Ekalavya: The Lord of Archery
Script: Fr. Jijo
Characters
Ekalavyan
Asandigtha
Maid
Arjun
Khrishna
Drona
Modern Man
Scene I
Scene: Early in the morning: Hasthinapura: Backdrop Rising Sun behind the silhouette of Hasthinapura palace. As the scene begins faces are not clear. Smoke in the scene (fog) A spot light on Arjuna’s profile. As the scene progresses the light is brighter and the sun rises higher.
Drona: In the Kingdom of Surya Bhagavan are you the only one paying tribute to his rising majesty?
Arjun: My brothers have still not awaken from sleep, after last night’s tedious journey.
Drona: My Son, you give me so much joy. No one, but you alone have escaped from the beguiling
treachery of indolence. This is your way to power and fame, Arjun.
Arjun: I know, the way to power is hard. But I am willing to go all the way.
Drona: Power can bring armies under your feet and wars on your decisions.
Arjun: You always told me I am your best disciple. Do you really think I am.
Drona: Your lack of confidence will make you diffident in critical moments of life.
Arjun: Do you discard my apprehensions as mere diffidence?
Drona: Tell me what is in your mind.
Arjun: Well, I have seen Karna outsmarting my prowess many times over.
Drona: Karna is a the son of a nobody, I will demoralise him in public and his expertise will be no
hindrance for your glory.
Arjun: I am sure you will do that for me. But do you think that no one else will ever come to surpass
my fame?
Drona: What matters is fame or prowess?
Arjun: The flames of prowess will die when the soul bids farewell to the body but the embers of
fame will still smoulder in the ashes of history.
Drona: Reading into the grains of time and, predicting which will grow and which will not, is not my
art. But my promise will abide. This world will not see a better archer than you.
Arjun: In the witness of the rising sun can you pledge it to me?
Drona: By the powers, Bharatha varsha has entrusted to me I declare, that no one shall surpass
Arjun in archery in times present and future.
(thunderbolts, flickering lights)
Arjun: I am glad. I am so overwhelmed. (Arjun bows at the feet of Drona)Yet there is a sorrow in my
mind.
Drona: Tell my child.
Arjun: Yesterday during the hunting game I found a young man in the jungle doing amazing archery.
Drona: What?
Arjun: He kept the mouth of the hunting dog open with a dozen arrows.
Drona: Does the storm in the pond raise waves in the ocean?
Arjun: But I am afraid this storm might catch fire.
Drona: you should have brought him here to give a place in the cavalry.
Arjun: I was afraid. He must be stopped, by all means.
Drona: Fame comes like a wind, Arjun, never will you know its origin nor its destination. What you
can control is your actions. So I have given you expertise in archery. Why dream for more?
Arjun: Does the code of royal justice suggest, keeping the threatening enemy alive?
Drona: Arjun..... I see embers of ambition in your eyes. I am afraid that they will be quenched only in
blood baths. Fight with the equals, encourage the weak, But what I see is the avarice of
power in your eyes.
Arjun: The avarice of power is allowed to the royalty.
Drona: Power is to protect, not to destroy.
Arjun: But this one should be destroyed, the warrior of the jungles.
Drona: What have you planned?
Arjun: The day I met him was his marriage. I asked him to take the vow of the warrior until his
apprenticeship is over, lest he begets a nation of warriors from his progeny.
Drona: Arjun, you are already intoxicated with power. Your ambition makes you blind. You are
striking at the root of a family. You will run out of heirs even if you win all your wars.
Arjun: With all my charms do you think I will be left without a progeny even from my concubines?
Drona: The times to come will answer your question. I find forebodings of an imminent holocaust
hovering over Hasthina Pura.
Arjun: Let future decide its own course but now you must help me.
Drona: Tell me, How may I help you?
Arjun: I have named you as his guru and left your statue in his hut, so that he could learn from your
feet and be your disciple.
Drona: But I have not taught him.
Arjun: He shall learn archery from the feet of your image.
Drona: Do you think, my graven image can teach what I gathered over years of contemplation and
Hard work?
Arjun: For the kings, statues are symbols of power and presence. What they are able to do is not
their concern? Do you promise to come with me to his hut?
Drona: Yes, I will be interested in seeing what he can do.
