lifetime" is required to the learning of San-
skrit language. He also opines that the natives would not be benefited by the Sanskrit language
since it lacked "diffusion of knowledge" and no pragmatic benefits could be derived by such meta-
physical speculations and abstract ideas put forth by the Vedanta, Meemamsa and Nyaya Shastra.
Ram Mohan Roy's ability to arrive to the crux of the matter is evident in:
"No improvement can be expected from inducing young men to consume a dozen of years of the
most valuable period of their lives in acquiring the niceties of the Byakurun or Sangscrit Grammar.
For instance, in learning to discuss such points as the following: Khad signifying to eat, Khaduti, he
or she or it eats. Query, whether does the word Khaduti taken as a whole, convey the meaning he,
she, or it eats, or are separate parts of this, it were asked, how much meaning is there in the 'eat',
how much in the 's' (sic)? And is the whole meaning of the word conveyed by those two portions of
it distinctly, or by them taken jointly?"
STOP AND THINK
Is Raja Ram Mohan Roy's assessment of the use of Sanskrit Education apt keeping the Indian
situation prevalent then?
He substantiates his point further by opining that such learning was futile and debilitating and
would provide the younger generation with loads of "grammatical niceties and metaphysical dis-
tinctions of little or no practical use to the possessors or to society." He also suggests that such
obsolete practices if followed "would completely defeat the object proposed" i.e., the improvement
of its Indian subject. To add strength to his argument, Ram Mohan Roy highlights the futility of
such an outdated learning and requests the lordship "to compare the state of science and literature in
Europe before the time of Lord Bacon, with the progress of knowledge made since he wrote."
Taking cognition of the fact that a revamping of the existing educational system was the need of the
hour in modernizing Indian society, through an apt example of how Baconian Philosophy elevated
the British Literature and Culture, Ram Mohan Roy feels that learning of Metaphysical speculative
Philosophy would usher the natives in to ignorance. He observes:
"Baconian Philosophy was allowed to displace the system of the schoolmen, which was the best
calculated to perpetuate ignorance."
Ram Mohan Roy feels that "the Sanskrit system of education would be best calculated to keep this
country in darkness if such had been the policy of the British Legislature."
Hence Ram Mohan Roy pleads for an open-minded and liberal outlook by the British Government
vis-à-vis English Education to Indians. His approach appears whole hearted and pragmatic keeping
the entire nation's progress and the younger generations in mind. He observes:
"But as the improvement of the native population is the object of the Government, it will conse-
quently promote a more liberal and enlightened system of instruction, embracing mathematics,
natural philosophy, chemistry and anatomy with other useful sciences which may be accomplished
with the sum proposed by employing a few gentlemen of talents and learning educated in Europe,
and providing a college furnished with the necessary books, instruments and other apparatus."
Through simple forthright use of lucid prose, Ram Mohan Roy drives home the point succinctly.
His patriotism, shouldering of responsibility for the future of the nation, responding to the situation
with a clear vision, emanate quite touchingly in:
"In representing this subject to your Lordship, I conceive myself discharging a solemn duty which
I owe to my countrymen and also to that enlightened Sovereign and Legislature which have ex-
tended their benevolent cares to this distant land actuated by a desire to improve its inhabitants and
I therefore humbly trust you will excuse the liberty I have taken in thus expressing my sentiments to
your Lordship."
What aspect of Raja Ram Mohan Roy's personality do you glean from such an argument?
The effect of Ram Mohan Roy's letter to Lord Amherst was such that the public and the aspiring
youth of India pleaded for the functioning of more English Schools. A strong resistance surfaced
due to the committee's retrograde step vis-à-vis English Education in India.
In sum Ram Mohan Roy's letter to Lord Amherst is an admirable prose which is lucid, brief and
highlights the crux of the problem. The whole argument in the letter is loaded with pragmatism, and
his point of view is convincing. The letter exhibits brevity, convincing comprehension, admirable
ratiocination and explicates the problem of the natives through apt logistics. The use of English by
Ram Mohan Roy, one might interject here dear student, ushered in a new genre of Indian writing.
4.5 Questions For Self Study

1. Attempt a critical estimate of Raja Ram Mohan Roy's Letter to Lord Amherst.
2. Does Raja Ram Mohan Roy's letter serve as a germinal introduction to the flowering of
Indian Writing in English? Discuss.
3. Critically examine Raja Ram Mohan Roy as a writer of English Prose.
4.6 References
1. Iyengar Srinivas K.R. Indian Writing in English,Vantage Press, NewYork.1973.
2. Narasimhaiah C.D., The Swan and the Eagle.Essays on Indian English Literature. Motilal
Banarasidas Publishers, New Delhi,1987.
3. M.K. Naik et all (Ed), Critical Essays on Indian Writing in English. Review by: saros
Cowarjee, Journal: Indian Literature Vol.12,No.1 (March 1969) PP94-96. Sahitya
Academi, NewDelhi,1969.
4. Verghese Paul C. The Problems of Indian Creative Writers in English. Somaiya Publica-
tions. NewDelhi,1971.
5. Alphonso Karkala.J.B. Indo-Englsih Literature in the 19th Century. University of Mysore
Press: 1st Edition,1970.
6. Meenakshi Mukherjee, "The Anxiety of Indianess". The Perishable Empire: Essays on
Indian Writings in English, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2000.
8. Devy G.N, After Amnesia. Tradition and change in Indian Literary criticism. Orient
Longman,Hyderabad,1992..
9. Viswanathan Gauri. Masks of Conquest: Literary study and British Rule in India, Colum-
bia University Press, Columbia (USA), 2014.
10. Rajan Sunder Rajeshwari , The Lie of The Land. English Literary Studies in India, Oxford
University Press, London,1992.
Dr. Vijay Sheshadri

