''Taledanda'' (Kannada: ತಲೆದಂಡ,

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been ...

: ''रक्त कल्याण'', literally: ''Death by Beheading'') is a 1990

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

-language play written by

Girish Karnad Girish Karnad (19 May 1938 – 10 June 2019) was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in South Indian cinema and Bollywood. His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the ...

, an eminent person in

literature, about the rise of the radical protest and reform movement, Lingaytism, in 12th century

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karn ...

. He was awarded the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award (1993) and the

Sahitya Akademi Award The Sahitya Akademi Award is a literary honour in India, which the Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, annually confers on writers of the most outstanding books of literary merit published in any of the 22 languages of the ...

in Kannada language for the play in 1994, and later awarded the

Jnanpith Award The Jnanpith Award is the oldest and the highest Indian literary award presented annually by the Bharatiya Jnanpith to an author for their "outstanding contribution towards literature". Instituted in 1961, the award is bestowed only on Indian ...

for his literature work in 1998.

About the play

Written in 1989 in the backdrop of

mandir A Hindu temple, or ''mandir'' or ''koil'' in Indian languages, is a house, seat and body of divinity for Hindus. It is a structure designed to bring human beings and gods together through worship, sacrifice, and devotion.; Quote: "The Hind ...

mandal A tehsil (, also known as tahsil, taluka, or taluk) is a local unit of administrative division in some countries of South Asia. It is a subdistrict of the area within a district including the designated populated place that serves as its administ ...

conflict, the

drama Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance: a play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a genre of poetry in general, the dramatic mode ha ...

draws parallel between the Socio-Religious Political and

Economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...

condition of existing times and southern

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

in the 12th century A.D. during

Bhakti Movement The Bhakti movement was a significant religious movement in medieval Hinduism that sought to bring religious reforms to all strata of society by adopting the method of devotion to achieve salvation. Originating in Tamilakam during 6th centu ...

. Eight hundred years ago in the city of

Kalyan Kalyan (Pronunciation: əljaːɳ is a city on the banks of Ulhas River in Thane district of Maharashtra state in Konkan division. It is governed by Kalyan-Dombivli Municipal Corporation. Kalyan is a subdivision (Taluka) of Thane district. ...

a man called

Basavanna Basaveshwara, colloquially known as Basavanna, was a 12th-century CE Indian statesman, philosopher, poet, Lingayat social reformer in the Shiva-focussed bhakti movement, and a Hindu Shaivite social reformer during the reign of the Kalyani Chal ...

assembled a congregation of poets, mystics,

social Social organisms, including human(s), live collectively in interacting populations. This interaction is considered social whether they are aware of it or not, and whether the exchange is voluntary or not. Etymology The word "social" derives from ...

revolutionaries and philosophers, unmatched for their creativity and social commitment in the

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as we ...

, even perhaps of

itself. They opposed idolatry, rejected temple

worship Worship is an act of religious devotion usually directed towards a deity. It may involve one or more of activities such as veneration, adoration, praise, and praying. For many, worship is not about an emotion, it is more about a recognition ...

, upheld equality of sexes, and condemned the caste system. Basavanna was leading the movement to remove gender inequality and caste system. But the event took a violent turn when they acted on their beliefs and a Brahmin girl married a cobbler's son, so called a 'low caste' boy. The

movement Movement may refer to: Common uses * Movement (clockwork), the internal mechanism of a timepiece * Motion, commonly referred to as movement Arts, entertainment, and media Literature * "Movement" (short story), a short story by Nancy Fu ...

ended in bloodshed so does the hopes of Basavanna died in despair. People too forgot the movement. Rakt Kalyan (Tale-Danda) deals with few weeks during which a vibrant, prosperous society plunged into anarchy and terror. In

it is known as Rakt-Kalyan translated by Ram Gopal Bajaj, first directed by

Ebrahim Alkazi Ebrahim Alkazi (18 October 1925 – 4 August 2020) was an Indian theatre director and drama teacher. A rigid disciplinarian, he instilled in his acting students an awe and reverence that they still carry with them, with several of them havi ...

for

National School of Drama National School of Drama (NSD) is a theatre training institute situated at New Delhi, India. It is an autonomous organization under Ministry of Culture, Government of India. It was set up in 1959 by the Sangeet Natak Akademi and became an indep ...

and remarkable production by

Arvind Gaur Arvind Gaur is an Indian theatre director known for innovative, socially and politically relevant plays in India. Gaur's plays are contemporary and thought-provoking, connecting intimate personal spheres of existence to larger social political ...

(1995-2008, still running) for Asmita

Theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...

Telugu translation of the play, by

Bhargavi Rao Bhargavi Prabhanjan Rao (14 August 1944 – 23 May 2008), a Sahitya Akademi awardee, was an eminent translator in Telugu Literature. She was actively involved in translating various works of author and playwright Girish Karnad. Her most famous w ...

won her the

Translation Award in 1995, given by

Sahitya Akademi The Sahitya Akademi, India's National Academy of Letters, is an organisation dedicated to the promotion of literature in the languages of India. Founded on 12 March 1954, it is supported by, though independent of, the Indian government. Its of ...

, India's National Academy of Letters.

Translations

* ''Taledanda hindi'', Ravi Dayal, 1993. .

References

* {{cite book , title=Indian English Drama, chapter=Myths in the Plays of Girish Karnad, author=Nand Kumar, publisher=Sarup & Sons, year=2003, isbn=81-7625-353-7, chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9j7CbYk-IMIC&q=%22Girish+Karnad%22+-inpublisher%3Aicon&pg=PA114 , ref=Ku Indian plays 1990 plays Kannada literature Existentialist plays Sahitya Akademi Award-winning works

About the play

Further reading

Translations

References