Dr Chandrashekhara Kambara is a poet, playwright and novelist, who has enriched the tradition of Kannada lioterature. He has integrated content and form in his great poems, creating a new path in modern Kannada poetry. His poetry established strong ties with the mental status of the lower castes and their psychological realities, myths, rituals, etc.

Kambara's plays are an extension of his poetry. As is clear in the present collection, he wrote three types of plays inspired by folklore. Plays like Calesha, Jaisida Nayaka, Nayi Kathe, Harakeya Kuri, Sambashiva Prahasana and others that have a deep undercurrent of social concern and plays that Kambara wrote for children. In this sense, this volume practically represents all the three types of plays Kambara has been writing.

From among these three types of plays, it is the first variety that has brought fame to Kambara. He has portrayed as well as strongly protested against the colonial rule that deformed and deeply wounded the Indian civilization. Kambara believes that the way we are building our nation with the help of colonial experiecnces and thoughts is only creating a contorted copy of the capitalist countries. Saying so does not necessarily mean that he harks back to pre-colonial India. Kambara strongly argues that a sickly mind, which does not have its own will power, cannot create anything new on its own and thoughtlessly keeps following external influences. Consequently, it keeps weakening all the time. The greatest challenge for today's India is how to come out of this somewhat misshapen and shameless copying style. Kambara's plays such pertinent questions.

The important play in this volume, The Shadow of the Tiger (Huliya Neralu, translated by Padma Ramachandra Sharma) is a play that throws up such issues. As the noted critic Kirthinath Kurthakoti has pointed out in his Introduction to this volume, this play has an intrinsic relationship with Kambar's poem Helatena Kela (Listen to Me). As the play starts, the narrator says:
That night, a seven-striped tiger came to the village and was heard roaring. Gowda listened and laughed heartily, called the hunters, ordered them to hunt and kill. But it was different, this tiger. Eating cows in sheds, chasing and devouring the little mites of the village, menacing. In the end, it was Gowda himself for the hunt, all set. The bows and arrows and nets in readiness. The sound of the horn, the clarion, and the metal plank filling the skies, Gowda all set for the hunt (p.58)

Gowda sets out to hunt the tiger. Gowdthi, Gowda's wife hesitates to send him for hunting. She narrates the tragic incident in which Gowda was sacrificed in her dream. "At least for today can't you send the huntsmen out?" she pleads. Iripya, the village man also says that the deity Karrevva does not give her consent for hunting. The children sing in chorus:
          Don't leave the nest!
          Dense clouds have gathered.
          In them, black shadows are swinging
          Look, see the damned vulture!
          The eyes glide all over you.

Defying all such hurdles, Gowda leaves for hunting. In the forest, the seven-striped tiger demon kills Gowda, the demon takes the shape of Gowda himself, and it comes to the village. From then, the situation in the village deteriorates further. That is because the demon in the form of Gowda does not have the power of reforming the society. The narrator said
          Gowda returned after everyone else.
          He was tired.
          He had come carrying something on his back.
          The hunted tiger, we said, perhaps.
          Or perhaps not, we felt.
          For into the disused well outside the village
          He threw it and came.
          Not a call of a horn
          Nor band and music!
          It wasn't as if the tiger was hunted
          Nor as if it hadn't been.
          He's got in like a thief
          And we accepted him as such.

If a foreign power comes as itself, our civilization can at least face it. If one knows who the opponent is, then it is easy to serve a punch on his face. However, the irony of history is that foreign devilishness manifests itself in the local dress and it changes the structure of original life itself. As colonial and neo-colonial powers come in our own garb, it becomes impossible to encounter them. This is a terrifying situation. Fighting with faceless powers or fighting with our own images always creates contradictions. From here onwards, the play narrates the disintegration of our civilization through Gowda's son Ramagonda.

Ramagonda is caught between reality and illusion. In this confusion, he is driven to search for the truth, but fails. He says, 'Now everything appears to be split into two. I am seeing two of myself. How can I put both truths to test?...What is truth? Which is false?' This state of Ramagonda is terrifying. His cry 'Show me the truth without shadow' is replete in the entire drama. According to Kurthkoti 'The desire to seek out one's real parents becomes a metaphor for the search for truth. The ambiguity of origin is not just a social problem but a philosophical one, too' (p.viii). Consequently, even if Ramagonda conquers the tiger and brings the tiger milk home, even if he gets magic toy-horse and a mirror-satisfaction eludes him. He cannot prevent the growth of the demon inside the womb of his mother.

Thus, while this drama quests for an authentic personality, it also symbolically depicts the tragedy of a ruining society. The integration of the form and the intellectual pursuit in a text is always challenging. However, Kambara achieves this task by selecting a suitable image of Ramagonda. For this very reason, The Shadow of the Tiger has become an important play not onluy in Kannada context but also in Indian context.

The other play in this volume is Tukra's Dream (Tukrana Karasu, translated by O.L. Nagabhusana Swamy). Kambara has successfully attempted in Tukra's Dream to combine comedy and tragedy. The original name of the hero of the drama is Tukarama or Sukra but the people of Shivapura will always refer to him as Tukra. In the beginning of the play, the Bhagawata introduces him as: You need patience because our hero doesn't belong to any of the known categories of heroes mentioned in the Natyasastra. He can't be compared with anyone else. It's impossible even to compare him in parts with others, he falls woefully short. It's difficult even to consider him by himself. His hands don't match his legs, his legs don't match his body, his body doesn't match his face. He is like a shape formed out of the discarded organs of other people. His name, then, is Tukra. His name is not found in the census records or in the songs and ballads sung by local historians (p.105). Such a figure is the central character of the play. Tukra introduces himself in his very first appearance thus: 'I am the thousand years dream of this earth, or I am the pain suffered by this earth in its dream, or I am the wound of this earth' (p. 106).

Tukra, however, has a wish that his name be mentioned in the time capsule intended to be buried in the vicinity by the chief of the village. He tries to impress upon the villagers by relating his ancestral antecedents to Patels and so on but in the end only to be kicked off by the superiors. Thus, the time capsule is buried without the name of Tukra being inserted in it. His only wish is that he wants to get an identity of his own by some means. As Kurthakoti rightly points out,'Ultimately he is hanged for a crime he has not committed and society attributes several identities to him. Tukra is a patriot and also a traitor, a thief and a womanizer. Tukra wants to commit a crime because it is the surest way of ensuring an identity. He shudders at the reality of his existence only through dreaming and play-acting' (p.x.) The moment of transcendence for him is the moment of his death. The death is in fact deliverance for him. Tukra's dream portrays the tragedies of a poor man in simple terms.

In the third drama of this volume, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (Alibaba Nalavattu Mandi Kallaru, translated by Sandhya S), Kambara has adopted a celebrated Arabian folktale here. The play is reconstructed and re-situated in the Kannada context. All the elements that are required in a children's play like fantasy, action, curiosity, etc., are present here. The characters belong to a folk world whose antics aggravate laughter. However, the message conveyed here is that Alibaba's elder brother Kasim is killed by the thieves, whereas Alibaba escapes. Kasim is punished for his lust for money but his brother is not killed, as his desires are limited. However, this message is not strongly established because of the comic treatment of the characters. In spite of that, it is beautiful children's play with haunting lyrics and superb humorous dialogues.

Purshothama Billimale