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Buddhist theatre in South Asia and beyond

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By Syed Jamil Ahmed, PhD

Considerable research conducted by renowned Orientalists such as Moriz Winternitz, Heinrich Lüders, Arthur Berriedale Keith, Sylvain Lévi and Sten Konow between the 1880s and 1960s have established that between the 1st century CE to the 7th century CE, a tradition of Buddhist theatre flourished in South Asia. This tradition, generated by a host of Buddhist scholars and practitioners, is an important source for the study of the indigenous theatre not only of Bangladesh, but also of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The problem with Bangladesh is that very few scholars and practitioners engaged with theatre demonstrate any interest in the tradition. Consequently, the Indian State, media and academia have exerted their hold on the tradition to such an extent that the world recognises ancient Buddhist theatre in South Asia as an exclusive intellectual terrain of modern India. Although Bangladesh can lay a rightful claim to the tradition, it has failed to do so, mostly because the State, media and academia in Bangladesh are hardly enthusiastic regarding the non-Islamic past of Bangladesh. This piece presents a summary of current research on ancient Buddhist theatre in South Asia, in order to serve as a catalyst that hopefully will trigger enough interest in establishing Bangladesh’s rightful claim to its Buddhist past.

Existing evidence indicates that Aśvaghoşa (c. 80-150 CE) was not only the earliest Buddhist playwright, but also the earliest Sanskrit playwright in South Asia. He was a renowned Buddhist philosopher and poet at the court of Kushan emperor Kanişka, whose capital was situated in Puruşapura (what now is Peshawar in Pakistan). Another important playwright from the 5th century CE was Chandragomin. It is now certain that he was not only a famous Buddhist scholar-monk renowned for his work on Sanskrit grammar but also the composer of a play titled Lokānanda. As the famous Buddhist traveler-monk Yijing (I-Tsing) observed, he was from the eastern part of South Asia. Other scholars are in agreement that the eastern region referred to was ancient Bengal. Besides these two playwrights, scholars also believe that a mysterious Buddhist acharya named Rāhula composed a treatise on theatre (nāţya), which is now completely lost. It is also argued that Buddhist theatre beginning with Aśvaghoşa in the first century CE, down to Emperor Harşavardhana in the 7th century CE, was not only well-developed theoretically but was also quite popular among the people. When an exact accounting is done, the corpus of Buddhist plays is found to include the following eight texts, one extant in original, one in translation, five in fragments, while one has been completely lost. Given below is a brief account of these works.

1. Śāriputra-prakaraņa (a play in 9 acts) by Aśvaghoşa. Only fragments of the last two acts are extant. Recovered by Lüders at Turfan in Tarim Basin, in 1911, the play is based on the legend of Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana ordaining as monks under the Buddha, as related in the Mahāvagga of the Vinayapiţaka. As shown in the last two acts of the play, Śāriputra has an interview with Aśvajit, the Buddha’s first disciple. Then he engages in a conversation with his friend the Vidūşaka (jester), on the merits of the teachings of Gautama Buddha. The Vidūşaka advises Śāriputra against accepting Buddhist teachings, since Śāriputra is a Brahman and the Buddha hails from the kştriya (warrior) caste. But Śāriputra rejects the Vidūşaka’s argument on the ground that the Vaidya (physician) is capable of healing the sick despite belonging to a low social caste. Next, when he meets his dear friend Maudgalyāyana, the latter enquires as to why Śāriputra appears radiant. Śāriputra informs Maudgalyāyana about the Buddha and his teachings, and they both decide to seek refuge in Buddhism. The Buddha receives them warmly and foretells that the two will be the highest in knowledge and magic power among his disciples. At the end of the play, Gautam Buddha and Śāriputra engage in a philosophical dialogue which rejects the belief in a permanent self (ātmā).

