Class Book.. -tf< " '- ^ •»"■' GipyriglitK^ COPMRIGHT DEPOSm 1 SACRIFICE AND OTHER PLAYS THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO • DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. TORONTO SACRIFICE AND OTHER PLAYS BY SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE l^m f nrk THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1917 AU rights reserved ^^" V'> COPYKIGHT, 1917 bt the macmillan company S«t up »Qd Alectrotypftd. Publishsd S«pt«inb«r, 1917 OCT 25 1917 ©CI.D 48148 \ o \> SANYASI OR THE ASCETIC Lead us from the unreal to the real. TO DR. JAGADISH CHANDRA ROSE SANYASI, OR THE ASCETIC Sanyasi, outside the cave The division of days and nights is not for me, nor that of months and years. For me, the stream of time has stopped, on whose waves dances the world, Hke straws and twigs. In this dark cave I am alone, merged in myself, — and the eternal night is still, like a mountain lake afraid of its own depth. Water oozes and drips from the cracks, and in the pools float the ancient frogs. I sit chanting the incantation of nothingness. The world's limits recede, line after line. — The stars, like sparks of fire, flown from the anvil of time, are extinct; and that joy is mine which comes to the God Shiva, when, after aeons of dream, he wakes up to find himself alone in the heart of the infinite annihilation. I am free, I am the great solitary One. When I was thy 3 4 SACRIFICE slave, O Nature, thou didst set my heart against itself, and madest it carry the fierce war of suicide through its world. Desires, that have no other ends, but to feed upon themselves and all that comes to their mouths, lashed me into fury. I ran about, madly chasing my shadow. Thou drovest me with thy lightning lashes of pleasure into the void of satiety. And the hungers, who are thy decoys, ever led me into the endless famine, where food turned into dust, and drink into vapour. Till, when my world was spotted with tears and ashes, I took my oath, that I would have revenge upon thee, inter- minable Appearance, mistress of endless disguises. I took shelter in the dark- ness, — the castle of the Infinite, — and fought the deceitful light, day after day, till it lost all its weapons and lay power- less at my feet. Now, when I am free of fear and desires, when the mist has van- ished, and my reason shines pure and bright, let me go out into the kingdom of lies, and sit upon its heart, untouched and unmoved. SANYASI 5 II Sanyasi, by the roadside How small is this earth and confined, watched and followed by the persistent horizons. The trees, houses, and crowd of things are pressing upon my eyes. The light, like a cage, has shut out the dark eternity; and the hours hop and cry within its barriers, like prisoned birds. But why are these noisy men rushing on, and for what purpose? They seem always afraid of missing something, — the something that never comes to their hands. [The crowd passes. Enter a Village Elder and Two Women First Woman O my, O my! You do make me laugh. Second Woman But who says you are old? 6 SACRIFICE Village Elder There are fools who judge men by their outside. First Woman How sad! We have been watching your outside from our infancy. It is just the same all through these years. Village Elder Like the morning sun. First Woman Yes, like the morning sun in its shining baldness. Village Elder Ladies, you are overcritical in your taste. You notice things that are un- essential. Second Woman Leave off your chatter, Ananga. Let us hasten home, or my man will be angry. First Woman Good bye, sir. Please judge us from our outside, we won't mind that. SANYASI 7 Village Elder Because you have no inside to speak of. [They go. Enter Three Villagers First Villager Insult me? the scoundrel! He shall re- gret it. Second Villager He must be taught a thorough lesson. First Villager A lesson that will follow him to his grave. Third Villager Yes, brother, set your heart upon it. Never give him quarter. Second Villager He has grown too big. First Villager Big enough to burst at last. 8 SACRIFICE Third Villager The ants, when they begin to grow wings, perish. Second Villager But have you got a plan? First Villager Not one, but hundreds. I will drive my plough-share over his household. — I will give him a donkey-ride through the town, with his cheeks painted white and black. I will make the world too hot for him, and — {They go. Enter Two Students First Student I am sure Professor Madhab won in the debate. Second Student No, it was Professor Janardan. First Student Professor Madhab maintained his point to the last. He said that the subtle is the outcome of the gross. SANYASI 9 Second Student But Professor Janardan conclusively proved that the subtle is the origin of the gross. First Student Impossible. Second Student It is clear as the day-light. First Student Seeds come from the tree. Second Student The tree comes from the seed. First Student Sanyasi, which of these is true? Which is the original, the subtle or the gross? Sanyasi Neither. Second Student Neither. Well, that sounds satisfactory. 10 SACRIFICE Sanyasi The origin is the end, and the end is the origin. It is a circle. — The distinction between the subtle and gross is in your ignorance. First Student Well, it sounds very simple — ^and I think this was what my master meant. Second Student Certainly this agrees more with what my master teaches. [They go out. Sanyasi These birds are word-peckers. When they pick up some wriggling nonsense, which can fill their mouth, they are happy. Enter Two Flower-Girls, singing Song The weary hours pass by. The flowers that blossom in the light Fade and drop in the shadow. I thought I would weave a garland SANYASI 11 In the cool of the morning for my love. But the morning wears on. The flowers are not gathered. And my love is lost. A Wayfarer Why such regret, my darlings? When the garlands are ready, the necks will not be wanting. First Flower-Girl Nor the halter. Second Flower-Girl You are bold. Why do you come so close .f^ Wayfarer You quarrel for nothing, my girl. I am far enough from you to allow an ele- phant to pass between us. Second Flower-Girl Indeed. Am I such a fright.^ I wouldn't have eaten you, if you had come. [They go out laughing. n SACRIFICE Comes an old Beggar Beggar Ejnd sirs, have pity on me. May God prosper you. Give me one handful from your plenty. Enters a Soldier Soldier Move away. Don't you see the Minis- ter's son is coming.? [They go out Sanyasi It is midday. The sun is growing strong. The sky looks like an overturned burning copper bowl. The earth breathes hot sighs, and the whirling sands dance by. What sights of man have I seen! Can I ever again shrink back into the smallness of these creatures, and become one of them? No, I am free. I have not this obstacle, this world round me. I live in a pure desolation. SANYASI 13 Enter the girl Vasanti and a Woman Woman Girl, you are Raghu's daughter, aren't you? You should keep away from this road. Don't you know it goes to the temple? Vasanti I am on the farthest side. Lady. Woman But I thought my cloth-end touched you. I am taking my offerings to the goddess,— I hope they are not polluted. Vasanti I assure you, your cloth did not touch me. {The Woman goes,) I am Vasanti, Raghu's daughter. May I come to you, father? Sanyasi Why not, child? Vasanti I am a pollution, as they call me. 14 SACRIFICE Sanyasi But they are all that, — a pollution. They roll in the dust of existence. Only he is pure who has washed away the world from his mind. But what have you done, daughter? Vasanti My father, who is dead, had defied their laws and their gods. He would not perform their rites. Sanyasi Why do you stand away from me? Vasanti Will you touch me? Sanyasi Yes, because nothing can touch me truly. I am ever away in the endless. You can sit here, if you wish. Vasanti {Breaking into a sob.) Never tell me to leave you, when once you have taken me near you. SANYASI 15 Sanyasi Wipe away your tears, child. I am a Sanyasi. I have neither hatred, nor at- tachment in my heart, — I never claim you as mine; therefore I can never discard you. You are to me as this blue sky is, — ^you are, — ^yet you are not. Vasanti Father, I am deserted by gods and men alike. Sanyasi So am I. I have deserted both gods and men. Vasanti You have no mother? No. Nor father .^^ No. Sanyasi Vasanti Sanyasi Vasanti Nor any friend.^ 16 SACRIFICE Sanyasi No. Vasanti Then I shall be with you. — You won't leave me? Sanyasi I have done with leaving. You can stay near me, yet never coming near me. Vasanti I do not understand you, father. Tell me, is there no shelter for me in the whole world .f^ Sanyasi Shelter? Don't you know this world is a bottomless chasm? The swarm of creatures, coming out from the hole of nothingness, seeks for shelter, and enters into the gaping mouth of this emptiness, and is lost. These are the ghosts of lies around you, who hold their market of illusions, — and the foods which they sell are shadows. They only deceive your hunger, but do not satisfy. Come away from here, child, come away. SANYASI 17 Vasanti But, father, they seem so happy in this world. Can we not watch them from the roadside? Sanyasi Alas, they do not understand. They cannot see that this world is death spread out to eternity. — It dies every moment, yet never comes to the end. — And we, the creatures of this world, live by feed- ing upon death. Vasanti Father, you frighten me. Enters a Traveller Traveller Can I get a shelter near this place.^ Sanyasi Shelter there is nowhere, my son, but in the depth of one's self. — Seek that; hold to it fast, if you would be saved. Traveller But I am tired, and want shelter. 18 SACRIFICE Vasanti My hut is not far from here. Will you come? Traveller But who are you? Vasanti Must you know me? I am Raghu's daughter. Traveller God bless you, child, but I cannot stay. [Goes, Men come bearing somebody on a bed First Bearer He is still asleep. Second Bearer How heavy the rascal is! A Traveller {outside their group) Whom do you carry? Third Bearer Binde, the weaver, was sleeping as one dead, and we have taken him away. SANYASI 19 Second Bearer But I am tired, brothers. Let us give him a shake, and waken him up. Binde {wakes up) Ee, a, u — Third Bearer What's that noise? Binde I say. Who are you? Where am I being carried? [They put down the bed from their shoulders. Third Bearer Can't you keep quiet, like all decent dead people? Second Bearer The cheek of him! He must talk, even though he is dead. Third Bearer It would be more proper of you, if you kept still. 20 SACRIFICE Binds I am sorry to disappoint you, gentle- men, you have made a mistake. — I was not dead, but fast asleep. Second Bearer I admire this fellow's impudence. Not only must he die, but argue. Third Bearer He won't confess the truth. Let us go, and finish the rites of the dead. Binde I swear by your beard, my brother, I am as alive as any of you. [They take him away, laughing. Sanyasi The girl has fallen asleep, with her arm beneath her little head; I think I must leave her now, and go. But, coward, must you run away, — run away from this tiny thing? These are nature's spiders' webs, they have danger merely for moths, and not for a Sanyasi like me. SANYASI 21 Vasanti {awaking with a start) Have you left me. Master? — Have you gone away? Sanyasi Why should I go away from you? What fear have I? Afraid of a shadow? Vasanti Do you hear the noise in the road? Sanyasi But stillness is in my soul. Enters a young Woman, followed by Men Woman Go now. Leave me. Don't talk to me of love. First Man Why, what has been my crime? Woman You men have hearts of stone. 