ACT III

Breaking In

(About a fortnight after the incidents in the previous act took place. Charudatta’s house. Enter Cheta.)

Scene 1

CHETA:

He is a good man who is kind to his servants;

He retains his greatness even when he becomes poor.

But the master who is harsh and cruel

And arrogant of his wealth

Is not only difficult to serve,

But serving him may well end in calamity.

A bull hungering for corn cannot be held back;

A wife in love with another man cannot be restrained;

A man addicted to dice cannot be distracted;

And an innate fault in anyone cannot be removed.¹

What a long time Arya Charudatta has been gone attending a music concert! It is almost past midnight; still he hasn’t returned. Let me go and sleep in the veranda near the outer door. (Cheta goes to sleep)

Scene 2

(The road leading to Charudatta’s house. Charudatta and Vidushaka are walking home.)

CHARUDATTA: Wonderful! Wonderful! Rebhila’s music was really wonderful! The veena is indeed a gem—a gem that did not rise from the sea!²

It is a soothing companion to the lovelorn,

The best diversion when the lover is late for the tryst,

A great solace in separation.

But, when the lovers are together, the veena is truly a delight and swells their passion.

VIDUSHAKA: Come, come let us head home now.

CHARUDATTA: My friend Rebhila sang very well indeed!

VIDUSHAKA: I am really tickled by two things—a woman trying to learn Sanskrit, and a man singing the kakali,³ the soft tones. The woman learning Sanskrit keeps making a sibilant noise just like the snort of a young cow with the rope passed through its nostrils for the first time. A man singing kakali, soft tones not coming naturally to the male voice, sounds exactly like an aged priest, with an unsuitable garland of dried flowers wrapped around him, croaking mantras. Both are hateful to me!

CHARUDATTA: Maitreya, our worthy Rebhila sang very well indeed today! But you are not satisfied.

The music had passion as well as sweetness;

Now serene, now exuberant,

Full of feeling, delicate, captivating!

Oh! Of what use are the many words of praise that I utter?

But I do wonder

If there was not a woman hidden inside him!

The cadence of his notes, his soft gentle voice,

The harmonious strum of the veena strings,

The soaring pitch reached in the rise of the notes, the softness in the pause

The ease of control, the sweetness,

The repetition twice over to express passion!

Ah! Such was the music that though it has ended,

While I walk it still rings in my ears!

VIDUSHAKA: Dear friend, look at the dogs comfortably asleep at the crossings of the lanes in the marketplace. So let us too now get home . . . But, friend, look, look! The Lord Moon too is coming down from his palace in the sky as though to give darkness its turn!

CHARUDATTA: Well put, my friend!

The crescent moon setting with its edges pointing up

Allowing darkness to have its being,

Imitates the sharp tips of the tusks

Of the forest elephant,

Seen above the waters

Into which it has plunged.

VIDUSHAKA: Here we are back home! Vardhamanaka! Vardhamanaka! Open the door!

CHETA: I hear Arya Maitreya’s voice. Arya Charudatta has returned. Let me open the door. (He opens the door)

I salute you, sir, and you too, Maitreya. Please sit down on these comfortable chairs. (Both enter and sit down)

VIDUSHAKA: Vardhamanaka, call Radanika. Let her bring water to wash our feet.

CHARUDATTA: There is no need to wake her now!

CHETA: Arya Maitreya, I shall hold the water and you wash the feet.

VIDUSHAKA: (With anger) This one here, equal to the son of a whore, says he will hold the water while I, a brahmana, wash the feet!

CHARUDATTA: (Reasonably) Friend, you hold the water and Vardhamanaka shall wash the feet.

CHETA: Arya Maitreya, pour the water.

(Vidushaka pours the water and Cheta washes Charudatta’s feet and moves away)

CHARUDATTA: Pour water on the brahmana’s feet.

VIDUSHAKA: No need for any water for my feet! Like a well-thrashed donkey, I have to roll on the bare ground again anyway!

CHETA: Whatever it is, you are a brahmana, Arya Maitreya!

VIDUSHAKA: Just as the absolutely harmless dundubha is a snake among snakes, I too am a brahmana among brahmanas!

