Kirwant

Premanand Gajvee

Translated by M. D. Hatkanangalekar

 

5.5 x 8.5 inches, xx + 88pp. 2005

ISBN : 9788170462095

Rs  150.00 (PB)
$9.95 (PB)
£6.95 (PB)

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Brahman by birth, but by profession a lowly and despicable kirwant. Your presence is unwelcome on auspicious occasions, just like the presence of untouchables. Do you have any place at all within your creed?'

 

Premanand Gajvee tells the story of a little-known sect of brahmans known as 'kirwants' whose religious duty it is to perform the last rites at cremations. Marginalized by the entire community in general, and the brahmans in particular, kirwants are treated like polluting outcastes. Based on a personal experience that occurred as recently as the 1980s, this play, which deals savagely with a subject carefully kept under wraps, is a severe indictment of an inhuman social system.

 

Kirwant created a sensation in the Marathi theatre scene when it was first produced. One of the greatest actors of our theatre, Shreeram Lagoo, taking up the cudgels for a relatively unknown playwright, offered to perform the lead role of the kirwant Siddheshwarshastri.

Premanand Gajvee

 

M. D. Hatkanangalekar

New Indian Playwrights
Playscript
Theatre And Performance Studies