22 SACRIFICE First Man Incredible. If our hearts were of stone, how could Cupid's darts make damage there? Other Man Bravo. Well said. Second Man Now, what is your answer to that, my dear? Woman Answer! You think you have said something very fine, — don't you? It is perfect rubbish. First Man I leave it to your judgment, gentlemen. What I said was this, that if our hearts be of stone, how can — Third Man Yes, yes, it has no answer at all. First Man Let me explain it to you. She said we men have hearts of stone, didn't she? Well, I said, in answer, if our hearts were SANYASI 23 truly of stone, how could Cupid's darts damage them? You understand? Second Man Brother, I have been selling molasses in the town for the last twenty-four years, — do you think I cannot understand what you say? [They go out. Sanyasi What are you doing, my child? Vasanti I am looking at your broad palm, father. My hand is a little bird that finds its nest here. Your palm is great, like the great earth which holds all. These lines are the rivers, and these are hills. [Puts her cheek upon it. Sanyasi Your touch is soft, my daughter, like the touch of sleep. It seems to me this touch has something of the great dark- ness, which touches one's soul with the wand of the eternal. — But, child, you are the moth of the daylight. You have your 24 SACRIFICE birds and flowers and fields — what can you find in me, who have my centre in the One and my circumference nowhere? Vasanti I do not want anything else. Your love is enough for me. Sanyasi The girl imagines I love her, — foolish heart. She is happy in that thought. Let her nourish it. For they have been brought up in illusions, and they must have illusions to console them, Vasanti Father, this creeper trailing on the grass, seeking some tree to twine itself round, is my creeper. I have tended it and watered it from the time when it had pushed up only two little leaves into the air, like an infant's cry. This creeper is me, — it has grown by the road-side, it can be so easily crushed. Do you see these beautiful little flowers, pale blue with white spots in their hearts, — these SANYASI 25 white spots are their dreams. Let me gently brush your forehead with these flowers. To me, things that are beautiful are the keys to all that I have not seen and not known. Sanyasi No, no, the beautiful is mere phantasy. To him who knows, the dust and the flower are the same. — But what languor is this that is creeping into my blood and drawing before my eyes a thin mist veil of all the rainbow colours.? Is it nature herself weaving her dreams round me, clouding my senses.? {Suddenly he tears the creeper, and rises up.) No more of this; for this is death. What game of yours is this with me, little girl? I am a sanyasi, I have cut all my knots, I am free. — No, no, not those tears. I cannot bear them. — But where was hidden in my heart this snake, this anger, that hissed out of its dark with its fang.? No, they are not dead, — they outlive starvation. These hell-creatures clatter their skele- tons and dance in my heart, when their 26 SACRIFICE mistress, the great witch, plays upon her magic flute. — Weep not, child, come to me. You seem to me like a cry of a lost world, like the song of a wandering star. You bring to my mind something, which is infinitely more than this Nature, — more than the sun and stars. It is as great as the darkness. I understand it not. I have never known it, therefore I fear it. I must leave you. — Go back whence you came, — the messenger of the unknown. Vansati Leave me not, father, — I have none else but you. Sanyasi I must go, I thought that I had known, — but I do not know. Yet I must know. I leave you, to know who you are. Vasanti Father, if you leave me, I shall die. Sanyasi Let go my hand. Do not touch me. I must be free. — [He runs away. SANYASI %1 III The Sanyasi is seen, sitting upon a boulder in a mountain path [A shepherd boy passes by, singing. The Song Do not turn aivay your face, my love. The spring has bared open its breast. The flowers breathe their secrets in the dark. The rustle of the forest leaves comes across the shy. Like the sobs of the night. Come, love, show me your face, Sanyasi The gold of the evening is melting in the heart of the blue sea. The forest, on the hillside, is drinking the last cup of the daylight. On the left, the village huts are seen through the trees with their evening lamps lighted, like a veiled mother watch- ing by her sleeping children. Nature, 28 SACRIFICE thou art my slave. Thou hast spread thy many-coloured carpet in the great hall where I sit alone, like a king, and watch thee dance with thy starry necklace twinkling on thj^ breast. [Shepherd girls pass by, singing. Song of the shepherd girls The music comes from across the dark river and calls me. I was in the house and happy. But the flute sounded in the still air of night. And a pain pierced my heari. Oh, tell me the way who know it, — Tell me the way to him. I will go to him with my one little flower. And leave it at his feet. And tell him that his music is one with my love. [They go. Sanyasi I think such an evening had come to me only once before in all my births. Then its cup overbrimmed with love and music, and I sat with someone, the memory SANYASI 29 of whose face is in that setting star of the evening. — But where is my Httle girl, with her dark sad eyes, big with tears? Is she there, sitting outside her hut, watching that same star through the immense loneHness of the evening? But the star must set, the evening close her eyes in the night, and tears must cease and sobs be stilled in sleep. No, I will not go back. Let the world-dreams take their own shape. Let me not trouble its course and create new phantasies. I will see, and think, and know. Enters a ragged Girl Girl Are you there, father? Sanyasi Come, child, sit by me. I wish I could own that call of yours. Someone did call me father, once, and the voice was some- what like yours. The father answers now, — but where is that call? Girl Who are you? 30 SACRIFICE Sanyasi I am a sanyasi. Tell, me child, what is your father? Girl He gathers sticks from the forest. Sanyasi And you have a mother .f^ Girl No. She died when I was young. Sanyasi Do you love your father.'* Girl I love him more than anything else in the world. I have no one else but him. Sanyasi I understand you. Give me your little hand, — let me hold it in my palm, — ^in this big palm of mine. Girl Sanyasi, do you read palms? Can you read in my palm all that I am and shall be? SANYASI 31 Sanyasi I think I can read, but dimly know its meaning. One day, I shall know it. Girl Now I must go to meet my father. Sanyasi Where? Girl Where the road goes into the forest. He will miss me, if he does not find me there. Sanyasi Bring your head near to me, child. Let me give you my kiss of blessing, before you go. [Girl goes, A Mother enters, with two children Mother How stout and chubby Misri's children are. They are something to look at. But the more I feed you, the more you seem to grow thin every day. 32 SACRIFICE First Girl But why do you always blame us for that, mother? Can we help it? Mother Don't I tell you to take plenty of rest? But you must always be running about. Second Girl But, mother, we run about on your errands. Mother How dare you answer me like that? Sanyasi Where are you going, daughter? Mother My salutation, father. We are going home. Sanyasi How many are you? Mother My mother-in-law, and my husband and two other children, beside these. SANYASI S3 Sanyasi How do you spend your days? Mother I hardly know how my days pass. My man goes to the field, and I have my house to look after. Then, in the evening, I sit to spin with my elder girls. {To the girls.) Go and salute the sanyasi. Bless them, father. [They go.] Enter Two Men First Man Friend, go back from here. Do not come any further. Second Man Yes, I know. Friends meet in this earth by chance, and the chance carries us on together some portion of the way, and then comes the moment when we must part. Second Friend Let us carry away with us the hope that we part to meet again. 34 SACRIFICE First Friend Our meetings and partings belong to all the movements of the world. Stars do not take special notice of us. Second Friend Let us salute those stars which did throw us together. If for a moment, still it has been much. First Friend Look back for a minute before you go. Can you see that faint glimmer of the water in the dark, and those casuarina trees on the sandy bank? Our village is all one heap of dark shadows. You can only see the lights. Can you guess which of those lights are ours? Second Friend Yes, I think I can. First Friend That light is the last farewell look of our past days upon their parting guest. A little further on, and there will remain one blot of darkness. [They go away. SANYASI 35 Sanyasi The night grows dark and desolate. It sits like a woman forsaken, — those stars are her tears, turned into fire. O my child, the sorrow of your little heart has filled, for ever, all the nights of my life with its sadness. Your dear caressing hand has left its touch in this night air, — I feel it on my forehead, — it is damp with your tears. My darling, your sobs that pursued me, when I fled away, have clung to my heart. I shall carry them to my death. 36 SACRIFICE IV Sanyasi, in the village path Let my vows of sanyasi go. I break my staff and my alms-bowl. This stately ship, this world, which is crossing the sea of time, — let it take me up again, let me join once more the pilgrims. O the fool, who wanted to seek safety in swim- ming alone and gave up the light of the sun and stars, to pick his way with his glow-worm's lamp! The bird flies in the sky, not to fly away into the emptiness, but to come back again to this great earth. — I am free. I am free from the bodiless chain of the Nay. I am free among things, and forms and purpose. The finite is the true infinite, and love knows its truth. My girl, you are the spirit of all that is, — I can never leave you. Enters a Village Elder Sanyasi Do you know, brother, where Raghu's daughter is.^^ SANYASI 37 Elder She has left her village, and we are glad. Sanyasi Where has she gone? Elder Do you ask where? It is all one to her where she goes. {Goes out. Sanyasi My darling has gone to seek a some- where in the emptiness of nowhere. She must find me. A crowd of Villagers enter First Man So our King's son is going to be married to-night. Second Man Can you tell me, when is the wedding hour? Third Man The wedding hour is only for the bride- groom and the bride. What have we got to do with it? 38 SACRIFICE A Woman But won't they give us cakes for the happy day? First Man Cakes? You are silly. My uncle lives in the town — I have heard from him that we shall have curds and parched rice. Second Man Grand. Fourth Man But we shall have a great deal more water than curds. You may be sure of that. First Man Moti, you are a dull fellow. Water in the curds at a prince's wedding! Fourth Man But we are not princes ourselves, Panchu. For us, poor people, the curds have the trick of turning into water most parts. SANYASI 39 First Man Look there. That son of the charcoal- burner is still busy with his work. We mustn't allow that. Second Man We shall burn him into charcoal, if he does not come out. Sanyasi Do you know, any of you, where is Raghu's daughter.? The Woman She has gone away. Sanyasi Where? Woman That we don't know. First Man But we are sure that she is not the bride for our prince. [They laugh and go out. 40 SACRIFICE Enters a Woman, with a child Woman My obeisance to you, father. Let my child touch your feet with his head. He is sick. Bless him, father. Sanyasi But, daughter, I am no longer a sanyasi. Do not mock me with your salutation. Woman Then who are you? What are you doing? Sanyasi I am seeking. Woman Seeking whom? Sanyasi Seeking my lost world back. — Do you know Raghu's daughter? Where is she? Woman Raghu's daughter? Sh^ is dead. SANYASI 41 Sanyasi No, she cannot be dead. No. No. Woman But what is her death to you, Sanyasi.? Sanyasi Not only to me; it would be death to all. Woman I do not understand you. Sanyasi She can never be dead. MALINI TO MY NIECE INDIRA DEVI MALINI ACT I The Balcony of the Palace facing the street Malini The moment has come for me, and my life, hke the dew drop upon a lotus leaf, is trembling upon the heart of this great time. I shut my eyes and seem to hear the tumult of the sky, and there is an anguish in my heart, I know not for what. Enters Queen Queen My child, what is this? Why do you for- get to put on dresses that befit your beauty and youth? Where are your ornaments? My beautiful dawn, how can you absent the touch of gold from your limbs? Malini Mother, there are some who are born poor, even in a king's house. Wealth does 45 46 SACRIFICE not cling to those whose destiny it is to find riches in poverty. Queen That the child whose only language was the baby cry should talk to me in such riddles! — My heart quakes in fear when I listen to you. Where did you pick up your new creed, which goes against all our holy books.'* My child, they say that the Buddhist monks, from whom you take your lessons, practice black arts; that they cast their spells upon men's minds, confounding them with lies. But I ask you, is religion a thing that one has to find by seeking .^^ Is it not like sunlight, given to you for all days.^* I am a simple woman. I do not understand men's creeds and dogmas. I only know that women's true objects of worship come to their own arms, without asking, in the shape of their husbands and their children. Enters King Kiyig My daughter, storm clouds are gather- ing over the King's house. Go no farther MALINI 47 along your perilous path. Pause, if only for a short time. Queen What dark words are these? King My foolish child, if you must bring your new creed into this land of the old, let it not come like a sudden flood threatening those who dwell on the bank. Keep your faith to your own self. Rake not up public hatred and mockery against it. Queen Do not chide my girl, and teach her the crookedness of your diplomacy. If my child should choose her own teachers and pursue her own path, I do not know who can blame her. King Queen, my people are agitated, they clamour for my daughter's banishment. Queen Banishment? Of your own daughter? 