M.A. English
Block - II
UNIT - 4A
THE HON'BLE THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY'S MINUTE
Structure:
4A.0 Objectives
4A.1 Introduction
4A.2 The Hon'ble T. B. Macualy's Minute (Text)
4A.3 Textual Analysis
4A.4 Questions For Self-Study
4A.5 References
4A.0 Objectives
After going through this Unit, dear student, you should be in a position to:
understand and describe the salient features of Lord Macaulay's Minute on English Education
in India.
evaluate Lord Macaulay as a writer of English Prose.
state the importance of Macaulay's Minute vis-à-vis English Education in India.
4A.1 Introduction
To understand the importance of Lord Macaulay's Minute on English Education in India, dear stu-
dent, one must have knowledge of the circumstances that paved way for the English education in
India.
4A.2 The Hon'ble T.B. Macaulay's Minute (Text)
As it seems to be the opinion of some of the gentlemen who compose the Committee of Public
instruction that the course which they have hitherto pursued was strictly prescribed by the British
Parliament in 1813 and as, if that opinion be correct, a legislative act will be necessary to warrant a
change, I have thought it right to refrain from taking any part in the preparation of the adverse
statements which are now before us, and to reserve what I had to say on the subject till it should
come before me as a Member of Council of India.
It does not appear to me that the Act of Parliament can be by any art of construction be made to bear
the meaning which has been assigned to it. It contains nothing about the particular languages or
sciences which are to be studied. A sum is set apart "for the revival and promotion of literature, and
the encouragement of the learned natives of India, and for the introduction and promotion of a
knowledge of the sciences among the inhabitants of the British territories." It is argued, or rather
taken for granted, that by literature the Parliament can have meant only Arabic and Sanskrit litera-
ture; that they never would have given the honourable appellation of "a learned native" to a native
who was familiar with the poetry of Milton, the metaphysics of Locke, and the physics of Newton;
but that they meant to designate by that name only such persons as might have studied in the sacred
books of the Hindoos all the uses of Cusa-grass, and all the mysteries of absorption into the Deity.
This does not appear to be a very satisfactory interpretation. To take a parallel case, suppose that the
Pacha of Egypt, a country once superior in knowledge to the nations of Europe, but now sunk far
below them, were to appropriate a sum for the purpose "of reviving and promoting literature, and
encouraging learned natives of Egypt," would anybody infer that he meant the youth of his Pachalik
to give years to the study of hieroglyphics, to search into all the doctrines disguised under the fable
of Osiris, and to ascertain with all possible accuracy the ritual with which eats and onions were
anciently adored? Would he be justly charged with inconsistency if, instead of employing his young
subjects in deciphering obelisks, he were to order them to be instructed in the English and French
languages, and in all the sciences to which those languages are the chief keys?
The words on which the supporters of the old system rely do not them out, and other words follow
which seem to be quite decisive on the other side. This lakh of rupees is set apart not only for
"reviving literature in India," the phrase on which their whole interpretation is founded, but also
"for the introduction and promotion of a knowledge of the science among the inhabitants of the
British Territories"-words which are alone sufficient to authorize all the changes for which I con-
tend.
The admires of the Oriental system of education have used another argument which, if we admit it
to be valid, is decisive against all change. They conceive that the public faith is pledged to the
present system and that to alter the appropriation of any of the funds which have hitherto been spent
in encouraging the study of Arabian and Sanskrit would be downright spoliation. It is not easy to
understand by what process of reasoning they can have arrived at this conclusion. The grants which
are made from the public purse for the encouragement of literature differ in no respect from the
grants which are made from the same purse for other objects of real or supposed utility. We found a
sanitarium on a spot which we suppose to be healthy. Do we there by pledge ourselves to keep a
sanitarium there if the result should not answer our expectations? We commence the erection of a
pier. Is it a violation of the public faith to stop the works, if we after words see reason to believe that
the building will be useless?
We now come to the gist of the matter. We have a fund to be employed as Government shall
direct for the intellectual improvement of the people of this country. The simple question is, what is
the most useful way of employing it?
All parties seem to be agreed on one point, that the dialects commonly spoken among the
natives of this part of India contain neither literary nor scientific information, and are moreover so
poor and rude that, until, they are enriched from some other quarter, it will not be easy to translate
any valuable work into them. It seems to be admitted on all sides, that the intellectual improvement
of those classes of the people who have the means of pursuing higher studies can at present be
effected only by means of some language not vernacular amongst them.
What then shall that language be? One half of the Committee maintain that it should be the
English. The other half strongly recommend the Arabic and Sanskrit. The whole question seems to
me to be which language is the best worth knowing?
I have no knowledge of their Sanskrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a
correct estimate of their value. I have read translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanskrit
works. I have conversed, both here and at home, with men distinguished by their proficiency in the
Eastern tongues. I am quite ready to take the Oriental learning at the valuation of the orientalists
themselves. I have never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good
European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. The intrinsic superior-
ity of the Western literature is indeed fully admitted by those members of the committee who sup-
port the Oriental plan of education.
It will hardly be disputed, I suppose, that the department of literature in which the Eastern
writers stand highest is poetry. And I certainly never met with any orientalist who ventured to
maintain that the Arabic and Sanskrit poetry could be compared to that of the great European
nations. But when we pass from works of imagination to works in which facts are recorded and
general principles investigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely immeasur-
able. It is, I believe, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been col-
lected from all the books written in the Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found
in the most paltry abridgments used at preparatory schools in England. In every branch of physical
or moral philosophy, the relative position of the two nations is nearly the same.
How then stands the case? We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated
by means of their mother-tongue. We must teach them some foreign language. The claims of our
own language it is hardly necessary to recapitulate. It stands pre-eminent even among the languages
of the West. It abounds with works of imagination not inferior to the noblest which Greece has
bequeathed to us, with models of every species of eloquence with historical compositions which
are considered merely as narratives, have seldom been surpassed, and which, considered as ve-
hicles of ethical and political instruction, have never been equaled, with just and lively representa-
tions of human life and human nature, with the most profound speculations on metaphysics, mor-
als, government, jurisprudence, trade, with full and correct information respecting every experi-
mental science which tends to preserve the health, to increase the comfort, or to expand the intellect
of man. Whoever knows that language has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth which all
the wisest nations of the earth have created and hoarded in the course of ninety generations. It may
safely be said that the literature now extant in that language is of greater value than all the literature
which three hundred years ago was extant in all the languages of the world together. Nor is this all.
In India, English is the language spoken by the ruling class. It is spoken by the higher class of
natives at the seats of Government. It is likely to become the language of commerce throughout the
seas of the East. It is the language of two great European communities which are rising, the one in
the south of Africa, the other in Australasia, communities which are every year becoming more
important and more closely connected with our Indian empire. Whether we look at the intrinsic
value of our literature, or at the particular situation of this country, we shall see the strongest reason
to think that, of all foreign tongues, the English tongue is that which would be the most useful to our
native subjects.
`We are not without experience to guide us. History furnishes several analogous cases, and
they all teach the same lesson. There are, in modern times, to go no further, two memorable in-
stances of a great impulse given to the mind of a whole society, of prejudices over thrown, of
knowledge diffused, of taste purified, of arts and sciences planted in countries which had recently
been ignorant and barbarous.
The first instance to which I refer is the great revival of letter among the Western nations at
the close of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century. At that time almost everything
that was worth reading was contained in the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Had our
ancestors acted as the Committee of Public Instruction has hitherto acted, had they neglected the
language of Cicero and Tacitus, had they confined their attention to the old dialects of our own
island, had they printed nothing and taught nothing at the universities but chronicles in Anglo-
Saxon and romances in Norman French, would England ever have been what she now is? what the
Greek and Latin were to the contemporaries of More and Ascham, our tongue is to the people of
India. The literature of England is now more valuable than that of classical antiquity. I doubt whether
the Sanskrit literature be as valuable as that of our Saxon and Norman progenitors. In some depart-
ments - in history for example- I am certain that it is much less so.
Another instance may be said to be still before our eyes. Within the last hundred and twenty
years, a nation which had previously been a state as barbarous as that in which our ancestors were
before the Crusades, has gradually emerged from the ignorance in which it was sunk and has taken
its place among civilized communities. I speak of Russia. There is now in that country a large
educated class abounding with persons fit to serve the state in the highest functions, and in no wise
inferior to the most accomplished men who adorn the best circles of Paris and London. There is
reason to hope that this vast empire which, in the time of our grand-fathers, was probably behind
the Punjab, may in the time of our grand-children, be pressing close on France and Britain in the
career of improvement. And how was this change effected? Not by feeding the mind of the young
Muscovite with the old women's stories which his rude fathers had believed; not by filling his head
with lying legends about St. Nicholas; not by encouraging him to study the great question, whether
the world was or was not created on the 13th of September; not by calling him "a learned native"
when he had mastered all these points of knowledge, but by teaching him those foreign languages
in which the greatest mass of information had been laid up, and thus putting all that information
within his reach. The languages of Western Europe civilized Russia. I cannot doubt that they will do
for the Hindoo what they have done for the Tartar.
It is taken for granted by the advocates of Oriental learning that no native of this country can
possibly attain more than a mere smattering of English. They do not attempt to prove this. But they
perpetually insinuate it. They designate the education which their opponents recommended as a
mere spelling-book education. They assume it as undeniable that the question is between a pro-
found knowledge of Hindoo and Arabian literature and science on the one side, and superficial
knowledge of the rudiments of English on the other. This is not merely an assumption, countrary to
all reason and experience. We know that foreigners of all reason and experience. We know that
foreigners of all nations do learn our languages sufficiently to have access to all the most abstruse
knowledge which it contains, sufficiently to relish even the more delicate graces of our idiomatic
writers. There are in this very town natives who are quite competent to discuss political or scientific
questions with fluency and precision in the English language. I have heard the very question on
which I am now writing discussed by native gentlemen with a liberality and an intelligence which
would do credit to any member of the Committee of Public Instruction. Indeed it is unusual to find
even in the literary circles of the Continent, any foreigner who can express himself in English with
so much facility and correctness as we find in many Hindoos. Nobody, I suppose, will contend that
English is so difficult to a Hindoo as Greek to an Englishman. Yet an intelligent English youth, in a
much smaller number of years than our unfortunate pupils pass at the Sanskrit College, becomes
able to read, to enjoy and even to imitate not unhappily the compositions of the best Greek authors.
Less than half the time which enables an English youth to read Herodotus and Sophocles ought to
enable a Hindoo to read Hume and Milton.
To sum up what I have said, I think it clear that we are not fettered by the Act of Parliament
of 1813, that we are not fettered by any pledge expressed or implied, that we are free to employ our
finds as we choose, that we ought to employ them in teaching what is best world knowing, that
English is better worth knowing than Sanskrit or Arabic, that the natives are desirous to be taught
English, and are not desirous to be taught Sanskrit or Arabic, that the neither as the languages of law
nor as the languages of religion have the Sanskrit and Arabic any peculiar claim to our encourage-
ment, that it is possible to make natives of country thoroughly good English scholars, and that to
this end our efforts ought to be directed.
In one point I fully agree with the gentlemen to whose general views I am opposed. I feel
with them that it is impossible for us, with our limited means, to attempt to educate the body of the
people. We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the
millions whom we govern, a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in
opinions, in morals and in intellect. To that class we leave it to refine the vernacular dialects of the
country, to enrich those dialects with terms of science borrowed from the Western nomenclature,
and t render them by degrees fit vehicles for conveying knowledge to the great mass of the popula-
tion.
I would strictly respect all existing interests. I would deal even generously with all individu-
als who have had fair reason to expect a pecuniary provision. But I would strike at the root of the
bad system which has hitherto been fostered by us. I would at once stop the printing of Arabic and
Sanskrit books. I would abolish the Mudrassa and the Sanskrit college at Calcutta. Benares is the
great seat of Brahminical learning; Delhi of Arabic learning. If we retain the Sanskrit college at
Benares and Mahommedan College at Delhi we do enough and much more than enough, in my
opinion, for the Eastern languages. If the Benares and Delhi Colleges should be retained, I would at
least recommended that no stipends shall be given to any students who may hereafter repair thither,
but that the people shall be left to make their own choice between the rival system of education
without being bribed by us to learn what they have no desire to know. The funds which would thus
be placed at our disposal would enable us to give larger encouragement to the Hindoo College at
Calcutta, and establish in the principal cities thought out the Presidencies of Fort William and Agra
schools in which the English language might be well and thoroughly taught.
4A.3 Textual Analysis Of The Minute
Thomas Babbinton Macaulay begins the Minute by putting forth the pros and cons of the
opinions of the gentleman belonging to the Committee of Public Instruction. He makes his position
clear and one gets to know of Macaulay's attitude immediately in:
"…I have thought it right to refrain from taking any part in the preparation of the adverse
statements which are now before us, and to reserve what I had to say on the subject till it should
come before me as a Member of Council of India."
Expressing his skepticism regarding the Act of Parliament, which according to him does not
make its meaning clear, Macaulay observes:
"It does not appear to me that the Act of Parliament can by any art of construction be made to bear
the meaning which has been assigned to it. It contains nothing about the particular languages or
sciences which are to be studied."
The argument that follows, dear student, is marked by studied vagueness:
"It is argued, or rather taken for granted, that by literature the Parliament can have meant only
Arabic and Sanskrit literature; that they never would have given the honourable appellation of "a
learned native" to a native who was familiar with the poetry of Milton, the metaphysics of Locke,
and the physics of Newton; but that they meant to designate by that name only such persons as
might have studied in the sacred books of the Hindoos all the uses of Cusa-grass, and all the mys-
teries of absorption into the Deity. This does not appear to be a very satisfactory interpretation."
To demonstrate his viewpoint, Macaulay takes recourse to historical parallels:

