Sacrifice and Malini

Sacrifice (1890) and Malini (1896) are impressively structured works

of art with h e r grip on material and cohensive organisation. While

Sacrifice is a verse drama with Tagore's dramatic experimentation

reminiscent of the assimilation of the Western romantic dramatic situation,

Malini is a poetic drama of Sadhana period to present the substantial

material of religious, political and psychological import. As Tagore himself

claims, the form of Malini is restrained and compact and follow6 the classical

unities of time and place. In both the plays are seen emancipated religious

ideology, incitement to rebellion and clamour for banishment, the characters

standing between two clashing forces, the power of orthodoxy being overcome

by the power of compassion and tolerance. But the handling makes the two

plays fall into two different genres.

In both Sacrifice and Malini Tagore presents the religious

controversy prevailing during his period and suggests a perennial solution

with his magic wand of creative humanism. These are two most popular non-

symbolic plays of Rabindranath Tagore. But the predominant element of

conflicts, drama of the soul from the first to the last appeals in these two

plays. The eternal religious conflict and the perennial spiritual conflict go

hand in hand in these plays and ultimately lead towards a new dawn of

religious life in which creative humanism is suggested as a panacea for all ills

- social, religious, political and personal. As B.C Chakraborthy rightly

observes:

"In both these plays we find a conflict between orthodox

religion and convenLions on the one hand and the

claims of humanity on the other. There is also a close

similarity between the main characters in the two plays.

Raghupathi (Sacrifice) and Kemankar (Malini),

Jaisingh (Sacrifice) and Supriya (Malini) closely

resemble each other. "'

Both Sacrifice (1890) and Malini (1896) aim towards a new dawn of

life in which ideas of God, Religion and love are conceived from supreme

being of man. There are parallel characters in both the plays. Raghupathi

in Sacrifice does what Kemankar does in Malini. Both aim a t proving the

superiority of Brahmanism over kingship and all other authorities. Jaisingh

in Sacrifice and Malini in Malini are embodiments of true religion. The

inexplicable innocent love of both thc protagonists find mystical expressions.

Many critics dwelt on these plays in toto and remarked that these plays have

brought a good reputation and recognition to Rabindranath Tagore.

The play Sacrifice is based on Tngore's novel The Saint King. It is

popularly accepted as a true tragedy dealing with the conflict of soul. As . Chatterji Viswanath says: "Tagore wrote only one true tragedy Sacrificea2

Narvene Viswanath commcnts that Visnrjnn has been described by

some critics the greatest play in modern India literature .... The

charuclcrisotion is clcar and shlu+p, Lhc plot supcrbly constructed and tho

dramatic conflict is brought out at many levels, without interfering with the

unity of the whole. The conflict, moreover, is seen in ideas as well as actions - as the encounter of the higher and the lower, the harmonious and the

discordant, rather than the confirmation between sheer affrmation and sheer

negation. "'

The human drama runs very crisply in Sacrifice from the b e g h n i ~

to the end. All the characters including minor characters like Aparna are

introduced at the very outset and their true natures are explicitly delineated.

Gunavathi, the queen exposes her hankering for the baby touch at her

bosom 'to feel the stir of a dearer life with her life'. She feels depressed and

melancholic for being banished from the 'mother's heaven'. ~hrough her

words the nuLurc of' king Govinda is also revealed. She says that he is God-

like in his purity, and Govinda is against the sacrifice of any kind.

The protagonist of the play Raghupathi speaks only two sentences to

the Queen at the beginning of the scene where he reveals himself most

clearly. He has no clear concept of God and no high esteem of Goddess Kali.

His devotion and outward impression seems to be false and deceptive. He

seems to be more self deceptive than deceptive. His words to Gunavathi

about God reveal his inner consciousness; "Our mother is all caprice, she

knows no law, our sorrows and joys are more freaks of her mind."'

Jaisingh is the foster child of Raghupathi who is torn between two

pulls - pull of patriotic fervour and faith towards the king, and the pull of the

abundant love of his father and Master Raghupathi. His words at the

beginning of the play while referring to Aparna's sorrow over the loss of a

goat, reveal his identity: "Could I make the goat live again, by giving up a

portion of my life, gladly would I do it? But how can I restore that which

mother herself has taken ?" (P. 15 1

Jaisingh served Kali since his infancy. He is a sensitive and dedicated

devotee who is ready to extend his help - whatever kind it is - to the needy

and is prepared to sacrifice his life too. This is actually used by Tagore as a

primitive dimension of his character in the play. Jaisingh'~ estimation of

King and God also put him in a discomposure in the course of action. He is

not a kind of man resorting to blasphemy. Moved by Aparna's love of an

animal and its loss and also hurt by blasphemy made by Aparna - he is seen

torn between two tendencies.

But Aparna, an ordinary little girl is endowed with human love for

animals. Any person having love for an animal can well extend his love to

human being also. A greater human being is one who can love animals more

than even humanity and this embodiment of human love is robbed of her

wealth of love by Raghupathi's men for animal sacrifice to the Goddess Kali.

She is daring enough to question Jnisingh and the King. "Mother, art thou

there to rob a poor girl's love? Then where is the throne, before which to

condemn thee? Tell me King." (P. 16)

Bluntly attacking the very Kingship and even the entire world she

further says, on seeing the blood - streaking goat of her: "0, dear darling,

when you trembled and cried for dear life, why did your call not reach my

heart through the whole deaf world?" (P.16)

Jaisingh's one of the two tendencies is manifested at her agony: "Come

with me my child, let me do for you what 1 can. Help must come from man

when it is denied from Gods." (P. 17)

Thus he is a victim of two tendencies - one a staunch devotional love

as a devotee of Goddess Kali since his infancy and the other is his human 10-

for the needy and depressed in preference to divine love. The inner conflict

goes on till the end of the play.

Jaisingh is brought up by the whole love of Raghupathi and dearer to

him, yet on the other side he is more drawn to the king with his patriotic

fervour and faith. As B.C. Chakraborthy has rightly observed :

"This proclamation is dceply resented by Raghupathi,

the priest and this is how the conflict starts in the

beginning of the drama. There is a deeper conflict,

however, in the mind of Jaisingh, the servant of the

temple between blind obedience on the one hand, and

dictates of reason on the ~ t h e r . " ~

Jaisingh himself admits before Raghupathi: "The child rises its arms

to the full moon sitting upon his father's lap. You are my father, and my full

moon is King Govinda." (P. 25)

Yet he cannot obey the king's order of ban of sacrifice in the temple,

because 11c is equally druwn lo lhigliupulhi's purutltnl love since his infancy.

He cannot overlook the love, affection and above all human faith nurtured in

deeper heart. Morcovcr, hc is put to a rational and individual thinking

confronting both the pulls. Here Raghupathi tactfully handles Jaisingh and

permndcs him to come to his side. Rilghupathi rcfcrs to the King's misgiving

thus before Jaisingh:

"The shadows of evil have thickened. The King's throne

is rising its insolent head above the temple altar. Have

only men and demons combined to usurp God's

dominions in this world and is heaven powerlees to

defend its honour ? But there remain the brahmins,

though the Gods be absent...." (P. 23)

Poor Raghupathi whose sole aim is to possess domination of religion

and scriptures which supported the importance of a priest, cannot bear the

supremacy of the kingship nor even that of'the goddess. In the name of

Goddess he wants to exercise thc supremacy and she doubts and challenges

and even ridicules the sudden flash of the king (Whence comes.-.this loathing

all of a sudden).

