Bendre on stage

Da Ra Bendre.

Colourful portraits and pencil sketches of poet laureate being displayed in the first floor of the Bendre Bhavan. DH photos by B M Kedarnath

The Kannada writer Da Ra Bendre’s work, particularly his lesser-known plays, assume increased significance in our current social and cultural climate.

Bendre wrote Tirukara Pidugu in 1924, and composed Uddhara more than two decades later, in 1946.

Both of these one-act plays, were theatrical experiments in their time but they grew popular over the years. By 1995, Uddhara had seen three impressions, which were edited and published by his son Vaman Bendre. In all, Bendre wrote 14 plays during his life, with some like Saayo Aata continuing to be staged even today.

A close reading of these plays shows that Bendre was attuned to the social and political issues of the time.

Tirukara Pidugu was written when the Congress party had started a fundraising drive to support its activities during the 1920s.

The move seemed to have sparked something in Bendre, who equated the fundraising drive with ‘begging’ and set out to show how this ‘petitioning’ existed in one form or the other in society.

Bendre recited the finished play before B M Srikantaiah in 1924, when the latter visited Karnatak College, Dharwad as a guest. The recital was highly effective.

Most of the action in Tirukara Pidugu takes place over the course of a morning. The protagonist, a wealthy man, follows a strict routine a copy of which is pasted on the wall in his house. But this routine is constantly interrupted by a stream of petitioners.

A budbudke (a tribe of soothsayers) person, a jangama (Shaiva order of religious monk), acharya (spiritual teacher), a brahmin, a widow, a slave, a varada anna boy (a student having a lone meal a day at a different house every day for a week) and a patriot all approach him with their demands.

Irked, the protagonist forms the Bhiksukotpadakara Sangha (an outfit to breed beggars) and becomes a social activist in the process. All other characters in Tirukara Pidugu remain silent, while only the protagonist speaks.

Drawing attention to this, Kannada critic Keertinath Kurtakoti, points out that the play effectively portrays the conflict between the protagonist, who represents speech, and beggars, silence.

Through the play, Bendre bats for a culture of work and self-reliance rather than alms-seeking, Vaman Bendre explains in his note in the play.

Today, the questions Bendre raised have become relevant once again, with certain political forces using religion, and patriotism to raise money — the fundraising spree for the construction of the Ram temple in Ayodhya being a case in point.

Bendre is renowned as a poet, but people often fail to notice his playwriting skills. Many of his plays are nuanced and intriguing, and the quality of theatre writing matches that of his poetry.

Uddhara, Bendre’s experiment against social and cultural problems, is marked by intellectualism.

It highlights how Hinduism has degraded itself morally due to its internal conflicts triggered by the caste system.

The play has no protagonist, but primary characters who represent different professions: Arabanna and Durugappa represent Dalits, Kodandaramaiah is an advocate who believes in social reformation and wants justice for the Dalits.

Vigneshwar Bhat is a conservative, Sparshananda is a messiah of the Dalits and Veerabhadrappa is a merchant.

The Dalits, who have their own cooperative society, require a piece of land for the construction of the temple, but the government turns down their plea. Kodandaraya offers some land, a move which the conservatives oppose. Even the Dalits reject his offer.

Meanwhile, the news of the desecration of the Bhairaveshwar idol spreads like wildfire and tragedy occurs. Rudraiah and Vigneshwar Bhat, the rivals of Dalits, die in a stampede. Durugappa too dies from a snake bite. The play ends in tragedy with three deaths.

Through its action, the play effectively highlights the complexity of village life.

Colloquialism

Bendre’s masterful use of colloquial Kannada — where the other plays of the time used literary language — is used to raise questions and prompt interactions and arguments.

He would keenly observe how people engaged in different professions would speak and would engage in conversation to understand their language and the impact it created on listeners. This is one reason the characters in his plays appear so natural when they express themselves.

One also wonders if Gandhi’s movement for the welfare of ‘Harijans’ inspired Bendre to pen a play dealing with the issue of untouchability. This appears to be true, considering the use of the term ‘Harijana’ in the play.

At a time when writers relied on historical or mythological themes to entertain and instruct their audience, Bendre dared to experiment by exploring contemporary themes.

Both Tirukura Pidugu and Uddhara offer fascinating narratives about the absurdity of human existence, and strongly reject fundamentalism in all its forms.

Moreover, they also offer an honest view of Indian society before Independence, and show how the same turmoil and conflict that we faced then continue to follow us even into the 21st century.

(The author is a well-known Kannada writer. Translated by Jagadish Angadi)