CHETA: I shall wash your feet nonetheless . . . (He does so) And, noble sir, please take charge of these jewels now; remember they were my responsibility by day and yours by night. (He hands the ornaments to Vidushaka and goes out)

VIDUSHAKA: (Holding the jewellery) These are still with us! Isn’t there a single thief in the whole of Ujjayini to steal these wretched jewels that steal our sleep at night? . . . Friend, I think I shall put them in the inner chamber.

CHARUDATTA:

No taking these jewels into the inner chamber!

They have been worn by a public woman!⁴

Keep them with you, O brahmana, somehow or other,

Until such time as they are returned to her.

(Charudatta is sleepy and yawns but still remembers the evening’s music and the singer)

VIDUSHAKA: Are you sleepy?

CHARUDATTA: Oh yes! I am!

This sleep clinging now to my eyes,

Having approached me from the region of my forehead as it were,

Is invisible and fickle,

And grows, like old age,

By overpowering the vitality of man.

VIDUSHAKA: Well, then, let us sleep.

Scene 3

(Charudatta’s house as in the previous scene. Enter Sharvilaka.)

SHARVILAKA:

I dig a tunnel—

With the strength of my training

And the strength of my arms—

To fit my body, so that I could enter with ease.

Then I creep through the hole

—Getting my sides scraped—

Like a snake with a worn-out body

Freeing itself of the slough

(He looks up at the sky and appears pleased) Ah! Is that moon god going to set now?

I move in fear of the king’s officers,

I, the incomparable valiant,

Set upon defiling the homes of others!

But this pitch-dark night,

With even the light from the stars rendered faint

Hides me, like a mother her child.

Having made a hole in the wall around the grove of trees, I have now come inside. Now I shall break into the inner quadrangle.

True, that people say this is a mean trade,

One that prospers only when the world is asleep!

Getting the better of the trustful by means of deceit—–

That is thievery, and there is no valour in it.

But is not that trade which confers independence—

Even if deserving of censure—far better

Than folding one’s hands in obedient service?

Did not Ashvatthama himself, the son of Drona,

Once take this very course,

As he broke in and put to death

The princes, all in their sleep?⁵

Now, where shall I make the breach?

I must look for that spot where, with the masonry weakened

With constant sprinkling of water,

The sound of breaking would be muted;

And where I can create a breach that is wide and yet

Will not fall within sight of anyone.

Where is that decayed, worn-out part of the mansion

With the bricks eaten up by acid,

A place seldom frequented by women?

Such a place would surely lead me to success! (He strokes the wall exploring)

This area here, already weakened by corrosion, is further damaged by the daily worship of the sun with the sprinkling of water. Here is a pile of rubbish dug out by mice! Great! My mission is as good as accomplished! This is the first sign of success for the sons of Skanda—thieves!⁶ I must first decide, before I start the work, how I should go about it. My venerable teacher Kanakashakti⁷ has shown four different ways of making the breach. If the wall is built of baked bricks then the breach has to be made by pulling the bricks out; if the bricks are sun-dried they must be hewn out; if made of clods of earth they ought to be soaked; and wooden bricks should to be chipped away. Here the bricks are baked, so they have to be pulled out. And many shapes are possible.

It could be like a fully bloomed lotus,

Or like the sun, or the young moon, or the well;

It could be rectangular or shaped like a swastika, or a water pot . . .

In which spot shall I show my sculptor’s skill

So that tomorrow the citizens may gaze at it, wonderstruck?

With baked bricks the water-pot design would look the best. That is what I’ll make.

I have breached other walls of a night,

Other structures roughly finished and eaten up by acid.

The crowd of neighbours who saw it in the morning,

Condemned me, but praised my skill nonetheless!

And now before I start:

I bow to Kumara Kartikeya, the giver of boons. I bow to Kanakashakti, to Vishnu, and to divine discipline.

I bow to Bhaskaranandin and Yogacharya whose best student I am! He was so pleased with me that he gave me a magical ointment.

Anointed with the magic ointment,

The guards cannot see me.

Any weapon that strikes my body

Shall cause no wound.

Oh! Oh! I have forgotten to bring my measuring thread! (Thinks) Oh yes! This sacred thread of mine can now serve as the measuring thread. I dare say this sacred thread serves many a purpose for the brahmana, especially for one like me!

This sacred thread would measure the tunnel through the wall,

And undo clasps in the ornaments.

It could slide the bolts open on doors

And serve as tourniquet too, for one bitten by insects or snakes.