"The Pacha of Egypt, a country once superior in knowledge to the nations of Europe, but now sunk
far below them were to appropriate a sum for the purpose "of reviving and promoting literature, and
encouraging learned natives of Egypt," would anybody infer that he meant the youth of his Pachalik
to give years to the study of hieroglyphics, to search into all the doctrines disguised under the fable
of Osiris, and to ascertain with all possible accuracy the ritual with which cats and onions were
anciently adored? Would he be justly charged with inconsistency if, instead of employing his young
subjects in deciphering obelisks, he were to order them to be instructed in the English and French
languages, and in all the sciences to which those languages are the chief keys?"
Stating his remarks with "balanced constructions" Macaulay then moves on to the issue of making
use of the One Lakh Rupees in a beneficial way:
"We have a fund to be employed as Government shall direct for the intellectual improvement of the
people of this country. The simple question is, what is the most useful way of employing it?"
It seems that Macaulay is suggesting here that one should go back on judgements if the issues
analysed appear useless. He does follow such a strategy and suggest that it is a useless exercise if
one tends to educate the natives in their own language of Arabic and Sanskrit. He feels that a
foreign language would be apt as a medium of instruction:
"It seems to be admitted on all sides, that the intellectual improvement of those classes of the
people who have the means of pursuing higher studies can at present be effected only by means of
some language not vernacular amongst them."
He does, it appears, to cogitate on the issue of language of instruction in:
"The whole question seems to me to be which language is the best worth knowing?" Macaulay's
analytical bent of mind is quite evident here."
After putting things in perspective and being forthright in his admission of being ignorant about
having knowledge of Sanskrit and Arabic, and of admitting of received knowledge of Sanskrit and
Arabic through translations in English, Macaulay, dear student, goes on to pass a comment which
exhibits racial arrogance. An argument that comes as a thunderbolt and surprise-an assessment
which appears as glib and brazen:
"I am quite ready to take the Oriental learning at the valuation of the Orientalists themselves. I have
never found one among them who could deny that a single shelf of a good European library was
worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia. The intrinsic superiority of the Western Lit-
erature is indeed fully admitted by those members of the committee who support the Oriental plan
of Education."
As if to add another "ace" up his sleeve, Macaulay adjudicates issues which exhibit sweeping
generalization vis-à-vis Oriental literature:
"It will hardly be disputed, I suppose, that the department of literature in which the Eastern Writers
stand highest is Poetry. And I certainly never met with any Orientalist who ventured to maintain
that the Arabic and Sanskrit Poetry could be compared to that of the great European Nations. But
when we pass from works of imagination to works in which facts are recorded and general prin-
ciples investigated, the superiority of the Europeans becomes absolutely immeasurable. It is, I be-
lieve, no exaggeration to say that all the historical information which has been collected from all
the books written in the Sanskrit language is less valuable than what may be found in the most
paltry abridgements used at preparatory schools in England. In every branch of physical or moral
philosophy, the relative position of the two nations is nearly the same."
Such poor reasoning and poorer analysis runs through the Minute, dear student, quite consistently.
At this juncture, he seems to be overstating the cause. Macaulay appears to be confused reminding
one of what happened in the caves of E.M. Forster's A Passage to India. This is witnessed in:
"How then stands the case? We have to educate a people who cannot at present be educated by
means of their mother-tongue. We must teach them some foreign language. The claims of our own
language it is hardly necessary to recapitulate. It stands pre-eminent even among the languages of
the West. It abounds with works of imagination not inferior to the noblest, which Greece has be-
queathed to us, with models of every species of eloquence with historical compositions which
considered merely as narratives, have seldom been surpassed, and which, considered as vehicles of
ethical and political instruction, have never been equaled, with a just and lively representations of
human life and human nature with the most profound speculations on metaphysics, morals, govern-
ment, jurisprudence, trade with full and correct information respecting every experimental science
which tends to preserve the health, to increase the comfort, or to expand the intellect of man.
Whoever knows that language has ready access to all the vast intellectual wealth, which all the
wisest nations of the earth have created and hoarded in the course of ninety generations."
The same strain of thought continues and he advocates that English Language is the ultimate lingo
that communicates to the world, emerging as Lingua Universitas. He observes:
S
"Whether we look at the intrinsic value of our literature, or at the particular situation of this country,
we shall see the strongest reason to think that of all foreign tongues, the English tongue is that
which would be the most useful to our native subjects."
Macaulay then goes on to cite two examples, which exhibits his classical approach. The Greco-
Roman influence is very much evident in:
"…almost everything that was worth reading was contained in the writings of the ancient Greeks
and Romans. Had our ancestors acted as the Committee of Public Instruction has hitherto acted,
had they neglected the language of Thucydides and Plato, and the language of Cicero and Tacitus,
had they confined their attention to the old dialects of our own island, had they printed nothing and
taught nothing at the universities but chronicles in Anglo-Saxon and romances in Norman French,
would England ever have been what she now is? What the Greek and Latin were to the contempo-
raries of More and Ascham, our tongue is to the people of India. The literature of England is now
more valuable than that of classical antiquity. I doubt whether the Sanskrit literature be as valuable
as that of our Saxon and Norman progenitors. In some departments-in history for example-I am
certain that it is much less so."
The second example is Russia. He observes:
"I speak of Russia. There is now in that country a large educated class abounding with persons fit to
serve the State in the highest functions, and in no wise inferior to the most accomplished men who
adorn the best circles of Paris and London. There is reason to hope that this vast empire which, in
the time of our grandfathers, was probably behind the Punjab, may in the time of our grandchildren,
be pressing close on France and Britain in the career of improvement. And how is this change
effected? Not by feeding the mind of the young Muscovite with the old women's stories which his
rude fathers had believed; not by filling his head with lying legends about St. Nicholas; not by
encouraging him to study the great question, whether the world was or was not created on the 13th
of September; not by calling him "a learned native" when he had mastered all these points of
knowledge, but by teaching him those foreign languages in which the greatest mass of information
had been laid up and thus putting all that information within his reach. The languages of Western
Europe civilized Russia. I cannot doubt that they will do for the Hindoo what they have done for the
Tartar…"
After citing examples to exhibit how language learning and acquisition could usher a people from
barbarity to civility, Macaulay, dear student, moves on to an important issue- that of whether an
Indian is capable of learning English. He begins the issue by quoting the opinion of Orientals:
"…it is taken for granted by the advocates of Oriental learning that no native of this country can
possibly attain more than a mere smattering of English. They do not attempt to prove this. But they
perpetually insinuate it."
Macaulay feels that the natives are quite equipped to comprehend English language and learn it
efficiently. He observes:
"Foreigners of all nations do learn our language sufficiently to have access to all the most abstruse
knowledge which it contains, sufficiently to relish even the more delicate graces of our most idiom-
atic writers. There are in this very town natives who are quite competent to discuss political or
scientific questions with fluency and precision in the English language."
He further substantiates his argument by stating things quite convincingly. He feels that it should
not be difficult for the Hindu to learn the English language. He comments:
"I have heard the very question on which I am now writing discussed by native gentlemen with a
liberality and an intelligence which would do credit to any member of the Committee of Public
Instruction. Indeed it is unusual to find even in the literary circles of the continent, any foreigner
who can express himself in English with so much facility and correctness as we find in many
Hindoos. Nobody, I suppose, will contend that English is so difficult to a Hindoo as Greek to an
Englishman. Yet an intelligent English Youth, in a much smaller number of years than our unfortu-
nate pupils pass at the Sanskrit College, becomes able to read, to enjoy and even to imitate not
unhappily the compositions of the best Greek authors. Less than half the time which enables an
English youth to read Herodotus and Sophocles ought to enable a Hindoo to read Hume and Milton."
It is quite evident here that Macaulay is making a clear distinction between learning and pseudo
learning. He feels that pseudo learning does not help in building a society and hence a nation.
Interspersed with such an assessment, an undercurrent of subtle language politics can be witnessed
in Macaulay's comments- that of English language's ability to lead a barbaric civilization from
ignorance to light. In fact, such a sneaking admiration of English language, dear student, if you are
attentive, can be witnessed in the Minute, from time to time. This passage stands as a testimony:
"…English is better worth knowing than Sanskrit or Arabic, that the natives are destined to be
taught English, and are not desirous to be taught Sanskrit or Arabic, that neither as the languages of
law nor as the languages of religion have the Sanskrit and Arabic any peculiar claim to our encour-
agement, that it is possible to make natives of this country thoroughly good English scholars, and
that to this end our efforts ought to be directed."
To substantiate his comments here is another passage which exhibits the colonizer's superiority:
"We must at present do our best to form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions
whom we govern, a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions,
in morals and in intellect."
It is quite clear here that Macaulay is imposing his ideas, a blatant evidence of Colonizer's arro-
gance.
Stop and Think
At one stage Macaulay feels that Indians can learn English. At another instance, he feels that Indi-
ans are incapable of being educated in English. Is Macaulay correct in his assessment?
The Minute comes to a close exhibiting Macaulay's pragmatism and "genuine" concern of educat-
ing the Indians in English:
"I would strictly respect all existing interests. I would deal even generously with all individuals
who have had fair reason to expect a pecuniary provision. But I would strike at the root of the bad
system which has hitherto been fostered by us. I would at once stop the printing of Arabic and
Sanskrit books. I would abolish the Mudrassa and the Sanskrit College at Calcutta. Benares is the
great seat of Brahminical learning; Delhi of Arabic learning. If we retain the Sanskrit College at
Benares and Mohammedan College at Delhi we do enough and much more than enough, in my
opinion, for the Eastern languages. If the Benares and Delhi Colleges should be retained, I would at
least recommend that no stipends shall be given to any students who may hereafter repair thither,
but that the people shall be left to make their own choice between the rival systems of education
without being bribed by us to learn what they have no desire to know. The funds which would thus
be placed at our disposal would enable us to give larger encouragement to the Hindoo College at
Calcutta, and establish in principal cities throughout the Presidencies of Fort William and Agra
schools in which the English language might be well and thoroughly taught."
In sum, Thomas Babbinton Macaulay's Minute reflects colonial and imperial assumptions quite
subtly. The Minute is a fine instance of classical rhetoric exhibiting Macaulay as a critic who ap-
peals to the logos and ethos. He emerges as a supporter of Utilitarian Doctrine. Swaying liberalism
and total lack of ratiocination, mark the Minute. It exhibits numerous instances of fallacious argu-
ments, faulty generalizations and faulty analogy. Macaulay' observations and comments in the Minute
appear as highly attitudinal and hence borders at times on bathos. Macaulay, it appears, dear stu-
dent, after going through the Minute is perhaps bogged down by the concept of "Universal." This
aspect perhaps ushers him to make sweeping generalizations thereby resulting in colossal compla-
cency where his arguments at times are under serious threat.
In spite of such blemishes, Macaulay's Minute no doubt, occupies an important position in the
annals of the history of English Education in India. Lord William Bentick accepted Macaulay's
recommendations without second thoughts. Although the British did give a severe jolt to the Indian
trade life, by introducing English Education, they have shocked Indians to a new sense of aware-
ness, urgency and vying for practicality. English Education has no doubt pushed the Indians to an
alacrity in thought and action, intellectual and critical impulse, paving way for the Indians to ex-
plore a new world vis-à-vis culture, Socio-political and economic aspects providing ample room to
extend the horizons of knowledge.
4A.4 Questions For Self-Study