48 SACRIFICE King The Brahmins, frightened at her heresy, have combined, and — Queen Heresy indeed. Are all truths confined only in their musty, old books? Let them fling away their worm-eaten creeds, and come and take their lessons from this child. I tell you. King, she is not a com- mon girl, — she is a pure flame of fire. Some divine spirit has taken birth in her. Do not despise her, lest some day you strike your forehead, and weep, and find her no more. Malini Father, grant to your people their request. The great moment has come. Banish me. King Why, child? What want do you feel in your father's house? Malini Listen to me, father. Those, who cry for my banishment, cry for me. Mother^ MALINI 49 I have no words in which to tell you what I have in my mind. Leave me without regret, like the tree that sheds its flowers unheeding. Let me go out to all men, — for the world has claimed me from the King's hands. King Child, I do not understand you. Malini Father, you are a King. Be strong and fulfil 3^our mission. Queen Child, is there no place for you here, where you were born? Is the burden of the world waiting for your little shoulders .^^ Malini I dream, while I am awake, that the wind is wild, and the water is troubled; the night is dark, and the boat is moored in the haven. Where is the captain, who shall take the wanderers home.f* I feel I know the path, and the boat will thrill with life at my touch, and speed on. 50 SACRIFICE Queen Do you hear. King? Whose words are these? Do they come from this Kttle girl? Is she your daughter, and have I borne her? King Yes, even as the night bears the dawn, — the dawn that is not of the night, but of all the world. Queen King, have you nothing to keep her bound to your house, — this image of light? — My darling, your hair has come loose on your shoulders. Let me bind it up. — ^Do they talk of banishment. King? If this be a part of their creed, then let come the new religion, and let those Brahmins be taught afresh what is truth. King Queen, let us take away our child from this balcony. Do you see the crowd gath- ering in the street? [They all go out MALINI 51 Enter a crowd of Brahmins, in the street, before the palace balcony. [They shout Brahmins Banishment of the King's daughter! Kemankar Friends, keep your resolution firm. The woman, as an enemy, is to be dreaded more than all others. For reason is futile against her and forces are ashamed; man's power gladly surrenders itself to her powerlessness, and she takes her shelter in the strongholds of our own hearts. 1st Brahmin We must have audience with our King, to tell him that a snake has raised its poisonous hood from his own nest, and is aiming at the heart of our sacred religion. Supriya Religion? I am stupid. I do not under- stand you. Tell me, sir, is it your religion that claims the banishment of an innocent girl? 52 SACRIFICE 1st Brahmin You are a marplot, Supriya, you are ever a hindrance to all our enterprises. 2nd Brahmin We have united in defence of our faith, and you come like a subtle rift in the wall, like a thin smile on the compressed lips of contempt. Supriya You think that, by the force of numbers, you will determine truth, and drown reason by your united shouts? 1st Brahmin This is rank insolence, Supriya. Supriya The insolence is not mine but theirs who shape their scripture to fit their own nar- row hearts. 2nd Brahmin Drive him out. He is none of us. MALINI 53 1st Brahmin We have all agreed upon the banish- ment of the Princess. — He who thinks differently, let him leave this assembly. Supriya Brahmins, it was a mistake on your part to elect me as one of your league. I am neither your shadow, nor an echo of your texts. I never admit that truth sides with the shrillest voice and I am ashamed to own as mine a creed that de- pends on force for its existence. {To Kemankar.) Dear friend, let me go. Kemankar No, I will not. I know you are firm in your action, only doubting when you debate. Keep silence, my friend; for the time is evil. Supriya Of all things the blind certitude of stu- pidity is the hardest to bear. To think of saving your religion by banishing a girl from her home! But let me know what 54 SACRIFICE is her offence. Does she not maintain that truth and love are the body and soul of religion? If so, is that not the essence of all creeds? Kemankar Religion is one in its essence, but dif- ferent in its forms. The water is one, yet by its different banks it is bounded and preserved for different peoples. What if you have a well-spring of your own in your heart, spurn not your neighbours who must go for their draught of water to their ancestral pond with the green of its gradual slopes mellowed by ages and its ancient trees bearing eternal fruit. Swpriya I shall follow you, my friend, as I have ever done in my life, and not argue. Enters third Brahmin 3rd Brahmin I have good news. Our words have prevailed, and the King's army is about to take our side openly. MALINI 55 2nd Brahmin The army? — I do not quite like it. 1st Brahmin Nor do I. It smells of rebellion. 2nd Brahmin Kemankar, I am not for such extreme measures. 1st Brahmin Our faith will give us victory, not our arms. Let us make penance, and recite sacred verses. Let us call on the names of our guardian gods. 2nd Brahmin Come, Goddess, whose wrath is the sole weapon of thy worshippers, deign to take form and crush even to dust the blind pride of unbelievers. Prove to us the strength of our faith, and lead us to vic- tory. All We invoke thee. Mother, descend from thy heavenly heights and do thy work among mortals. 56 SACRIFICE Enters Malini Malini I have come. (They all bow to her, ex- cept Kemankar and Supriya, who stand aloof and watch.) 2nd Brahmin Goddess. — Thou hast come at last, as a daughter of man, withdrawing all thy terrible power into the tender beauty of a girl. Whence hast thou come. Mother? What is thy wish? Malini I have come down to my exile at your call, 2nd Brahmin To exile from heaven, because thy chil- dren of earth have called thee? 1st Brahmin Forgive us, Mother. Utter ruin threat- ens this world and it cries aloud for thy help. MALINI 57 Malini I will never desert you. I always knew that your doors were open for me. The cry went from you for my banishment and I woke up, amidst the wealth and pleasure of the King's house. Kemanhar The Princess. All The King's daughter. Malini I am exiled from my home, so that I may make your home my own. Yet tell me truly, have you need of me? When I lived in seclusion, a lonely girl, did you call to me from the outer world .^ Was it no dream of mine.^ 1st Brahmin Mother, you have come, and taken your seat in the heart of our hearts. Malini I was born in a King's house, never once looking out from my window. I had 58 SACRIFICE heard that it was a sorrowing world, — the world out of my reach. But I did not know where it felt its pain. Teach me to find this out. 1st Brahmin Your sweet voice brings tears to our eyes. Malini The moon has just come out of those clouds. Great peace is in the sky. It seems to gather all the world in its arms, under the fold of one vast moonlight. There goes the road, losing itself among the solemn trees with their still shadows. There are the houses, and there the temple; the river bank in the distance looks dim and desolate. I seem to have come down, like a sudden shower from a cloud of dreams, into this world of men, by the roadside 1st Brahmin You are the divine soul of this world. MALINI 59 Snd Brahmin AVhy did not our tongues burst in pain, when they shouted for your banishment? 1st Brahmin Come, Brahmins, let us restore our Mother to her home. [They shout. Victory to the Mother of the world! Vic- tory to the Mother in the heart of the Man's daughter! [Malini goes, surrounded by them. Kemankar Let the illusion vanish. Where are you going, Supriya, like one walking in his sleep? Swpriya Leave hold of me, let me go. Kemankar Control yourself. Will you, too, fly into the fire with the rest of the blinded swarm? Swpriya Was it a dream, Kemankar? 60 SACRIFICE Kemankar It was nothing but a dream. Open your eyes, and wake up. Supriya Your hope of heaven is false, Keman- kar. Vainly have I wandered in the wilderness of doctrines, — I never found peace. The God, who belongs to the multitude, and the God of the books are not my own God. These never answered my questions and never consoled me. But, at last, I have found the divine breathing and alive in the living world of men. Kemankar Alas, my friend, it is a fearful moment when a man's heart deceives him. Then blind desire becomes his gospel and fancy usurps the dread throne of his gods. Is yonder moon, lying asleep among soft fleecy clouds, the true emblem of ever- lasting reality? The naked day will come to-morrow, and the hungry crowd begin again to drag the sea of existence with MALINI 61 their thousand nets. And then this moon- light night will hardly be remembered, but as a thin film of unreality made of sleep and shadows and delusions. The magic web, woven of the elusive charms of a woman, is like that, — and can it take the place of highest truth .^^ Can any creed, born of your fancy, satisfy the gaping thirst of the midday, when it is wide awake in its burning heat? Supriya Alas, I know not. Kemanhar Then shake yourself up from your dreams, and look before you. The an- cient house is on fire, whose nurslings are the ages. The spirits of our forefathers are hovering over the impending ruins, like crying birds over their perishing nests. Is this the time for vacillation, when the night is dark, the enemies knock- ing at the gate, the citizens asleep, and men drunken with delusions laying their hands upon their brothers' throats .f* 62 SACRIFICE Supriya I will stand by you. Kemankar I must go away from here. Supriya Where? And for what? Kemankar To foreign lands. I shall bring soldiers from outside. For this conflagration cries for blood, to be quenched. Supriya But our own soldiers are ready. Kemankar Vain is all hope of help from them. They, like moths, are already leaping into the fire. Do you not hear how they are shouting like fools? The whole town has gone mad, and is lighting her festival lamps at the funeral pyre of her own sacred faith. Supriya If you must go, take me with you. MALINI 63 Kemankar No. You remain here, to watch and keep me informed. But, friend, let your heart be not drawn away from me by the novelty of the falsehood. Supriya Falsehood is new, but our friendship is old. We have ever been together from our childhood. This is our first separa- tion. Kemankar May it prove our last! In evil times the strongest bonds give way. Brothers strike brothers and friends turn against friends. I go out into the dark, and in the darkness of night I shall come back to the gate. Shall I find my friend watching for me, with the lamp lighted.'^ I take away that hope with me. [They go. Enter King, with the Prince, in the balcony. King I fear I must decide to banish my daughter. 64 SACRIFICE Prince Yes, Sire, delay will be dangerous. King Gently, my son, gently. Never doubt that I will do my duty. Be sure I will banish her. [Prince goes. Enters Queen Tell me. King, where is she? Have you hidden her, even from me? King Whom? Queen My Malini. King What? Is she not in her room? Queen No, I cannot find her. Go with your soldiers and search for her through all the town, from house to house. The citizens have stolen her. Banish them all. Empty the whole town, till they return her. MALINI Q5 King I will bring her back, — even if my Kingdom goes to ruin. [The Brahmins and soldiers bring Malini, with torches lighted. Queen My darling, my cruel child. I never keep my eyes off you, — how could you evade me, and go out? 2nd Brahmin Do not be angry with her, Queen. She came to our home to give us her blessings. 1st Brahmin Is she only yours? And does she not belong to us as well? 2nd Brahmin Our little mother, do not forget us. You are our star, to lead us across the pathless sea of life. Malini My door has been opened for you. These walls will nevermore separate us. 66 SACRIFICE Brahmins Blessed are we, and the land where we were born. [They go. Malini Mother, I have brought the outer world into your house. I seem to have lost the bounds of my body. I am one with the life of this world. Queen Yes, child. Now you shall never need to go out. Bring in the world to you, and to your mother. — It is close upon the second watch of the night. Sit here. Calm yourself. This flaming life in you is burning out all sleep from your eyes. Malini {Embracing her mother.) Mother, I am tired. My body is trembling. So vast is this world. — Mother dear, sing me to sleep. Tears come to my eyes, and a sad- ness descends upon my heart. MALINI 67 ACT II The Palace Garden Malini and Supriya Malini What can I say to you? I do not know how to argue. I have not read your books. Supriya I am learned only among the fools of learning. I have left all arguments and books behind me. Lead me, princess, and I shall follow you, as the shadow fol- lows the lamp. Malini But, Brahmin, when you question me, I lose all my power and do not know how to answer you. It is a wonder to me to see that even you, who know everything, come to me with your questions. 