The king is touched with a sudden spark of awakening as we usually

witness in the protagonists or in the major characters of Tagore's plays. The

king on seeing the divine face of Aparna who is an incarnation of human

sympathy and love-supreme, love of animal undergoes a spiritual

transformation in the form of a sudden intuition and orders banning blood-

shed of any socrificc -animal or hurnnn in his kingdom. When this decision of

the authorities is challenged by Raghupathi and all others in the play

including the ministers, hc could only say out of his intuitive power: "No

dream, father, it is awakening. Mother came to me in a girl's disguise, and

told me that blood she cannot nlffcr." (P. 18)

The king experienced this power of intuition, in a way a mystical

intuition and it boosts him up with a spirit of force to forge ahead with this

intuitive call within.

But this intuitive call of the Goddess also creates an inner conflict. .. the conflict between his promise made before goddess Kali banning 8scrifice

"d his wife(queen1 who too promised sacrifice of three hundred kids and one

hundred buffaloes before mother Kali in order to become a 'Mother'. The

king overwhelmed with her unnatural desire simply leaves her to her eternal

fate. She is in tune with the musings of the priest Raghupathi w h ~ pays

eulogy to her worship. He says that: "The worship offered by the most ragged

of all beggars is not less precious than yours, Queen. But the misfortune is

that mother has been deprived." (P.30)

Raghupathi is most sagacious and persuasive and so traps her by

saying to the Queen: "At the merest glance of our eyes Gods are saved from

ignominy and the brahmin is restored to his sacred office." (P, 32)

Boosted up in such a way Gunnvathi could not appreciate her husband.

She could not but criticise his approach. She even scorns at him and asks him

not to show his face, but immediately she realizes her mistake placed between

two tendencies and begs pardon and justifies her angry mood: "The wanted

love takes the disguise of anger." (P. 33)

Thus she is torn between two pulls - pull of religion - divine love and

love of husband (desire for becoming mother) by worshipping mother Kali on

one side, and of being faithful to her husband on the other side. She cannot

but stand alone discarding her husband king, an embodiment of human love,

sympathy. Because of this she could not but beg pardon falling at his feet for

having got angry with him just before. She feels happy when the king says

that death is sweeter to him in the absence of her love. He is a man who

humanises divine love and fmds divinity through human love. As a fulfledged

husband and a romantic mystic he seeks pleasure, and peace in w~n~an ' s

grace. "Woman's smile removes all curse from the house, her love is God's

grace." (P. 33)

The religion separating the two lovers or couples or any friends is no

more a religion and the demands of such worship are even detrimental. He

finds bliss in pure love towards the human beings and animals. But love of

his wife is no parallel and unique. But for such a noble love, he can not even

find peace and solace. He says to the queen:

"I would die, if I lost my trust in you, I know my love,

that clouds are for moments, and the Sun is for all

days." (P.33)

Gunavathi loves her husband more than any one else in life yet she

could not bestow the same faith and ' trust ' as the king puts in her. She is

again and again, despite her everlasting faith and love towards him, given to

her strong pull of orthodox systems nurtured for ages. While she hugs his

wedded love, she finds fault with him and clashes with him: "The custom

that comes, through all ages is not the king's own. ...... can you remain silent,

proud man, refusing entreaties of love in favour of beauty which is doubtful?

Then go, go from me." (P. 34)

Commenting on the contradiction in the characterisation of the play

Prof. Naravene Viswanath says :

''Vi8arja-n has intensity, even violence. When we read

this play, our first impression is one of harshness. But

a close study shows us that none of the characters is

treated in a wholly negative manner. The only possible

exception is queen Gunavathi. But even the queen is

shown in a mellower light at the close of the play."6

These two tendencies of Gunavathi... the two contradictions are

sagaciously exploited to the benefit of the selfish ends of Raghupathi. While

balancing between these two tendencies and contraries both king and queen .r

give a way to the advantage of Raghupathi. Exploiting the queen's belief and

respect for custom and worldly desire of becoming a mother and declaring an

everlasting supremacy of priesthood or religion over the kingship are central

to his ( Raghupathi's ) thought. The customs and supremacy of the priest

through ancestors for ages are weapons to his plans, propagation and

pursuing goals. By using such weapons he is successful in converting all

royalty to his side. He convinces them by saying that it is a sacred love and

it is above all powers and positions.

Rnghupnthi is so strategic in his art of enchanting the royal persons in

the name of Goddess. He traps Jaisingh by saying that he need not seek

sanction to do God's service. He is so careful that he sees his best that

Jaisingh is far from being moved by Apama's tender heart. He says that she

has come to steal Jaisingh's heart from Goddess. His very first encounter

with Nakshtra: "Last night the Goddess told me in a dream that you shall

become king within a week." (P. 45) .... enthralled him (Nakshathra) in the

net designed. In turn the statement that the Goddess is longing for the king's

blood is his convincing words to Nakshatra. Though the king's brother

Nakshatra could stand firm, Jaisingh is shocked and stood still on hearing the

instruction that the king should be killed (by Jaisingh).

The most hesitated brother Nakshatra, who fully satiated with what

he is given and has no over-ambitions of becoming king, is boosted up and

harboured by ambitions, and cvcn hccomcs silcnt to the suggested plan of

assassination of the king. Raghupathi handles not only Nakshatra but also

the utterly shocked Jaisingh and activates him towards murdering the king.

Jaisingh unable to see the brother killing his own brother criticises

Raghupathi that he is resorting to sin. But later on keenly learning the

doctrine of ein lectured by Raghupathi, Jaisingh becomes an unwilling victim

knowing full well that he has become a toy for realizing Raghupathi's wishes.

He mildly argues:

"Is then love or falsehood and mercy a mockery,

.............y ou are playing with my heart ..... Master, I

know you wanted my heart to break its bounds in pain

overflowing my mother's feet. This is the true sacrifice.

But king's blood! The mother who is thirsting for our

love, you accuse of blood thirstiness! " (P. 50)

He even suspects whether the Goddess is really seeking king's blood.

He seems to lose faith in the words of Raghupathi yet he is taken away by his

instruction though not convinced with his doctrine of sin and laws of

scriptures. The two worlds in him put him to an unbearable chagrin.

He could not but endorse his faith in Raghupathi, but his human love

rooted deep in his heart docs not allow brother to kill his own brother, he

himself wants to carry on the task of shedding the king's blood, though

hesitated by Raghupathi who rared him from childhood and nurtured

parental love for Jaisingh.

Naravene Viswanath has rightly observed: "Jaisingh is put in a larger

conflict between secular power and religious authority."'

Torn by the two worlds within, Jaisingh has misgivings about the very

love he philosophises:

"No master, do not tell me of love. Let me think of only

duty. Love like the green grass, and the trees, and life's

music, is only for the surface of the world. It comes and

vanishes like a dream. But underneath is a duty like

the rude layers of stone, like a huge load that nothing

can move, " (P. 55)

The inner conflict between love and duty puts him in a chagrin but is

activated towards duty, however, unlawful it is, instead of enjoying noble and

fullfledgcd lovc. The mystical note to bc obscrvcd here is that his spirit is

subjected to anguish as it is given to ignoble duty in preference to noble love.

