MASTERPIECES OF THE INDIAN LITERATUREThe Little Clay Cart

It is also known as The Mricchakatika. It is one of the oldest Indian plays known, probably written about the 2nd century BCE.This is the only work by the author King Shudraka, who preceded the more famousKalidasaby about five centuries.

For Sanskrit theatre, it is a typically romantic, funny, and thrilling play.This most human of Sanskrit plays is Shakespearian in its skilful drawing of characters and in the plot's direct clarity.

The play is today known as a screwball comedy.The central character, Vasantasena, is a courtesan, involved in a love triangle. Courtesans were a class of female entertainers, who were skilled in thearts of love. They had long-term relationships with their clients, and some become wealthy or even formal wives, (as does Vasantasena), so they had both social mobility and independence. The characters span society from high to low, including royals, soldiers, priests and a motley crew of commoners. There is enough action, hilarity, historical atmosphere, and subplots in the ten acts for a TV miniseries, including a cliffhanger at the end which is used to comic effect.

The play is set in the ancient city ofUjjayiniduring the reign of the King Plaka, near the end of thePradyota dynastythat made up the first quarter of the fifth century BC. The central story is that of noble but impoverished youngBrahmin, Chrudatta, who falls in love with a wealthy courtesan ornagarvadhu, Vasantasen. Despite their mutual affection, however, the couple's lives and love are threatened when a vulgar courtier, Samsthnaka, begins to aggressively pursue of Vasantasen.

Rife with romance, comedy, intrigue and a political subplot detailing the overthrow of the city's despotic ruler by a shepherd, the play is notable among extant Sanskrit drama for its focus on a fictional scenario rather than on a classical tale or legend.Mcchakaika also departs from traditions enumerated in theNatya Shastrathat specify that dramas should focus on the lives of the nobility and instead incorporates a large number of middle and lower-caste characters who speak a wide range ofPrakritdialects. The story is thought to be derived from an earlier work calledChrudatta in Povertyby the playwrightBhsa, though that work survives only in fragments. Of all the Sanskrit dramas,Mcchakaikaremains one of the most widely celebrated and oft-performed in the West, in part because its plot structure more closely resembles that of Western classics than other Hindu plays. The work played a significant role in generating interest in Indian theatre among European audiences following several successful nineteenth century translations and stage productions, most notablyGrard de NervalandJoseph Mry'shighly romanticized French adaptation titledLe Chariot d'enfantthat premiered in Paris in 1850, as well as a critically acclaimed "anarchist" interpretation byVictor Barrucand calledLe Chariot de terrecuitethat was produced by theThtre de l'uvrein 1895.

Chrudatta is a generous man from theBrahman castewho, through his charitable contributions to unlucky friends and the general public welfare, has severely impoverished himself and his family. Though deserted by most of his friends and embarrassed by deteriorating living conditions, he has maintained his reputation inUjjayinias an honest and upright man with a rare gift of wisdom and many important men continue to seek his counsel.

Though happily married and the recent father of a young son, Rohasena, Chrudatta is enamored of Vasantasen, a courtesan of great wealth and reputation. After a chance encounter at the temple ofKma, she has found that she loves him in return, though, the matter is complicated when Vasantasen finds herself pursued by Samsthnaka, a half-mad brother-in-law of King Plaka, and his retinue. When the men threaten violence, Vasantasen flees, seeking safety with Chrudatta. Their love blossoms following the clandestine meeting, and the courtesan entrusts her new lover with a casket of jewelry in an attempt to ensure a future meeting.

Her plan is thwarted, however, when a thief, Sarvilaka, enters Chrudattas home and steals the jewels in an elaborate scheme to buy the freedom of his lover, Madanik, who is Vasantasens slave and confidant. The courtesan recognizes the jewelry, but she accepts the payment anyway and frees Madanik to marry. She then attempts to contact Chrudatta and inform him of the situation, but before she can make contact he panics and sends Vasantasen a rare pearl necklace that had belonged to his wife, a gift in great excess of the value of the stolen jewelry. In recognition of this, Chrudatta's friend, Maitreya, cautions the Brahmin against further association, fearing that Vasantasen is, at worst, scheming to take from Chrudatta the few possessions he still has and, at best, a good-intentioned bastion of bad luck and disaster.