68 SACRIFICE Supriya Not for knowledge I come to you. Let me forget all that I have ever known. Roads there are, without number, but the light is missing. Malini Alas, sir, the more you ask me, the more I feel my poverty. Where is that voice in me, which came down from heaven, like an unseen flash of lightning, into my heart .^ Why did you not come that day, but keep away in doubt.? Now that I have met the world face to face my heart has grown timid, and I do not know how to hold the helm of the great ship that I must guide. I feel I am alone, and the world is large, and ways are many, and the light from the sky comes of a sudden to vanish the next moment. You who are wise and learned, will you help me? Supriya I shall deem myself fortunate, if you ask my help. MALINI 69 Malini There are times when despair comes to choke all the life-currents; when sud- denly, amidst crowds of men, my eyes turn upon myself and I am frightened. Will you befriend me in those moments of blankness, and utter me one word of hope that will bring me back to life? Supriya I shall keep myself ready. I shall make my heart simple and pure, and my mind peaceful, to be able truly to serve you. Enters Attendant Attendant The citizens have come, asking to see you. Malini Not to-day. Ask their pardon for me. I must have time to fill my exhausted mind, and have rest to get rid of weariness. [Attendant goes. Tell me again about Kemankar, your 70 SACRIFICE friend. I long to know what your life has been and its trials. Supriya Kemankar is my friend, my brother, my master. His mind has been firm and strong, from early days, while my thoughts are always flickering with doubts. Yet he has ever kept me close to his heart, as the moon does its dark spots. But, how- ever strong a ship may be, if it harbours a small hole in its bottom, it must sink. — That I would make you sink, Kemankar, was in the law of nature. Malini You made him sink.'^ Supriya Yes, I did. The day when the rebellion slunk away in shame before the light in your face and the music in the air that touched you, Kemankar alone was un- moved. He left me behind him, and said that he must go to the foreign land to bring soldiers, and uproot the new creed MALINI 71 from the sacred soil of Kaslii. — You know what followed. You made me live again in a new land of birth. "Love for all life" was a mere word, waiting from the old time to be made real,— and I saw that truth in you in flesh. My heart cried for my friend, but he was away, out of my reach; then came his letter, in which he wrote that he was coming with a foreign army at his back, to wash away the new faith in blood, and to punish you with death. — I could wait no longer. I showed the letter to the King. Malini Why did you forget yourself, Supriya? Why did fear overcome you.^ Have I not room enough in my house for him and his soldiers? Enters King King Come to my arms, Supriya, I went at a fit time to surprise Kemankar and to capture him. An hour later, and a thunder-bolt would have burst upon my 72 SACRIFICE house in my sleep. You are my friend, Supriya, come — Supriya God forgive me. King Do you not know, that a King's love is not unsubstantial .f^ I give you leave to ask for any reward that comes to your mind. Tell me, what do you want.? Supriya Nothing, Sire, nothing. I shall live, begging from door to door. King Only ask me, and you shall have prov- inces worthy to tempt a king. Supriya They do not tempt me. King I understand you. I know towards what moon you raise your hands. Mad youth, be brave to ask even that which MALINI 73 seems so impossible. ^Tiy are you silent? Do you remember the day when you prayed for my Malini's banishment? Will you repeat that prayer to me, to lead my daughter to exile from her father's house? — My daughter, do you know that you owe your life to this noble youth? And is it hard for you to pay off that debt with your — ? Swpriya For pity's sake, Sire, no more of this. Worshippers there are many who by life- long devotion have gained the highest fulfilment of their desire. Could I be counted one of them I should be happy. But to accept it from the King's hands as the reward of treachery? Lady mine, you have the plenitude and peace of your greatness; you know not the secret crav- ings of a poverty-stricken soul. I dare not ask from you an atom more than that pity of love which you have for every creature in the world. Malini Father, what is your punishment for the captive? 74 SACRIFICE King He shall die. Malini On my knees I beg from you his pardon. King But he is a rebel, my child. Supriya Do you judge him. King? He also judged you, when he came to punish you, not to rob your kingdom. Malini Spare him his life, father. Then only will you have the right to bestow on him your friendship, who has saved you from a great peril. King What do you say, Supriya? Shall I restore a friend to his friend's arms? Supriya That will be king-like in its grace. MALINI 75 King It will come in its time, and you will find back your friend. But a King's generosity must not stop there. I must give you something which exceeds your hope, — yet not as a mere reward. You have won my heart, and my heart is ready to offer you its best treasure. — My child, where was this shyness in you before now.^^ Your dawn had no tint of rose, — its light was white and dazzling. But to-day a tearful mist of tenderness sweetly tempers it for mortal eyes. {To Supriya.) Leave my feet, rise up and come to my heart. Happiness is pressing it like pain. Leave me now for a while. I want to be alone with my Malini. (Supriya goes.) I feel I have found back my child once again, — not the bright star of the sky, but the sweet flower that blossoms on earthly soil. She is my daughter, the darling of my heart. Enters Attendant Attendant The captive, Kemankar, is at the door. 76 SACRIFICE King Bring him in. Here comes he, with his eyes fixed, his proud head held high, a brooding shadow on his forehead, Hke a thunder cloud motionless in a suspended storm. Malini The iron chain is shamed of itself upon those limbs. The insult to greatness is its own insult. He looks like a god defying his captivity. Enters Kemanela^r in chains King What punishment do you expect from my hands.? Kemanhar Death. King But if I pardon you.? Kemanhar Then I shall have time again to com- plete the work I began. MALINI 77 King You seem out of love with your life. Tell me your last wish, if you have any. Kemankar I want to see my friend, Supriya, before I die. King {To the attendant.) Ask Supriya to come. Malini There is a power in that face that frightens me. Father, do not let Supriya come. King Your fear is baseless, child. [Supriya enters, and walks towards Kemankar, with arms extended. Kemankar No, no, not yet. First let us have our say, and then the greeting of love. — Come closer to me. You know I am poor in words, — and my time is short. My trial is over, but not yours. Tell me, why have you done this? 7& SACRIFICE Swpriya Friend, you will not understand me. I had to keep my faith, even at the cost of my love. Kemankar I understand you, Supriya. I have seen that girl's face, glowing with an inner light, looking like a voice becoming visible. You offered, to the fire of those eyes, the faith in your fathers' creed, the faith in your country's good, and built up a new one on the foundation of a treason. Swpriya Friend, you are right. My faith has come to me perfected in the form of that woman. Your sacred books were dumb to me. I have read, by the help of the light of those eyes, the ancient book of creation, and I have known that true faith is there, where there is man, where there is love. It comes from the mother in her devotion, and it goes back to her from her child. It descends in the gift of MALINI 79 a giver and it appears in the heart of him who takes it. I accepted the bond of this faith which reveals the infinite in man, when I set my eyes upon that face full of light and love and peace of hidden wisdom. Kemanhar I also once set my eyes on that face, and for a moment dreamt that religion had come at last, in the form of a woman, to lead man's heart to heaven. For a mo- ment, music broke out from the very ribs of my breast and all my life's hopes blos- somed in their fulness. Yet did not I break through these meshes of illusion to wander in foreign lands .^^ Did not I suffer humiliation from unworthy hands in patience, and bear the pain of separa- tion from you, who have been my friend from my infancy .^^ And what have you been doing meanwhile .^^ You sat in the shade of the King's garden, and spent your sweet leisure in idly weaving a lie to con- done your infatuation and calling it a religion. 80 SACRIFICE Supriya My friend, is not this world wide enough to hold men whose natures are widely different? Those countless stars of the sky, do they fight for the mastery of the One? Cannot faiths hold their separate lights in peace for the separate worlds of minds that need them? Kemankar Words, mere words. To let falsehood and truth live side by side in amity, the infinite world is not wide enough. That the corn ripening for the food of man should make room for thorny weeds, love is not so hatefully all-loving. That one should be allowed to sap the sure ground of friendship with betrayal of trust, could tolerance be so traitorously wide as that? That one should die like a thief to defend his faith and the other live in honour and wealth who betrayed it — no, no, the world is not so stony-hard as to bear without pain such hideous contradictions in its bosom. MALINI 81 Swpriya (To Malini.) All these hurts and insults I accept in your name, my lady. Keman- kar, you are paying your life for your faith, — I am paying more. It is your love, dearer than my life. Kemankar No more of this prating. All truths must be tested in death's court. My friend, do you remember our student days when we used to wrangle the whole night through, to come at last to our teacher, in the morning, to know in a moment which of us was right.? Let that morning break now. Let us go there to that land of the final, and stand before death with all our questions, where the changing mist of doubts will vanish at a breath, and the mountain peaks of eternal truth will appear, and we two fools will look at each other and laugh. — ^Dear friend, bring before death that which you deem your best and immortal. 82 SACRIFICE Supriya Friend, let it be as you wish. Kemanhar Then come to my heart. You had wandered far from your comrade, in the infinite distance, — now, dear friend, come eternally close to me, and accept from one, who loves you, the gift of death. (Strikes SupRiYA with his chains, and Supriya falls.) Kemanhar {Embracing the dead body of Supriya.) Now call your executioner. King (Rising up.) Where is my sword? Malini Father, forgive Kemankar! SACRIFICE I DEDICATE THIS PLAY TO THOSE HEROES WHO BRAVELY STOOD FOR PEACE WHEN HUMAN SACRIFICE WAS CLAIMED FOR THE GODDESS OF WAR SACRIFICE A temple of the Goddess Kali in Tripura, Enters Gunavati, the Queen Gunavati Have I offended thee, dread Mother? Thou grantest children to the beggar woman, who sells them to live, and to the adulteress, who kills them to save herself from infamy, and here I am, the Queen, with all the world lying at my feet, hanker- ing in vain for the baby-touch at my bosom, to feel the stir of a dearer life within my life. What sin have I com- mitted. Mother, to merit this, to be ban- ished from the mothers' heaven? Enters Raghupati, the priest O Master, have I ever been remiss in my worship? and my husband, is he not godlike in his purity? Then why has the 85 86 SACRIFICE Goddess, who weaves the web of this world-illusion, assigned my place in the barren waste of childlessness? Raghupati Our Mother is all caprice, she knows no law, our sorrows and joys are mere freaks of her mind. Have patience, daughter, to-day we shall offer special sacrifice in your name to please her. Gnnavati Accept my grateful obeisance, father. My offerings are already on their way to the temple, — red bunches of hybiscus and beasts of sacrifice. [They go out. Enter Govinda, the King; Jaising, the servant of temple; and Aparna, the beggar girl. Jaising What is your wish, Sire.