Soothradhar enters
Mmmmmmmmmm that’s news. Prince Arjun is feeling threatened by the lowly Ekalavya. din’t you hear the villainy of the prince. I tell you, Arjun is not the one whom you know. He is a wolf in sheep’s garb. He is laid his axe at the very root of Ekalavya’s family. Beware of him.
Scene II
(As the scene opens. Ekalavya does a Pooja at the statue of Drona and starts his practice.
Asandigtha: Ekalavya, you spurn my very presence ever since that statue was welcomed here.
Where have you lost the wreathing passions for me? Come let us go to the inviting sweet springs of love.
Ekalavya: (pushing her away)Don’t you disturb me Asandigtha, while I am engaged in the art of
heaven. The prince has promised me a place in his army.
Asandigtha: But what did you learn more. You knew to aim to the tigers that pounce on you with out
blinking your eye. You kept that dog’s mouth open with your arrow showers. You have killed threatening tuskers from an arm’s length. What more do you have to learn? What does this statue teach you day after day?
Ekalavya: I do not know. But the prince told me I had to learn a lot more from this statue. Perhaps, I
still have not offered enough sacrifices to Guru that I have not learned anything.
Asandigtha: Leave your art of murder and death, Ekalavya. My fluttering heart longs for your
mesmerising presence. Come let us fly beyond the horizons like migrating pelicans, there
forever savouring the sweetness of the fruits no one has relished before, drink nectar from the flowers untouched by the bees of earth.
Ekalavya: The sweetness in your voice inebriates my being, darling. But I have my vows to keep
while I practice the art of Gods.
Asandigtha: Since when did an elder of Bhil find the presence of the wife a disturbance? (Angrily)
the prince and his statue has bewitched you from the traditions of Bhil families. Hasn’t your
elders prevented you from keeping a married wife, a virgin?
Ekalavya: But my sweet heart, when I become the Army General of prince Arjuna, You will bear me
children as great as the heads of the cavalry.
Asandigtha: Oh the games of the mighty. They have taken my husband away from me from the very
day of my marriage. My precious garden, this home of mine, the springs, the chirping birds,
the fragrant flowers...... They will be lost to me forever like the fleeting morning dew.
(decisively)
Ekalvaya...This is a scheme. We will die without a progeny. They are planning to displace us from this home. We shall never survive anywhere but here. I shall not let this pass.
The maid: Aren’t you aware of the limits of a woman’s words, let alone wife. You have trespassed
both.
Asandigtha: You are defiled with the dirt of the towns people. The Bhil family tradition respects its
women’s words. The men who forget the counsel of the women build roofs that will collapse
on themselves.
Ekalavya: Stop your women’s talk. I need to practice. (The women go in despair to the hut)
Soothradhar.
Mmmmm no sooner the marriage is over than the discord began. Is divorce possible? Asandigtha is no ordinary fool. Mind you.
Scene III (Same scene, dim the light)
(Ekalavya on practices. Asandigtha and maid dancing to (ghanashyama vrindavaniyil)
Khrishna: (enters stealthily and watches the arrows) Ekalavya, Where are your arrows aimed at?
Ekalavya: I need to send my arrows right through the targets and beyond.
Khrishna: But I can see your arrows crossing Bharata Varsha and beyond. I can see them going past
times and epochs.
Ekalavya: Are you mocking me? These arrows of mine have no power but to perish in the battle of
survival in the jungle.
Khrishna: The paradoxes of history will win a place that you have not fought for, Eklavya.
Oh. What is this vigraha doing here?
Ekalavya: Prince Arjun brought a statue here that I can practice my art even better. He named it as
my Guru, Drona.
Khrishna: laughs.......... Earthworms have started playing snakes....
Ekalvya: The prince is a great warrior, are you ridiculing him?
Khrishna: No offence to him at all. Arjun is a warrior but his arrows are fake imitations of yours. They
will reach targets that are visible for the eyes. But yours will fly past times that you cannot
see.
Ekalavya: No, his expertise and speed on the bow is amazing.
Khrishna: But his breed is coming to an end.
Ekalavya: I dread your ominous words. Any danger, befalling him? I hear his cousins are not
pleased with him at all?
Khrishna: The paths of the mighty are strewn with stones of danger. But this one is not a stone. This
is a mountain that they will not pass by.