2. Fragment of a play, possibly a nāţaka, with allegorical characters such as Buddhi (Wisdom), Dhŗti (Firmness) and Kīrti (Fame). It was found at Turfan in Tarim Basin, but the playwright’s name is unavailable. Nevertheless, because the fragment has been recovered with Śāriputra-prakaraņa and because it demonstrates remarkable linguistic similarity with the same play, it is believed that the playwright of this fragment is also Aśvaghoşa. The fragment shows the three allegorical characters conversing in Sanskrit. At one stage, the Buddha enters the stage. It is uncertain whether he engages in a dialogue with the allegorical characters, because the play is fragmented at this point.

3. Fragment of another play that appears to be a prakaraņa like the Mŗcchakaţikā by Shudraka. It was also recovered at Turfan. The author remains unknown but this too is believed to have been authored by Aśvaghoşa. The characters of the play are a heterogenous lot: a courtesan named Magadhabati, a Vidūşaka named Komudhagandha, a hero named Somadatta, a rogue named Duşţa, a prince named Dhanananjaya, a maid-servant, Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana. One scene of the play takes place at Magadhabati’s home and another at a park. The play also mentions a festival held at a hilltop.

4. Rāşţapāla-nāţaka by Aśvaghoşa, which has disappeared completely, but its existence is confirmed by references found in a Chinese translation of Sri Dharma-piţaka-sampradāya Nidāna (472 AD), titled Fu fa tsang yin yüan ch’üan, and two other Buddhist liturgical texts. The plot was possibly based on the Raţţhapālasutta in the Majjhimanikāya, showing how Raţţhapāla, after renouncing worldly life to become a monk, could not be enticed back to worldly life even with heaps of gold and alluring advances of his ex-wives. As recounted in Fu fa tsang yin yüan ch’üan, a performance of the play, in which Aśvaghoşa himself conducted the orchestra, was so successful that five hundred kştriyas renounced worldly life to become Buddhist monks. In order to make sure that such a mass exodus is not repeated, the king of Pataliputra forbade all future performance of the play.

5. Lokānanda-nāţaka by Chandragomin, a play in five acts composed in the 5th century CE. The original text in Sanskrit has disappeared. In the first half of the 14th century, the play was translated from Sanskrit into Tibetan in Kathmandu. Michael Hahn used the Tibetan version to translate it in German in 1974, and in English in 1987 as Joy for the World. The play shows how Prince Maṇicūḍa (later the king) of Sāketa, who is gifted with a benevolence-showering jewel implanted on the crown of his head, sacrifices all his possessions including his kingdom – and even his wife and son – in order to remain steadfast to his commitment to munificence. He dies when he sacrifices even the jewel implanted on his head to a wicked Brahmin, but is revived by the gods because of his commitment to munificence.

6. Nāgānanda-nāţaka, a play in five acts attributed to Emperor Harşavardhana (reigned 606 – 648 CE). It is based on King Jimutavåhana’s self-sacrifice to save the Nagas (a race of semi-divine half-serpent beings who live in the underworld). The play is still extant in original Sanskrit. Nāgānanda-nāţaka may demonstrate signs of Buddhist lineage superficially, but a close reading demonstrates that its religio-philosophical inclination is a curious blend of Hinduism and Buddhism.

7. Maitreyasamiti-nāţaka (lit. “Encounter with Maitreya”), a play in 27 acts bearing a Sanskrit title but written in the language known as Tocharian A. Quite a few fragments of the play were recovered from Turfan and Yanqi (Tarim Basin), all dated to the 8th century CE. Maitreyasamiti-nāţaka is based on Buddha Maitreya, the future saviour of the world. An Old Uyghur translation of the Tocharian text, dated to the 10th century CE, has also been recovered.

8. In 2007, fragment of an unnamed another play was recovered in Afghanistan and has been published by Uwe Hartmann. The recovered fragment shows that it was composed in Sanskrit and Prakrit, in prose as well as verse. It appears to indicate dialogue among three characters: Vidūşaka, King, and Minister.