^* Govinda Is it true that this poor girl's pet goat has been brought by force to the temple SACRIFICE 87 to be killed? Will Mother accept such a gift with grace? Jaising King, how are we to know whence the servants collect our daily offerings of worship? But, my child, why is this weeping? Is it worthy of you to shed tears for that which Mother herseK has taken? Aparna Mother! I am his mother. If I return late to my hut, he refuses his grass, and bleats, with his eyes on the road. I take him up in my arms, when I come, and share my food with him. He knows no mother but me. Jaising Sire, could I make the goat live again, by giving up a portion of my life, gladly would I do it. But how can I restore that which Mother herself has taken? Ajparna Mother has taken? It is a lie. Not mother, but demon. 88 SACRIFICE Jaising O, the blasphemy! Aparna Mother, art thou there to rob a poor girl of her love? Then where is the throne, before which to condemn thee? Tell me, King. Govinda I am silent, my child. I have no answer. Aparna This blood-streak running down the steps, is it his? O my darling, when you trembled and cried for dear life, why did your call not reach my heart through the whole deaf world? Jaising [To the image.] I have served thee from my infancy. Mother Kali, yet I under- stand thee not. Does pity only belong to weak mortals, and not to gods? Come with me, my child, let me do for you what SACRIFICE 89 I can. Help must come from man, when it is denied from gods. [All go out hut the King, Enter Raghupati; Nakshatra, y)ho is the King's brother; and the courtiers All Victory be to the King! Govinda Know you all, that I forbid shedding of blood in the temple from to-day for ever. Minister You forbid sacrifice to the Goddess? General Nay an Rai Forbid sacrifice? Nakshatra How terrible! Forbid sacrifice? Raghupati Is it a dream? 90 SACRIFICE Govinda No dream, father. It is awakening. Mother came to me, in a girl's disguise, and told me that blood she cannot suffer. Raghupati She has been drinking blood for ages. Whence comes this loathing all of a sud- den .^^ Govinda No, she never drank blood, she kept her face averted. Raghupati I warn you, think and consider. You have no power to alter laws laid down in scriptures. Govinda God's words are above all laws. Raghupati Do not add pride to your folly. Do you have the effrontery to say that you alone have heard God's words, and not I.^^ SACRIFICE 91 Nalcshatra It is strange, that the King should have heard from gods and not the priest. Govinda God's words are ever ringing in the world, and he who is wilfully deaf cannot hear them. Raghupati Atheist! Apostate! Govinda Father, go to your morning service, and declare to all worshippers that hence- forward they will be punished with banish- ment who shed creatures' blood in their worship of the Mother of all creatures. Raghupati Is this your last word? Govinda Yes. 92 SACRIFICE Raghupati Then curse upon you! Do you, in your enormous pride, imagine that the Goddess, dwelling in your land, is your subject? Do you presume to bind her with your laws and rob her of her dues? You shall never do it. I declare it, — I who am her servant. [Goes. Nay an Rai Pardon me, Sire, but have you the right? Minister King, is it too late to revoke your order? Govinda We dare not delay to uproot sin from our realm. Minister Sin can never have such a long lease of life. Could they be sinful, — the rites that have grown old at the feet of the Goddess? [The King is silent. Nakshatra Indeed they could not be. SACRIFICE 93 Minister Our ancestors have performed these rites with reverence; can you have the heart to insult them? [The King remains silent, Nayan Rai That which has the sanction of ages, do you have the right to remove it? Govinda No more doubts and disputes. Go and spread my order in all my lands. Minister But, Sire, the Queen has offered her sacrifice for this morning's worship; it is come near the temple gate. Govinda Send it back. [He goes.] Minister What is this? 94 SACRIFICE Nakshatra Are we, then, to come down to the level of Buddhists, and treat animals as if they have their right to live? Preposterous! [They all go out Enters Raghupati, — J aiding following him with ajar of water to wash his feet. Jaising Father. Raghupati Go! Jaising Here is some water. Raghupati No need of it! Jaising Your clothes. Raghupati Take them away! SACRIFICE 95 Jaising Have I done anything to offend you? Raghupati Leave me alone. The shadows of evil have thickened. The King's throne is raising its insolent head above the temple altar. Ye Gods of these degenerate days, are ye ready to obey the King's laws with bowed heads, fawning upon him like his courtiers.^ Jaising Whatever has happened, father? Raghupati I cannot find words to say. Ask the Mother Goddess who has been defied. Jaising Defied? By whom? Raghupati By King Govinda. Jaising King Govinda defied Mother Kali? 96 SACRIFICE Raghupati Defied you and me, all scriptures, all countries, all time, defied Mahakali, the Goddess of the endless stream of time, — sitting upon that puny little throne of his. Jaising Xing Govinda? Raghupati Yes, yes, your King Govinda, the darling of your heart. Ungrateful! I have given all my love to bring you up, and yet King Govinda is dearer to you than I am. Jaising The child raises its arms to the full moon, sitting upon his father's lap. You are my father and my full moon is King Govinda. Then is it true, what I hear from people, that our King forbids all sacrifice in the temple.? But in this we cannot obey him. Raghupati Banishment is for him who does not obey. SACRIFICE 97 Jaising It is no calamity to be banished from a land where Mother's worship remains incomplete. No, so long as I live, the service of the temple shall be fully per- formed. [They go out. Enter Gunavati and her attendant Gunavati What is it you say? The Queen's sacri- fice turned away from the temple gate? Is there a man in this land who carries more than one head on his shoulders, that he could dare think of it? Who is that doomed creature? Attendant I am afraid to name him. Gunavati Afraid to name him, when I ask you? Whom do you fear more than me? 98 SACRIFICE Attendant Pardon me. Gunavati Give my salutation to the priest, and ask him to come. [Attendant goes out. Enters Govinda Gunavati Have you heard, King.? My offerings have been sent back from Mother's temple. Govinda I know it. Gunavati You know it, and yet bear the insult.'^ Govinda I beg to ask your pardon for the culprit. Gunavati I know, King, your heart is merciful, but this is no mercy. It is feebleness. If your kindness hampers you, leave the SACRIFICE 99 punishment in my hand. Only, tell me, who is he? Govinda It is I, my Queen. My crime is in nothing else but having given you pain. Gunavati I do not understand you. Govinda From to day shedding of blood in gods' temples is forbidden in my land. Gunavati Who forbids it.^^ Govinda Mother herself. Gunavati "Who heard it.^^ Govinda I. 100 SACRIFICE Gunavati You! That makes me laugh. The Queen of all the world comes to the gate of Tripura's King with her petition. Govinda Not with her petition, but with her sorrow. Gunavati Your dominion is outside the temple limit. Do not send your commands there, where they are impertinent. Govinda The command is not mine, it is Mother's. Gunavati If you have no doubt in your decision, do not cross my faith. Let me perform my worship according to my light. Govinda 1 promised my Goddess to prevent sacri- fice of life in her temple, and I must carry it out. SACRIFICE 101 Gunavati I also promised my Goddess the blood of three hundred kids and one hundred buffaloes, and I will carry it out. You may leave me now. Govinda As you wish. [He goes out Enters Raghupati Gunavati My offerings have been turned back from the temple, father. Raghupati The worship offered by the most ragged of all beggars is not less precious than yours. Queen. But the misfortune is that Mother has been deprived. Gunavati What will come of all this, father.^ Raghupati That is only known to her who fashions this world with her dreams. But this is 102 SACRIFICE certain, that the throne which casts its shadow upon Mother's shrine will burst like a bubble, vanishing in the void. Gunavati Have mercy and save us, father. Raghupati Ha, ha I I am to save you, — you, the consort of a King who boasts of his king- dom on the earth and in heaven as well, before whom the gods and the Brahmins must — Oh, shame! Oh, the evil age, when the Brahmin's futile curse recoils upon himself, to sting him into madness. [About to tear his sacrificial thread.] Gunavati [Preventing him.] Have mercy upon me. Raghupati Then give back to Brahmins what is theirs by right. Gunavati Yes, I will. Go, master, to your wor- ship, and nothing will hinder you. SACRIFICE 103 Raghupati Indeed your favour overwhelms me. At the merest glance of your eyes gods are saved from ignominy and the Brahmin is restored to his sacred offices. Thrive and grow fat and sleek till the dire day of judgment comes. [Goes out.] Re-enters King Govinda Govinda My Queen, the shadow of your angry brows hides all light from my heart. Gunavati Go! Do not bring a curse upon this house. Govinda Woman's smile removes all curse from the house, her love is God's grace. Gunavati Go, and never show your face to me vagain. 104 SACRIFICE Govinda I shall come back, my Queen, when you remember me. Gunavati [Clinging to the King's feet.] Pardon me. King. Have you become so hard, that you forget to respect woman's pride? Do you not know, beloved, that thwarted love takes the disguise of anger? Govinda I would die, if I lost my trust in you. I know, my love, that clouds are for moments only, and the sun is for all days. Gunavati Yes, the clouds will pass by, God's thunder will return to his armoury, and the sun of all days will shine upon the traditions of all time. Yes, my King, order it so, that Brahmins be restored to their rights, the Goddess to her offer- ings, and the King's authority to its earthly limits. SACRIFICE 105 Govinda It is not the Brahmin's right to violate the eternal good. Creature's blood is not the offering for gods. And it is within the rights of the King and the peasant alike to maintain truth and righteousness. Gunavati I prostrate myself on the ground before you; I beg at your feet. The custom that comes through all ages is not the King's own. Like the heaven's air, it belongs to all men. Yet your Queen begs it of you, with clasped hands, in the name of your people. Can you still re- main silent, proud man, refusing entreat- ies of love in favour of duty which is doubtful.^ Then go, go, go from me. [They go. Enter Raghupati, Jaising and Nayan Rai Raghupati General, your devotion to Mother is well known. 106 SACRIFICE Nayan Rai It runs through generations of my an- cestors. Raghupati Let this sacred love give you indomi- table courage. Let it make your sword- blade mighty as God's thunder, and win its place above all powers and positions of this world. Nayan Rai The Brahmin's blessings will never be in vain. Raghupati Then I bid you collect your soldiers and strike Mother's enemy down to the dust. Nayan Rai Tell me, father, who is the enemy .^ Raghupati Govinda. Nayan Rai Our King? Raghupati Yes, attack him with all your force. SACRIFICE 107 Nayan Rai It is evil advice. Father, is this to try me? Raghupati Yes, it is to try you, to know for certain whose servant you are. Give up all hesi- tation. Know that the Goddess calls, and all earthly bonds must be severed. Nayan Rai I have no hesitation in my mind. I stand firm in my post, where my Goddess has placed me. Raghupati You are brave. Nayan Rai Am I the basest of Mother's servants, that the order should come for me to turn traitor.^ She herself stands upon the faith of man's heart. Can she ask me to break it.f^ Then to-day comes to dust the King, and to-morrow the Goddess herself. 108 SACRIFICE Jaising Noble words. Raghupati The King, who has turned traitor to Mother, has lost all claims to your alle- giance. Nayan Rai Drive me not, father, into a wilderness of debates. I know only one path, — the straight path of faith and truth. This stupid servant of Mother shall never swerve from that highway of honour. [Goes out. Jaising Let us be strong in our faith as he is, master. Why ask the aid of soldiers.? We have the strength within ourselves for the task given to us from above. Open the temple gate wide, father. Sound the drum. Come, come, O citizens, to worship her, who takes all fear away from our hearts. Come, Mother's children. [Citizens come. SACRIFICE 109 First Citizen Come, come, we are called. All Victory to Mother! [They sing and dance. The dread Mother dances naked in the battlefield. Her lolling tongue hums like a red flame of fire, Her dark tresses fly in the sky, sweeping away the sun and stars. Red streams of blood run from her cloud- black limbs. And the world trembles and cracks under her tread, Jaising Do you see the beasts of sacrifice coming towards the temple, driven by the Queen's attendants? [They cry. Victory to Mother! Victory to our Queen! no SACRIFICE Raghupati Jaising, make haste and get ready for the worship. Jaising Everything is ready, father. Raghupati Send a man to call Prince Nakshatra in my name. [Jaising goes. [Citizens sing and dance.] Enters King Govinda Silence, Raghupati! Do you dare to disregard my order? Raghupati Yes, I do. Govinda Then you are not for my land. Raghupati No, my land is there, where the King's crown kisses the dust. Ho! Citizens! SACRIFICE 111 Let Mother's offerings be brought in here. [They heat drums, Govinda Silence! [To his attendants.] Ask my General to come. Raghupati, you drive me to call soldiers to defend God's right. I feel the shame of it; for the force of arms only reveals man's weakness. Enter General Nayan Rai and Chand- PAL, who is the second in comviand of the army. Govinda Stand here with your soldiers to prevent sacrifice of life in the temple. Nayan Pardon me, Sire. The King's servant is powerless in the temple of God. Govinda General, it is not for you to question my order. You are to carry out my words. 