Act I

The prologue of the play.

Manushya Jananam

(The Mortal’s Birth)

Act I

(Night sky. The full moon glows from one corner of the stage filling it with a wan light. Long dark arms of the trees stretch like a demon's claws. The dark outline of a river is highlighted by the sound of her gurgling as she runs sleeplessly. This is the backdrop of the scene.

On the stage...A graveyard. Pyres arranged all over. Some still fuming, some completely dead, much like the lives that the bodies burning now have led before. The pyres are totally 6 in number. Five of them have heaped firewood while the one the farthest away from the audience has a flat top. Just diagonally opposite this pyre is a pyre which smokes heavily. These two pyres are arranged so that if two people were to sit on each one, they would face themselves partly and the audience partly.

Suddenly, a Kapalika walks in. He is dressed in just a loin cloth. His hair and beard stretch ridiculously long. In his left hand he carries a massive wooden staff with three prongs. His face is smeared with ash. He walks about as if he is looking for something. He stops and sees the audience suddenly.)

Kapalika (with utter disgust in tone and expression): Mortals!

(Spits at the audience and continues looking around before he suddenly sees the pyres. His eyes light up with sheer delight. He throws his arms up and dances.)

Kapalika: I have found it! I have found immortality! Nectar! Eternal Life!

(He drives his staff into the ground near a pyre that has a flat top. He now goes around examining each pyre individually, pulling out burning corpses, charred bones, ash. But none of the pyres satisfy him. He keeps shaking his head, muttering 'No!', 'Not this one!', What rot!' as he pulls out different corpses. Soon the stage is littered with the 5 corpses from 5 pyres. The Kapalika now looks a bit frustrated.)

Kapalika: No! Not now! Not after I have some this far! It can't be... all this life...and no essence.

(He suddenly catches sight of his staff and the pyre next to it.)

Kaplalika:  At last. It was here all the time, just next to me.

(He leaps to the pyre and pulls a corpse from it. It's the corpse of a young girl, about 18 years of age. Her body is still clothed with a red saree, but her face is charred, suggesting she was cremated just a while ago. The Kapalika struggles to make her sit erect on the pyre, but being a corpse, she falls off. He finally balances her by placing the staff at her neck and makes her sit so as to partially face the opposite pyre and partially the audience. The Kapalika now looks at the rotten burnt corpse with a loving light in his face.)

Kapalika (with devotion and ecstasy):  Mother! Mother! Mother!

(He weeps profusely now. Tears flow and he makes no attempt to stop them. He runs his hands over her hair, part of it which crumbles into ashes. He places his hand on her cheek and as he pulls it away, the burnt flesh sticks to his hand. The Kapalika doesn't seem to mind any of it and is in sheer bliss.)

Kapalika: Goddess of life! Primal Energy! Deathless Mother! Light that animates all life! She who incessantly turns the wheels of time with her very heartbeat!

(The Kapalika seems to lose control of his tongue now as he mutters incoherently before going into a mad and yet poignant refrain.)

Kapalika: Mother! Mother! Mother!

(After a few seconds, the Kapalika breaks out of his feverish reverie and restrains himself. He hurriedly looks around for something. From off the stage someone rolls a brass vessel that makes it appear like it came from behind the lady's pyre. He grabs it, runs behind and mimes filling water. He pours the water over her and washes the charred makeup off her revealing a face that is perfectly dark and perfectly round, like the new moon. The lady's eyes are still closed, he arms drooping and her head askew. The Kapalika now sits himself opposite the lady on the other pyre. His right thigh rests on top of his left thigh and he places his hand in the sankalpa mudra on his right knee. It looks as though his body has embraced itself.)

Kapalika: Goddess of fire! Mother of light! Goddess of air! Mother of our breath! Goddess of earth! Mother of our form! Goddess of the ocean! Mother of our blood! Goddess of the sky infinite! Mother of our voice! My own soul, my own breath, I offer to awaken you!

(He removes his hand from the mudra, takes water from the vessel and sprinkles some on the lady. She shows signs of life for the first time - a brief flinch that could be missed if the audience is not attentive.)

