Draupadi @Tripunithura

Draupadi a play in Malayalam that tells the story of womanhood will be performed at Govt Sankrit College Tripunithura, at 7.00 pm on 27th of February 2013, as part of The Kulasekhara National Theatre Festival – Natyasastra and Living Traditions, organised by Govt. Sankrit College Tripunithura, Chinmaya International Sodh Sansthan Veliyanadu, and International Centre for Kutiyattam, Tripunithua. The festival is February 24^th to March 02^nd

This play analyses the relationship between a contemporary girl, living in an Indian town with the epic character Draupadi. It searches into the many layers of complexity by which the motif of Draupadi lives in the psyche of Indian women and also the reality of her life.

This performative analysis makes use the novels Yajnaseni written by Prathibha Ray, Ini njan urangatte by PK Balakrishnan, Randamoozhamby MT Vasudevan Nair, the critical studies Bharathaparyadanam by Kuttikrishna Marar, and Women of Mahabharata by Chaturvedi Badrinath.

Draupadi is wedded to five great men who are embodiments of all virtues, and is the love of Krishna, the universal lover. So it seems logical that she might have been the happiest lady on earth. The play looks into reality. In fact all her husbands have their own priorities and perception about Draupadi’s life; none of them acknowledged her individuality and self, her potential/needs as a human being, or even her sexuality. She was just another pawn in the game of politics, and has to sacrifice her ideals, dreams, and life itself for the men who mattered to her. The play looks into these aspects transports the experience of Draupadi transcending through the ages to the life and conditioning of a contemporary girl.

Draupadi is a woman of acute understanding and wisdom, very well aware of her circumstances. She opts to keep silent and go through whatever comes her way with the understanding that it was unjust and that she deserved better. Even when she rebelled against the odds in her own individual ways, she was not all that empowered to break out of the constraints that bound her and abandon the people who she believed were her family. This is where she becomes the representative of the contemporary Indian woman who is aware but also tied into the archetypes of family and morality fed into her by the collective conscience of her roots.

The performance structure is fluid in its narrative; the actors are performers as well as characters, shifting from one persona to the other. The role of Arjuna and Krishna are enacted by one actor, and that of Yudhishthira, Bhima and Dussasana by another actor. In between they transform to stage hands, narrators, puppeteers, and musicians so as to take the performance dynamics ahead and are in tune with the tradition of Indian theatre.

The play uses paintings, music, movement, puppets, props and lights to enhance performance and is in tune with the mode and aesthetics of Indian art.

The artists who participate in this performance are Sukanya Shaji, VR Selvaraj. Shaiju T Hamza /Adithye K Narayanan, Latif Ceepee, Charu Narayanan, Jolly Antony, Kishore NK, Shobha Menon Srikanth, Dr. Terry Converse, (USA) and Madan Kolavil.

This is the 3^rd Show of Draupadi, the second one being at Amritsar, Punjab.

Photographs : Terry Converse, Shobha Menon, & Jipson Fourframes.

Theatre –Tryst With Reality

Once theatres were the whistle blowers of the society. But now a trend setter. ‘Lokadharmi’ explores the new possibilities in art and culture | Radhika C A

Theatre was not at all a new found space for Chandradasan. In fact he inherited the proud heritage of theatre from his village, where every emotion was entangled with creativity.

Mannackanadu, a village near Pala, Kottayam is blessed with an abundance of art and literature and gradually the place sowed the seeds of art in the mind of a young man named Chandradasan. His tryst with the blessed skill started while  the unknowing man was a silent spectator during the initial days. But fate had something in store for him.

As years passed by, he became conscious about his skills and later he came to meet some like minded art aficionados. In 1991, the twenty-five theatre enthusiasts joined Chandradasan to form ‘Lokadharmi’, a Centre for Theatre Training, Research and Performance in Kochi and the rest is history.

In its twenty-one year long history, ‘Lokadharmi’ voyaged through the different realms of art and culture.  A group of dedicated talents and their intense passion for the art  remains the basic strength of this prominent group.

“We don’t want to make huge money out of this. All we need is to bring a change in the theatrical attitude of the society,” said the actor-director Chandradasan. The prime idea behind the group is to nurture the talents of those who could not go for formal theatre education or take it as a full time career.