112 SACRIFICE Their merits and demerits belong only to me. Nayan I am your servant, my King, but I am a man above all. I have reason and my religion. I have my King, — and also my God. Govinda Then surrender your sword to Chand- pal. He will protect the temple from pollution of blood. Nayan Rai Why to Chandpal? This sword was given to my forefathers by your royal ancestors. If you want it back, I will give it up to you. Be witness, my fathers, who are in the heroes' paradise, the sword that you made sacred with your loyal faith and bravery, I surrender to my King. [Goes out. Raghiipati The Brahmin's curse has begun its work already. SACRIFICE 113 Enters Jaising Jaising The beasts have been made ready for the sacrifice. Govinda Sacrifice? Jaising [On his knees.] King, listen to my earnest entreaties. Do not stand in the way, hiding the Goddess, man as you are. Raghupati Shame, Jaising. Rise up and ask my pardon. I am your Master. Your place is at my feet, not the King's. Fool! Do you ask King's sanction to do God's serv- ice .^^ Leave alone the worship and the sacrifice. Let us wait and see how his pride prevails in the end. Come away. [They go out Enters Aparna, the beggar girl Aparna Where is Jaising? He is not here, but only you, — the image whom nothing can 114 SACRIFICE move. You rob us of all our best without uttering a word. We pine for love, and die beggars for want of it. Yet it comes to you unasked, though you need it not. Like a grave, you hoard it under your miserly stone, keeping it from the use of the yearning world. Jaising, what happi- ness do you find from her.^ What can she speak to you.f^ O my heart, my famished heart ! Enters Raghupati Raghupati Who are you.^ Aparna I am a beggar girl. Where is Jaising .^^ Raghupati Leave this place at once. I know you are haunting this temple, to steal Jaising' s heart from the Goddess. Aparna Has the Goddess anything to fear from m.e? I fear her. [She goes out. SACRIFICE 115 Enter Jaising and Prince Nakshatea Nakshatra Why have you called me? Raghupati Last night the Goddess told me in a dream, that you shall become king withm a week. Nakshatra Ha, ha, this is news indeed. Raghupati Yes, you shall be King. Nakshatra I cannot beUeve it. Raghupati You doubt my words? Nakshatra I do not want to doubt them. But suppose, by chance, it never comes to pass. 116 SACRIFICE Raghupati No, it shall be true. Nakshatra But, tell me, how can it ever become true? Raghupati The Goddess thirsts for King's blood. Nakshatra King's blood.? Raghupati You must offer it to her before you can be king. Nakshatra I know not where to get it. Raghupati There is King Govinda. — Jaising, keep still. — Do you understand? Kill him in secret. Bring his blood, while warm, to the altar. — Jaising, leave this place, if you cannot remain still, — SACRIFICE 117 Nakshatra But he is my brother, and I love him. Raghupati Your sacrifice will be all the more pre- cious. Nakshatra But, father, I am content to remain as I am. I do not want the kingdom. Raghupati There is no escape for you, because the Goddess commands it. She is thirsting for blood from the King's house. If your brother is to hve, then you must die. Nakshatra Have pity on me, father. Raghupati You shall never be free in life, or in death, until her bidding is done. Nakshatra Advise me, then, how to do it. 118 SACRIFICE Raghupati Wait in silence. I will tell you what to do, when the time comes. And now, go. [Nakshatra goes. Jaising What is it that I heard .^ Merciful Mother, is it your bidding? To ask brother to kill brother.? Master, how could you say that it was Mother's own wish? Raghupati There was no other means but this to serve my Goddess. Jaising Means? Why means? Mother, have you not your own sw^ord to wield with your own hand? Must your wish burrow underground, like a thief, to steal in secret? Oh, the sin! Raghupati What do you know about sin? Jaising What I have learnt from you. SACRIFICE 119 Raghupati Then come and learn your lesson once again from me. Sin has no meaning in reality. To kill is but to kill, it is neither sin nor anything else. Do you not know that the dust of this earth is made of countless killings? Old Time is ever writ- ing the chronicle of the transient life of creatures in letters of blood. Killing is in the wilderness, in the habitations of man, in birds' nests, in insects' holes, in the sea, in the sky; there is killing for life, for sport, for nothing whatever. The world is ceaselessly killing; and the great God- dess Kali, the spirit of ever changing time, is standing with her thirsty tongue hang- ing down from her mouth, with her cup in hand, into which is running the red life-blood of the world, like juice from the crushed cluster of grapes. Jaising Stop, master. Is then love a falsehood and mercy a mockery, and the one thing true, from the beginning of time, the lust for destruction.^ Would it not have de- no SACRIFICE stroyed itself long ago? You are playing with my heart, my master. Look there, she is gazing at me. My blood-thirsty Mother, wilt thou accept my blood? Is it so delicious to thee? Master, did you call me? The Mother, who is thirsting for our love, you accuse of blood-thirstiness! Raghupati Then let the sacrifice be stopped in the temple. Jaising Yes, let it be stopped. — No, no, master, you know what is right and what is wrong. The heart's laws are not the laws of scrip- ture. Eyes cannot see with their own light, — the light must come from the outside. Tell me, father, is it true that the Goddess seeks King's blood? Raghupati Alas, child, have you lost your faith in me? Jaising My world stands upon my faith in you. If the Goddess must have King's blood. SACRIFICE ni let me bring it to her. I will never allow a brother to kill his brother. Raghupati But there can be no evil in carrying out God's wishes. Jaising No, it must be good, and I will earn the merit of it. Raghupati But, my boy, I have reared you from your childhood, and you have grown close to my heart. I can never bear to lose you, by any chance. Jaising I will not let your love for me be soiled with sin. Release Prince Nakshatra from his promise. Raghupati I will think, and decide to-morrow. [He goes. Jaising Deeds are better, however cruel they may be, than the hell of thinking and doubting. You are true, my master, to 122 SACRIFICE kill is no sin, to kill a brother is no sin, to kill a king is no sin. — Where do you go, my brothers? To the fair at Nishipur? There the women are to dance? Oh, this world is pleasant! And the dancing limbs of the girls are beautiful. In what careless merriment the crowds flow through the roads, making the sky ring with their laughter and song. I will follow them. Enters Raghupati Raghupati Jaising. Jaising I do not know you. I drift with the crowd. Why ask me to stop? Go your own way. Raghupati Jaising. Jaising The road is straight before me. With an alms bowl in hand and the beggar girl as my sweetheart I shall walk on. Who says that the world's ways are devious? SACRIFICE US Anyhow we reach the end, — the end where all laws and rules are no more, where the errors and hurts of life are forgotten. What is the use of all these scriptures, and the teacher and his instructions? — My master, my father, what wild words are these of mine? I was living in a dream. There stands the temple, cruel and im- movable as truth. What was your order, my teacher? I have not forgotten it. {Bringing out the knife.) I am sharpening your words in my mind, till they become one with this knife in keenness. Have you any other order to give me? Raghupati My boy, my darling, how can I tell you how deep is my love for you? Jaising No, master, do not tell me of love. Let me think only of duty. Love, like the green grass and the trees and life's music, is only for the surface of the world. It comes and vanishes like a dream. But underneath is duty, like the rude layers 124 SACRIFICE of stone, like a huge load that nothing can move. [They go out. Enter King Govinda and Chandpal Chandpal Sire, I warn you to be careful. Govinda Why? What do you mean? Chandpal I have overheard a conspiracy to take away your life. Govinda Who wants my life? Chandpal I am afraid to tell you, lest the news become to you more deadly than the knife itself. It was Prince Nakshatra, who — Govinda Nakshatra? SACRIFICE U5 Chandpal He has promised to Raghupati to bring your blood to the Goddess. Govinda To the Goddess? Then I cannot blame him. For a man loses his humanity when it concerns his gods. You go to your work and leave me alone. [Chandpal goes out, (Addressing the image.) Accept these flowers, Goddess, and let your creatures live in peace. Mother, those who are weak in this world are so helpless, and those who are strong are so cruel. Greed is pitiless, ignorance blind, and pride takes no heed when it crushes the small under its foot. Mother, do not raise your sword and lick your lips for blood; do not set brother against brother, and woman against man. If it is your desire to strike me by the hand of one I love, then let it be fulfilled. For the sin has to ripen to its ugliest limits, before it can burst and die a hideous death. [Jaising rushes in. 126 SACRIFICE Jaising Tell me, Goddess, dost thou truly want King's blood? Ask it in thine own voice, and thou shalt have it. A voice I want King's blood. Jaising King, say your last prayer, for your time has come. Govinda What makes you say it, Jaising .^^ Jaising Did you not hear what the Goddess said? Govinda It was not the Goddess. I heard the familiar voice of Raghupati. Jaising Drive me not from doubt to doubt. It SACRIFICE ni is all the same, whether the voice comes from the Goddess, or from my master. — [He unsheathes his knife, and then throws it away. Listen to the cry of thy children. Mother. Let there be only flowers for thy offer- ings, — no more blood. They are red even as blood, — these bunches of hybiscus. They have come out of the heart-burst of the earth, pained at the slaughter of her children. Accept this. Thou must accept this. I defy thy anger. Blood thou shalt never have. Redden thine eyes. Raise thy sword. Bring thy furies of destruc- tion. I do not fear thee. King, leave this temple to its Goddess, and go to your men. [GoviNDA goes. Alas, alas, in a moment I gave up all that I had, my master, my Goddess. [Raghupati comes. Raghupati I have heard all. Traitor, you have betrayed your master. Jaising Punish me, father. 128 SACRIFICE Raghupati Wbat punishment will you have? Jaising Punish me with my life. Raghupati No, that is nothing. Take your oath touching the feet of the Goddess. Jaising I touch her feet. Raghupati Say, I will bring kingly blood to the altar of the Goddess, before it is midnight. Jaising I will bring kingly blood to the altar of the Goddess, before it is midnight. [They go out. Enters Gunavati Gunavati 1 failed. I had hoped that, if I remained hard and cold for some days, he would sur- SACRIFICE U9 render. Such faith I had in my power, vain woman that I am. I showed my sullen anger, and remained away from him; but it was fruitless. Woman's anger is like a diamond's glitter; it only shines, but cannot burn. I would it were like thunder, bursting upon the King's house, startling him up from his sleep, and dash- ing his pride to the ground. Enters the boy Druva Gunavati Where are you going? Druva I am called by the King. [Goes out, Gunavati There goes the darling of the King's heart. He has robbed my unborn children of their father's love, usurped their right to the first place in the King's breast. O Mother Kali, your creation is infinite and full of wonders, only send a child to my 130 SACRIFICE arms in merest wliim, a tiny little warm living flesh to fill my lap, and I shall offer you whatever you wish. (Enters Nakshatra.) Prince Nakshatra, why are you so excited? Nakshatra Tell me what you want of me. Gunavati The^thief that steals the crown awaiting you, — remove him. Do you understand? Nakshatra Yes, except who the thief is. Gunavati That boy, Druva. Do you not see how he is growing in the King's lap, till one day he reaches the crown? Nakshatra Yes, I have often thought of it. I have seen my brother putting his crown on the boy's head in play. SACRIFICE 131 Gunavati Playing with the crown is a dangerous game. If you do not remove the player, he will make a game of you. Nakshatra Yes, I like it not. Gunavati Offer him to Kali. Have you not heard that Mother is thirsting for blood. ^^ Nakshatra But, sister, this is not my business. Gunavati Fool, can you feel yourself safe, so long as Mother is not appeased.