The Plot of Dattani’s “Tara”

In Tara Mahesh Dattani plays with the idea of female infanticide that is prevalent among the Gujaratis. His deep preoccupation with gender issues leads to the emergence of the idea of the twin side to one’s self – quiet literally embodied in one body and the separation that follows.

Chandan and Tara are conjoined twins. They must be separated for survival. The problem begins when it is recognized that it has been unequal, unfair operation. Even though the doctors were aware that the third leg would suit to Tara better than her brother, they took part in a conspiracy plotted by her family. As a result Chandan gets the second leg and Tara becomes a crippled.

Bharati, the mother of Tara, is anxious about the future of her daughter. She was afraid that the world would not accept Tara when she is a grown up. Her concerns and maternal love towards Tara becomes as part of the burden of guilt she possess.

Chandan enjoyed great preference, while Tara was left to enjoy the position of a subaltern. Tara was more enthusiastic and had high dreams and aspirations, which she couldn’t achieve since she was a handicapped. Bharati’s father further strengthened his indulgence for male grandchild by leaving his property after his demise to Chandan. When it comes to giving the education Tara’s father prefers only Chandan. If Tara had been given moral support by her parents, her life would not be the same.

It is noteworthy that discrimination against Tara continues even after her death. Chandan has changed their story into his own tragedy. He apologizes to Tara for doing so.

Tara is always discouraged, even though she is more intelligent, sharp and witty. Economic and cultural facts have been responsible for the pathetic status of the girl child. All these factors combine to create the social system in which the girl child has to live. Tara is killed by the social system, which controls the minds and actions of the people.

Harmony of mind, body and spirit in Sri Aurobindo’s “Is India Civilized”

Sri Aurobindo ranks high among the greatest personalities of modern India. He was a multifaceted genius, being a politician, social critic, educationalist, philosopher, man of letters etc. The essay “Is India Civilized” was originally serialized in the quarterly Arya from December 1918 to February 1919. It was basically a response to the attack of William Archer, a British critic, on Indian civilization.

Aurobindo begins by stating unequivocally how a culture or civilization may be evaluated. The true happiness in this world is the terrestrial aim of man, and true happiness lies in the finding and maintenance of a natural harmony of spirit, mind and body. According to Aurobindo happiness is the main goal of human life.

          In Aurobindo’s scheme of things, a human being possesses at least three levels of being – the physical, the mental and the spiritual. And what is more important, without a natural harmony between these three levels, we can never be really happy.

It also means that any country or society, which caters only to the body and the mind but leaves out the spirit, cannot achieve true happiness. A society which nourishes the spirit may attain very high levels of material prosperity. Our very nature is such that we cannot be truly happy until we have the opportunity to strive for perfection.

Pointing the western progress, he says a progress, targeting only on material element is not true progress. Only through the harmony of mind, body and spirit a person or a society can really achieve progress and happiness.

Natraj or Shiva as an artifact in Ananda Comaraswamy’s “The Dance of Shiva”

Ananda Kentish Comaraswamy was an extraordinary geologist, art scholar, collector, curator and philosopher. The essay “The Dance of Shiva” became the title piece of a collection of fourteen essays in 1918. The essay tries to explain the significance of the image of Nataraja, or the dancing Shiva. The dancing Shiva is a magnificent conception, both dynamic and controlled at the same time. This image is one of the greatest masterpieces of Indian art. Comaraswamy helps us to understand it better.

He starts by explaining one of the many names and aspects of Shiva – Nataraja or the master of the dance or the king of actors. He mentions three dances of Shiva- the evening dance at Kailasa, the Tandava, and finally the Nadanta dance at Chindambaram. It is one of the last that he focuses, because it is this dance that is depicted in the Nataraj Bronzes.

The legend behind this dance is that of the submission of the Rishis in the Taragam forest. These Rishis did not accept the divinity of Shiva, but are worsted in the fight. Shiva’s victory over Rishis suggests the victory of higher over the lower. The malignant dwarf underfoot may be taken to represent the ego.

Shiva with four arms, braided hair, Ganga in his locks on which rests the crescent moon, adorned with both men’s and women’s ornaments, left foot upraised and right hand in the abhay or reassuring gesture, thus represents a whole philosophy. The dual nature of Shiva, how he is both male and female, the skull of Brahma, the Ganga in his locks, the drum all these have stories and myths behind them.

The meaning behind the iconography of the dancing Shiva has, thus became an artifact in Komaraswamy’s essay.

The Door I Shut Behind Me. Uma Parameswaran

The door I shut behind me is a short story by Uma Parameswaran. The title of the short story reminds the Indian tradition of a bride leaving her parents’ home forever after marriage. The story explains an Indian leaving his country to become a possible immigrant in Canada. The simile is very apt as both the situation involves crossing over to a new life; this crossing over involves fear and uncertainty coupled with hope and desire.