The significance of the corpus of Buddhist plays is immense. Firstly, it indicates that the genesis of theatre in South Asia is well before the 2nd century CE, because when Aśvaghoşa emerged as a playwright at this juncture, he was already well-adapted to the craftsmanship of playwriting, and appears to have inherited a long tradition that flourished before him. Secondly, and more importantly for Bangladesh, ‘the genesis of theatre in the country can now be firmly pushed back to the 5th century CE, since we have Lokānanda-nāţaka as a piece of ‘hard’ evidence. It may be recalled that hitherto, the earliest evidence of theatre in ancient Bengal was dated to the 8th-10th century, as ascertained by the occurrence of the term ‘Buddha-nāţaka’ in a caryā song by Vīnā-pāda. Thirdly, by the 10th century CE, Buddhist theatre appears to have generated the growth of a lively world of performance not only in what today is Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, but also in Central Asia. Indeed, the Silk Road was key to this transmission. As I argue elsewhere, Buddhist dramaturgy also ‘travelled’ to Tibet, where it was rejected by Vajrayana Buddhism. However, nurtured by Mahayana Buddhism, it prospered in the Tarim Basin and the adjoining oases kingdoms, where it was transmuted into Buddhist plays in Tokharian and Khotanese Saka. These plays were produced during Buddhist festivals in Khotan and Kocho, at mass public gatherings in the vicinity of temples. The Khotanese Buddhist theatre may have met with a sad demise at the hands of the Muslim Kara-Khanid rulers. Nevertheless, Tokharian Buddhist plays, possibly performed in pavilions in temple precincts, travelled on to the Northern Song empire (China), and were further transformed to give rise to zaji, and the performance pavilions such as those in temple compounds located in Shanxi and Zhejiang provinces in China. Towards the end of the T’ang period and during the political upheavals of the 10th century, when Buddhism lost favour of the state, and subsequently in early 11th century, when the Muslims began to control the Silk Road in central Asia, all traces of Buddhist plays were erased by neo-Confucianism and Taoism. Nevertheless, the performances continued to live in transmuted forms.

Laying aside the ‘scholarly’ importance for the academics to ponder over, it is important to turn to Lokānanda-nāţaka, the miracle-recounting Buddhist play from ancient Bangladesh, to recognise that its significance extends beyond that of a heritage object preserved in museums. Let us begin by acknowledging that miracles have been recounted in all major religions, such as Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. It is pointless to argue about the validity of any of these miracles, for their worth are embedded deep in the belief system of the devotees. Instead, I argue that a particular significance of Lokānanda-nāţaka lies in its validity as a root paradigm. As the cultural anthropologist Victor Turner explains in Dramas, Fields, and Metaphors: Symbolic Action in Human Society, root paradigms are not univocal concepts nor stereotyped guidelines, but extend beyond the cognitive and the moral to the existential domain.

Paradigms of this fundamental sort reach down to irreducible life stances of individuals, passing beneath conscious prehension to a fiduciary hold on what they sense to be axiomatic values, matters literally of life or death. Root paradigms emerge in life crises, whether of groups or individuals, whether institutionalized or compelled by unforeseen events. One cannot then escape their presence or their consequences.

The root paradigm that Lokānanda-nāţaka posits is Maṇicūḍa’s commitment to munificence. Similar root paradigms may also be found in Raja Harishchandra’s sacrifices as projected in Hinduism and Prophet Ibrahim’s qurbani as articulated in Islam. Faced with endemic corruption in Bangladesh, to the extent that it is ranked 147th out of 180 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index, perhaps we would do better if we draw on all the root-paradigms of munificence and sacrifices that our tradition offers us.

(The Daily Star/ANN)
Syed Jamil Ahmed, PhD is Honorary Professor at University of Dhaka and Theatre Director at Spardha: Independent Theatre Collective



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Opinion

Valuation Department – a sick giant in deep slumber

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Seventy-nine months – six years and seven months – for a file to be cleared by the slack officers in the Valuation Department. Finally, after much effort, in June 2023, a lady officer was cajoled to look into it. The file that was in hiding was retrieved from some deep dungeon and a clerk was directed to work on it. In July 2023, the completed file was sent to the Divisional Secretariat, Kotte. The formal valuation was sent to me – and I detected a serious error in the valuation as the extent of my land given in the document was totally erroneous. Surveyor General official document following surveying the land in 2017, has certified my ownership as 0.0337 HECTARES.