^ Blood she must have; save your own, if you can. Nakshatra But she wants King's blood. Gunavati Who told you that.? 132 SACRIFICE Nahshatra I know it from one to whom the God- dess herself sends her dreams. Gunavati Then that boy must die for the King. His blood is more precious to your brother than his own, and the King can only be saved by paying the price, which is more than his life. Nahshatra I understand. Gunavati Then lose no time. Run after him. He is not gone far. But remember. Offer him in my name. Nahshatra Yes, I will. Gunavati The Queen's offerings have been turned back from Mother's gate. Pray to her that she may forgive me. [They go out. SACRIFICE 133 Enters Jaising Jaising Goddess, is there any little thing, that yet remains, out of the wreck of thee? If there be but a faintest spark of thy light in the remotest of the stars of evening, answer my cry, though thy voice be the feeblest. Say to me, " Child, here I am." — No, she is nowhere. She is naught. But take pity upon Jaising, O Illusion! Art thou so irredeemably false, that not even my love can send the slightest tremor of life through thy nothingness? O fool, for whom have you upturned your cup of life, emptying it to the last drop? for this unanswering void, — truthless, merciless, and motherless? Enters Aparna Aparna, they drive you away from the temple; yet you come back over and over again. For you are true, and truth cannot be banished. We enshrine falsehood in our temple, with all devotion; yet she is never there. Leave me not, Aparna. Sit here by my side. Why are you so sad. 134 SACRIFICE my darling? Do you miss some god, who is god no longer? But is there any need of God in this little world of ours? Let us be fearlessly godless and come closer to each other. They want our blood. And for this, they have come down to the dust of our earth, leaving their magnif- icence of heaven. For in their heaven there are no men, no creatures, who can suffer. No, my girl, there is no Goddess. Aparna Then leave this temple, and come away with me. Jaising Leave this temple? Yes, I will leave. Alas, Aparna, I must leave. Yet I can- not leave it, before I have paid my last dues to the — . But let that be. Come closer to me, my love. Whisper some- thing to my ears, which will overflow this life with sweetness, flooding death itself. Aparna Words do not flow when the heart is full. SACRIFICE 135 Jaising Then lean your head on my breast. Let the silence of two eternities, life and death, touch each other.— But no more of this. I must go. Aparna Jaising, do not be cruel. Can you not feel what I have suffered? Jaising Am I cruel? Is this your last word to me? Cruel, as that block of stone, whom I called Goddess? Aparna, my beloved, if you were the Goddess, you would know what fire is this that burns my heart. But you are my Goddess. Do you know how I know it? Aparna Tell me. Jaising You bring to me your sacrifice every moment, as a mother does to her child. God must be all sacrifice, pouring out his life in all creation. 136 SACRIFICE Aparna Jaising, come, let us leave this temple and go away together. Jaising Save me, Aparna, have mercy upon me and leave me. I have only one object in my life. Do not usurp its place. [Rushes out Aparna Again and again I have suffered. But my strength is gone. My heart breaks. [She goes out Enter Raghupati and Prince Nakshatra Raghupati Prince, where have you kept the boy.'^ Nakshatra He is in the room where the vessels for worship are kept. He has cried himself to sleep. I think I shall never be able to bear it, when he w^akes up again. SACRIFICE 137 Raghupati Jaising was of the same age when he came to me. And I remember how he cried till he slept at the feet of the God- dess,— the temple lamp dimly shining on his tear-stained child-face. It was a stormy evening like this. NaJcshatra Father, delay not. I wish to finish it all, while he is sleeping. His cry pierces my heart like a knife. Raghupati I will drug him to sleep, if he wakes up. NaJcshatra The King will soon find it out, if you are not quick. For, in the evening, he leaves the care of his kingdom to come to this boy. Raghupati Have more faith in the Goddess. The victim is now in her own hands and it shall never escape. 138 SACRIFICE Nakshatra But Chandpal is so watchful. Raghupati Not more so than our Mother. Nakshatra I thought I saw a shadow pass by. Raghupati The shadow of your own fear. Nakshatra Do we not hear the sound of a cry? Raghupati The sound of your own heart. Shake off your despondency, Prince. Let us drink this wine duly consecrated. So long as the purpose remains in the mind, it looms large and fearful. In action it becomes small. The vapour is dark and diffused. It dissolves into water drops that are small and sparkling. Prince, it is nothing. It takes only a moment, — not more than it does to snuff a candle. SACRIFICE 139 Nakshatra I think we should not be too rash. Leave this work till to-morrow night. Raghupati To-night is as good as to-morrow night, perhaps better. Nakshatra Listen to the sound of footsteps. Raghupati I do not hear it. Nakshatra See there, — the light. Raghupati The King comes. I fear we have delayed too long. King comes with attendants Govinda Make them prisoners. (To Raghupati.) Have you anything to say.^^ 140 SACRIFICE Raghupati Nothing. Govinda Do you admit your crime? Raghupati Crime? Yes, my crime was that, in my weakness, I delayed in carrying out Mother's service. The punishment comes from the Goddess. You are merely her instrument. Govinda According to my law, my soldiers shall escort you to exile, Raghupati, where you shall spend eight years of your life. Raghupati King, I never bent my knees to any mortal in my life. I am a Brahmin. Your caste is lower than mine. Yet, in all humility, I pray to you, give 'me only one day's time. Govinda I grant it. Raghupati [Mockingly.] You are the King of all SACRIFICE 141 kings. Your majesty and mercy are alike immeasurable. Whereas I am a mere worm, hiding in the dust. [He goes out Govinda Nakshatra, admit your guilt. Nakshatra I am guilty. Sire, and I dare not ask for your pardon. Govinda Prince, I know you are tender of heart. Tell me, who beguiled you with evil counsel? Nakshatra I will not take other names, King. My guilt is my own. You have pardoned your foolish brother more than once, and once more he begs to be pardoned. Govinda Nakshatra, leave my feet. The judge is still more bound by his laws than his prisoner. Attendants Sire, remember that he is your brother, and pardon him. 142 SACRIFICE Govinda Let me remember that I am a king. Nakshatra shall remain in exile for eight years, in the house we have built, by the sacred river, outside the limits of Tripura. [Talcing Nakshatra's hands.] The pun- ishment is not yours only, brother, but also mine, — the more so because I cannot share it bodily. [They all go out. Enter Raghupati and Jaising Raghupati My pride wallows in the mire. I have shamed my Brahminhood. I am no longer your master, my child. Yesterday I had the authority to command you. To-day I can only beg your favour. Life's days are mere tinsel, most trifling of God's gifts, and I had to beg for one of those days from the King with bent knees. Let that one day be not in vain. Let its in- famous black brows be red with King's blood before it dies. Why do you not speak, my boy.^^ Though I forsake my place as your master, yet have I not the SACRIFICE 143 right to claim your obedience as your father, — I who am more than a father to you, because father to an orphan? You are still silent, my child? Then let my knees bend to you, who were smaller than my knees when you first came to my arms. Jaising Father, do not torture the heart that is already broken. If the Goddess thirsts for kingly blood, I will bring it to her before to-night. I will pay all my debts, yes, every farthing. Keep ready for my return. I will delay not. [Goes out, [Storm outside.] Ragkupati She is awake at last, the Terrible. Her curses go shrieking through the town. The hungry furies are shaking the crack- ing branches of the world tree with all their might, for the stars to break and drop. My Mother, why didst thou keep thine own people in doubt and dishonour so long? Leave it not for thy servant to 144 SACRIFICE raise thy sword. Let thy mighty arm do its own work! — I hear steps. Enters Aparna Aparna Where is Jaising.^ Raghupati Away evil omen (Aparna goes out) But if Jaising never comes back.'^ No, he will not break his promise. Victory to thee, Great Kali, the giver of all success ! — But if he meet with obstruction .^^ If he be caught and lose his life at the guards' hands? — Victory to thee, watchful God- dess, Mother invincible! Do not allow thy repute to be lost, and thine enemies to laugh at thee. If thy children must lose their pride and faith in their Mother, and bow down their heads in shame before the rebels, who then shall remain in this orphaned world to carry thy banner.^ — I hear his steps. But so soon.^ Is he coming back foiled in his purpose.^ No, that cannot be. Thy miracle needs not SACRIFICE 145 time, O Mistress of all time, terrible with thy necklace of human skulls. [Rushes in Jaising. Jaising, where is the blood? Jaising It is with me. Let go my hands. Let me offer it myself (Eritering the temple.) Must thou have kingly blood. Great Mother, who nourishest the world at thy breast with life.^ — I am of the royal caste, a Kshatriya. My ancestors have sat upon thrones, and there are rulers of men in my mother's line. I have kingly blood in my veins. Take it, and quench thy thirst for ever. [Stabs himself f and falls, Raghupati Jaising! O cruel, ungrateful! You have done the blackest crime. You kill your father! Jaising, forgive me, my darling. Come back to my heart, my heart's one treasure! Let me die in your place. 146 SACRIFICE Enters Aparna Aparna It will madden me. Where is Jaising? Where is he? Raghupati Come, Aparna, come, my child, call him with all your love. Call him back to life. Take him to you, away from me, only let him live. [Aparna enters the temple and swoons. {Beating his forehead on the temple floor.) Give him, give him, give him. — Give him back to me! {Stands up addressing the image.) Look how she stands there, the silly stone, — deaf, dumb, blind, — the whole sorrowing world weeping at her door, — the noblest hearts wrecking themselves at her stony feet. Give me back my Jaising. Oh, it is all in vain. Our bitterest cries wander in emptiness, — the emptiness that we vainly try to fill with these stony images of delusion. Away with them! Away with these our impotent dreams, SACRIFICE 147 that harden into stones, burdening our world. [He throws away the image, and comes out into ihe courtyard. Enters Gunavati Qimavati Victory to thee, great Goddess !— But, where is the Goddess? Raghupati Goddess there is none. Gunavati Bring her back, father. I have brought her my offerings. I have come at last, to appease her anger with my own heart s blood. Let her know that the Queen is true to her promise. Have pity on nie, and bring back the Goddess only for this night. Tell me,— where is she? Raghupati She is nowhere,— neither above, nor below. Gunavati Master, was not the Goddess here in the temple? 148 SACRIFICE Raghupati Goddess? — If there were any true God- dess anywhere in the world, could she bear this thing to usurp her name? Gunavati Do not torture me. Tell me truly. Is there no Goddess? Raghupati No, there is none. Gunavati Then who was here? Raghupati Nothing, nothing. [Aparna comes out from the temple. Aparna Father. Raghupati My sweet child! "Father," — did you say? Do you rebuke me with that name? My son, whom I have killed, has left that one dear call behind him in your sweet voice. SACRIFICE 149 Aparna Father, leave this temple. Let us go away from here. Enters the King Govinda Where is the Goddess? Raghupati The Goddess is nowhere. Govinda But what blood-stream is this? Raghupati King, Jaising, who loved you so dearly, has killed himself. Govinda Killed himself ? Why? Raghupati To kill the falsehood, that sucks the life-blood of man. 150 SACRIFICE Govinda Jaising is great. He has conquered death. My flowers are for him. Gunavati My King. Govinda Yes, my love. Gunavati The Goddess is no more. Govinda ■ She has burst her cruel prison of stone, and come back to woman's heart. Aparna Father, come away. Raghupati Come, child. Come, Mother. I have found thee. Thou art the last gift of Jaising. THE KING AND THE QUEEN TO MRS. ARTHUR SEYMOUR THE KING AND THE QUEEN TJie Palace Garden. King Vikram and Queen Sumitra Vikram Why have you delayed in coming to me for so long, my love? Sumitra Do you not know, my King, that I am utterly yours, wherever I am? It was your Louse, and its service, that kept me away from your presence, but not from you. Vikram Leave the house, and its service, alone. My heart cannot spare you for my world, I am jealous of its claims. Sumitra No, King, I have my place in your heart, as your beloved, and in your world, as your Queen. 