Relevance of The Statue Play in the Contemporary Context
Dr Swati Joshi
Gujarat
1 There is a mythical concept of statue that every statue symbolizes something or says something without voice and language. The statue stands for self identity. The statue says an introduction to our self, present - past condition and become immortal in the mind of the spectator. In contemporary world we always try to see or try to do study of the description of the statue. Every statue talks about its culture, religion, folk, past ongoing rituals, emotions, feelings, symbolism, mythical concept, belief, acceptance of people who consider the statue valuable, ethics, philosophy, morality, creativity, history, brevity, statue provide social messages, art, statue is also a symbol of respect etc. For example the statue of Liberty that symbolizes freedom, the statue of Unity in India which is the symbol of unity and Christ the Redeemer - a symbol of peace. The statue means a silent message without saying a single word. The most notable characteristic of any statue is the surrounding place where it is situated. The location enhances value of statue or it can be said that surrounding location helps to find out the message of the statue. The concept of Statue can be seen mythically as well as with contemporary time.
According to Ellen Russell Emerson,
“The Indian symbols are as, as has been shown like those of the older eastern races. Statue and hieroglyphics of the most ancient character, the purpose and meaning of which have been heretofore unknown, are those whose resemblance to the device of the Indians is the most complete.”67
The Statue of Dashrath symbolizes the death of Dashrath but it is not only the statue that symbolizes death but it is the location or place where all the statues of the family are put. The statue of Dashrath if put on other place of the palace then it is not identical or understood properly, it may be considered that it is for the representation of the glory of the king, but in contrast to it if the statue is place in statue gallery that clearly indicated that the statue symbolizes the death of the king. So it can be said that statue has its symbolic meaning when it has proper surrounding identical place to put. In contemporary modern times also we have many statues that speak without language and its language is its location or place, purpose and history.
According to Jungian theory-
“Archetype is a primitive mental image inherited from the earliest human ancestors and supposed to be present in the collective conscious.”68
The Statue Play can be seen from the archetypal view point. For example there is a description of bark dress which is with Sita and she considered it as unlucky. The consecration of Rama has been cancelled and the bark dress is responsible for that. Here the lucky, unlucky, omen, bad omen, good omen, all these things are inherited from our ancestors that collect in our unconscious mind.
“Sita- No, no don’t say that. It’s unlucky.
Rama- why do you stop me lady?
Sita- Just when my Lord’s consecration has been broken off. It seems to me unlucky.”69
There is a mythical concept of omen and symbols, lucky and unlucky. There are many examples as- crow, dog, cat, sneezing, snake, peacock, eagle, etc. Even these omens of lucky – unlucky concept prevail in the contemporary society. People blindly follow this concept without thinking logically and scientifically.
2 The Statue Play’s turning point is here when there is a description of curse of one on Dashrath that he will feel grief for his son, and then Bharat consider Kaikai’s explanation. As we all know that there is a mythical concept of curse in almost most of mythologies or the Epics. The curse section becomes very important to do drastic change or to destroy the evil.
According to James Lochtfeld,
“In Hindu mythology, one of the standard devices either to advance the story’s plot or to account for some inexorable event is curse. Such curses are often the work of sages and other spiritual adepts, but they can also be levied by any person who has perfectly fulfilled his or her social role such as a faithful wife, loving son or devoted parents. Making a curse expends the spiritual powers that a person has accumulated. At last in mythical tales, such curses invariably come true no matter what a person might do to try to prevent them.”70
The curse on Dashrath makes Kaikai to demand the fourteen years exile of Rama in the forest. This mythical concept symbolizes that curse is responsible for everything and here in the case of Kaikeyi, she is not guilty but just to make the curse true she become the medium of it. We have many examples as Durvasa Rishi curses Shakuntala that his love will not remember her, Bhrigu Rishi’s curses Vishnu that Vishnu will be born on earth many time and will suffer, Karna is being cursed by Parshuram that he will not remember his knowledge of Brahmastra whenever he will be in great need, Arjuna is being cursed by Urmila that for one year he will be a castrated human male, even Krishna is being cursed by Gandhari that he will die as an ordinary person and his family will finish completely, Ravana is being cursed by Rambha that whenever he will touch a woman (sati) without her permission he will lose all his ten heads immediately, Four Kumars curses Jaya and Vijaya that they both will take birth on the earth as the enemy of Vishnu as they birth on the earth as Hiranyakashypa, Hiranyaksha, Ravana and Kumbhakarna, Dantavakara, and shishupala, Pandu is being curse by Rishi Kindama as he disturb him during the time of intimacy and shoot him by his arrow. Kindama curses Pandu that when he will do intimacy with a woman he will also die, Bhrigu has given curse to Brahma that he will not be worshiped in Kalyug and also given curse on Shiva and Parvati that they will be worshiped in form of Linga, Goddess Lakshmi has given curse on Bhrigu that no Brahmin will be having