1. Attempt a critical estimate of Macaulay's Minute
2. Discuss the importance of Macaulay's Minute vis-à-vis English Education in India.
3. Evaluate Macaulay as a writer of English Prose.
4A.5 References
1.Iyengar Srinivas K.R. Indian Writing in English,VBantage Press,NewYork.1973.
2.C.D. Narasimhaiah, The Swan and the Eagle.Essays on Indian English Literature. Motilal
Banarasida Publishers, New Delhi,1987.
3.M.K. Naik et al (Ed), Critical Essays on Indian Writing in English. Review by: saros Cowarjee,
Journal: Indian Literature Vol.12,No.1 (March 1969)PP94-96. Sahitya Academi, New
Delhi,1969.
4.Verghese Paul .C. The Problems of Indian Creative Writers in English. Somaiya Publications.
NewDelhi,1971.
5.Alphonso Karkala.J.B. Indo-Englsih Literature in the 19th Century. University of Mysore Press:
1st Edition,1970
6.Meenakshi Mukherjee, "The Anxiety of Indianess". The Perishable Empire: Essays on Indian
Writings in English, Oxford University Press, New Delhi,2000.
7.G.N.Devy. After Amnesia.Tradition and Change in Indian Literary Criticism. Orient Longman,
Hyderabad,1925.
8.Viswanathan Gauri. Masks of Conquest: Literary study and British Rule in India, Columbia
University Press, Columbia (USA),2014.
9. Rajan Sunder Rajeshwari.The Lie of The Land. English Literary Studies in India, Oxford
University Press, London,1992.
M.A. English
Indian Literature-I
Block - II
UNIT - 4B
SWAMI VIVEKANANDA'S
ADDRESS AT THE PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS
Structure:
4B.0 Objectives
4B.1 Introduction
4B.2 Textual Analysis
4B.3 Questions For Self Study
4B.4 Extra Reading Material
4B.5 References
4B.0 Objectives
After going through this Unit, dear student, you should be able to:
comprehend the viewpoints of Swami Vivekananda on the concept of Religion.
understand the importance of Swami Vivekananda's visit to America as a cultural ambassador of
India.
place the importance of Swami Vivekananda's lectures to the current situation in India.
4B.1 Introduction
To understand the importance of Swami Vivekananda's address at the Parliament of Religions,
Chicago, one must, dear student, know the background.
The Parliament of Religions was held as part of the World's Colombian Exposition to mark the four
hundredth anniversary of the discovery of America by Christopher Columbus. The objectives of the
Parliament of Religions was to highlight the approaches, beliefs, practices held and taught in com-
mon by diverse religions of the world to enable nations to come together to establish camaraderie
and harmony in the Universe. The sessions of the Parliament of Religions were held in the hall of
the Art Institute. Representatives of Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Jainism,
Judaism, Mohammedanism, Shintoism, Theism, Zoorastrianism took part in the deliberations.
The demise of Sri Ramakrishna Paramahamsa in August 1886 pushed Swami Vivekananda into
intense spiritual practices at places like Ramakrishna Monastery at Barangore, the plains of North
India the Himalayas. He retreated into the thick forests to meditate, but in vain, as the demise or
sickness of a devotee forced him to get back to civilization. He intensely felt that such disturbances
kept him from becoming a mediocre recluse. His Master Ramakrishna's words "do Mother's work
to teach Mankind" and "be like a Banyan tree, giving shelter to the tired, weary travelers" made him
feel that he was destined to carry on the divine mission of his Master Ramakrishna Paramahamsa.
This forced him to travel all over India-to chalk out his plans and actions.
His wanderings enabled him to come close to people, their cultures, practices, and miseries. He was
deeply touched by and disturbed to see the Indian masses being weighed down by ignorance and
poverty. He got upset with the educated class of Indians who aped the West. He noticed the spiritual
decadence in India, a country that watered and nourished Spiritualism. He felt an inner urge to save
India from being inundated by western influences. He envisioned a dynamic India bustling with
material and spiritual prosperity. He felt he was the chosen one to carry out such a task.
To begin with, Swami Vivekananda did not heed to the suggestions of learned men who thought
that Swami Vivekananda's observations on Hinduism would be appreciated by the west. After it
was announced that the Parliament of Religions would be held in Chicago, he felt that this was a
god sent opportunity to table his divine mission.
Swami Vivekananda's re-viewing of the socio-economic situation of India lock stock and barrel
sitting amidst the serene rocks of Kanyakumari provided him the necessary impetus to resurrect his
beloved country. He decided to impart India's spirituality as a fair exchange for the material pros-
perity of the West, in order to eradicate poverty in India. But he experienced certain doubts about it
in due course of time. Hence, he kept on praying Mother Sharada Devi and his Master Ramakrishna.
In a significant dream, he saw his Master walking into the ocean signaling him to follow. The
Mother also gave her consent and blessings through her constant replies to Vivekananda's letters.
He finally decided to attend the Parliament of Religions. With the money garnered by his disciples
and with the financial assistance of the Maharaja of Mysore, The Raja of Ramnad and the Raja of
Khetri, Swami Vivekananda set sail to America on 31st May 1893 from Mumbai.
Reaching America, Swami Vivekananda learnt to his chargrin that the Parliament of Religions was
scheduled only in September. He also realized that he needed a Bonafide Certificate from an orga-
nization to participate in the Chicago conference. Fortunately, he chanced upon a wealthy traveler
by name Miss. Katherine Abbot Sanborn, on a train, enroute to Boston. Through her, he got to know
Mr. J. H. Wright, a Professor of Greek at Harvard University, who helped Swami Vivekananda in
getting registered for the Parliament of Religions.
When Swami Vivekananda arrived at Chicago on 9th September, there was another shock awaiting
him. Unfortunately, he had misplaced the address of the committee. After spending chilly nights
and seeking alms, a Sanyasi in America, he chanced upon a Mrs. George. W. Hale who provided
him with shelter. All these adversities convinced Swami Vivekananda that God was with him. He
was all set to attend the Parliament of Religions.
4B.2 Textual Analysis
Swami Vivekananda's address at the world's Parliament of Religions comprises of a series of SIX
lectures delivered from 11th September 1893 to 27th September 1893. The lectures reveal
Vivekananda's personality vis-à-vis individuality, patriotism, oratorical abilities, and critical sensi-
bility to mention a few. Swami Vivekananda begins the lecture by straight away arriving at the crux
of the matter. His opening remarks clearly illustrate the veneration he has for the Indian tradition of
Sanyasis and their religious stature. Swami Vivekananda sees India as the cradle of all religions.
His all embracing salutation with its intimate address at once concretizes Vivekananda's belief in
universal brotherhood. He at once relates himself to everyone else. He was propagating more than
proximity. He was, in fact, instilling the spirit of oneness, which is what that resounding dhvani
"Om" is all about:
"Sisters and Brothers of America,
“It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome, which
you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank
you in the name of the mother of religions; and I thank you in the name of the millions and millions
of Hindu people of all classes and sects”
My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the
Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honour of bearing to
different lands the idea of toleration."
Swami Vivekananda's admiration and adulation and respect for his country of his patriotic quali-
ties, and the vision of the universal and the heritage of inclusiveness emerge quite vividly in his
assertions:
"I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the
grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember
to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human
beings: 'As the different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the
sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though
they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee'."
Swami Vivekananda acknowledges America's efforts in convening the world parliament of reli-
gions and goes on to highlight the problems created in the world due to the lack of understanding
the religion properly. Vivekananda reaches the height of universality through relating to his own
cultural specifics, his sage apprehension of the danger of fundamental thinking, his intolerance of
bigotry and fanaticism. He remarks:
"The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindi-
cation, a declaration to the world, of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: 'Whosoever
comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in
the end lead to Me'. Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long pos-
sessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with
human blood, destroyed civilization, and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these
horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come;
and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honour of this convention may be the
death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all unchari-
table feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal."
In his second lecture delivered on 15th September 1893, Swami Vivekananda draws an apt analogy,
that of the story of a frog in the well and connects it remarkably to the koopa mondooka trait of an
individual who instead of extending knowledge through religion shuns it. Vivekananda drives home
the point very succinctly in:
" 'Well, then,' said the frog of the well, 'nothing can be bigger than my well; there can be nothing
bigger than this; this fellow is a liar, so turn him out'."
That has been the difficulty all the while.
The need to grow into the knowledge of each other's religions is evident in the statement below:
I am a Hindu. I am sitting in my own little well and thinking that the whole world is my little well.
The Christian sits in his little well and thinks the whole world is his well., The Mohammedan sits in
his little well and thinks that is the whole world. I have to thank you America for the great attempt
you are making to break down the barriers of this little world of ours, and hope that, in the future,
the Lord will help you to accomplish your purpose.
The third lecture delivered on 19th September 1893 is a talk on Hinduism. This, in fact, is the core