(Dreamily)
I can see the impending clouds of destruction looming over Kurukhsetra. I can hear the cries from there. All the kings of the world will march with their armies. The blood bath, the fratricides, the dilemmas, the whole of Bharata will be shaken in the churning of this war. Every monarch and emperor, their cavalries and horsemen, their bards and ministrels, an ocean of humanity, everyone of them should perish in this war. Even I, every agent of monarchy and imperialism will be sacrificed in the sanctuary of kurukhshetra. I will show my cosmic figure to them. Indeed it has started coming. From the ocean of blood, shall emerge the governance of the people, with the hope of justice, equality, freedom. Where no one will be above another, where none shall rule over another.
Ekalavya, you will emerge as their hero. .........
Khrishna exits
Suthradhara enters-------------------------------------
Hi hi hi hi
Has the axis of the earth changed? Something interesting. The people of the palace are roaming around the lowly Ekalavya’s hut. I wonder why. Be watchful... Lord Khrishna’s visions seems to make the clarion call for a democracy. Hi hi hi the emergence of a democrat!!!!!!!
Scene IV
(Ekalavya on practice again: Enter Drona and Arjuna with the attendants)
Ekalavya: How blessed am I, and my household, prince, with your presence.
Arjun: This garden and its enchanting surroundings is a feast to the eyes, Ekalavya.
{Maid gives water to wash the feet of Drona and looks with curiosity at the similarity of the statue and Drona)
Asandigtha: Prince, Are you going for a war with the cavalry and insignia?
Arjun: These are the insignia of the majesty. Don’t they look great?
Asandigtha: To come to the lowly huts of the Bhils why do you need the paraphernalia of the
insignia? Are you feeling insecure?
Arjun: We recognise a contempt in your comments.
Asandigtha: Never. lack of common sense.
Arjun: Ours, or yours?
Asandigtha: ours: who do you refer to ours? I was talking to you alone?
Arjun: Ekalavya? Your better heart seems to be unaware of the royal protocols.
Ekalavya: I beg your pardon for insolence.
Maid: Hei, the statue looks similar to this sage. Who is this?
Arjun: Oh, the beauty of this orchard and the comely springs drove us out of our duties. Let us
present you Dronacharya the master of Archery. No one has heard of a better archer in
the 14 worlds that we know of.
Drona: Son, exaggeration affects judgement. But tell me why this statue of mine here?
Ekalavya: (Falls at his feet.) Your lordship, let me behold the face of the one I adored and worshiped
on statue of stones. Is this the one to teach me the mastery or archery?
Drona: Well, Are you a Kshatriya?
Ekalavya: No. I am a Bhil.
Drona: (Angrily) How dare you defile my image in the huts of a Bhil progeny?
Arjun: Relent, I offered the statue to him, so that he could learn archery better.
Drona: But you did not tell me that he was not a Khshatriya.
Arjun: I beg your pardon, master.
Drona: Bhils are flesh eaters. They kill animals. They eat their flesh. Their whole body is defiled. How
could the art of the gods descend to the hands of the defiled?
Asandigtha: Hei Brahmin, I have heard your story told by this maid of mine. She was taken by the
hunting princes from our families. Until their fancy ran out, she stayed in your mansions. She has learned the gossips of the palace. Aren’t you ashamed to call yourself a Brahmin? Your hands are filled with blood. The hands that should be holy enough to touch the Vedas, haven’t you defiled by taking arms that kill men. Aren’t they guilty of the holocausts that your dignified Kshatriya princes will undertake? And you call us defiled with blood. You are great, and you think killing men for glory is a better trade than killing animals for food? I lack common sense indeed to understand.
Drona: Isn’t there anyone to stop these feminine hallucinations?
Ekalavya: Asandigtha get back to your hut. You have added the sin of insult to insolence.
Drona: Show me what you can do with your archery.
(Ekalavya showing his expertise)
Drona: Your arrows, I am afraid travels beyond the targets. None can stop its power.
Ekalavya: This prowess and accuracy I learned from your feet, (showing the statue)
Drona: According to the commandments of the art of archery you should be paying your obeisance
and Dakshina to your master. Have you done that?
Ekalavya: I have not touched my bow and arrow without doing my obeisance at the feet of your
statue.
Arjuna: Obeisance is a matter of heart that lacks evidence of trust. You should give something dear
to you to please the master of your art.