rich and luxuries life but a remedy is also given by Lakshmi that the worship of Vishnu made them to live prosperous life, Mahisasur is cursed by sage Katyani that he will die by woman and then Goddess Durga killed him, Ram is cursed by Tara the wife of Bali that he will also lose his wife and in Rama’s next birth Rama will be killed by Bali (Krishna is the next birth of Rama and Hunter who has killed Krishna is the next birth of Bali, Shravankumar’s parents curses Dashrath that he will also suffer for his son, Rishi Gautam curses Ahilya for having affair with Indra and turned her into stone but later she become free by Rama and even Indra is cursed by Rishi Gautam to have one thousand womanly Vagina but later converted into one thousand eyes, There is a curse on Hanuman that he will forget all his powers and others has to make him remember about his ability, Krishna curse on Ashwathama to live forever etc…
All these are the example of curse which represents that if you will do wrong then you will be punished but if you feel that you are guilty and wanted to feel a sense of regret then there will be an alternative of curses which reduces the portion of curses. The other side of curse that curses is given to destroy the evil for example Goddess Durga killed Mahisasur, the curse of king Dashratha and then the exile of Rama, Rama’s exile brought the death of Ravan, so it can be said that every curse has interwoven activity which somewhere to give the moral message for the society that if you will do wrong then you will be punished in form of curse and curse is used as a means for the destruction of evil.
When one tries to see the mythical concept of curse with the contemporary society then the purpose and meaning of curse which we have seen in mythical concept has completely changes. In contemporary society we don’t have power to curse or we don’t have right to punish to anyone, but still we have archetypes concept of curse and we want to use it. But in modern time we give or use curse because we have some personal issues with the person, the curse is not for the breaking of rules or morality or ethics. We take curse personally but as we all know we do not have power to make the curse true or effective, then in contemporary society humans hold the curse power in their hand and become ready to punish physically. The curse resulted into different emotions, sentiments, feeling as anger, killing, rape, acid attack, fraud, terrorist and terrorism, honor killing, cheating, mental physical harassment, etc…
In contemporary world we have still with us the mythological concept of curse but its applications and uses has changes and turned into negative direction which brings only the killing activity of humanity where the curse giver or creator itself become unknowingly victim and harassment can be seen on others. We have to understand that we are not pure like sages of mythological world and even we do not have any good intention as the previous curses have. It will not be exaggerate to say that the contemporary world is in a continuous process to read myths, folk tales, and epic but the real and exact meaning or message are not readable by modern society people. Scientifically, philosophically and logically again we have to see the mythological concept and utilize it accordingly.
3 The character of Kaikai, Sita and Urmila can be seen with the contemporary society because there is also a mythical concept of wife in Indian society. It is believed that a woman is considered as a woman and wife when she is ready to sacrifice and be a mute animal only and cries.
Woman- Wife- Mother = Sacrifice, love and care, crying
Woman – wife- Mother- not demanding, always mute and not expressive
According to A.K.Kunjakkan,
“The image and individuality of Indian womanhood are embedded and clearly laid down at the bottom of traditional belief and mythology. This is the basis of the status of women in India”71
We always seen woman as wife, sister and mother and in so many sacrificial role. We all are having archetype image of a woman where we try to see woman in different roles but not as human. Being human woman is also having some requirements, demands, wishes, desires, and rights but from the mythical concept to the contemporary world we see only responsibility and characteristics of a wife, mother and many relations only. If she demands then she will be considered as wicked as Kaikeyi, but why we have only one perspective to see the category of wife. If a woman need something or wanted to do something then she is not good, for example- even in contemporary world if she wanted to take divorce or already divorced then everybody will look at her as she has committed a murder or a characterless woman. Man and Woman both are in one category and the first category is that they both are humans first. Why we have to categorize that woman is like this and man is like this only. This is again an archetype which inherited in the mind by our ancestors and still with us as store form in our unconscious mind. We are not ready to accept the change or new perspective. In The Statue Play we have three different examples of women.
1 Sita- She decided to go with the Rama for the exile for fourteen years, if she will not go then she will not be considered as good wife, and just to maintain this image she has to go to the forest with Rama and also she become the part of the curse and medium to kill Ravana. Everywhere Sita plays the important part but we all give credit to Rama only at last she has to prove herself as Sati or Pavitra and again has to leave Rama. At last only woman has to suffer.
2 Urmila- She also sacrifices for her husband Lakshman, she is not going with her husband because she will be at palace and will take care of everything. No one is bother about her wishes. She also sacrifices as she lives lonely without Lakshmana for fourteen years. She is also considered as good wife.