of the series of lectures. Vivekananda analyses the positive as well as the negative in Hindu reli-
gion. In the process of dissecting Hindu Religion, all religions such as Christianity, Zoorastrianism,
Judaisim, come under severe scrutiny. He goes into the origins of Hindu Religion, viewing it as a
metaphor, a word and the relationship inherent in it:
"The Hindus have received their religion through revelation, the Vedas. They hold that the Vedas
are without beginning and without end. It may sound ludicrous to this audience, how a book can be
without beginning or end. But by the Vedas no books are meant. They mean the accumulated trea-
sury of spiritual laws discovered by different persons in different times. Just as the law of gravita-
tion existed before its discovery, and wood exist if all humanity forgot it, so is it with the laws that
govern the spiritual world. The moral, ethical, and spiritual relations between soul and soul and
between individual spirits and the Father of all spirits, were there before their discovery, and would
remain even if we forgot them.
The discoverers of these laws are called Rishis, and we honour them as perfected beings. I am glad
to tell this audience that some of the very greatest of them were women."
He then moves on to meditate upon issues that are of metaphysical in nature. His discourse on
identity as selfhood has the entire vedanthic tradition behind it. He expounds at length on the
immutable soul. He observes:
“Here I stand and if I shut my eyes, and try to conceive my existence, 'I,' I,' 'I', what is the idea before
me? The idea of a body. Am I, then, nothing but a combination of material substances? The Vedas
declare, 'No'. I am a spirit living in a body. I am not the body. The body will die, but I shall not die.
Here I am in this body; it will fall, but I shall go on living. I had also a past. The soul was not
created, for creation means a combination which means a certain future dissolution. If then the soul
was created, it must die. Some are born happy, enjoy perfect health, with beautiful body, mental
vigour, and all wants supplied. Others are born miserable, some are without hands or feet, others
again are idiots and only drag on a wretched existence. Why, if they are all created, why does a just
and merciful God create one happy and another unhappy, why is He so partial? Nor would it mend
matters in the least to hold that those who are miserable in this life will be happy in a future one.
Why should a man be miserable even here in the reign of a just and merciful God?”
Swami Vivekananda's approach to explain Hinduism reveals a sharp critical bent of mind that
interrogates meticulously. Vivekananda attempts to explain the meaning of existence in dualistic
terms. This is witnessed in:
"Here are two parallel lines of existence- one of the mind, the other of matter. If matter and its
transformations answer for all that we have, there is no necessity for supposing the existence of a
soul."
Taking all these for granted, how is it that I do not remember anything of my past life? This can be
easily explained. I am now speaking English. It is not my mother tongue, in fact no words of my
mother tongue are now present in my consciousness; but let me try to bring them up, and they rush
in. That shows that consciousness is only the surface of the mental ocean, and within its depths is
stored up all our experiences. Try and struggle, they would come up and you would be conscious
even of your past life."
Again, the souls immutable nature is explained by Swami Vivekananda thus:
"Well, then, the human soul is eternal, and immortal, perfect and infinite, and death means only a
change of centre from one body to another. The present is determined by our past actions and the
future by the present. The soul will go on evolving up or reverting back from birth to birth and death
to death."
Then comes a statement dear student, from the mouth of Swami Vivekananda that startles a dozing
human being into alacrity. It strikes a difference in attitude from Judaic thinking and dismisses the
notion of sin, and celebrates human life by comparing it to immortal souls:
"Allow me to call you, brethren, by that sweet name-heirs of immortal bliss-yea, the Hindu refuses
to call you sinners. Ye are the children of God, the sharers of immortal bliss, holy and perfect
beings. Ye divinities on earth-sinners! It is a sin to call a man so; it is a standing libel on human
nature. Come up, O lions, and shake off the delusion that you are sheep; you are souls immortal,
spirits free, blest and eternal; ye are not matter, ye are not bodies; matter is your servant not you the
servant of matter."
In order to substantiate his votary for Hinduism, Vivekananda takes recourse to Bhagavad Gita:
"Krishna, whom the Hindus believe to have been god incarnate on earth. He taught that a man
ought to live in this world like a lotus leaf, which grows in water but is never moistened by water;
so a man ought to live in the world-his heart to God and his hands to work."
This precisely is the Indian Virtue of Detachment i.e. Nimitha Matram Bhava Savyasachi (Be thou
the tool, Arjuna) as Krishna advises Arjuna in the battle field which critics like Matthew Arnold
have used as a key tool to understand and comprehend a work of art.
After speaking thus, Vivekananda moves on to the salient features of Hindu Religion. Look at his
observations dear student:
"The Hindu religion does not consist in struggles and attempts to believe a certain doctrine or
dogma, but in realizing-not in believing, but in being and becoming.
Thus, the whole object of their system is by constant struggle to become perfect, to become divine,
to reach God, and see God, and this reaching god, seeing God, becoming perfect even as the Father
in Heaven is perfect, constitutes the religion of the Hindus."
"The Hindus have associated the idea of holiness, purity, truth, omnipresence, and such other ideas
with different images and forms. But with this difference that while some people devote their whole
lives to their idol of a church and never rise higher, because with them, religion means an intellec-
tual assent to certain doctrines and doing good to their fellows, the whole religion of the Hindu is
centered in realization."
Swami Vivekananda is best in his deliberations on Science. His remarks on Science are such that it
prompts a "culture of appreciation" on a reader. Vivekananda's arguments remind one of Einstein's
essay on Science and Religion. The limitations of Science is very well put in:
"Science has proved to me that physical individuality is a delusion, that really my body is one little
continuously changing body in an unbroken ocean of matter; and Advaitha (unity) is the necessary
conclusion with my other counterpart, Soul.
“Science is nothing but the finding of unity. As soon as science would reach perfect unity, it would
stop from further progress, because it would reach the goal. Thus Chemistry could not progress
farther when it would discover one element out of which all others could be made. Physics would
stop when it would be able to fulfil its services in discovering one energy of which all the others are
but manifestations, and the science of religion become perfect when it would discover Him who is
the one life on a universe of death, Him who is the constant basis of an ever-changing world, One
who is the only Soul of which all souls are but delusive manifestations. Thus is it, through multi-
plicity and duality that the ultimate unity is reached. Religion can go no farther. This is the goal of
all science.”
All science is bound to come to this conclusion in the long run. Manifestation, and not creation, is
the word of science today, and the Hindu is only glad that what he has been cherishing in his bosom
for ages is going to be taught in more forcible language, and with further light from the latest
conclusions of science."
The Holdall quality of Hindu Religion and its single-minded devotion towards realization of truth
is witnessed in:
"To the Hindu, man is not travelling from error to truth, but from truth to truth, from lower to higher
truth. To him all the religions, from the lowest fetishism to the highest absolutism, mean so many
attempts of the human soul to grasp and realize the Infinite…"
Again,
"Every religion is only evolving a God out of the material man, and the same God is the inspirer of
all of them. Why, then, are there so many contradictions? They are only apparent, say the Hindu.
The contradictions come from the same truth adapting itself to the varying circumstances of differ-
ent natures."
After highlighting the positive aspects of Hindu Religion, Vivekananda focuses on the drawbacks
of Hinduism by drawing our attention to the issues through his country- India. He observes:
"Descend we now from the aspirations of philosophy to the religion of the ignorant. At the very
outset, I am to tell you that here is no polytheism in India. In every temple, if one stands by and
listens, one will find the worshippers applying all the attributes of God, including omnipresence, to
the images. It is not polytheism, nor would the name henotheism explain the situation. 'The rose,
called by any other name, would smell as sweet'. Names are not explanations."
He seems to suggest that worshipping God through an image or idol is not sin. He substantiates his
arguments quite succinctly using the Christian and Hindu approach to God. He observes:
"Superstition is a great enemy of man, but bigotry is worse. Why does a Christian go to church?
Why is the Cross holy? Why is the face turned toward the sky in prayer? Why are there so many
images in the Catholic Church? Why are there so many images in the minds of Protestants when
they pray? My brethren, we can no more think about anything without a mental image than we can
live without breathing. By the law of association the material image call you the mental idea and
vice versa. This is why the Hindu uses an external symbol when he worships. He will tell you, it
helps to keep his mind as well as you do that the image is not? God is not omnipresent. After all,
how much does omnipresence mean to almost the whole world? It stands merely as a word, a
symbol. Has God superficial area? If not, when we repeat that word 'omnipresent', we think of the
extended sky or of space, that is all."
He then compares Hinduism with Buddhism and Jainism, those Religions of conservation, which
surfaced to counter Hinduism. Quoting the words of Krishna (I am in every religion as the thread
through a string of pearls) and Vyasa (we find perfect men even beyond the pale of our caste and
creed) Vivekananda opines that Buddhism and Jainism are nothing but reflections of Hinduism. He