(1 HECTARE IS EQUAL TO 395.3686 PERCHES)

On this basis, the extent of my block of land is 13.3239 PERCHES.

This is the only block of land I own. It is situated off Temple Road in the vicinity of the Open University. I was notified that it had been earmarked for acquisition for Flood Control Project Development purposes by the SLRDC. For the valuation that has to precede the granting of compensation for my land, I had to go through formalities such as repeatedly surveying the land, obtaining legal documents to prove my ownership and several other documents and information connected with it. These procedures have cost me a large sum of money as well as time and hard work. After several months of tedious labour running from pillar to post, SLRDC was satisfied that the requirements are in order.

SLRDC SENT DOCUMENTS TO VALUATION DEPARTMENT IN 2018

Thereafter, the documents were sent from SLRDC to the Valuation Department on January 2nd 2018—more than 6 years ago. The file has been lying on the desk of an officer through all these months. When inquiries were made in 2020 from time to time the officer dealing with my file was habitually late for work, not in her seat, absent for days due to illnesses like ear ache, etc. These were the frivolous excuses given for not attending to my file. She is currently transferred to an office in Maharagama.

Three reminders were sent by SLRDC to Valuation Department to expedite the valuation. Yet, the reminders were totally ignored.

Valuation Department after a very long period of 79 months, has woken up and has sent a valuation that shows the extent as 0.0337 PERCHES with a value stated as Rs.100,000 for the entire extent of 13.3239 Perches. This valuation is totally erroneous and quite suspicious as there seems to be a sinister move to put me off the track and carry out some underhand dealing. Where would anyone get even ONE perch of valuable land in Nawala for that amount?

This is a fraudulent valuation. My file was kept in hiding for over 6.5 years from 02 January 2018 to July 2023. I have been constantly trying to make the Valuation Department work on it – writing to them numerous letters, appeals and personally trying to meet the relevant officers but to no avail. I sent a formal complaint to the Chief Valuer. Never did I receive a response. This is the extremely slack, careless and inefficient manner in which the officers of the Valuation Department discharge their duties. This Department that handles money worth millions needs to be fully overhauled and the entire officers from top to bottom need a thorough cleansing. It is a hell hole of corruption.

I am writing this with great pain of mind and utter disappointment regarding the unexplained huge delay and final careless and fraudulent valuation that is being awarded to me. I am certainly not prepared to accept this minuscule award.

I was also notified that in the event that I do not accept the decision, I could appeal to a Reviews Board. I sent my appeal promptly under registered cover to the Reviewing Board in September 2023. In my appeal I stated that nowhere in the vicinity of Nawala so close to the Open University and other strategic places could one buy even one perch of land for Rs.100,000. This undervaluation shows some hidden agenda which I am certain of. The extent shown on the official valuation is incorrect. It is NOT .0337 Perches BUT .0337 HECTARES.

There are houses alongside mine and professionals residing in the adjoining blocks; this being a highly residential area in the heart of the city. My land has some trees and vegetation. At some moment in time, former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa had in a high-handed manner and without my knowledge or approval dug a trench across my land and another block bordering mine.

Since my appeal to the Reviewing Board, one year has also gone by and the appeals officer also is in deep slumber. I called a few times to see if the matter is being attended to and was vaguely told that they have sent it to SLRDC, Kotte for some further information. When I contacted SLRDC, I was told that the information had been sent promptly. Appeals section lady officer gave vague answers when called again. She is still silent. One does not know who is lying. These are state officials entrusted with providing responsible service to people. The Valuation Department hung onto my file for over 79 months (six and a half and more years) with absolutely nothing being done and now finally a blatant error in extent of the land.

Seventy-nine months is an awful lot of time to deal with many matters that are important to my life. I am sure that these comments of mine are shared by many others whose files are stagnating at the Valuation Department due to the negligence and lackadaisical attitude of the officers from the highest to the lowest in that department.