I have finished measuring; now let me start the work. (Looking up after working for a while) Just one more brick to remove. Ouch! Ouch! A snake has bitten me! (He binds the bitten finger with the sacred thread, all the while acting as if the poison is spreading. Then he takes the proper remedies) Now I am all right. (He continues the work until completion and then looks into the tunnel) Oh! I see a lamp burning.

The golden yellow ray of light from the lamp

Flowing through the mouth of the tunnel falls on the ground.

Surrounded by darkness on all sides, it shines,

Like a streak of gold lying on the touchstone.

(He resumes work) This breach is now done. Let me enter. Or, on second thoughts, I won’t go in just yet. I shall first push in a dummy. (After doing that) Well, there seems to be no one there! Praise to Kartikeya! (Enters and looks around) Oh! But there are two men sleeping here! Let me leave the door open for my escape. (Opens the door) How this door creaks for the house is so old! Now I must look for water. Where can I find water? . . . Ah, here it is! I hope it will not make too much noise when the water falls on the ground. (He looks around and throws the water carefully) There, now to get on with it! Now, let me check if this pair is really asleep or simply feigning sleep. (Checks by trying to disturb them) Ah! They are really asleep.

Their breathing does not appear suspicious;

It is clear and measured.

The eyes are tightly closed,

Not fluttering nor moving inside.

The limbs, relaxed and with the joints loosened,

Are stretched beyond the dimensions of the bed.

Further, would light right in the face be suffered

If one merely pretended to be asleep?

(Looks around)

There is a mridangam⁸ here! And here is a dardura and here a panava! A veena too and these are flutes! And there are manuscripts too! Is this the house of a professor of dance and music? I entered the house assured by its size. Is he in truth a poor man or has he buried his wealth due to fear of thieves and kings? If there is buried wealth here then sure as anything it shall be mine, Sharvilaka’s! Let me now scatter the magic seeds.⁹ (He scatters the seeds) Alas! The scattered seeds are not swelling up anywhere! That means this man really is poor! There is no wealth here! Let me now get out of this house.

VIDUSHAKA: (Talks in his sleep) Ah, my friend! I see something like a breach in the wall. I see someone like a thief. Please take these jewels from me.

SHARVILAKA: Is it possible that he is aware of my presence and is mocking me for trying to rob him who is so poor? Shall I kill him now? Or is he merely talking in his light sleep out of nervousness? (Looks closely) Ah! True enough there is wealth here! Wrapped in an old tattered bath towel I see ornaments shining in the lamplight! All right, let me take them. No, it is not right to steal from a person of good lineage who is also in the same hard-up state as I am! Let me get out of here.

VIDUSHAKA: Friend! It is said that one should pay heed to the wishes of cows and brahmanas! Relieve me of these jewels! Otherwise you will be cursed.

SHARVILAKA: Of course, the wishes of the venerable cows and brahmanas are instantly to be obeyed! I shall take the jewels from you. But the lamp is still burning! No matter, I carry with me fire insects that can douse the light. I shall release them now. They are ideal for the present situation. Having been released by me they now circle the flame, forming various patterns. The light is put out by the wind from the flapping wings of the insect bhadrapita. Damn the darkness! Or damn the darkness of disgrace brought upon good brahmana families by the likes of me! I, Sharvilaka, the son of a brahmana well versed in all the four Vedas and a householder who never accepted gifts, am now perpetrating such a vile act just to please the courtesan Madanika . . . Ah, well, let me carry out this brahmana’s wishes. (He tries to grasp the bundle)

VIDUSHAKA: Friend! How cold your fingers are!

SHARVILAKA: So careless of me! The water has made my hands cold. I shall warm them by placing them in my armpits. (He warms his hands)

VIDUSHAKA: Have you taken it yet?

SHARVILAKA: A brahmana’s wishes may not be ignored! I have taken them.

VIDUSHAKA: Now I can sleep in peace, like the merchant who has sold off all his merchandise.

SHARVILAKA: O great brahmana! Sleep on, sleep on for a hundred years! It is terrible that for the favours of the courtesan Madanika I have pushed my brahmana heritage into darkness. Or rather I have pushed myself into the darkness of disgrace.

Oh, this wretched penury!

It so depresses the manly spirit

That while condemning this deed as despicable

I indulge in it all the same.