remarks:
"The Buddhists or the Jains do not depend upon God; but the whole force of their religion is di-
rected to the great central truth in every religion, to evolve a God out of man. They have not seen the
Father, but they have seen the Son. And he that hath seen the Son hath seen the Father also."
Swami Vivekananda sums up the vitality and strength of Hinduism, thus:
"This, brethren, is a short sketch of the religious ideas of the Hindus. The Hindu may have failed to
carry out all his plans, but if there is ever to a universal religion, it must be one which will have no
location in place or time; which will be infinite like the God it will preach, and whose sun will shine
upon the followers of Krishna and of Christ, on saints and sinners alike; which will not be Brahminic
or Buddhistic, Christian or Mohammedan, but the sum total of all these, and still have infinite space
for development; which in its catholicity will embrace in its infinite forms, and find a place for,
every human being, from the lowest groveling savage not far removed from the brute, to the highest
man towering by the virtues of his head and heart almost above humanity, making society stand in
awe of him and doubt his human nature. It will be a religion which will have no place for persecu-
tion or intolerance in its polity, which will recognize divinity in every man and woman, and whose
whole scope, whose whole force, will be centered in aiding humanity to realize its own true, divine
nature."
Observe, dear student, the manner in which Swami Vivekananda puts his view points across the
table:
"May He who is the Brahman of the Hindus the Ahura-Mazda of the Zoroastrians, the Buddha of
the Buddhists, the Jehovah of the Jews, the Father in Heaven of the Christians, give strength to you
to carry ut your noble idea! The star arose in the East; it traveled steadily towards the West, some-
times dimmed and sometimes effulgent, till it made a circuit of the world; and now it is again rising
on the very horizon of the East, the borders of the Sanpo, a thousandfold more effulgent than it ever
was before."
The Lecture comes to a close where Swami Vivekananda gives a clarion call to USA to usher in
harmony to the world:
"Hail Columbia, motherland of liberty! It has been given to thee, who never dipped her hand in her
neighbour's blood, who never found out that the shortest way of becoming rich was by robbing
one's neighbours, it has been given to thee to march at the vanguard of civilization with the flag of
harmony."
STOP AND THINK
What is the attitude of USA towards other countries today?
The Fourth lecture delivered on 20th September 1893 delineates the fact that Religion is not the
crying need of India but eradication of poverty. Swami Vivekananda begins the lecture quite cau-
tiously and seems to suggest that criticism should be accepted if one wants to improve, whether be
it an individual, Nation or followers of Religion. In a brief talk Swami Vivekananda drives home
the point succinctly. Observe dear student, the way issues are spelt out. The passage you will be
going through would explicate the man Swami Vivekananda:
"In India, during the terrible famines, thousands died from hunger, yet you Christians did nothing.
You erect churches all through India, but the crying evil in the East is not religion-they have religion
enough-but it is bread that the suffering millions of burning India cry out for with parched throats.
They ask us bread, but we give them stones. It is an insult to a starving people to offer them religion;
it is an insult to a starving man to teach him metaphysics. In India, a priest that preached for money
would lose caste and be spat upon by the people. I came here to seek aid for my impoverished
people, and I fully realized how difficult it was to get help for heathens from Christians in a Chris-
tian land."
The fifth lecture delivered on 26ht September 1893 deliberates on two vital religions of India-
Buddhism and Hinduism. Look at, dear student, the forthrightness of Vivekananda:
"I am not a Buddhist, as you have heard, and yet I am. If China, or Japan, or Ceylon follow the
teachings of the Great Master, India worships him as God incarnate on earth. You have just now
heard that I am going to criticize Buddhism, but by that I wish you to understand only this. Far be it
from me to criticize him who I worship as God incarnate on earth. But our views about Buddha are
that he was not understood properly by his disciples. The relation between Hinduism (by Hinduism,
I mean the religion of the Vedas) and what is called Buddhism at the present day is nearly the same
as between Judaism and Christianity. Jesus Christ was a Jew, and Shakya Muni was a Hindu. The
Jews rejected Jesus Christ, nay, crucified him, and the Hindus have accepted Shakya Muni as God
and worship him. But the real difference that we Hindus want to show between modern Buddhism
and what we should understand as the teachings of Lord Buddha lies principally in this; Shakya
Muni came to preach nothing new. He also, like Jesus, came to fulfil and not to destroy. Only, in the
case of Jesus, it was the old people, the Jews, who did not understand him, while in the case of
Buddha, it was his own followers who did not realize the import of his teachings. As the Jew did not
understand the fulfillment of the Old Testament, so the Buddhist did not understand the fulfillment
of the truths of the Hindu religion. Again, I repeat, Shakya Muni came not to destroy, but he was the
fulfillment, the logical conclusion, the logical development of the religion of the Hindus."
The passage dear student, if you observe carefully, exhibits Vivekananda's ability to compare and
contrast two religions. The uniqueness of this comparison lies in the fact that the comparison is not
made, as it is evident, to denigrate one religion over the other or to measure the superiority of one
over the other. The comparison clearly aims for a better understanding of Hinduism and Buddhism.
The perspicacious nature of the argument of the lecture brings out the perspicacity of the man.
Observe this passage dear student, which I am sure, comprehensively substantiates the observa-
tions we have made on Swami Vivekananda:
"The religion of the Hindus is divided into two parts; the ceremonial and the spiritual. The spiritual
portion is specially studied by the monks.
In that there is no caste. A man from the highest caste and a man from the lowest may become a
monk in India, and the two castes become equal. In religion there is no caste; caste is simply a social
institution. Shakya Muni himself was a monk, and it was his glory that he had the large-heartedness
to bring out the truths from the hidden Vedas and throw them broadcast all over the world. He was
the first being in the world who brought missionarizing into practice-nay, he was the first to con-
ceive the idea of proselytizing."
The drawbacks of Buddhism as well as Hinduism are very well brought out in:
"…the disciples of the Great Master dashed themselves against the eternal rocks of the Vedas and
could not crush them, and on the other side they took away from the nation that eternal God to
which everyone, man or woman, clings so fondly. And the result was that Buddhism had to die a
natural death in India. At the present day there is not one who calls oneself a Buddhist in India, the
land of its birth.
But at the same time, Brahminism lost something-that reforming zeal, that wonderful sympathy
and charity for everybody, that wonderful leaven which Buddhism had brought to the masses and
which had rendered Indian society so great that a Greek historian who wrote about India of that
time was led to say that no Hindu was known to tell an untruth and no Hindu woman was known to
unchaste."
The lecture comes to a close highlighting the interdependence of Hinduism and Buddhism. Any
separation of these two religions is not good for the betterment of the individual and society opines
Swami Vivekananda. He observes:
"Hinduism cannot live without Buddhism, nor Buddhism without Hinduism. Then realize what the
separation has shown to us, that the Buddhists cannot stand without the brain and philosophy of the
Brahmins, nor the Brahmin without the heart of the Buddhist. This separation between the Bud-
dhists and the Brahmins is the cause of the downfall of India. That is why India is populated by
three hundred millions of beggars, and that is why India has been the slave of conquerors for the last
thousand years. Let us then join the wonderful intellect of the Brahmin with the heart, the noble
soul, the wonderful humanizing power of the Great Master."
Swami Vivekananda seems to suggest that the lack of an admixture of Hinduism and Buddhism
was in a way responsible for the deterioration of value system in India. The lecture is an instance of
analytical criticism where Vivekananda approaches the issue of religion vis-à-vis Hinduism and
Buddhism like a doctor diagnosing a patient.
The Sixth and final lecture delivered on 27th September 1893 revolves round the thanksgiving of
Vivekananda for providing a platform for him to express his opinions. In the course of the address
at the final session, Vivekananda uses a telling analogy to explain and define what is religion. Look
at the manner in which dear student, Vivekananda tables his opinions:
"Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or
Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid.
The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed
become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant, it develops after the law of its own
growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows
into a plant.
Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu
or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet
preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth."
The address comes to a close with Swami Vivekananda suggesting that
"…upon the banner of every religion will soon be written, in spite of resistance: 'Help and not
Fight', 'Assimilation and not Destruction ', 'Harmony and Peace and not Dissension'."
In sum, Swami Vivekananda's address is a remarkable instance of lucid points of view through a
cogent prose. The address stresses on the idea of validity of all religions and their harmony. The
address appeals to humans to preserve his or her individuality and to imbibe good things and spirit
of other religions. It is a period piece.
4B.3 Questions For Self-Study
(a) Is Swami Vivekananda's address at the Parliament of Religions a Period Piece? Discuss
(b) Attempt a critical estimate of Swami Vivekananda's observations on Hinduism and Bud-
dhism.
4B.4 Extra Reading Material