Kapalika (clasping his right knee with both palms, inhales slowly and holds his breath. His eyes are closed during this entire sequence):

From fire comes light free and true

From light comes fire the purest rain

I give thee fire my Goddess true

I give thee light and make thee twain

 

(The Kapalika opens his palms and spreads his arms before the lady. She suddenly opens her eyes and holds them still, unblinking. He continues with his palms open and arms spread.)

From air comes breath, blood of the soul

From breath comes air, smoke unseen

I give thee air my Goddess whole

I give thee breath and make thee unclean

 

(The Kapalika now holds his right palm folded like a lotus and presses it to his chest. His left arm circles the right side of his waist. She lets out an abrupt gasp and coughs as if she had been choked. She then breathes, her breasts heaving visibly.)

From earth comes form, the steady spine

From form comes earth, the frozen lake

I give thee earth my Goddess divine

I give thee form and make thee awake

 

(The Kapalika presses both his palms to his chest with his elbows wide out. She sits erect, her askew head stands erect and the staff falls down to the ground. She crosses her legs in the lotus pose and her hands fold at her navel with the right palm resting on the left.)

From water comes blood, breath mortal

From blood comes water, molten sand

I give thee water my Goddess immortal

I give thee blood and revive thy hand

 

(The Kapalika holds both his hands aloft, as if blessing the lady. She begins blinking her eyes, her hands move gracefully holding her palm open facing the Kapalika.)

From sky comes the word, the cleaven tongue

From the word comes the sky, the endless glow

I give thee sky my Goddess young

I give thee word and bid thee show!

 

(The Kapalika shouts the last word as he raises his arms high above his head and holds them together. The lady starts rocking back and forth as if in trance. She suddenly starts laughing uncontrollably. She will be called Kali from now.)

Kali (amidst maniacal laughter):  Fool! Fool! Fool!

(As she utters those three words, Kapalika lowers his arms as if tired from a great effort; his shoulders droop; his form sinks tired and his eyes look to Kali)

Kali (looking around in surprise): Why am I here? What place is this? What should I do?

Kapalika: Mother! (She looks at him.) I called you Mother!

Kali: Why?

Kapalika: Why am I here? What place is this? What should I do? (Kali looks a bit startled as he echoes his own words.) Lead me to truth Mother! Truth and immortality! Lead me to light mother of truth!

Kali: Oh! (She smiles, then breaks into a laughter)

Kapalika: Mother...

Kali (after gesturing him to wait, laughs a bit more, finally gains her composure): But I am not the Mother of truth. You see I am the Mother of lies, Mother of stories, Mother of poetry and dance. (She laughs a bit more)

Kapalika (furious):  What! Have I been deceived even now? Did the sage in the ruined temple lie to me? Astray again! I come seeking true light and all I get is a laughing wench!

Kali (silences him with a nonchalant imperious gesture):  Enough now! We've all seen your mad act for quite a while now. (laughs a bit more) Did you really think the Goddess of truth would appear before you? (she points vaguely between the audience and the Kapalika)

Kapalika (even more furious): What? What did you say?

Kali: Them! (point clearly to the audience) You thought the Goddess of truth would come in front of them?

Kapalika (his anger gone as if he understands): Oh yes, I forgot them totally. But where can I see her if not here? They are always there. (points to the audience) They follow me everywhere.

Kali (exasperated and piqued):  Enough of your philosophical innuendos. Really, you are very trying. No wonder they follow you, you are boring and sound intelligent. That's all they seem to like these days. Anyways, now that you are here and have awoken me, you might as well listen to some lies, some songs and a dance...perhaps even a play! Perhaps they might like it too!

Kapalika: But how would that lead me to truth, to immortality? And how do they matter?

Kali (c***s her eyebrows turning to the audience and rolls her eyes): Would you believe that? He asks how a lie would lead to truth, a song to immortality. And you are not important! (shakes her head) You need to change your views a bit.

Kapalika (confused): But how Mother?

Kali: Like this.

(She raises her arm erect in front of her with her palm down. Then she turns it so that the palm faces up in a quick movement. The backdrop changes in a flash as a second backdrop falls over the previous one - a complete inverse of it. The moon is at the bottom, the trees upside down and the river on the sky.)