A Breath of Vyas

Dileep Jhaveri

Translated by Kamal Sanyal

 

5.5 x 8.5 inches, xi + 76pp. 2006

ISBN : 9788170464853

Rs  150.00 (PB)
$9.95 (PB)
£6.95 (PB)

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Sublime and grotesque, noble and base, eternal and transitory, hideous and beautiful, sorrowful and cruel, heroic and cowardly, defeat and victory, victory and defeat-that is the Mahabharata. Full of contradictions. A duel. The Mahabharata of yesterday is the story of our lives today. The Mahabharata has, over the centuries, inspired writers and artists to produce a rich crop of texts which interpret, question, dialogue and engage with various facets of the multi-layered, sprawling epic. This play is part of that tradition. Structured in the form of a rehearsal in progress, an interesting blend of reality, fiction, reverence and irreverence, the playwright explores many of the ethical and moral questions that the Mahabharata raises, in the voices of important characters from the epic saga, each interrogating and challenging the dominant narrative. In the course of the play we listen to Draupadi, Karna, Eklavya, Yudhishthir, Uttara, and Ashwatthama use their own experiences to question what occurs and to critique the master narrative.

 

A practising physician by profession, Dileep Jhaveri (b. 1943) is a noted poet in Gujarati. His works have been translated into Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Malayalam, Korean, Japanese, and Indonesian. Vyasochchhvas (2002) is his first play. He lives and works in Thane. 

 

A social activist and award-winning translator based in Calcutta, Kamal Sanyal (1922-2014) was well versed in four major Indian languages—Gujarati, Marathi, Bangla and Hindi—and translated between these languages with equal fluency. Her English translations include major Gujarati and Marathi works and childrens stories from Gujarat and Bengal.

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Playscript
Theatre And Performance Studies