Swami Vivekananda exercised a wonderful influence over his audience.
Dr. J. H. Barrows
Chairman of general commit-
tee of
The Parliament of religions,
Chicago.
…By far the most important and typical representative of Hinduism was swami Vivekananda, who
in fact was beyond question the most popular and influential Man in the parliament.
Mr. Merwin-Marie Snell
President of scientific section
othe parliament of religions,
Chicago
He is undoubtedly the greatest figure in the parliament of religions. After hearing Him, we feel how
foolish it is to send missionaries to this learned nation.
- The New York Her-
ald.
Vivekananda's address before the parliament was broad as the heaven above us, embracing the best
in all religions, as the ultimate universal religion - charity to all mankind and good works for the
love of god, not for fear of punishment or hope of reward. He is a great favorite of the parliament…
if he merely crosses the platform he is applauded… at the parliament of religions they used to keep
vivekenanda until the end of the programme to make people stay till the end of the session… the
four thousand fanning people in the hall of Columbus would sit smiling and expectant waiting for
an hour or two to listen to vivekananda for fifteen minutes. The Chairman knew the old rule of
keeping the best until the last.
-Boston Evening Tran-

script.
Of the swami's address before the parliament of religions, it may be said that when we began to
speak it was of 'the religious ideas of the Hindus', but when he ended, Hinduism had been created.
For it was no experience of his own that rose to the lips of the swami vivekananda there. did not
even take advantage of the occasion to tell the story of his master. Instead of either of these, it was
the religious consciousness of India that spoke through him, the message of his whole people, as
determined by their whole past….
Others stood beside the swami vivekananda, on the same platform as he, as apostles of particular
creeds and churches. But it was his glory that he came to preach a religion to which each of these
was, in his own words, "only a traveling, a coming up, of different men and women, through vari-
ous conditions and circumstances to the same goal".
- Sister Nivedita (Miss Margaret E. Noble)