Commenting on the conflicting feelings of Jaisingh, Narvene

Viswanath says: "It is the perennial opposition between the inner and outer

sides of religioneW8

Govinda too, like Malini ready to accommodate the invader Kemankar,

is ready to be offered to the Goddess when he heard that Nakhshatra is going

to kill him as an offer to Goddesses m i . He says to Chandrapal: "I cannot

blame him, for a man loses his human when it concerns his Gods." (P. 56)

Addressing the image of (Goddess Kali) he further speaks: "When

king's blood is shed by a brother's hand, then lust for blood will disclose its

demon face, leaving its disguise as a goddess. If such be your wish, I bow my

head," (P. 57)

The same tone of doctrine of God is voiced by Jaisingh who is unable

to kill the king and frees him without killing. Jaisingh suspects the

Goddess's longing for man's blood. He says:

"0, illusion, and for him become true. Art thou so

irredeemably false, that not even my love can send the

slightest tremor of life through the nothingness?" (P.66)

On seeing his dear darling Aparna for whom he nurtured his love in

his mind and heart for long, he pathetically cries out:

"For you are true, and truth can not be banished. We

enshrined falsehood in our temple, with all our

devotion ... Do you miss some God, who is God no

longer? But is there any God in this little world of

ours? ... For in their heaven there are no men, no

creatures who can suffer." (P. 67)

The dignity of man and divinity of man is greater than God. God is

not God when there is no room for humanity. Love of man and life of man

is greater than worshipping God, and depriving all human dimensions will be

only an illusion. Jaisingh comes out from this illusion for the first time. He

wmts to leave such a temple end go along with Apama, an incarnation of

human love, but it is not possible for him as he is chained on the other side

by his promise made to his master Raghupathi who instigated him to action

by his piercing words: "Deeds are better, however cruel they may be than the

hell of thinking and doubting." (P. 52)

Jaisingh filled with abundant love for Aparna treated her to be a real

Goddess as she is an incarnation of love. Her earnest request for living

'together in a separate world of love and peace cannot be fulfilled (by Jaisingh)

though inside he has a longing for it, because his only object is t p carry on the

mission promised to his master.

Jaisingh, an embodiment of love and humanity and a noble-minded

loyal servant of the king becomes a subservient tool to Raghupathi, the most

inhuman being. The noble-minded man devoid of noble action, has to take

up ignoble action. This bundle of contradictions and mysterious ways of life

make us reflect on myslicul sphcruu. U.C. Cl~ukruborthy fecls Ihd:

"The sense of desolation deepens and his mental

anguish becomes ficrcc ns he prepares himself for the

final catastrophe. He knows that there is no escape for

him save in death."'

But the driving force innate in him (Jaisingh) makes him take up a

reasonable stand. Neither did he allow the king's brother Nakshatra to kill

his own brother, nor did he himself resort to killing the noble minded king as

per the instructions of his master. The driving force innate in him only

makes him daringly and spiritfully end his life sacrificing not the bloodshed

of any other creature, but his own love for Aparna and his love for his master,

an external Justice in the eyes of humanity. He does not treat death as the

end of life nor is it a fearful or painful thing. He says to Aparna, his darling:

"Let the silence of two eternities, life and death touch each other." (P. 68)

lh.~~ the mystical veins are discernible from Jaisingh's activated noble-

dimensions of life on radical spheres where a simultaneous farce of life is also

distinctly hinted. The apparent illusions of life and love, faith and loyalty,

God and worship are not really so. The real dimension of these will find their

fuller and true expressions at some stage of life and therein lies the mystical

vision of life.

Edward Thompson remarked that the change is 'sudden and

unreasonable'. Refuting the charge Sen Gupta says that : "The seeds of the

change have been sown in the earliest part of the drama. Although

Raghupathi's one vision is to uphold the traditional religion, the priest has a

personal life. ... . ,910

The self immolation of Jaisingh has brought about a sudden

transformation in Raghupathi. Melted on the immature death of the mature

Jaisingh, Raghupathi's mystic vision finds the realization of the fact that

"love is greater than hatred and humanity is greater than age old conventions

and orthodoxy.""

The dramatic cross-currents generate in the delineation of the two

radically opposed attitudes (Raghupathi and Jaisingh) to the worship of the

creator (Kali) of both the sacrificer and the sacrificed. The two opposed

modalities of divine worship form the dramatic whole and represent

'Counter-active sensibilities'.

Aparna is the living symbol of love and the last gift of Jaisingh to his

master (preceptor). So B.C.Chakraborthy rightly said:

"Indeed, Jaisingh's sacrifice would have lost all its

dramatic significance it had failed to bring about

transformation in the character of Raghupathi. To my

mind, therefore, Rnghupathi's change is not

unreasonable, it is on the other hand the only logical

and inevitable conclusion of the play."'2

In this context Masti Venkatesa Iyengar rightly commented:

"The man who could sit behind the image and pretend

while himself talking that it talked could not have had

the high opinion of the image that Raghupathi is shown

to have had, nor could he have expected very much from

it. To this extent there was nothing for him to be

disillusioned about, in regard to the image."l8

Raghupathi who once longed for the domination of brahminhood and

priesthood at the cost of divinity and even kingship, now longs for love.

Realizing the power of love and the ultimate peace and solace it gives, he beg&

for the boon of love. He says to Jaisingh Iaying-dead: "Man is the most

miserable of all beggars who has to beg for love." (P. 77) RI g=* 09 v 569

Once Raghupathi was scornful and felt that Aparna, had stolen the

heart of Jaisingh from Goddess (actually from him), now requests and begs

her to take him out from Jaisingh and let them go away to live together. The

blind believers of God, Gunavathi and Raghupathi repent a lot and they even

suspect God now and find fault with Goddess Kali scornfully. While

Gunavathi is in search of Goddess, Raghupathi makes piercing cry: "She is

nowhere - neither above, nor below ... Goddess? If there were any true

Goddess anywhere in the world, could she bear this thing to usurp her

name"? (P. 82)

Raghupathi realizes that there is no Goddess in the temple. She is here

in our noble hearts. She is represented through the embodiment of love of

Aparna who says to him: "Fnthcr, leavc this temple. Let us go away from

here" (P. 83) suggesting that God is not in the temple, God is in the love of

humanity.

It is said that only a ripe fruit falls to the ground. In the same way the

ripe ego comes out of the shell. It is mystically paradoxical that before one

loses one's ego, one has to attain it. Here Raghupathi attained it at the ripe

stage. Raghupathi's ego was so fragile that he was on the verge of death and

was clinging to it to the last breaking stage. But the death of hie dear

(Jaisingh) brought about so sudden a transformation that Raghupathi proved

his mettle, he proved that he was more than he appeared and that there was

something in him which was immortal, indestructible, external because

dropping the ego is the greatest act a man can do.

A weak ego cannot be dissolved and it becomes a problem. The

playwright dclincnted thc ego ol'R~gl~uputhi to u pcak point so that integrity

is attained when it is dissoIved. The peak of ego in Raghupathi is dissolved

on the sudden transformation at the death of Jaisingh and finds an integrity

in equally attacking his own superstition and previous blind worship without

soul. He now says:

"Look, how she stands there, the silly stone - deaf,

dumb and blind - the whole sorrowing world weeping

at her door, the noblest hearts wrecking themselves at

her stony feet." (P. 80)

Raghupathi's mind is now full of logic. Mind is always logical but life

is also always illogical. They never meet. By dropping the support of the mind

Raghupathi attained the support of the Divine 'Kali' . The integrity attained

by Raghupathi made him see the real divinity.

The symbolic meaning of 'Kali' is - the mother of lime. Eternity is

the mother of Time. Time is just a reflection of the eternal. Another meaning

of Kali is death. 'Kali' here is symbolically interpreted as the eternity and

death. Through the death of Jaisingh, Kali has shown Raghupathi the

eternal way of life. The egolessness made him a fearless pilgrim of the eternal

mystery of life. The true concept of dignity which is the fruit of a true religion

is mystically suggested. Raghupathi drifts towards 'Samadhi' at the close of

the play. Shedding all dualities, contradictions and paradoxicalities innate in

man's life, Raghupathi attained the advaitic stage of life (non - duality).