The story opens with Chander, the protagonist, flying to Canada on a two year research associate ship, at an annual salary of $ 8500. Agarwal, the crude and loud fellow passenger who doesn’t have an immigrant visa feels envious of Chander. Agarwal appears to be a perfect portrait of an ugly person. The writer has analyzed the mindset of an average Indian who goes abroad, his obsession with money and savings as well as his dreams of luxury and comfort.

Agarwal criticize everything western. He says “our toilet habits are much cleaner”. For him the westerners are far behind in their appreciation of arts. The writer portraits the class of Indians, who criticizes the west and its culture, yet wants to stay abroad, earn money and lead a life of comfort and luxury.

Chander finds that Agarwal is nostalgic for his country and wanted to be with his own people and speak his own language. They visits Mundra’s house. Agarwal greeted every one with warm enthusiasm, but Chander was unable to do so. The people gathered were from different parts of India, but the language they spoke was English. They were all proud of speaking English.

They question of identity, whether they are Indians or Canadians, entangled them. They had not changed their food habits, their costumes. They wanted to go back, but like the mythological king Trihishanku, they stood suspended between two worlds, unable to enter either.

The story says when we leave our country we shut many doors behind us though we are not aware of it at the time. Chander replies “There are many doors ahead of us”. The story thus ends on a note of hope for the future. Uma Parameswaran endorses a positive approach; if people decide s to adopt another country to live in; they must not look back but look forward with hope.

The Bear on the Delhi Road. Earl Birney

The Bear on the Delhi Road is a poem by Earl Birney. The poem has five uneven verse paragraphs. The poet describes the sight of a huge Himalayan bear on a Delhi road. It was being brought down from the mountains by two Kashmiri men.

The poet says the bear is unreal. By the word unreal, the poet means away from his natural habitat. The Himalayan bears are supposed to live in the icy Himalayas. But now the bear is in an extremely contradictory habitat. Delhi is a hot place. The bear is facing a sudden climate shift. Thus the bear is unreal. Two bare thin Kashmiri men accompany him on the road. The first man pulls on a ring in the soft nose of the bear. The second one flicks with a stick up at the rolling eyes of the bear.

The third paragraph pictures the purpose of the two men. They have captured the bear not to kill it, but “simply to teach him to dance”. They want to make the bear a dancing bear in the great markets of Delhi, where his owners will earn a living from his performances. It is a wild animal, by teaching him to dance, the men takes him away from his natural way of living. Thus again the bear is made unreal.

We are told that the men are peaceful. All they want is a living. They want the bear to stay alive. They dance around him and want the bear to be like them on two legs and dance. They are also away from Kashmir’s cool air. The poem discusses the complex relation between our species and other animals and living an unreal life away from our natural places. 

Yakshagana

     Yakshagana is a unique traditional form of dance theatre prevailed in Karnataka. It was very popular in the southern districts of Karnataka. It combines dance, music, stage technique with a distinct style, costume make-up etc.  Yakshagana consists of Himmela (background musicians) and Mummela (dance and dialogue group). Traditional music instruments like hand drum, harmonium, pipes etc were used in the drama.

     Yakshagana literally means the song of yaksha (the song of the nature spirit). The main essence of this form of dance is its attachment with religion, which provided the most common themes for the plays. Stories of battles taken from the epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata were used to portray. Traditionally this music drama played in temples and village squares. A bhagavata (story teller) used to narrate the story while actors dance to the music.  

     The performance used to begin at midnight and would go on all night. For almost one hour the drums were being used in a particular rhythm. After this the actors would appear on the stage wearing costumes ready to enact various roles. The costumes are rich in colour, decorated with pieces of mirror and colored stone. Sari and other decorative ornaments are also being used in the performance.   

Ecriture Feminine: Helene Cixous

     

     In ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’ (1976) Helene Cixous introduces a new ways of thinking and writing about women and literature.  It is called Ecriture feminine (feminine writing). A feminine text is designed to smash and shatter all the frame work of institutions created by the male authority.

     Feminine writing acknowledges its rootedness in the body. She urges the women saying, “Write yourself, your body must be heard”. Since it is the female body, it has been repressed historically by male theology, philosophy and social system. Theology openly repressed the body advocating the negation of body and desires and in particular the female body, which is regarded as a source of temptation and often as unclean. Writing with the body implies a return of the repressed. It expresses the individuality of the self. This new writing expressing the new woman will resist the myths and language introduced by men

     This new insurgent writing will cause a break in the history of woman at two levels

• It will affect a return of woman to her body, whereby she can realize ‘decensored’ relation to her sexuality
• When she seizes the occasion to speak, this will mark her “shattering entry into history”. It will confirm a place for her other than that is reserved by the male institution and history

The Laugh of the Medusa: Helene Cixous

     ‘The Laugh of the Medusa’ (1976) is a seminal essay by the French writer and feminist Helene Cixous. Her peculiar contribution to literature, Ecriture feminine (feminine writing) is expressed in this work. The work is structured like a poem as a refusal to the conventional rhetoric formats of argumentation. The ‘arguments’ of this text is based on the materiality of language, the texture of words and effects of word combination etc. The work is not circling around any central metaphor, since according to Cixous the very notion of centrality is transitory.