The intense training and brainstorming sessions with renowned thespians help the Lokadharmi performers to delve deep into the subject. The contemporary adaptation of Karnabharam, Chathankattu (Indian adaptation of ‘The Tempest’), Macbeth, Medea and Madhavi (written by Bisham Sahni) are a few among their major works. In many of the plays theyperformed, Lokadharmi dealt with the current social and political scenario of the world. Sometimes the heroes and heroines in the play are the common men who struggle against the cold shouldered authorities or sometimes who strive to succeed through their bold actions and statements. ‘Elephant Man’ or Gaja Manushyan , the play written by Bernard Pomerance is the latest one in the green room. As the name implies, the story depicts the tale of a disfigured man and how he strives hard to survive in society.

‘Draupadi’, the latest play from Lokadharmi group gained many accolades from all strata owing to its relevance of theme and its unique presentation. Though a number of plays were written centered on this character of Mahabharata, the group made a discrete attempt to carve out a unique image of the ‘Pandava’ queen. Here, the incarnation of womanhood is picturised as the representative of a bold yet frail woman and the dilemmas she faced in her life. To maintain the continuity of the narrative, the same performers appear as different characters. In the play, the director uses ‘masks’ to convey the vibes and aura of the male characters. This unique concept was introduced by Prof. Terry J Converse, an expert in mask characterisation who came to work with Lokadharmi for his six-month-long Fulbright Scholarship in India.

While conversing about the metro theatres, Chandradasan firmly said that a wide fissure is there between the metro theatre and reality. “Of course the metro theatres are doing a good job; still the presence of actors makes it more glam. On the other side, the realistic theatre would reflect the travails and plight of the common man”, he said with a smile. “In fact the best theatres are still in the outskirts of the city and the real dramas are happening there,” he added. The man behind the theatre explosion never believes in mass audience. “The prime concept is to convey the essence of a play to each and every person watching the show. A small audience makes the session more interactive and this will end up in brainstorming ideas,” says the artistic director.

The cultural training centre also runs a children’s theatre group named ‘Mazhavillu’ on weekends at Changampuzha Park, Edapally. The group comprises children aged between ten to seventeen who have got ardent taste for theatre and arts. They assemble under a tree named ‘Natakamaram’ for their improvisation of theatrical activities. Now Chandradasan is working on a children’s play entitled ‘Thattha maram’ (parrot tree) that would soon be staged.

Like his works, he is overt and real in all sense. “In the present scenario, we cannot live only with our play. We should join some other jobs to sustain our life and passion,” says Chandradasan, who works as an Associate Professor in Chemistry at St. Albert’s College, Ernakulam. Our theatre includes head load workers to professionals,” he added.

Now ‘Lokadharmi’ is on a mission to get a permanent venue for their cultural activities.” It was not economically viable and now we are etching out the plan”, beams Chandradasan. “Of course, it would be in the outskirts of a city- a small venue which can accommodate a small audience,” he fades off. His dream becoming a reality is not far away

Courtesy Yentha.com On Feb 22, 2013

Intricacies of Aesthetics

K. PRADEEP

• Dr. K. G. Paulose’s Vyangyavyakhya: The Aesthetics of Dhvani in Theatre, an interpretation of the Chera king Kulasekhara’s concept of theatre, will rekindle interest in Kerala’s signal contribution

Rama Varma Kulasekhara’s Vyangyavyakhya (10 century AD) lay buried among dusty archival materials centuries after it was written. A few Sanskrit scholars attempted to study it, worked on it but failed to get it published. The epoch-making Dhananjayadhvani and Samvaranadhvani, collectively titled Vyangyavyakhya, comes out translated, with detailed interpretation, and other add on features. Vyangyavyakhya: The Aesthetics of Dhvani in Theatre by K. G. Paulose, former Vice Chancellor, Kerala Kalamandalam and Fellow, Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla, will be released at the inaugural session of the forthcoming Kulasekhara Theatre Festival that gets underway at Tripunithura on February 24.

Kulasekhara's contribution

The Kulasekharas of the Chera dynasty ruled the state sometime between the 9th and 12 centuries AD from Mahodayapuram. Kulasekhara's contribution to theatre has not got the recognition it deserves. This book and the festival strive to achieve this.