As Tagore said in Sadhana: "The idea of God that man has in his

being is the wonder of all wondcrs. He has fell in the depth of his life that

what appears as imperfect is the manifestation of the perfect: just as a man

who has an ear for music realizes ihe perfection of a song, which in fact he is

only listening to a mccession of notes." (P. 68)

The mystical paradox is that Goddess Kali whom Raghupathi blindly

worshipped earlier really loved him and so punished him. In the very

contradiction of God and the devotee there is an affinity. His ego being

dissolved at its peak, he realized the real Kali, the embodiment of death and

eternity "to kill the falsehood that sucks the life-blood of man." (P. 84)

What Tagore said in Stray Birds is applicable to Raghupathi and his

Goddess Kali: "God says to man, I heal you, therefore I hurt: love you,

therefore I punish. "I4

About Raghupathi's disillusionment and transformation, K.P.K.

Menon says: "His (Raghupathi) despair and disillusionment are inevitable

and so too the transformation that makes him destroy the image in which he

has no iota of faith left."16

Raghupathi realized that divinity is in humanity. He finds the truth

that: "She (Goddess) has burst her cruel prison of stone, and come back to the

woman's heart:" (P. 84)

Humanising the divinity is the final realization of Raghupathi whose

illusion disappears from his mind as he comes to know the 'reality' - hidden

deep in him. He out of spiritual reality, feels that Jaisingh's life is a sacrifice

only to "kill the falsehood that sucks the life-blood of man." (P. 84)

Tagore believes that any understanding or transformation is possible

provided that he redizes the divinity in humanity. In his lecture delivered at

Andhra U n i d t y , Waltair Tagore talked about the nature of man, good and

evil innate in him. He said (recorded in Man): "complete understanding of

Goodness is not possible in the realm of nature. On the other hand,

acceptance of evil makes man something else - something which the

Upanishads call 'falling short of one's true meaning. The truth which we

understand by the term man is degraded in one who identifies himself with

evil. Goodness lies in realizing one's self. The humanity is universal and of

all times; degradation is in the failure to realize the universal man. All this

would have no meaning unless man had a spiritual self over and above his

natural self."16

This noble realization and humane divinity is brought to light to the

world by the very villainous character (as common in all Tagore's plays),

Raghupathi who was once a staunch and blind believer of Goddess Kali. The

idol of Kali is thrown into pieces by the very long-standing worshipper which

is symbolic of the falct that idol worship is to be discarded. Any custom or

religion or God demanding bloodshed or harm to humanity is to be discarded.

As Sanyal Hirankumar says:

"If the drama is remarkable for the conflict between

individuals, though thc effcct is somewhat marred by

long passages of declamation, it is even more

remarkable for the conflict of ideas. Rabindranath

Tagore here offers n thcsis, in his own medium of poetry

and drama against ideal worship, the whole basis of

which seems to be shattered by the agonized

questioning of Raghupathi's disciple, the innocent

victim of his fatalism and by his own terrible

disillusionment. "I7

The sacrifice of Jaisingh is symbolic of the fact that life is to be lived

and it is lived only in human love but not amidst cravings of possessions or

dominations of religious dogmas. His sacrifice of life is a direction to their

change of attitudes of religion and concept of God.

Unlike the traditional dramas, Tagore's Sanyasi and Raghupathi

inspite of their psychic aberrancy are not destroyed in the end but they are

endowed with irresistible spiritual force that causes the ultimate redemption

of the protagonists. Both Sacrifice and Malini are in tune with such ethnic

ethos. Endowed with mystico-religious philosophy these two plays present

the climactic transformation of values marked by a truly indigenous spirit fa ;EsYPLI?

with a '~&e ~mpress'.

While Sacrifice ends with Raghupathi's rkalization of the true self,

Malini starts with awakening of Malini's supreme self which has attained the

luminous seeing through spiritual enlightenment. What the playwright hints

in Sacrifice is further elaborated and mystically developed in Malini with

a symmetrical plot. As Masti Venkatesa Iyengar says, "The play bears the

mark of experienced workmanship. The plot is imagined to describe the

probable conditions of the time when Buddhism began to spread in India.

The story is well-knit and the frame work of the play is strong, Malini,

Kemankar and Supriya are cast in a powerful rn~uld."~'

Adopted from the Buddhist legend of Mahavastu Avadana the play

is based on a dream Tagore had in London. The play analyses that true

meaning of a living religion is the play's principal ethical issue because, as

Dr.S.RadhMshnan holds, great truths are hidden away in the fogs of misty

metaphysics.

In Malini a new dimension of religion is focused. One finds a logical

discussion of Tagore's religious spirit in a mystical sense throughout the play.

As K.R. Srinivas Iyenger says:

"In Malini again in Sacrifice a new ethic challenges

an outmoded old ethics : and once more it is a tale told

by an idiot full of sound and fury but also signifying a

good deal. "I"

The protagonist of the ploy is Molini, n young damsel blessed with a

mystical vision of love, religion and of life. The character of Malini, despite

some misconceptions is quite interesting and appealing. George Jean Nathen

appreciates the character to be quite convincing. He says: "It is a beautiful

play, one of the peeks of Tagore's achievement. His imagery is evocative. 'The

moon has just come out of those clouds. Great peace is in the sky'. It seems

to gather all the world in its arms, under the fold of one vast rn~onlight."~~

The characters and the situations are delineated and dramatised in

such a way as to illustrate Tagore's ideas. Though religious bigotry is a

constant theme of discussion, the dualities and mystical experiences in

realising the truth duly coming out of illusion are shown with dramatic

~ubtlety in the play.

As M.K. Naik says: "As in the case of human love, Tagore shows two

phases of religion also one true and the false."21

Remarking that Malini is the vehicle of idea (utterance of Buddhism)

Edward Thompson says: "To read Malini is to understand the opposition his

work has aroused. There can be no question as to the meaning of a poet who

so plainly identifies himself with a thesis and who refuses to stand apart from

his theme. "22

The very beginning of the play Malini is exciting with a hint towards

a new dawn of religious spirit nurtured in Malini. As in the ease of all other

protagonists of Tagore, Malini too has a sudden awakening of religious spirit

which would vibrate the society already permeated with traditional roots for

long.

As h'as been generally assumed Malini did not pick up the new creed

anywhere. The queen feels religion is not a thing that one has to find by

seeking. This new light has come to Malini of its own, like sun-light. Malini

feels the spiritual thrill and utters in that blissful rapture:

"The moment has come for me, and my life like the dew

drop upon a lotus leaf, is trembling upon the heart of

this great time. I shut my eyes and seem to hear the

tumult of the sky, and there is an anguish in my heart,

I know not for

The very first utterance of Malini speaks of her inner urge she feels

and her mystical vision of her life on radical sphere. Her sixth sense or

intuition says to her that she is like a dew drop on a lotus leaf and the time,

the most powerful deciding factor of life and the world would show her the

right path-destination of life. What Shakespeare says 'that there is divinity

that shapes our ends, rough hew them how we will' - the same is suggested

by Tagore in connection with Malini's course of action or her choice of

religion in the impending course of life.

Malini's mystic sense also visualizes the probable furore or outburst of

negative ways against her call of a new course towards a new dawn of

religion. But her spiritual anguish puts her into a mystical and traumatic

experience. Thus the mystical dimension of Malini is effectively suggested at

the outset of the play. A Shakespearean premonitor is also hinted that we

may find a lot of hustle and bustle in expounding her new relimous spirit and

the probable commotions there on, and here serene and tranquil philosophy

of her 'new creed'.

Batta S. Krishna is right in his observation, "As the playwright has in

his mind the story of Buddha, his heroine follows almost the same path so far

as the various phases of her life are con~erned."~'

The new creed that she has adopted is Buddhism. She has been much

inspired by the religion of humanity. She is strongly determined to take

this new course and live in the new light. Malini has undergone an

enlightenment.

According to an ancient Indian mystic Astavakra, enlightenment does

not occur as per one's nature. Man is enlightenment and that is why it can

happen suddenly and it happens without cause. Whatever is attained through

a cause will be lost as and when the cause is destroyed. It is natural for a

man who has the divine experience. This ig what one can observe in Malini.