in her introduction to
The Complete Works Of Swami
vivekananda.
Swami vivekananda's participation and his magisterial and at the same time sweet and reasonable
pronouncements at the international congress of religions at Chicago in 1893 form a very important
event in the intellectual history of modern man. There he proclaimed for the first time the necessity
of for a new and enlightened kind of religious understanding and toleration. Although the ordinary
run of people are not conscious of it, the message which was given out by Vivekananda to America
and the Western World at Chicago in 1893; and subsequently to people in America, England and
India, has been an effective force in the liberalization of the human spirit in its religious approach.
-Suniti Kumar Chatterjee

Swami Vivekananda Centenary Memorial Vol-
ume,
pp.228-33
On Monday, September 11, 1893, the first session of the Parliament was opened…but it was the
young man [Vivekananda] who represented nothing- and everything-the man belonging to no sect,
but rather to India as a whole, who drew the glance of the assembled thousands… his speech was
like a tongue of flame, it fired the souls of the listening throng…
Each of the other orators had spoken of his God, of the God of his sect. He-he alone-spoke of all
their Gods, and embraced them all in the Universal Being. It was the breath of Ramakrishna, break-
ing down the barriers through the mouth of his great disciple… During the ensuring days he spoke
again ten or twelve times. Each time he repeated with new arguments but with the same force of
conviction his thesis of a universal religion without limit of time of space, uniting the whole Credo
of human spirit from the enslaved fetishism of the savage to the most liberal creative affirmations
of modern science. He harmonised them into a magnificent synthesis which… helped all hopes to
grow and flourish according to their own proper nature. There was to be no other dogma but the
divinity inherent in man and his capacity of indefinite evolution…
The effect of these mighty words was immense. Over the heads of the official representatives of the
Parliament they were addressed to all and appealed to outside thought Vivekananda's fame at once
spread abroad, and India as a whole benefited…
-Romain Rolland
The Life of Swami Vivekananda,
pp.36-40.
The visit of Swami Vivekananda to America and the subsequent work of those who followed him
did more for India than a hundred London Congresses could effect. That is the true way of awaken-
ing sympathy-by showing ourselves to the nations as a people with a great past and an ancient
civilization who still possess something of the genius and character of our forefathers, have still
something to give to the world and therefore deserve freedom-by man- liness and fitness, not by
mendicancy.
The going forth of Swami Vivekananda marked out by the Master as the heroic soul destined to take
the world between his two hands and change it, was the first visible sign to the world that India was
awake not only to survive but to conquer. Once the soul of the nation was awake in religion, it was
only a matter of time and opportunity for it to throw on all spiritual and intellectual activities in
national existence and take possession of them.
-Sri Aurobindo
in Sri Aurobindo (Sri Aurobindo
Birth Centenary Library, Pondicherry)
Vol. 2 (1972)pp. 37 and 171.
The spirit that reigned over the Parliament and dominated the soul of almost every religious repre-
sentative present, was that of and it ought to be a matter of pride to India, to all Hindus specially,
that no one expressed, as the American papers say, this spirit so well as the Hindu representative,
Swami Vivekananda. His address, in every way worthy of the representative of a religion, such as
Hinduism is, struck the keynote of the Parliament of Religion…The spirit of catholicity and tolera-
tion which distinguishes Hinduism, forming one of its broad features, was never before so promi-
nently brought to the notice of the world, as it has been by Swami Vivekananda, and we make no
doubt that the Swami's address will have an effect on other religions, whose teachers, preachers and
Missionaries heard him and were impressed by his utterances.
-Indian Mirror (21 March 1894)

Quoted in The Life of Swami
Vivekananda
Vol. I (1979), page 437.
A striking figure, clad in yellow and orange, shining like the sun of India in the midst of the heavy
atmosphere of Chicago, a lion head, piercing eyes, mobile lips, movements swift and abrupt-such
was my first impression of Swami Vivekananda. As I met him in one of the rooms set apart for the
use of the delegates to the Parliament of Religion.
Enraptured, the huge multitude hung upon his words; not a syllable must be lost, not a cadence
missed! "That man a heathen!" said one, as he came out of the great hall, "and we send missionaries
to his people! It would be more fitting that they should send missionaries to us."
-Dr. Annie Besent
Quoted in The Life Swami
Vivekananda
Vol. I (1979), page 429
In his deep voice, he began, ;Sisters and Brothers of America'-and the entire audience, many hun-
dred people, clapped and cheered widely for two whole minutes…No doubt the vast majority of
those present hardly knew why they had been so powerfully moved. The appearance, even the
voice, of Vivekananda cannot fully explain it. A large gathering has its own strange kind of subcon-
scious telepathy, and this one must have been somehow aware that it was in the presence of that
most unusual of beings, a man whose words express exactly what he is. When Vivekananda said,
'Sister and Brothers' he actually meant that he regarded the American women and men before him
as sisters and brothers; the well-known orational phrase became simple truth.
-by Christopher Isherwood

in What Religion Is in the words of
Swami
Vivekananda. (1991) page XVI.
4B.5 References
1.Advaita Ashrama. Selections from The Complete Works of Swami
Vivekananda.Calcutta,2003.13th Edition.
2.Advaita Ashrama. The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda. (8 vols),Calcutta,The
Classics,2014,Nabu Press,2011.
3.Swami Vidyatmananda Ed. What Religion Is: In The Words of Swami Vivekananda.,Vedanta
Press,Calcutta, 1972.
4.The Life of Swami Vivekananda by his Eastern and Western Disciples. (2 vols.),Advaita
Ashram,Calcutta,1960.
5. Reminiscences of Swami Vivekananda by his Eastern and Western Disciples.Advaita
Ashram,(University of Virginia Original),1960.
6. Sri Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library, Pondicherry, Vol. 2 (1972) pp. 37 and
171.
7. Majundar Chandra Ramesh (Edt.).Swami Vivekananda Centenary Memorial Volume, Swami
Vivekananda Centenary,Calcutta,1963.
8.Nikhilananda.Vivekananda: A Biography Advaitha Ashrama, Calcutta,1982.
Dr. Vijay Sheshadri

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Mukthagangotri - 570 006 ªÀÄÄPÀÛUÀAUÉÆÃwæ, ªÉÄÊ¸ÀÆgÀÄ - 570 006

EL-1.1: INTER- DISCIPLINARY COURSE-I (OPEN ELECTIVE)

Wish you all the best.

Prof. Ashok kamble

Course Writer Course Editors

Kalidasa: Shakuntala 1-17

Shudraka: Mrichhakatika 18-35

Unit-1: Kalidasa – Shakuntala

1.1 INTRODUCTION TO SANSKRIT DRAMA

1.2 KALIDASA AS A PLAYWRIGHT

1.3 SOURCE OF THE PLAY

1.4 PLOT OF THE PLAY

1.1 Introduction to Sanskrit Drama:

1. Define the nature of Sanskrit drama.

2. Assess the achievement of Kalidasa as a dramatist.

3. Which are the sources of the play Shakuntala?

5. Comment on the repudiation of Shakuntala.

1. Allardyce Nicoll, World Drama, Chambers, London, 1976.

3.H.D.F. Kitto: Greek Tragedy.Routledge.1950.

4.C.M. Bowra: Ancient Greek Literature.Thornton Butterworth Ltd; First edition.1933.

5.Gassner: A Reader's Encyclopedia of World Drama. Courier Corporation, 2002.

6.Bamber Gascoigne: Twentieth Century Drama.Hutchinson, 1974.

7.H.W.Wells: The Classical Drama of India., New York, 1963

Prof. Vijaya Guttal

Unit-2: Kalidasa – Shakuntala

2.1 TITLE OFTHE PLAY

2.3 STRUCTURE OFTHE PLAY

1. This unit aims at explaining the true significance of the title.

2.2 Thematic Treatment:

The art of characterisation of Kalidasa in Shakuntala is to be seen in the background of Indian

4. Keith.A.B, A History of Sanskrit Literature, Motilal Banarsidas, New Delhi, 1924.

6. Jhala.G.C, Kalidasa – A Study, Popular Book Depot, Bombay, 1949.

7. Aurobindo, Kalidasa, Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1956.

Prof. Vijaya Guttal

3.2 Title of the Play

3.3 The Source and Date

3.4 Plot of the Mrichhakatika

3.5 Technical Aspects

1. To understand the importance of Shudraka as a playwright

Bhasa’s Charudatta is thought to be the main source of Shudraka’s Mrichhakatika. It may be

III Garbha Sandhi:

1. Mrichhakatika: clay cart

1. Write a short note on Shudraka.

2. Point out the significance of title Mrichhakatika

3. Discuss the source and date of the play.

4. Summarise the central incidents of the plot of the Mrichhakatika

5. Comment on the structure of the plot.

Prof. Vijaya Guttal

4.1 CENTRAL IDEAS

4.5 CRITICAL REMARKS

4.5 Critical Remarks:

2. Point out the importance of the two love stories in Mrichhakatika.

3. Highlight Shudraka’s treatment of the political theme.

4. Comment on the social relevance of the play.

5. Trace the revolutionary nature of the plot.

6. Show how Shudraka is progressive in his treatment of Vasantasena.

7. Discuss the theme of the establishment of order in Mrichhakatika.

2. Keith.A.B, Sanskrit Drama, Motilal Banarsidas, New Delhi, 1924.