The theory of suggestion or dhvani was propounded in Kashmir as early as the 9th century. This was considered as the most important development in aesthetics after the Natyasastra. The essence of this theory, that primarily focussed on poetry, was what is left unsaid is poetry. “Now, Kulasekhara applied this to theatre. His argument was that people came to watch plays not for the story, which they knew, but for something else. Every performance should be new. This could be achieved by applying the unsaid element. Kulasekhara is said to have called Natyasastra scholars and demonstrated this theory in full costume,” says Paulose.

Here Kulasekhara was introducing imaginative acting as opposed to imitative acting. “The actor goes beyond the plain meaning of the text. In fact, he gets liberated from the text itself. As the king enacted the plays scholars recorded it. This text is what we call Vyangyavyakhya or the interpretation of the suggested sense.”

This unpublished treatise on theatre is what Paulose worked on for nearly 20 years. “The palm-leaf manuscripts, which were in a private collection are available at the Oriental Manuscript Library of Kerala University, Thiruvananthapuram. Only one survives now. We took copies of it and worked on it.”

This treatise also introduced transformation of roles or pakarnattam, which has been so effectively used in theatre and other performing art forms today. “Kulasekhara made acting complex, sophisticated. When the actor transforms into many characters he creates a stage by itself. This is Kerala’s contribution to theatre, a value addition to the Natyasastra, which is recognised the world over. The three aspects that Kulasekhara introduced were then the freedom of the actor, imaginative acting and transformation of roles.”

Actor redefined

These three aspects contemporarised our theatre. The role of the actor was redefined. He becomes a narrator and an interpreter. The silence aspect in plays made it imperative that there be hundreds of sub-texts. The responsibility of the actor was also to decode the inner meanings to the audience. “Here, Kulasekhara classifies audience into preksaka and nanaloka. The former are scholars who have mastered the 18 sastras and the latter the ordinary folk. Stating the obvious meaning (for the benefit of the nanaloka) the actor will then interact with the preksaka and convey the suggested sense of meaning through the movement of his eyes. He does not use words or even gestures to convey this. Kulasekhara’s theatre visualised the immense potential of suggestion.”

Despite all this Kulasekhara’s comprehensive guide that went on to create a pattern for the times to follow, did not travel beyond the boundaries of the State. Why? “This contribution is recognised through Kathakali and Koodiyattam though few realise that it was this man’s contribution. One reason for this is because no one has seen or read Vyangyavyakhya. There is a historical reason too. The Chera dynasty faced political uncertainties by the end of the 11th century and soon disintegrated. Though the actors kept it alive they were not concerned with the text but rather the acting traditions handed down to them. And another reason is that in Kerala manuscripts are recorded in Malayalam which is not read outside the state.”

Today, when discussions on Natyasastra or ancient Indian theatre are held, the names of Anandavardhana or Abhinavagupta usually crop up. But Kulasekhara is almost forgotten despite his lasting contributions.

“This festival and the book are an attempt at rekindling interest in this man and his great works. It is refocusing on the contributions of Mahodayapuram or Kerala. Also, I think it has a contemporary relevance. Contemporary theatre has strongly hinged itself on interpretative elements, aspects like the freedom of the actor, the importance of the director, all drawn from Kulasekhara’s theories.”

Courtesy The Hindu 22nd Feb 20123

Kulasekhara Theatre Festival - Living Traditions and Natyasastra

India, as all of us know, has a long history of theatre. Descriptions in Vedas, epics and Jataka stories show the popular mass-base of performance at that time. It was Bharata who regulated the various traditions prescribing a grammar for performance. Ever since, Natyasastra, his encyclopaedic treatise, serves as the source of inspiration for theatrical activities all over the country.

This influence became more pronounced in the colonial days when India was struggling to find out an identity of her own. Many indigenous forms went through a process of classicisation which conferred social status on them. Link with Natyasastra became the symbol of their credibility. This classicisation rejuvenated forms like Kathakali,Mohiniyattam,Bharatanatyam, Odissi etc. Popular theatre also came to be studied more carefully and were incorporated to the corpus of the so called mainstream manifestations. Theatre today, thus, is a continuum of classical-folk traditions.