The queen (Mother of Malini) is mildly shocked at her sudden

awakening, light of new dawn. She could not first understand that all great

and spiritual flashes come to the noble-minded like sudden sparks of

thunders. She too questions her daughter.

"Where she picked up her new creed which goes against all our holy

books."" She even criticises that Buddhist monks practise black arts and

spoil men's minds by always misleading the people. The king also warns

Malini not to take 'perilous path'. He forces with the mystical vision that

some misconceptions prevailin in the royal house will create a storm - an

embarrassing situation. With this suggestive inner tone, he speaks: "My

daughter, storm clouds are gathering over the king's house."26

Tagore is very mystical in using the words like 'storm', 'clouds' in the

context of impending furore over the concept of religion which would pave a

way for a new dawn. The stormy clouds will clash, burst and melt away in

rain and after shedding the outbursts the weather becomes pleasant, calm,

serene and tranquil - and so, the dawn (the next day morning) will be fresh,

refreshing and peaceful, like "enlm of mind, nll passion spent". This hint ...... eternal hint is unconsciously made by the hesitant king who does not know

the eternal destiny and the divine truth of his own words. Herein lies the

real and deep-rooted mysticism of Rabindranath Tagore.

The king warns his daughter Malini not to rouse the public hatred and

hesitation. His innate parental love of her makes him speak out:

"If you must bring your new creed into this land of the

old, let it not come like a sudden flood threatening thode

who dwell on the bank. Keep your faith to your own

self." (P. 58, Act I)

Again one finds the world of two visions - and dualities which would

confound one into a new stream of thought while living in the same stream.

The king suggests if she were to follow and expound her new creed to this old,

she has to convince them by slow degrees in a credible way, but nbt like a

sudden flood which will be detrimental, because the people have been

accustomed to the old systems, old bent-of mind, traditional way of life, God

etc. Sudden flash, however great and noble it is, will only brhg in calamity

and negative impact on them. Being habituated to 'the old' they still stay at

the bank - not swim through the river, symbolic of the fact that they are still

immature and ill-experienced, ill-spirited on the banks of spiritual river - which is living and ever flowing dynamically reaching the ultimate

destination of God of sea, that is the ultimate reality. Had they at least once

stepped into the spiritual river they would have realized the depth of river of

spirituality and divinity.

The queen realizing immersion and the depth of inner spiritual

enlightenment of her daughter, feels convinced of it and reconciles to the

situation of sudden transformation of Malini, and requests the king to let her

pursue her own path'. She even questions the threatenings of the agitated

Brahmins: "Are all truths confined only in their musty old books? Let them

fling away their worm - eaten creeds and come and take their lessons from

this child." (P. 59, Act I)

Feeling convinced of her divine spirit, she further warns her husband

(the king): "she is not a common girl - she is a pure flame of fire --- don't

despise her." (P. 59, Act I)

Both the king and the queen are bewildered at the demand of the

brahmins to banish Malini from the kingdom, but the spiritual stamina of

Malini does not shrink. As the the brahmins shout for the banishment,

Malini says to the king: "Leave me without regret, like the tree that sheds its

flowers unheeding. Let me go out to all men - for the world has claimed me

from the king's hands." (P. 60, Act I)

In the queen's view, Malini is an 'image of light'. She feels that the

brahmins should learn afresh what truth is. The queen is taken aback at the

spiritual enlightenment of Malini, an image of light to the world. The King

too ultimately realizes the prevailing innocence in the world (or in

thcn~uc.lves).

"Yes even as the night bears the dawn that is not of the night, but of

all the world." (P. 61, Act I)

While attempting to attack the king and force him to banish his

daughter Malini for heresy there is a heated discussion between Kemankar

and Supriya. Supriya questions Kemankar whether it is religion that seeks

the banishment of 'an innocent girl'. Supriya is firm in his action, stable in

his attitude. He says that he does not admit that truth supports the shrilling

voice. He feels that any creed depending on force for existence is not a

religion at all.

The brahmins take the issue as 'rank insolvency'. Kemankar warns

Supriya to keep silent because the time is evil. They are strongly.adamant in

their resolution of banishment. Supriya addresses them attacking their lack

of reason: "You will determine truth and draw reason by your united ~houts."

(P. 64, Act I)

Inspired and instigated by Kemankar all brahmins gather the strength

united and arouse the shilling shouts demanding the banishment of Malini.

Supriya strongly and authentically supports Malini and says: "Does she not

maintain that truth and love are the body and soul of religion? If so, is it not

the essence of all creeds?(P. 66, Act I). At the dogmatic approach and

superficial spiritual attainments of brahmins who believe in a religion very

loyally, blindly and adamantly but not humanly and spiritually, Supriya feels

bitter and openly objects to their wrong path of religion. Attacking their

wrong notion of religion which has demanded the cruelty and inhumanity,

Supriya comments on their illusion thus: "Of all things the blind certitude of

stupidity is the hardest to bear. " (P. 66, Act I)

Kemankar, the negative character and champion of the old religious

creed could not but yield to Supriya's ~teadfast and stable minded view of a

new creed and utters these words without his own conscious effort:

"Religion is one in its essence, but difl'erent in its form.. . what if you have a wcll spring of your own in your

heart, spurn not your neighbours who must go for their

draught water to the ancestral pond with the green of

its gradual slopes mellowed by ages and its ancient trees

bearing ebrnal fmit." (P. 66, Act I)

Once again the mystical sense of the playwright is discernible from the

khnique of extracting the stark reality of spiritualism and the divine status

of the already existing-creed through a blind belief and steadfast and stable-

mind of a negative character. Neither in the negative character nor in the

positive character (flat or round) do we find any depressed mood nor

disheartened approach of life. Both, like South and North poles clash together

with equal strength ultimately aiming at optimist goal throwing a spark of

life-force at all stages of action (life).

While the daring and adamant spirit in Kemankar takes its roots in

him, brahmins feel divinely inspired on seeing Malini. Supriya believes that

he could find the divinity in her when the brahmins undergo a spiritual

transformation on seeing her divine face and observing her divine approach

towards those who wanted to declare a banishment. Commenting on Malini's

influence 'n Supriya, A.N. Gupta says: "She is an embodiment of the religion

of love which embraces in its fold all. This religion is the living and personal

religion quite different from the dead dogma of the scriptures and it is this

which makes a strong appeal to him (Supriya).""

Supriya too says that at last he has found the divine breathing alive

in the 'Living world' of man. But the brahmins' sudden change of attitude

is doubted by many critics who term it as incredible and inarticulate. But all

the mysterious things in the world are incredible and inarticulate in nature.

Masti Venkatesa Iyengar too feels that: "The statement that the army was at

first inclined to take the side of orthodox, but on seeing the princess decided

to support her seems also fanciful. "2'

The simplicity of thought, the humility of emotion; the love of

humanity, the maturity of humanity and above all the sanctity and nobility

of Malini have swept the brahmins away into a world of divinity to undergo

a mystical transformation. She is not proud of her divine charms or any

humanity. She even asks the brahmins to teach her how to find out the

sorrowing world; and she will make their home her own.

As K.R. Srinivas Iyengar says: "Most of them are dazzled by her beauty

of holiness and are converted to the new faith and hail her as Goddess and

mother and the divine soul of this world."28

She is like a moon come out of the clouds as she further adds: "I seem

to have come down like a sudden shower from a cloud of dreams, into this

world of men, by the roadside." (P. 72, Act I) The Brahmins are also

mystically impressed and address her: "You are our star to lead across the

pathless sea of life."(P. 80, Act I) The brahmins repent a lot and immediately

find themselves in a remorse. They are so repentant that they curse

themselves for their wrong. But to Kemankar their act is sinful and foolish.