President Anura Kumara Dissanayake has an Augean task to clean up these filthy, foul- smelling stables, shake the sleeping officers from their deep slumber and get them to work as they should. Replies to letters, correspondence from the public have to be answered promptly is another duty these officers are bound to carry out. In this era of technology, emails could do the job.

When one surfs the website, there are many officers with high-flown credentials but sadly they do not seem to have control over those who hide files for whatever undisclosed reason. Over to the Chief and others in authority at the top to solve this problem of mine as I am at the mercy of slack and careless officers at the Valuation Department. In concluding, I wish to say that valuation means numbers and the officers need to be given basic lessons in Arithmetic, land and area extent conversion tables. They cannot and must not make glaring mistakes in cases such as mine.

M. P. Warusawithana

empeew@gmail.com

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Opinion

Are cracks already showing ?

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I thank Dr P. A. Samaraweera for giving me the opportunity to explain further why I think the new government is not different from previous regimes. It seems to be better in some respects, in the short term, which is the norm for new regimes, but most seem at best cosmetic. In his opinion piece “Cracks are showing already – a response” (The Island, 8 November), in response to my piece in The Island of 1st November, Dr Samaraweera says, “UW has not offered an alternative. Is he of the opinion that the SJB, the SLPP or Ranil’s crowd would do better?” I do hope the new regime will succeed but with the proviso that it should take constructive criticism and make course corrections. It is not for me to suggest alternatives but comment when things go wrong. In fact, I was among the first to criticise Pohottuwa when things started going wrong, posing the question “Pohottuwa: Will it blossom or wither?”

Though Dr Samaraweera states mammoth crowds are attending NPP meetings, I have seen a number of reports that voter apathy has already set in and groups who helped AKD to win the presidency seem already disenchanted. This is well stated in the editorial, “Tuk-tuk tut-tutting and ground reality” (The Island, 4 November):

‘Many are those who are tut-tutting over the latest fuel price revision, which has not brought any relief to the general public; trishaw drivers, who served as the JVP-led NPP’s grassroots propaganda foot soldiers, as it were, are prominent among them. Quite a few of them are openly critical of the NPP government.’

Corruption comes in many forms, financial corruption being the most talked about in relation to politics. The NPP does not seem to be guilty of this type of corruption yet and seems to be chasing after politicians guilty of this but at the moment it seems to concentrate on illegal vehicles! But it is certainly guilty of the other type of corruption; ‘jobs for cronies’ and the probable protection of those who have question marks raised against them, as well demonstrated by the Ravi Seneviratne-Shani Abeysekara affair!

Ranil appointed two committees on the Easter Sunday bombing towards the end of his term and some have justifiably questioned his motives but these should have been done at the time of the appointment. Udaya Gammanpila has done the right thing by making the committee findings public, a duty that should have been performed by the President who was elected on the promises of transparency and honesty. As mentioned in my previous article, when he was questioned about these at the ceremony presided over by Cardinal Ranjith in the Katuwapitiya Church on 06 October, the President’s evasive answer gave the impression that he had not read the reports but now it transpired otherwise.

Had the new government, which demanded the release of those reports while in Opposition, decided that it did not agree with the findings and decided to ditch the recommendations, it should have done so, before the expose by Gammanpila. Instead, there were implied threats to Gammanpila! Then followed the vilification of him on social media. Worse still were the accusations made against Justice Janaki de Alwis. Gammanpila’s challenge to justify those accusations has been ignored by the government.

The other report from the committee, headed by Justice S. A. Imam, the findings of which were released by Gammanpila, after I wrote my last piece, exposed unverifiability of the UK Channel 4’s claims. No reasons have been given by the government or Cardinal Ranjith, who has now admitted that he was in possession of both reports, for rejecting this report. Is it that they have already decided who the mastermind is and will appoint yet another committee to support their view?

Another interesting question is whether Cardinal Ranjith has let down the Catholic community by his actions. Perhaps, it is best left for that community to decide.