Kerala’s Contributions

Kerala has maintained long association with Natyasastra. The Chakkian referred to in Silapadikaram (5,c.C E)belonged to Kerala and he performed the Ardhanareeswara dance before the king in Kotungalloor, the later capital of the cheras. The chera king Kulasekhara(10 c.) applied the theory of dhvani to theatre and introduced a new method for the presentation of Sanskrit plays. It is kept recorded in Vyangyavyakhya. This performance text with its stress on imaginative acting (manodharmabhinaya)and transformation of roles(pakarnnattam)paved the way for the evolution of classical theatre (Kutiyattam,Krishnanattam,Kathkali and Mohiniyattam)in Kerala. In the 19^th century Kotunglloor became a great centre of learning and Natyasastra formed one of its major deciplines. The aesthetics of Kathakali today, owes much to the training Pattikkamtoti Ravunni Menon received from this Gurukulam. Mani Madhava Chakyar and Ammannor Madhava Chakyar were benefitted by their studies at Kotungalloor.Use of the much acclaimed svaravayu by the latter is a special contribution of the Natyasastra tradition of Kerala. This heritage enabled Kerala to preserve the Bhasa plays, Mss of Abhinavabharati and, to crown all, the earliest performance tradition in the form of Kutiyattam. Very little is known about Kerala’s Natyasastra tradition outside the state.

This performance-oriented project proposes to go deep into the cultural, trans-cultural and intra-cultural relations of our performance practices and to analyse the present to sort out the possibilities for future. The programme comprises of three components:

1. Discourses on the various aspects of theatre led by renowned scholars,

2. Lecture-demonstrations by performing groups guided by their Acharyas and

3. Actual performances illustrating the principles enunciated.

It examines the relation to Natyasatra of the contemporary productions of Habib Tanvir, Karanth and Kavalam. Also the directors of Kerala, P Gangadharan ,Chandradasan and Ramesh Varma talk on their experiences in linking their productions to the tradition. There will be panel discussion after presentations.

Objectives

1. To reaffirm the theatrical past of India which integrates the divergent social patterns in its matrix to unify the country;

2. To search for Indian-ness in our performative practices;

3. To highlight the contribution of Kerala which paved the way for Kutiyattam and Kathakali which have won universal acclaim; and

4. To invigorate theatrical activities sharing the anxieties of activists regarding the survival of theatre in the changed cultural scenario.

PROGRAMME OF KULASEKHARA THEATRE FESTIVAL – 2013

26.02.2013, Tuesday

Session I

09.30 Introducing the theme K. G. Paulose

10.00 Presidential address N. P. Unni, Ex-Vice Chancellor, SSUS, Kalady

10.20 Keynote address Radhavallabh Tripathi, Vice-Chancellor, RSKS

11.20 Discussion

Session II

Natyasastra and Living Traditions

11.40 Keynote address Kamaleswar Dutt Tripathi, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, Varanasi

01.00 Discussion

Session III

02.30 Lecture Indian Method in Acting - Sri. Prasanna, Theatre Director, Play write

03.30 Discussion

Performance

05.00 Urvasiviyoga Sadanam Balakrishnan as Pururava, and Leela Samson as Urvasi

07.00 Subhadradhananjayam Kutiyattam, Margi Madhu

27.02.2013, Wednesday

Session IV

Kerala’s Contribution to National Theatre

09.30 Presidential Address George S.Paul

10.00 Keynote address Kavalam Narayana Panikkar

Session V

11.40 Lect/Demo Acting dhvani/ narrations in Kutiyattam Margi Madhu, Indu.G

02.30 Lect/Demo Rasabhinaya in Kathakali -P.Venugopal, Kalamandalam Shanmughan

Performance

05.00 Tapatisamvarana Usha Nangiar

Krishnan Nambiar Mizhav Kalari

07.00 Draupadi (Malayalam Drama) Directed by Chandradasan, Lokadharmi

28.02.13, Thursday

Session VI

Contemporary Theatre: Encounter with Tradition

09.30 Presidential address Terry Converse, Professor of Theatre,  Washington State University

10.00 Keynote address Traditional Form and Contemporaniety : Challenges and Possibilities  - M.V.Narayanan

11.00 Discussion

Session VII

11.30 Lect/Demo De-codification and encodification of images in theatre - Sopanam, Thiruvananthapuram

02.30 Lecture Theatre of Kavalam Narayana Panikkar – Udayan Vajpayee, Bhopal

05.00 Lect/Demo Navarasasadhana

Sri.Venuji, Kapila Venu, Natanakairali

Performance

07.00 Kalidasa’s Malavikagnimitram  Directed by Kavalam Narayana Panikkar, Sopanam

01.03.13 Friday

Session VIII

Contemporary Theatre: Encounter with Tradition (Contd.)