He thinks that "the whole town has gone mad and is lighting her festival

lamps at the funeral pyre of her own sacred faith." (P. 77, Act I) He even

warns Supriya not to be drawn away from his plans or goal by 'the novelty of

falsehood'.

Supriya is a faithful friend who does not like to get rid of childhood

friendship for thc ~ n k c or a ncw crccd or novclly. Hc inaistod on th~ ir

permanent affinity despite clashes or conflicts. But Kemankar while going

to a foreign country with a mission to bring the army to wage an attack, has

misgivings in his mind on the stark realities of life. He philosophises: "In evil

times the strongest bonds give way. Brothers strike brothers and friends

turn against friends .... shall I find my friend watching for me with the lamp

lighted? I take away that hope with me." (P. 79, Act I).

Both Supriya and Kemankar have been placed amidst two contrary

worlds. Supriya is torn between his childhood friendship andaduty (sense of

true religion). The contrary feelings in Kemankar are, waging a war on

Supriya and Malini in the interest of an age old tradition and ancestral

religion and misgivings in heart because of bad patch of time - suggestive of

innate contrariness in life.

The disappearance of Malini for a shorter time and her being brought

back by the brahmins has a symbolic suggestion that she is an angel who

visited the man of the world. She has broken the walls separating the man

of the world and the kingly mansions. When the queen embraces Malini on

seeing her after the search, Malini says: "Mother, I have brought the outer

world into your house. I am one with the life of this world." (P. 81, Act I)

The queen observes the flame of life in Malini who has realized that the world

is too vast. That is why she frankly admits before the prospective follower

that she has nothing great to preach and she wants to learn from him who is

wiae and learned. In a conversation with him she says: "Alas, the more you

are me, the more I feel poverty. Where is that voice in me, which came down

from heaven, like an unseen flash of lighting, into my heart?" (P. 84, Act I)

She herself feels isolated in the large world and so seeks the help of

Supriya, blessed with undaunted spirit and zeal.

The element of contraries finds its expression when Malini, the light

of image and divine incarnation to the brahmins, too feels alone and seeks the

help of her own follower. What is more mystical when such a woman of spirit

and divine light is pushed into feelings of despair pathetically!

Malini is emptied of her religious euphoria evinced in the beginning of

the play. As the play advances she becomes a better human behg without her

previous halo of divinity. In a dramatic crisis she in a moment of her crucial

ordeal at the end realizes and comes out before Supriya that she feels more

poverty when she is asked more. Malini's vibrating realization of decline of

her previous heavenly and luminous plight as the ship of salvation of

humanity is the most baffling point in the play and it serves a specific

dramatic purpose and organic dramatic design.

"There are times when despair comes to choke all the life-currents:

when suddenly, amidst crowds of men, my eyes turn upon myself and I am

frightened, Will you befriend me in those moments of blankness and utter me

one word of hope that will bring me back to life." (P. 85, Act 11)

As Edward Thompson says of her 'inconsistent attitudes, "Malini

herself is a very unconvincing fi y re till towards the end, where she wavers

from her half attraction towards Supriya drawn by the fierce strength of

Kemankar. Indeed, that one scene - where by her simple appearance she

wins over the brahmins who are clamouring for her banishment is almost

ridiculoue; it could not have happened could not be credible, unless with

some-one a hundred fold more alive and dominating than this shadow girl.""

But, it is characteristic of the true mystics to be suddenly exalted and

after experiencing the mystical visions for a few hours, they feel melancholic.

It is due to their spiritual realization of truths of life. If the upanishadic

discernings by which Tagore is influenced are traced out, one can feel

convinced by Malini's character traits and we do not feel it ridiculous and

incredible.

The two contrary feelings are discernible from Malini's words. The

once divine sparks of Malini now seem to vanish apparently because of the

'evils of time' and speaks in a depressed mood seeking somebody's (here her

own followers) supporting words. This mystic'al temperament is very

frequently and conspicuously noticeable in all his protagonists. Tagore here

wants to humanise the spirituality presenting the stark realities of life and

psychological analysis of his protagonists and herein lies the mystical vision

of life in radical veins. However, the depressed moods are transient and

momentary in a strong willed character and so finally they are boosted with

undaunted hope and spirit with which they realise the goal of life.

The conflicting attitudes of each character apart from the central

character of Malini, strive for a fuller understanding of the dramatic design.

The dramatic intent is continuously sustained in the play by the interaction

of these characters over Malini. The violent reaction of orthodoxy to Malini's

religious conversion which is confined to the background in the expository

scene has found its surging manifestation in the second Act. The first part

of the play has a pivotal aspect of religion with Malini's dominating action,

whereas the second part of the concentration of action drifts towards

friendship and fidelity. The play has both inner and outer action.

Malini wants to know much about Kemankar from Supriya who

impartially gives a clear picture of Kemankar. He says that Kemankar is a

man of steadfastness, stable and firm in his views and beliefs. He says that

it was Kemankar who remained unmoved amidst all agitators as brahmins

turned rebellious first, and turned followers later. She could understand the

character of Kemankar as a lover of a determined policy and honest

gentleman and a faithful friend. It was his strong faith and steadfastness

that brought him to limelight in his trials. Because of his great nobility she

could not but beg pardon of the king without giving him capital punishment

at the end of the play.

On the contrary, Supriya follows a good path but betrays his friend for

the sake of nobility. As Masti Venkotesa Iyengar says: "Supriya loves and

honours Kemankar for his qualities, yet leaning towards Malini in

admiration for firmness, sways now this way now that."'"

Supriyn reveals the confidential mnltcr to Mnlini and the King that

Kemankar is going to bring foreign army to the lands to attack the King and

Malini. But Malini is unmoved or touched upon, and moreover she is ready

to accommodate them without fearing what waits ahead.

The King is thankful to Supriya and wants to offer him a great gift of

her child to Supriya for whom Malini is a noble and pious deity. Supriya

says: "Lady mine, you have the plentitude and peace of your greatness, you

know not the secret cravings of a poverty - sticken soul. I dare not ask from

you an item more than that pity of love which you have for every creature in

the world." (P. 91, Act 11)

It is the eternal love and care that Supriya longs for. But Supriya is

above all such worldly pleasures and affinities. She too feels that she is one

among men in the vast world and she lives in seclusion and that is why she

could be stoic and undisturbed when she sees Kemankar who was caught

captive on his trial to wage an attack on Malini. Her nobility and humanity

is touched upon and she feels unhappy to find him captive. She then says:

"The iron chain is shamed of itself upon those limbs. The insult to greatness

is its own insult. He looks like a God-defying his captivity."(P. 94, Act 11)

She is against the chains and shackles that made him captive. She, a

lover of freedom and liberty and her conscience is hurt on seeing him thus.

She shows her sympathy towards him. She even appreciates him and finds

that "there is a power in that face that frightens me." (P. 95, Act 11)

Kemankar resolute and determined, strong and decisive, challenges

anything in life. He says that he would rcsumc his goal and fulfill his task on

being asked what he would do if he is pardoned and released. He got

emotional and askcd Supriya wliy llc! W~IH ut~li~ilhfiil 10 him in rovcaling his

plans. But he could also understand the position and the propensity of

Supriya who lightened up the innerlight in Malini and offered his ancestral

faith.