     Cixous charges that “Men have riveted us between two horrifying myths: between the Medusa and the abyss”. The ‘Abyss’ refers to the connotation of Freud’s designation of women as a ‘dark continent’ – difficult to analyze and understand. She denies this myth.

     Medusa was traditionally portrayed as a monster; with snakes in place of her hair. She was once renowned for her loveliness. Her hair was attractive. Poseidon (God of the Sea) robbed her of her virginity and punished her by changing her hair into revolting snakes and made her face so terrible.

     The myth of Medusa represents the repression of female sexuality and beauty. Cixous concentrate on the Medusa prior to the repression of her sexuality, prior to her changing into a monster. For Cixous laughter is a symbolic mode of refusing the male concept of history and truth as defined by masculine traditions of thought. She adds that A feminine text is designed to smash and shatter all the frame work of institutions, to blow up the truth and break up the ‘truth’ with laughter

     Cixous urges for the breaking of myths related to women. to redeem woman from the degraded status in the history of male mythology she has to demolish all such myths and start writing. She urges the women saying, “Write yourself, your body must be heard”

Kirtanya Natak

Kirtanya Natak was one of the indigenous performing arts of India. The word kirtanya is derived from the word kirtan. This form of art is prevailed in the North Bihar from the 14^th to the 20^th century. It is a dramatic performance of the acts of Lord Krishna. It was enacted on certain special occasions. The play is introduced by a Suthradhara. By his entry the benedictory song (Nandi Geeth) would stop. As far as language is concerned, the use of Maithili, Sanskrit and Prakrit can be detected. The male characters used Sanskrit while the female and lower characters used Prakrit. The songs were generally in Maithili.

The troops are generally called Jamati that contained between three to eleven members. They perform the roles of nayak or hero, nayika or heroine, sakhi or female confidant, clown, orchestra etc. the themes were mostly taken from the puranas and other legends. 

Dissociation of Sensibility

The phrase Dissociation of Sensibility appeared in Eliots essay on ‘The Metaphysical Poets’. A good poetry is the result of the fusion of thought and feeling. Such fusion is called ‘Unification of Sensibility’. It is the opposite of dissociation of sensibility. Metaphysical poets have strictly followed this unification, but according to Eliot this fusion of thought and feeling characteristic had been progressively lost in the 17^th century. It is a loss from which we have never recovered. Eliot complained that the influence of Milton and Dryden caused this dissociation of sensibility. Bad poetry is the result of this dissociation of sensibility, lack of fusion between thought and feeling.

By ‘sensibility’ Eliot means a synthetic faculty which can amalgamate and unite thought and feeling, the sensuous and the intellectual. The acceptance of the Elizabethans is due to the unified sensibility that they possessed. This capacity is visible in the works of John Donne. After Donne and Herbert poets lost this power of unification, they could either think or they could feel. The 18^th century poets were intellectuals, they though hardly felt. The Romantics felt but did not think.

For Eliot if the poets of the 20^th century are willing to imitate the metaphysical poets this breach might be healed. 

Objective Correlative

     Objective Correlative is one of the most important critical concepts of T.S.Eliot. Eliot’s idea of poetic impersonality finds its formulation in this concept. Eliot described this concept in his famous essay “Hamlet and his Problems”. He believed that the poet is unable to transfer his/her emotions and ideas directly to the reader. Thus there must be some sort of mediation. Eliot says “The only way of expressing emotion in the form of art is by finding an ‘objective correlative’; in other words, a set of objects, a situation, a chain of events which shall be the formula of that particular emotion; such that when the external facts, which must terminate in sensory experience, are given, the emotion is immediately evoked.”

     

     Through this objective correlative the transaction between the author and the reader takes place. Thus what the author has to say is objectified. These objects can be a situation, certain inanimate objects, and characters etc. The external actions or objects are representing the internal emotions of the characters. The sleep waking scene, candle, comments relating to the perfumes of Arabia, smell of blood etc. in Macbeth gives us the picture of Lady Macbeth’s emotional and mental state.

     Shakespeare has failed to find suitable objective correlative in his drama Hamlet. Hamlet’s suffering is not conveyed properly by any character or any action in the play. Thus for Eliot Shakespeare’s Hamlet is an artistic failure. Eliot admired Dante’s poetry and its visual imagination because Dante did not lose his grasp over the objective correlative.

     The worldwide loss of vision in José Saramago’s Blindness, the car in Stephen King’s Christine, Boo Radley in To Kill A Mockingbird etc. are examples of objective correlatives.