09.30 Presidential address

10.00 The fusion of conventional and folk in the theatre of B.V. Karanth -  Kirti Jain, National School of Drama, New Delhi

11.00 Discussion

Session IX

Understanding Women in Theatre

11.40 Presidential address N.K.Geetha

12.00 Anguish of Ahalya Usha Nangiar

12.30 Who is Draupadi to me? Sukanya

12.30 Madhavi – Victim of fate? Salini Vijayan

02.30 The inner conflicts of Sita Kapila Venu

03.30 Agony of Gandhari Indu.G

04.00 Discussion

Performance

06.00 Nangiarkoothu, Madhavi Kalamandalam Girija

07.00 Beegum Panicker Theatre Repertory FACS, (Malayalam Drama) Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady, directed by Kumara Varma

02.03.13 – Saturday

Session X

Contemporary Theatre – Encounter with Tradition (Contd.)

09.30 Presidential address Anuradha Kapur, Director, NSD, New Delhi

10.20 Tradition in service of the Modern:The theatre of Habib Tanvir - Sudhanva Despande, Jananatyamunch, Delhi

11.20 Discussion

Session XI

Directors on their experiences in encountering Tradition

11.40 Presidential address T.M.Abraham, Vice Chairman, Sangeetha Nataka Akademi

12.10 P. Gangadharan

12.40 Rajalaxmy

02.00 Sajitha Madhathil

02.30 Chandradasan

03.00 Narippatta Raju

03.30 Discussion

Performance

05.00 Kathakali – Thapassattam Renjini Suresh

07.00 Mutiyettu – Ritual Theatre of Kerala

Panel of Chief Resource persons:

Dharmaraj Adattu, Raja Varier, P.V.Ramankutty, K.V.Vasudevan,C.R.Rajagopal, E.N.Narayanan

National Theatre Festival at Jodhpur Rajasthan

The Rajasthan Sangeet Natak academy is organising a five day National theatre festival at Jodhpur Rajasthan from 11^th of February to te 15^th, 2013. Plays by eminent directors like Bansi Kaul, Kewal Dhaliwal, KS Rajendran and Usha Ganguli are invited this fest. And the directors are bringing milestone productions in their repertory.The festival takes place at Jai Narayan Vyas Smriti Bhawan, (Town hall Jodhpur) at 7.00 pm. the festival is organised by the initiative taken by Arjun Deo Charan, the chairman of Rajasthan sangeet Natak Akademy, who himself is one of the finest playwrights and directors of Rajasthani Theatre.

11 Feb – Saudagar Directed by Bansi Kaul, based on the Exception and the Rule by Bertolt Brecht- Rang Vidushak Sansthan, Bhopal

Rang Vidushak Theatre Group believes in a philosophy of celebrating life and their performances bring an air of festivity, color and laughter.. It laughs at the social system that it is very much a part of, and bring back silenced laughter. Through its performance it becomes the voice of the common man who has a million questions in his mind but is never really able to speak of them.

Saudagar is the adaptation of Exception and the Rule” into the Hindi, which basically depicts how the system in which we live rules in favour of the ‘bigger man’ shrugging off the poor and the deprived. The play throughout speaks metaphorically of how the first world countries have hollowed out the pre-existing societies under the pretence of discovery and modernization.

Saudagar is the story of a rich merchant, who is crossing a desert for an oil contract. He is accompanied by a guide and a porter. As the play proceeds, the class difference between the merchant and his porter unfolds.

"There are three clowns present throughout the play; they are actors as well as the audience at the same time. The play looks at the world through these clowns, who continuously pass comments on the common man's desires and the limitations of the social system that he belongs to," explains Kaul.

The troupe deals with lot of physicality and hence, the play has lot of colours, music, acrobats, painted faces and so on.

12 Feb - Mera Rang De Basanti Chola, - Directed by Kewal Dhaliwal, Manch Rangmanch, Amritsar.

The play is inspired & based on the books written on Shaheed Bhagat Singh by so many eminent writers. like Sh. Davinder Daman, Dh. Gusharan Singh and Sh. Sagar Sarhadi etc.