Ekalavya: Ask my Lord. Ekalavya is willing to give his life for the art he has learned.
Asandigtha: Ekalavya, you are entering into oaths that affect your virgin wife. Is there no one to stop
pawning the life of women in Bharatha varsha?
Ekalavya: Asandigtha, Get back. There is nothing greater than offering one’s own life to his master.
But no master takes it away.
Asandigtha: I smell a rat here. Do not make promises that I will not stand to bear.
Arjun: Tie this woman up. She has made a virtue of insolence.
(Ekalavya aims his arrow on Asandigtha. Music-------------)
Asandigtha: Go ahead and shoot me. You have not yet claimed even the virginity of your married
wife. Even before that you stake a claim on her life to please the masters of villainy. What
right have you? Do you have a deeper commitment to this statue of destruction than to your
wife?
(The maid forces her to the hut.)
Arjun: Ekalavya, The woman needs to be bridled lest you forfeit your life.
For the insult to us and Dronacharya, you need to do the retribution?
Ekalavya: Order me whatever it is, I shall do it for my master.
Arjun: (Calling Drona aside talks to him) Ask for his right thumb as Dakhshina.
Drona: Arjun, you are out of your senses.
Arjun: But I will demand it.
Ekalavya: Declare whatever it is, even my life.
Arjun: Offer your right thumb as Dakshina. (music, flickering lights, thunder)
Ekalavya: Does my master approve this? Or is it an order from the prince?
Arjun: Ask his right thumb as Gurudakhshina.
Drona: Fight your enemy face to face lest you lose your crucial battles.
Arjun: I do not want to take his life but his fame.
Drona: Fame cannot be taken from others. If you deserve fame it will come to you.
Arjun: You have a promise to keep and keep you must. So now ask him for the thumb.
Drona: Have I become a slave of my dignity? God, has this Brahman done enough crimes to deserve
such humiliation?
Ekalavya: Master, do not think you have asked. I am obliged to give you, and I will offer you my
thumb.
Asandigtha: Stop this nonsense. A prince and a master. This is the thumb that smeared the mark of
my belonging to him for ever. Who are you to claim the thumb of my husband? How will you pull the bow without your right thumb? What will you do to
protect the family from the animals?
Maid: you are talking to the prince.
Asandigtha: The Prince? What prince are you? You are not the stuff of a prince. You were scared of a
little rat here, Ekalavyan. Who is he to you? Just a tribal living in the jungles. You, you are scared of him? His prowess in archery? Shame on you prince. Even if he were thousand times brighter than your magics with arms he would still have perished in this jungle, causing you no harm. Offering him offices in your palace you wanted to kill him? For what? To keep your fame? To keep your name? To live for ever? Shame on you vulture, you feed on corpse.
Maid: Relent Asandigtha. We are living in the fringes of his Kingdom
Asandigtha: What is a kingdom? The king-dominates.... its people, jungles and everything in it. To
protect? Never. They come here to hunt, to kill and waste life that they don’t even eat. I have not known any king who comes here to protect anything that we love. I know no kings but my family elders. I know no kingdom but my beloved jungle.
Maid: You talk disrespectfully in the presence of the prince. Let us not forget that we are sinners.
Asandigtha: Sinners? We kill and eat the animals around. Yes, we kill to eat. They kill men and beasts
alike, to enjoy. What the king and princes do are their majesties’ royal game. What we do is
sin.
Arjun: To make your offering fruitful you need to do it before the sun sets. Do not listen to the
womans blabberings, she is out of senses.
Asandigtha: Wait, give me some time. There is one I can trust. Krishna, the Lord of my universe. Let
him decide what to do with the family that will go hungry for the rest of their life. “She
prays....bhajans’....music) (Khrishna appears) Khrishna you know what dilemma is this.
Khrishna: (voice?) Eklavya, I give you two choices: If you want to be a hero of today do not offer
your thumb. If you want to win the hearts of people tomorrow, none of the droplets of your blood shall fall in vain. A nation will arise in your name that shall overthrow and rebuild the kingdoms that you have heard of. The choice is yours.
Ekalavya prepares to cut the finger (music, lightening in feverish pitch)but people from the audience come and stop. This is injustice. Should not be done. With commotion the play ends.