Well, I shall now make my way to Vasantasena’s house to buy Madanika’s freedom with these ornaments.¹⁰ (Moves around) Oh! Oh! Footsteps! I hope they are not the guards’. Let me stand very still so that they do not see me. But Sharvilaka, in fear of the guards? Never!

I leap like a cat, sprint like a deer,

Seize and rend like an eagle.

I gauge like a dog, a man’s strength, awake and asleep.

And I slither away like a serpent.

I am ‘illusion’ itself in crafting disguises,

A veritable Saraswati in the speech of many lands.

I am a lamp at night, a mule in a narrow defile,

A horse on land and a boat in water,

I move like a snake,

But am steady as a mountain!

I can whirl around like the lord of the birds!

I observe like a rabbit,

I grab like a wolf,

And in strength I am indeed a lion!

Scene 4

(Charudatta’s house as in the previous scene. Enter Radanika.)

RADANIKA: Alas! Alas! Vardhamanaka was sleeping in the passage leading to the outer door. Now I cannot see him! Let me call out to Arya Maitreya. (She moves towards him)

SHARVILAKA: (Attempts to strike Radanika but realizes it is a woman) But this is a woman! I shall get out of here now! (Exit)

RADANIKA: (Moving about in fear) Oh my God! A thief has made a hole in the wall of our house and is now getting away! Let me try and rouse Arya Maitreya. Arya Maitreya! Please wake up! A thief had breached the wall and has now got away!

VIDUSHAKA: (Awakens) You daughter of a whore! What are you saying? The thief has been breached and the hole is getting away?¹¹

RADANIKA: No joking for heaven’s sake, you wretch! Can’t you see this? (Points to the hole)

VIDUSHAKA: You daughter of a whore! What do you mean by saying it again as if a second door has been opened? (To Charudatta) Oh! My friend Charudatta! Get up! Get up! A thief has bored a hole in our wall and has disappeared!

CHARUDATTA: (Having risen) All right, that is enough joking!

VIDUSHAKA: I am not joking. You see for yourself.

CHARUDATTA: Where is the hole?

VIDUSHAKA: Over here.

CHARUDATTA: (Looks at the hole and exclaims) But what a beautiful hole!

The bricks have been removed from top down!

This hole is small at the top and large in the middle.

As though this is the heart of this great mansion

Split due to fear of contact with one unworthy.

There is expertise even in this kind of work!

VIDUSHAKA: My friend, undoubtedly this breach has been made by one of two kinds of people. Someone new to the city or one merely practising his art! For who in this Ujjayini does not know the state of our finances?

CHARUDATTA:

Perhaps a man from foreign parts did it,

By way of practising his skill, no doubt.

Or he knew not that we were men unburdened with wealth,

Who could sleep on soundly with a light heart!

His hopes were raised by the first sight of our huge mansion

Only to be dashed to the ground

After the long and arduous task of boring the hole.

But what will he tell his friends now, that he broke into the house of the scion of a great merchant but found nothing at all to carry away?

VIDUSHAKA: Why do you waste your pity on that thieving rascal? He must have thought that this was such a great big house that surely he could make away with a treasure in gems and gold ornaments! . . . Where is that bundle of ornaments? (Recollecting suddenly) My friend, you always say Maitreya is a fool, Maitreya is ignorant; have I not done well in putting that parcel of ornaments into your hands? Otherwise that son of a whore would have made off with it!

CHARUDATTA: Please, no more jokes.

VIDUSHAKA: I may be a fool but I do know the time and the place for jokes.

CHARUDATTA: When did all this happen?

VIDUSHAKA: When I told you your hands were cold!

CHARUDATTA: Ah! That could have been it! (Looks pleased) Thank God I can tell you something agreeable!

VIDUSHAKA: What? Has it not been stolen?

CHARUDATTA: No, it has been stolen.

VIDUSHAKA: Then why are you pleased?

CHARUDATTA: That he did not go away empty-handed.

VIDUSHAKA: But it had been left in our safe custody!

CHARUDATTA: Oh! It was in our safe custody! (He swoons)

VIDUSHAKA: Please compose yourself. If what was left in our care has been stolen, why do you fall in a faint?

CHARUDATTA: (Recovers)

Who will believe the truth of the matter?

The world will deride me, for poverty lacks dignity;

It is suspect in the eyes of all.

Alas! Fate had already eloped with my riches,

Why does the cruel one seek to sully my good name as well now?