Bhagat Singh is not just the historic story of the sacrifices of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his friend but it also aims to bring up the past as if event were taking place right in front of our eyes. It talks of the dreams of Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his friends. The play reflects the dreams of Shaheed Bhagat Singh merging with the dreams of the other Martyrs of India. It questions the activists and the audience, if we are actually free as our society today is enslaved by the monster of social evils

13 Feb - Auragzeb- Directed By K.S. Rajendran, original text by Indira Parthasarathy-Theatre Workshop, New Delhi

When Emperor Shahjahan fell ill in 1657, a war of succession broke out among his four sons, Dara Shukoh, Shuja, Aurangzeb and Murad. The main contenders were Dara and Aurangzeb while Shahjahan’s two daughters Jahanara and Roshanara, supported Dara and Aurangzeb respectively. The Emperor himself lent his support to his eldest son Dara, who alone of the four brothers, was present at Agra and sympathetic to Shahjahan’s dream plan of building a black-marble-mahal for himself on the other side of Yamuna facing Mumtaz’s Tajmahal.

The play selects, telescopes and fuses events to capture the fissures as well as the peaks of a period of history. The war of succession to throne and issues and ideologies that the major players in the drama represent: Shahjahan symbolises a decadent, self-indulgent, romantic astheticism; Aurangzeb articulates and fiercely fights to establish an Islamic fundamentalist state; and Dara projects himself as a philosopher-statesman striving to preserve a pluralist society and nation. Shahjahan dreams about a balck-marble-mahal for himself, Aurangzeb dreams of ‘one nation, one language, one religion’, while Dara fears that Aurangzeb will destroy the precious heritage of Akbar.

The play has as its theme the struggles of mutually contradictory dispositions of the various characters: Shahjahan and Aurangzeb; Dara and Aurangzeb; Jahanara and Roshanara; and finally Aurangzeb versus Aurangzeb. Shahjahan lives in the past, Dara in the future, and Aurangzeb in the present. His loneliness becomes his tragedy. The play ends with him asking himself he question: ‘Am I a devout Muslim or a fanatic?’ He is left awaiting the judgement of history.

14 Feb - Karnnabharam - Design and direction Chandradasan – based on the Sankrit play by Bhasa- Lokadharmi Kochi

This play projects the mortal anguish of a man unsure of his identity. Karnna the protagonist is heroic and heartbroken at the same time as he tries to find his place between the mocking and adulation of social forces on one side and the taunting challenges of fate on the other.

The treatment of the play reaches beyond caricature of farce into a realm that transcends the space and time and gets related to the social realities of today. Karnna lingers in one’s consciousness as the symbol of Universal man in search of his own self and the ultimate dilemma of existence.

This production synthesizes traditional forms, like Koodiyattam, Kathakali, Kalarippayattu, Padayani, Sopanasageetham etc., to form a modern theatrical idiom in harmony with the cultural heritage of the land. This is the result of the search for an indigenous Indian Theatre. The style of acting, movement pattern and choreography, music and costumes are thus, modern and at the same time traditional. A unique lighting is used to add to the theatrical ecstasy. It is an actor’s play which breaks away from set patterns

15 Feb - Rudali- Directed By Usha Ganguly based on the story by Mahaswethadevi-, Rangkarmi Sansthan, Kolkata.

The story of Rudali is set in South Bihar, depicting the struggle of a lone woman, Sanichari in a community of landless peasants. It details the devastating oppression by Rajput landlords, moneylenders, the police and the BDO's (block-development officers) under which the protagonists suffer. Yet it ends with a ray of hope, for someone has enough courage to fight the tide, and unite the tribal Dusaads and Ganjus under one umbrella. Sanichari was never able to shed tears when her own loved ones died is significant, as she always had to struggle frantically to stay alive and keep alive what had remained of her family. By the time she finally develops a business of Funeral Wailing, she has no family left. The irony of her situation strikes her, but she refuses to be the one wallowing in self-pity. With the demand of her service growing, she decides to employ and train women who became prostitutes to survive. Through the process of weathering terrible personal losses and misfortunes, the alchemy of unspeakable sorrow and despair gradually produces in her a positive resolution. Sanichari becomes an icon of empowerment for tribal low-caste women.