As the De Alwis Committee recommended taking legal action against both Ravi Seneviratne and Shani Abeysekara, can they be a part of a future investigation into the Easter Sunday attacks, even if the government has decided to discard the report. When there is an element of doubt, in a crucial investigation of this nature, should they be allowed to continue in positions where they could influence the outcome? They should have stepped aside till their names were cleared.

Dr Upul Wijayawardhana

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Opinion

Need for alternative fuel source   

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Kantale Sugar Factory

The Middle East conflict is raging. There are reports of one merchant ship being set on fire. If it escalates further, Sri Lanka’s economy will suffer.The cost of fuel amounts to nearly 30% of Sri Lanka’s total imports. There are also fears that the availability of petroleum-based fuels will be over in the world soon.

It is high time Sri Lanka reduced its independence on imported fuel.

Only China is said to be seeking self-sufficiency in fuel viz the production of Butyl alcohol (Butanol). They are said to target 100 million tons to be produced in the near future. Hydrogen is a by-product of producing Butyl alcohol.

It is used to generate electricity through fuel cells. China is said to manufacture about 10% of the fuel cells in the market. The fuel cells were expensive as the critical unit was made out of platinum. A few years ago, the Cambridge University developed a catalyst based on steel to replace the platinum.

Production of butanol, as in the case with ethanol – the alcohol drink- is based on sugar, starch and cellulose.

The raw materials used for producing butanol is corn and in Brazil it is sugar cane. These are two crops that are very expensive to grow and maintain because the plant last only a year and has to be replanted annually.

There are plants available in Sri Lanka, which will last at least 25-30 years once planted, could yield about 1.5 times that of sugar cane. These crops will bear the yield in about 2.5 years after planting. There are also plants that last about 90 years

The only land mass where such plant crops could be grown in one unit is the denuded sugar cane lands at Kantale Sugar Factory. The public should be encouraged to plant sugar cane. They will gain economically from not only planting sugar cane but also from employment opportunities at sugar cane processing centres. My estimation is that about three or four million new jobs can be created as this industry is labour intensive.

Butanol distilleries are not massive structures like the distilleries at Pelwatte, Sevenagala or the old Kantale. Some Universities in the US report regularly on their work on the production of Butyl alcohol. According to the information emanating from those universities, the production facilities are slim and compact.

The technology for the production of Butyl alcohol is not found in Sri Lanka. It is best to seek the assistance of China in this regard.

Butyl alcohol distilleries are said to require four rectifying columns according to technology used in China and this fact is confirmed by a research article published in New Zealand.

There is the possibility of reducing the number of rectifying columns to two.

I have studied numerous research papers on Butyl alcohol production as I have been in the field of alcohol distillation and blending trade for a long time since 1968.

It is necessary to seek external assistance to design and build the distilleries, and it will be necessary to require the assistance of our universities to develop the processing technology to grow and process the plant materials to be used as raw material- mainly Agriculture, Plant Sciences (Botany), Chemical Sciences (Chemistry) and instrumentation. Assistance of the chemical engineering sector can be sought. This would be a profitable exposure to the students therein.

The cost of the studies to be conducted may not exceed Rs 30-40 million.

There is a fabrication factor at Wadduwa- Paiyagala, serving the existing distilleries. Work there is handled manually. Importing the stainless steel and copper pipes and machines to make flanges will help boost production.

The abandoned distillery at Kantale can be used to handle the raw materials in the central and northern parts of the country and many smaller distilleries will be needed in the other parts of the country.

There are state-owned distilleries at Pelwatte and Sevenagala and jointly owned distillery at Hingurana. These distilleries produce ethanol.

It is possible to use the ethanol produced at these distilleries as fuel for diesel-based vehicles after mixing it with additives to enhance its ignitability. A drawback will be the sheer amount of ethanol needed. A better solution is to convert these distilleries to produce Butyl alcohol. The conversion should not be very costly.  The government should consider this option earnestly.

S. P. U. S. Wickramasinghe
Former Distillery Manager at Kantale. spupalisw@yahoo.com

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