3 Kaikieyi- Kaikeyi demanded something for his son then she is not good. She become notorious in the Indian Society that as a woman she has done wrong to Rama but on the other hand it is considered that she has done it because Dashrath has curse on him that he will suffer for his son, and Kaikeyi become the medium to fulfill the curse. In both the ways she is responsible for everything. But here I have only one question that being woman was she not having right to demand something from her husband? Even in the contemporary society a woman does not have right to say something, demand something or to be vocal. Education can bring change but even we are not in favor to educate woman and still we have the same mentality as-
“Ram School Jata he, Sita Ghar me kam karti he.”
In spite of that we have to work on archetypes as it is the high time to change as
“ Ram and Sita both go to school.”
Another example of contemporary society which is related with a woman is crying is just meant for woman. If a woman is not crying and ready to face the situation then we receive the comment that she is not a woman, she is abnormal, and if a woman is strong can fight for herself then she is not good for marriage or she is not marriage material. Even in the contemporary society most of the people think that my wife should be beautiful, polite and must be able to take care of my family. But there are very few people in contemporary world who think that I want educated, confident and independent wife. The reason behind the narrow thinking of women is due to archetypes where we abide by the previous thought which store in our unconscious mind. Second important point to discuss is that if a man will cry then from the past time to present time people will say a permanent dialogue that- “Why you cry like a girl or woman?”
But we see only one aspect of woman in Indian mythology another aspect is that all the goddess are represented as powerful woman as Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswati, but in contemporary society we fails to find out the powers of woman, and only grasp the negativity and just follow the blind myth for woman even in contemporary society.
According to Kunjakkan,
The Indian woman names after the names of various Goddesses as Devi signifying the veneration and respect bestowed on them by men……this is one of the image of Indian women. But the virtue, virginity chastity is the other womanly qualities of Indian concept of virtue women, who deserve to be worshipped. Only virtuous women who stand comparison to Devis or Goddesses alone are worshipped and venerated. All women are not worshipped only because a woman is a woman. She is not worthy to be worshipped. If she deserve respect and posses worshipful character then she is considered as goddess among women in India. Hence the feminist allegation that the people country who worship women in stone as Goddess, ill treat in the reality and abuse women in flesh and blood is baseless. The women in the street and the prostitute cannot be worshipped. They do not have the ‘womanly qualities’ as per Indian tradition of virtuous women to deserve to be worshipped”72
4 We have Indian philosophy and tradition that we spend most of the time or half of the life for the betterment of family. In The Statue Play Rama sacrifices everything for family, Sita and Urmila sacrifices for their husbands, Lakshman and Bharat both sacrifices for their brother Rama, Kaushlaya and Sumitra stands in support with King Dashratha and at last even sacrifices the life of her husband. Every character sacrifices in this mythical concept of family. But in contemporary world or society especially in Indian society, no one is ready to do sacrifice for the family. Even the situation is become worst that we do not have time for our family then the sacrifice is totally stands opposite. We do not give respect to our parents, elders and send them to old age home. Sacrifice the world has great meaning but lost in contemporary world.
“Arthashastra notes that the Dharma of the head of the family is to sacrifices his own pleasures for the sake of the family members. It is the general norms in the Indian families that parents sacrifices their lives for children and later when the children grow they take care of their elders….. and when the family head died in such cases lot of sacrifices is involved and the elder one takes it as their duty and generally do not consider it as it a sacrifice.”73
5 King Dashrath sacrifices his son Rama for the sake of oath ‘Vachana’ given to his wife Kaikeyi. He sacrifices his life for an oath. It is a mythical concept to give Vachana (oath), boon or curse. One has to stick to it till his life and has to face whatever the condition is. But in contemporary society no one is ready to stick to his Vachan and no one follow the concept of “Pran Jaye par Vachan na Jaye” The reason behind is that in contemporary world we have lose our determination power and change ourselves according to the situation. We are not ready to fight with the situation but we mold according to the situation. To be flexible according to situation is consider as good now a days in contemporary world but to stick to oath is very difficult for contemporary society humans.
“The King is almost mad with grief at this request but being bound by word and oath is compelled to comply.”
“If thou refuse thy promise sworn,
I die despised before the morn.”74
In the future generation we do not have this mythical concept to stick to oath and follow till the death. But oath or Vachan can work as positive and negative. Just to take oath is not important; the oath should be betterment for the others. It is important to know the importance of positive and negative oath. For that we need discipline but in contemporary world there is no utilization of the world discipline.
The Statue Play is having beautiful narration and characterization which is still related with the contemporary world. We just need identical and analytical eyes and mind to see the message and beauty of the mythological concept of the play and its relevance with the contemporary society.
Dr Swati Joshi
Gujarat