Supriya outbursts his emotions melted at Kemankar's pathetic

situation. He is torn between love and faith - between divine woman and

friend. In this context B.C. Chakravarthy rightly said that: "In Malini the

action is more condensed and the feeling of tragic intensity is more

accurate. ""

Supriya's anguish finds an outlet in his words: "My faith has come to

me perfected in the form of that woman... I have known that true faith is

there where there is man, there is love ... it comes from the mother in her

devotion and it goes back to her from her child .... I accepted the bond of this

faith which reveals the infinite in man, when I see my eyes upon that face full

of light and peace of hidden wisdom." (P. 98, Act 11)

Kemankar mixing his agony and warm feelings of his friendship with

Supriya says that he too dreamt for a moment that religion had come last in

the form of a woman to lead the man's heart to 'heaven'. Commenting on the

inexplicable pain of Supriya and his spiritual predicament, Edward

Thompson has rightly said: "The talk between him (Kemankar) and Supriya,

who has betrayed him because more imperative loyalty claimed him, loyalty

to the truth incarnate in Malini's glowing eyes, is one of the most touching

things Rabindranath ever did.'732

Kemankar expresses the treachery of his friend Supriya - a bosom

friend since his childhood. He criticized Supriya that he has developed

infatuation which he calls a religion - which is nothing but self-deception but

Supriya a r m that there are men who have widely different natures and

options and notions. He remarks that "these countless stare of the sky, do

they fight for the mastery of the One? Cannot faiths hold their separate lights

in peace for the separate worlds of minds that need them." (P. 99, Act 11).

Kemankar does not feel convinced. He says "falsehood and truths live

side by side in amity, the infinite world is not wide enough .... love is not so

hatefully all loving." (P. 99, Act 11)

The hideous contradictions of the two friends are mysteriously hinted

by the playwright. Supriya's conception is very contradictory, when he feels

and speaks out his guilt before Kemankar: "Kemankar you are paying your

life for your faith - I am paving more, It is your love, dearer than my life." (P.

100, Act 11) Kemankar is tactful enough in recalling their past boyhood days

in the presence of Supriya. Reminding Supriya of their student life where

they used to approach the teacher for clarification of their suspicions, he

invites Supriya to come near him forgetting what has happened to them of

late. He requests Supriya sentimentally to get near from the 'infinite

distance' now created. Poor Supriya is moved by his faithfulness of age - old

comradeship, approaches him and embraces only to break the distance and

join the 'eternal close'.

Malini who has risen above all bonds and emotions and worldly

concerns simply asks her father: "Father, forgive Kemankar"! because she

realizes the eternal fact that all truth must be tested in death's court, (P. 100,

Act 11) These eternal words of Malini remind us of Jesus Christ's words:

'Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.'

When confronted with the agitated minds of Kemankar and Supriya,

Malini is serene and calm. Instead of thinking of punishment, she simply

feels: "God's great power is in the gentle breeze - not in the storm.""

It is the confluence of two minds, two worlds - those of Kemankar, a

steadfast aspirant of staunch Hinduism and those of Supriya, an aspirant of

Buddhism and follower of Malini - the embodiment of religion of love. AS the

modern Indian mystic Osho remarks in Be Oceani:

When two persons meet

a new world is created

Just by their meeting

a new phenomenon comes into existence

which was not before

which never existed before

And through that new phenomenon

both the persons are changed and transformed

Each person is a world unto himself or herself

A complex myetery with a long past and with an eternal fut~re."~'

From the deep core of Supriya and Kemankar is chiselled the sweet

sculpture of the eternal future of mankind. Malini is the embodiment of

compassion and sympathy and infinite love blossomed in the churning minds

of the two worlds of Supriya and Kemankar because, as Tagore said in

Sadhana: "Evil is ever moving, will1 nll i ls incalculable immensity it does not

effectually clog the current of our life.""

Both Buddhism and Christianity aim at the cultivation and show of

mercy, compassion and infinite love towards fellow-beings. The infinite love

and compassion rooted deep in Malini's new creed of life and nurtured by her

new concept of religion, that is, religion of love conceived in creative

humanism, kept her above all kinds of prejudices or emotions. Keenly

studying Malini's concept of real love and compassion and her spiritual

enlightenment, A.N. Gupta rightly observed that:

"Love occupies comparatively insignificant place in her

life, which is dominated primarily a search for religipns

truth. When Kemankar murders Supriya, she is more

anxious to save the murderer than to weep for the

victim. ""

In her attempt towards a new creed of religion and life, Malini is

compared to Saint Joan by K.R. Srinivas lyengar who comments:

"Malini is indeed the new revelation as in her own day

and in her own way - Joan, the maid was in Fran~e."'~

A totally new religious experience is brought about to the modern

world by the life of Malini.; With the new religious experience there is found

to be a new world, a new humanity, new eyes to see and new hearts to feel.

Malini is against any religion which is against life, against joy, she is against

religion which has been in favour of a sick humanity serious and sad. She is

for creative religion.

All religions like Hinduism, Christianity or Buddhism etc are

renounced in Malini's new dawn of religion. The creed is a fresh experience,

an enlightenment in which one feels "immediate freedom, an expansion of

consciousness, an openness ... eye6 afresh to look at things again with no

prejudice. ""

Thus in Malini's concept of religion, religion is not a science of

attaining God, but of attaining a new vision - and a new consciousness.

Religion is an experience and no thinking - and who is entangled in thoughts

will always be far away from religion. "A religious person has nothing to do

with order, nothing to do with revolution. A religious person is concerned

with self-discipline. A religious person wants to wake up."39

This is what is observed in Malini and Sacrifice. Malini, Supriya,

Raghupathi sought their own light - a light unto themselves.

Any kind of superstition and superficial belief in religion is not a

healthy one. It will pave n way for hatred and prejudice and thereby

divisions. Hate is destructive, self-destructive. It sucks one's energy, leaves

one empty and spent. Raghupathi in Sacrifice and Kemankar in Malini are

evaporated because of prejudice and hate. The only panacea of infinite love

that Raghupathi finds is the love of Aparna and the infinite love of Malini

filled them with energy with overflowing energy. The infinite love, the elixir

of love not only healed the man but also created an aura around human

beings.

Condemning the belief in religion Jiddu Krishna Murthy says in This

Matter of Culture. "Beliefs divide people. The Christians have belief and

so are divided both from those of other beliefs and

among themselves; the Hindus are everlastingly fill of

enmity because they believe themaelves to be B r e a n s

or non-Brahmans, this or that. So belief brings enmity,

division destruction and that is obviously not

religion. "'O

Tagore like Jiddu Krishna Murthy believes that true religion is born

when mind is swept clean of image, ritual;belief, symbol, all words; and all

fears. Then what we see will be the real, the timeless, the everlasting - which

is called God. Only persons with great insight and understanding alone

realize the true religion. "Thc rcst arc", ns Jiddu Krishnn Murthy says,

"merely mouthing words and all their ornaments - and bodily decorations,

their pujas and ringing of bells - all that is just superstition without any

significance. It is only when the mind is in revolt against all so called religion

that it finds the real."41

Closely associated with the idea, John Macmurray in Reason and

Emotion says:

"Mature religion is all - inclusive, it is concrete and it is

creative ... It is an integration of all aspects in one

whole. The two things - the inner integrity the

individual and his integrity in communion with all

individuals - are strictly correlative, since human nature

is objective and can only be integral in the integrity of

its relationship to what is not it~elf.'"~

Asserting the two sides of religion - the personal and the social

emphasized by the 'Gita', Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishanan felt that man has

not only to ascend to the world of spirit but also to the world of creatures.

Falling in with the notion, John Mac Muray says:

"A religious man must be one who creates in the

religious field - who understands and reveals what has

been hitherto hidden and secret, and who creates new

possibilities of communion, who integrates human

society in new forms of shared experience, who

experiments in the world of human community and

discovers the conditions and methods of new and deeper

intimacies between man and man, and between man CI

and the world. "49

Thus in Tagore's plays religion becomes a force for the creation of

communit;~. According to Tugow, religion should be a creative source of

communio - relation between man and man, man and world, and above all

communion between man and God, Tagore is such a creative artist in respect

of religion, a creative source of a new dawn of life.

Tagore is against the more spiritual life devoid of human dimensions.