VIDUSHAKA: I can deny everything, who gave and who received. And who indeed was the witness?

CHARUDATTA: Would I now utter a falsehood?

I would not flinch from begging to earn the means to redeem the loss

Of what was left in my care;

But a falsehood that would destroy my reputation

I shall never utter.

RADANIKA: I had better go and report all this to my mistress Dhuta.

Scene 5

(Enter Charudatta’s wife, Dhuta, and Cheti)

DHUTA: (With agitation) Are you quite sure that my lord Charudatta is not harmed physically? And noble Maitreya as well?

RADANIKA: Yes, my lady, I am quite sure, but he has stolen the jewels of the courtesan.

(Dhuta faints)

CHETI: Please Madam Dhuta, compose yourself.

DHUTA: (Recovering her composure) Didn’t you say that my husband was not injured in the body? It would have been far better to have injury done to the body than to one’s character! The people of Ujjayini will now say that due to his poverty my husband has done this ignoble deed. O Fate! You do play with the fortunes of the poor, slippery as water drops fallen on lotus leaves! (Looks up and sighs deeply and suddenly removes a necklace from around her neck) Cheti, I have just this one piece of jewellery left, a necklace of precious stones that I brought from my mother’s home. But my husband who is excessively proud will not take it if offered. (Thinks) . . . Cheti, just get Maitreya here, will you?

RADANIKA: (Approaches Vidushaka) Arya Maitreya, Madam Dhuta wishes to talk to you.

VIDUSHAKA: Where is she?

RADANIKA: Right here.

VIDUSHAKA: (Approaching) I salute you, my lady.

DHUTA: My respects to you. Noble sir, please stand facing the east.

VIDUSHAKA: Here I am, turned towards the east.

DHUTA: Sir, accept this necklace.

VIDUSHAKA: What is this? What are you doing?

DHUTA: On the day of the ratnashashti I observed a fast.¹² In connection with that a gift has to be given, according to one’s ability, to a brahmana, which has not been done so far. Please accept this gem necklace from me.

VIDUSHAKA: (Accepts the necklace) May God bless you! I shall now hand this over to Arya Charudatta.

DHUTA: Arya Maitreya, please do not make me feel ashamed!¹³ (Exits with Radanika)

VIDUSHAKA: (Wonderstruck) What magnanimity!

CHARUDATTA: Maitreya is taking his own time! Distracted as he is, I hope he doesn’t do anything improper. Maitreya! Maitreya!

VIDUSHAKA: (Approaching) Here I am! Take this now! (Shows him the necklace of precious stones)

CHARUDATTA: What on earth is this?

VIDUSHAKA: This is your reward for having married a wife worthy of you.

CHARUDATTA: What? My wife pities me! Now I am really poor indeed!

My own fortune destroyed by ill luck,

A woman’s wealth comes to my rescue, along with pity.

In truth, it is money that makes a man a woman,

Or a woman a man!

Or rather, I am not poor really! For I have,

A wife who is full of magnanimity and

You, a dear friend in joy and sorrow;

And add to it the fact that I’ve never swerved from the path of verity;

Surely these are rare to come by in the midst of poverty!

Maitreya, go now to Vasantasena and give her this necklace of precious stones and this message from me. ‘The gold ornaments entrusted to our care by you have been gambled away carelessly in the mistaken belief that they belonged to us. In their place please accept this gem necklace.’

VIDUSHAKA: Please do not give away this ratnavali set with gems that are the essence of the four oceans for the sake of that bundle of gold ornaments of little value, ornaments never used by us, never enjoyed by us, simply because they have been stolen by thieves.

CHARUDATTA: No, no my friend, that is not it!

She reposed faith in me

When she left the deposit in our care.

To redeem that great trust

Is this price being paid.

So Maitreya, I touch you and hold you bound by an oath¹⁴ that you will not return without making Vasantasena accept this jewel.

Vardhamanaka,

Fill the breach on the wall properly, quickly,

With these very same loosened bricks.

Conceal the breach of the house I must from the public

If only to avoid an outbreak of scandal.

My friend, Maitreya, you too must talk to her with dignity and pride.

VIDUSHAKA: I am a penniless wretch; how can I avoid cringing?

CHARUDATTA: But I am not poor for I have you and my magnanimous wife. Go now. I too shall do my ablutions and perform the morning worship.

(Exit all)