Refusing to take this advice, Chrudatta makes Vasantasen his mistress and she eventually meets his young son. During the encounter, the boy is distressed because he has recently enjoyed playing with a friend's toy cart of solid gold and no longer wants his own clay cart that his nurse has made for him. Taking pity on him in his sadness, Vasantasen fills his little clay cart with her own jewelry, heaping his humble toy with a mound of gold before departing to meet Chrudatta in a park outside the city for a days outing. There she enters a fine carriage, but soon discovers that she is in agharrybelonging to Samsthnaka, who remains enraged by her previous affront and is madly jealous of the love and favor she shows to Chrudatta. Unable to persuade his henchmen to kill her, Samsthnaka sends his retinue away and proceeds to strangle Vasantasen and hide her body beneath a pile of leaves. Still seeking vengeance, he promptly accuses Chrudatta of the crime.

Though the Brahmin proclaims his innocence, his presence in the park along with his son's possession of Vasantasen's jewels implicate the poverty-stricken man, and he is found guilty and condemned to death by King Plaka. Unbeknownst to all, however, the body identified as Vasantasens was actually another woman. Vasantasen had revived and befriended by a Buddhist monk who nursed her back to health in a nearby village.

Just as Chrudatta faces execution, Vasantasen appears and, seeing the excited crowd, intervenes in time to save him from execution and his wife from throwing herself onto a funeral pyre. Together the three declare themselves a family. Reaching the courts, Vasantasen tells the story of her near death and, following her testimony, Samsthnaka is arrested and the good Prince ryaka deposes the wicked King Plaka. His first acts as the newly declared sovereign is to restore Chrudattas fortune and give him an important position at court. Following this good will, Chrudatta demonstrates in the final act his enduring virtue and charity, appealing to the King for pardon on behalf of Samsthnaka who is subsequently declared free.

The play is more human than most of the contemporary drama for its authentic portrayal of contemporary scenes from the conflict between the riches and poverty to political mayhem (violent destruction or confusion). Through the passionate love story between a Brahmin merchant, Charudatta, and a courtesan, Vasantasena, the play narrates the life of the city of Ujjayini, a legendary city-state in early India.

It is unquestionably a masterpiece in the realm of ancient Sanskrit drama. If we expect literature of the time to faithfully represent the age, thenThe Little Clay Cart has achieved this criterion more than any other plays of ancient Sanskrit tradition.

Gitanjali: Song Offerings Gitanjali (Bangla Gitanjoli) is a collection of 103 English poems, largely translations, by the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore.The wordgitanjaliis composed from "git", song, and "anjali", offering, and thus means "An offering of songs"; but the word for offering,anjali, has a strong devotional connotation, so the title may also be interpreted as "prayer offering of song".

Song Offeringsis a collection of devotional songs to the supreme.It is of Tagore's own English translations of his Bengali poems first published in November 1913 by the India Society of London.

It is a volume of lyrics by Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore rendered into English by the poet himself, for which he was awarded the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.The translations were undertaken prior to a visit to England in 1912, where the poems were extremely well received. In 1913, Tagore became the first non-European to win theNobel Prize for Literature, largely for the EnglishGitanjali.

Gitanjali contained 157 short lyrics while 103 poems of Song of Offerings contained poems from nine more poetry in addition to Gitanjali.Poems of the ten volumes are as follows: Gitanjali - 51 poems Geetmalya - 17 poems Naibadya - 16 poems Kheya - 11 poems Shishu - 3 poems Chaitali - 1 poem Smaran - 1 poem Kalpana - 1 poem Utsarga - 1 poem Acholayatan - 1 poem.