However spiritual and mystical, religion should also aim at the real integrity

of spirit and matter;, divine and humane, Godly and manly. As John Mac

Murry says about the maturity of religion in Reason and Emotion. "Till we

have overcome the dualism of spirit and Matter not by denying either by

integrating the two in an inseparable wholeness - religion will never know

itself or begin its development in maturity." "

In Tagore's matured concept of religion one finds the integrity of spirit

and Matter in the form of churning of the soul flared up in a sudden flood of

luminous seeing and lofty thought and the communion of man with God

through love of humanity. Above all the integrity of soul and mind, God and

man, man and society and synthesis of division of essential man are

suggested in mystical overtones in Malini and Sacrifice.

Thus Tagore paves a new dawn of religion as a new dawn of life ; a new

dawn of synthesis of divine force and human force. In Sacrifice and Malini

the question as Thomas Gay in Tagore's biography says, runs through it is

"Which is better, convention and worldly power, or love and compassion h for

all living things. ""

Transcendence of phenomenal ego is mystically suggested through the

unbounding love of life and humanity in Tagore's plays. Tagore's

protagonists find mystical illumination that dissolves into the blissful state

of 'emptiness', the mystical frame of 'fullness'. This fullness and synthesis

is suggested as life force in his religious plays. As Bishweswar Chakraborthy

aptly said, "the rigidity of religion sapping the life force of humanity was ever

a haunting theme for Tagore. And in the confrontation of the old and the

new religions is vividly documented the times of Buddhism which stems from

Hinduism to purify Hinduism it~elf."'~

In Sacrifice and Malini Tngore showed a dawn of true religion. In

knowledge or realization one knows about God, but in love one becomes God.

This is what is mystically suggcwlcd in both thcsc plays.

NOTES

1. B.C.Chakraborthy, Rabindranath Tagore: His mind and Art (Young India Publications, New Delhi, 19711, P.115.

2. Viswanatha Chatterji, Essay in Criticism on Indian Literature in English, ed. M.S.Natarqjan & Ekambaram, S.Natarajan (Chand 8 Company, New Delhi, 1991), P.6.

3. Viswanatha Naravene, An Introduction to Rabindranath Tagore (The Macmillan Company of India Ltd, Madras, 19771, P.98.

4. Rabindranath Tagore, Sacrifice (Macmillan India Ltd., Madras, 19941, P. 14. (All further references to the text are fromhhis edition)

5. B.C. Chnkraborthy, Rabindranath Tagore : His Mind and Art (Young India Publications, New Delhi, 1971), P. 116.

6. S. Naravene Viswanath, An Introduction to Rabindranath Tagore (The Mncmillon Company of India Ltd., Madras, 1977), P. 100.

7. Ibid., P.lO1.

8. Ibid., P.lO1.

9. B.C. Chakraborthy, Rabindranath Tagore, His Mind and Art (Young India Publications, New Delhi, 1971), P. 120.

10. Cited in Batta, S. Krishna, Indian English Drama Trans-lations, A Critical Study (Sterling Publishers, New Delhi, 1987), P. 179.

11. B.C. Chakravarthy, Rabindranath Tagore, His Mind and Art (Young India Publication, New Delhi, 1971), P. 118.

12. Ibid., P. 118.

13. Masti Venkatesa Iyengar, Rabindranath Tagore (Satyshodra, Pustak Bandar, Bangalore, 1946), P. 132.

14. Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds (Macmillan, Madras, 1985), P. 12. (All further references to the text are from this edition)

15. K.P.K. Menon, Tagore Lecture$, 1973 (Tagore and Drama of Ideas), (Annamalai Univer-sity , Annamalai Nagar, 1976), P. 26.

16. Rabindranath Tagore, Man (Andhra University Press, Series No.16, Waltair, 19371, P. 19. (All further references to the text are from this edition)

17. Hiran Kumar Sanyal, Rabindra Tagore: A Centenary Volume (The Plays of Rabindranath Tagore, Sahitya Academy, ~ e w Delhi, 1961), P. 235.

18. Mnsti Venkntesa Iyengar, Rnbindrannth Tagore (Sntyn Shodana Pustaka Bandar, Bangalore, 1946), P. 142.

19. K.R. Srinivas Iyengar, Indian Writing in English (Sterling Publication, New Delhi, 1995), P. 129.

20. George Jean Nathen, Ideas into Dramas: Tagore and Yeats as Playwrights, Anjali Tagore Lectures (Annamalai University, Annamalai Nagar, 1976), P. 35.

21. M.K. Naik, Dimensions of Indian English Literature (English Plays of Rabindranath Tagore, (Sterling Publications Pvt.Ltd., New Delhi, 1984), P. 169.

22. Edward Thompson, Rabindranath Tagore: Poet and Dramatist (Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1948), P.127.

23. Rabindranath Tagore, Malini (Macmillan, Madras, 1985), P.65. (All further references to the text are from this edition)

24. S. Krishna Batta, Indian English Drainas, Translations - A Critical Study (Sterling Publishers, New Delhi, 1987), P. 177.

25. Rabindrnnnth Tngorc, Malini (Mncmillnn, Madras, 1985), P.56, Act.1

26. A.N. Gupta, Perspectives on Rabindranath Tagore (Rabindranath Tagore: His Dromn and Dramatic Art), Edited: T.R. Snrmn, Vimal Prakasan, Gaziabad, 1986, P.140.

27. Masti Venkatesa Iyengar, Rabindranath Tagore (Satya-ahodana Pustak Bandar, Bangalore, 1946, P. 143.

28. K.R. Srinivas Iyengar, Indian Writing in English (Sterling Publication, New Delhi, 1995), P.129.

29. Edward Thompson, Rabindranath Tagore: Poet and Dramatist (Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 1948, P.128.

30. Masti Venkatesa Iyengar, Rabindranth Tagore (Satyasadhana Pustak Bandar, Bangalore, 1946), P. 142.

31. B.C. Chakravarthy, Rabindranath Tagore: His Mind and Art (Young India Publications, New Delhi, 1971), P.E3.

32. Edward Thompson, Rabindranath Tagore - Poet and Dramatist (Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1948), P. 129.

33. Rabindranath Tagore, Stay Birds (Macmillan, Madras, 1985), P.29. (All further references to the text are from this edition)

34. Rajaneesh Osho, Be Oceanic (Diamonds Pocket Books Pvt, Ltd, New Delhi, 1989), P. 69.

35. Rabindranath Tagore, Sadhana (Macmillan India Ltd., Madras, 20001, I?. 69.

36. A.N. Gupta, Perspective on Rabindranath Tagore - Rabindranath Tagore, his Dramas and Dramatic Art (Ed: T.R. Sharrna, Vimal Prakasan, Gaziabad, 19861, P. 141.

3 7. K.R. Srinivas Iyengar, Indian Writing in English (Sterling Publications, New Delhi, 1985), P. 130.

38. ' ~ ~ a n e e s h Osho, Towards the Unknown (Diamond Pocket Books Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2001), P.66.

39. Rajaneesh Osho, Enlightenment: The Only Revolution (Discourses on the Great Mystic Astavakra), (The Rebel Publishing House, Pune, 1997)) P.163.

40. Jiddu Krishna Murthy, This Matter of Culture, ed. by D. Raja Gopal Vic to r Oollang Limited, London, 1974), P. 37.

41. Ibid., P. 37.

42. John Mac Murray, Reason and Emotion (Faber and .Faber Ltd, London, 19721, P. 249.

43. Ibid., P. 253.

44. Ibid., P. 257.

45. Thomas Gay, The Lute and the Plough - A Life of Rabindlranath Tagore (The Book Centre Pvt. Ltd., Bombay, 19631, P.87.

46. Bishweswar Chakraborthy, Tagore : The Dramatiet (B.R.Publishing Corporation, New Delhi, 2000), P.212.