153 154 SACRIFICE Vikram Alas, my darling, where have vanished those days of unalloyed joy, when we first met in love; when our world awoke not, — only the flush of the early dawn of our union broke through our hearts in over- flowing silence? You had sweet shy- ness in your eyelids, like a dew drop on the tip of a flower-petal, and the smile flick- ered on your lips like a timid evening lamp in the breeze. I remember the eager embrace of your love, when the morning broke and we had to part, and your un- willing steps, heavy with languor, that took you away from me. Where were the house, and its service, and the cares of your world .^ Sumitra But then we were scarcely more than a boy and a girl; and to-day we are the King and the Queen. Vikram The King and the Queen? Mere names. We are more than that; we are lovers. THE KING AND QUEEN 155 Sumitra You are my King, my husband, and I am content to follow your steps. Do not shame me by putting me before your kingship. Vikram Do you not want my love? Sumitra Love me truly by not making your love extravagant; for truth can afford to be simple. Vilcram I do not understand woman's heart. Sumitra King, if you thriftlessly squander your all upon me, then I shall be deprived. Vikram No more vain words. Queen. The birds' nests are silent with love. Let lips keep guard upon lips, and allow not words to clamour. 156 SACRIFICE Enters Attendant Attendant The minister begs audience, to discuss a grave matter of state. Vikram No, not now. [Attendant goes. Sumitra Sire, ask him to come. Vikram The state and its matter can wait. But sweet leisure comes rarely. It is frail, like a flower. Respite from duty is a part of duty. Sumitra Sire, I beg of you, attend to your work. Vikram Again, cruel woman. Do you imagine that I always follow you to win your un- willing favour, drop by drop.^ I leave you and go. [He goes. THE KING AND QUEEN 157 Enter Devadatta, the King's Brahmin friend. Sumitra Tell me, sir, what is that noise outside the gate? Devadatta That noise? Command me, and with the help of soldiers I shall drive away that noise, ragged and hungry. Sumitra Do not mock me. Tell me what has happened. Devadatta Nothing. It is merely hunger, — the vulgar hunger of poverty. The famished horde of barbarians is rudely clamouring, making the drowsy cuckoos in your royal garden start up in fear. Sumitra Tell me, father, who are hungry? Devadatta It is their ill-fate. The King's poor subjects have been practising long to 158 SACRIFICE live upon half a meal a day, but they have not yet become experts in complete starvation. It is amazing. Sumitra But, father, the land is smiling with ripe corn. Why should the King's subjects die of hunger.? Devadatta The corn is his, whose is the land, — it is not for the poor. They, like intruding dogs at the King's feast, crouch in the corner for their crumbs, or kicks. Sumitra Does it mean, that there is no King in this lamd? Devadatta Not one, but hundreds. Sumitra Are not the King's officers watchful.'* Devadatta Who can blame your officers? They came penniless from the alien land. Is it THE KING AND QUEEN 159 to bless the King's subjects with their empty hands? Sumitra From the ahen land? Are they my relatives? Devadatta Yes, Queen. Sumitra What about Jaisen? Devadatta He rules the province of Singarh with such scrupulous care, that all the rubbish, in the shape of food and raiment, has been cleared away; only the skin and bones remain. Sumitra And Shila? Devadatta He keeps his eyes upon the trade; he relieves all merchants of their excessive profits, taking the burden upon his own broad shoulders. 160 SACRIFICE Sumitra And Ajit? Devadatta He lives in Vijaykote. He smiles sweetly, strokes the land on its back with his caressing hand, and whatever comes to his touch gathers with care. Sumitra What shame is this. I must remove this refuse from my father's land and save my people. Leave me now, the King comes. (Enters the King.) I am the mother of my people. I cannot bear their cry. Save them, King. Vikram What do you want me to do? Sumitra Turn those out from your kingdom, who are oppressing the land. Vikram Do you know who they are? THE KING AND QUEEN 161 Sumitra Yes, I know. Vikram They are your own cousins. Sumitra They are not a whit more my own than my people. They are robbers, who, under the cover of your throne, seek for their victims. Vikram They are Jaisen, Shila, A.jit. Sumitra My country must be rid of them.' Vikram They will not move without fight. Sumitra Then fight them, Sire. Vikram Fight? But let me conquer you first, and then I shall have time to conquer my enemies. 162 SACRIFICE Sumitra Allow me. King, as your Queen. I will save your subjects myself. [Goes. Vikram This is how you make my heart dis- traught. You sit alone upon your peak of greatness, where I do not reach you. You go to attend your own God, and I go seeking you in vain. Enters Devadatta Devadatta Where is the Queen, Sire? Why are you alone .f^ Vikram Brahmin, this is all your conspiracy. You come here to talk of the state news to the Queen .^ Devadatta The state is shouting its own news loud enough to reach the Queen's ears. It has come to that pass, when it takes no heed lest your rest be broken. Do not be THE KING AND QUEEN 163 afraid of me, King. I have come to ask my Brahmin's dues from the Queen. For my wife is out of humour, her larder is empty, and in the house there are a number of empty stomachs. [He goes. Vikram I wish all happiness to my people. Why should there be suffering, and injustice.'^ Why should the strong cast his vulture's eyes upon the poor man's comforts, piti- fully small .^ (Enters Minister.) Banish all the foreign robbers from my kingdom, this moment. I must not hear the cry of the oppressed for a day longer. Minister But, King, the evil that has been slowly growing for long, you cannot uproot in a day. Vikram Strike at its root with vigour, and fell it with your axe in a day, — the tree that has taken a hundred years to grow. 164 SACRIFICE Minister But we want arms and soldiers. Vikram Where is my general? Minister He himself is a foreigner. Vihram Then invite the hungry people. Open my treasure; stop this cry with food; send them away with money, — And if they want to have my kingdom, let them do so in peace, and be happy. [He goes. Enter Sumitra and Devadatta Minister Queen, my humble salutation to you. Queen We cannot allow misery to go un- checked in our land. Minister What are your commands, Queen .^ THE KING AND QUEEN 165 Queen Call immediately, in my name, all our chiefs who are foreigners. Minister I have done so already. I have taken upon myself to invite them into the capi- tal, in the King's name, without asking for his sanction, for fear of refusal. Queen When did you send your messengers .^^ 3Iinister It will soon be a month hence. I am expecting their answers every moment. But I am afraid they will not respond. Queen Not respond to the King's call? Devadatta The King has become a piece of wild rumour, which they can believe, or not, as they like. 166 SACRIFICE Queen Keep your soldiers ready, Minister, for these people. They shall have to answer to me, as my relatives. [The Minister goes. Devadatta Queen, they will not come. Queen Then the King shall fight them. Devadatta The King will not fight. Queen Then I will. Devadatta You! Queen I will go to my brother Kumarsen, Kashmir's King, and with his help fight these rebels, who are a disgrace to Kashmir. Father, help me to escape from this king- dom, and do your duty, if things come to the worst. THE KING AND QUEEN 167 Devadatta I salute thee, Mother of the people. [He goes. Enters Vikeam Vihram Why do you go away, Queen? My hungry desire is revealed to you in its naked poverty. Do you therefore go away from me in derision? Sumitra I feel shamed to share alone your heart, which is for all men. Vikram Is it absolutely true, Queen, that you stand on your giddy height, and I grovel in the dust? No. I know my power. There is an unconquerable force in my nature, which I have turned into love for you. Sumitra Hate me, King, hate me. Forget me. I shall bear it bravely,-but do not wreck your manhood against a woman s charms. 168 SACRIFICE Vikram So much love, yet such neglect? Your very indifference, like a cruel knife, cuts into my bosom, laying bare the warm bleeding love, — and then, to fling it into the dust! Sumitra 1 throw myself at your feet, my beloved. Have you not forgiven your Queen, again and again, for wrongs done? Then why is this wrath, Sire, when I am blameless? King Rise up, my love. Come to my heart. Shut my life from all else for a moment, with your encircling arms, rounding it into a world completely your own. A voice from outside Queen. Sumitra It is Devadatta. — Yes, father, what is the message? THE KING AND QUEEN 169 Enters Devadatta Devadatta They have defied the King's call, — the foreign governors of the provinces, — and they are preparing for rebellion. Sumitra Do you hear. King? Vikram Brahmin, the palace garden is not the council-house. Devadatta Sire, we rarely meet our King in the council-house, because it is not the palace garden. Queen The miserable dogs, grown fat upon the King's table sweepings, dare dream of barking against their master.? King, is it time for debating in the council chamber.'^ Is not the course clear before you.^^ Go with your soldiers and crush these mis- creants. 170 SACRIFICE Vikram But our general himself is a foreigner. Queen Go yourself. Vikram Am I your misfortune, Queen, — a bad dream, a thorn in your flesh .^ No, I will never move a step from here. I will offer them terms of peace. Who is it that has caused this mischief.^ The Brahmin and the woman conspired to wake up the sleep- ing snake from its hole. Those who are too feeble to protect themselves are the most thoughtless in causing disasters to others. Queen the unfortunate land, and the un- fortunate woman who is the Queen of this land. Vikram Where are you going .^ Queen 1 am going to leave you. THE KING AND QUEEN 171 Vikram Leave me? Queen Yes. I am going to fight the rebels. Vikram Woman, you mock me. Queen I take my farewell. King You dare not leave me. Queen I dare not stay by your side, when I weaken you. King Go, proud woman. I will never ask you to turn back, — but claim no help from me. [Queen goes, Devadatta King, you allow her to go alone.? 172 SACRIFICE King She is not going. I do not believe her words. Devadatta I think she is in earnest. King It is her woman's wiles. She threatens me, while she wants to spur me into action; and I despise her methods. She must not think that she can play with my love. She shall regret it. O my friend, must I learn my lesson at last, that love is not for the King, — and learn it from that woman, whom I love like my doom? De- vadatta, you have grown with me from infancy, — can you not forget, for a mo- ment, that I am a king, and feel that I have a man's heart that knows pain? Devadatta My heart is yours, my friend, which is not only ready to receive your love, but* your anger. THE KING AND QUEEN 173 King But why do you invite the snake into my nest? Devadatta Your house was on fire, — I merely brought the news, and wakened you up. Am I to blame for that? King What is the use of waking? When all are mere dreams, let me choose my own little dream, if I can, and then die. Fifty years hence, who will remember the joys and sorrows of this moment? Go, Deva- datta, leave me to my kingly loneliness of pain. Enters a Courtier who is a foreigner Courtier We ask justice from your hands, King, — we, who came to this land with the Queen. King Justice for what? 174 SACRIFICE Courtier It has come to our ears, that false accusa- tions against us are brought before you, for no other cause than that we are for- eigners. King Who knows, if they are not true? But so long as I trust you, can you not remain silent? Have I ever insulted you with the least suspicion — the suspicions that are bred like maggots in the rotten hearts of cowards? Treason I do not fear. I can crush it under my feet. But I fear to nourish littleness in my own mind. — You can leave me now. [The courtier goes. Enter Minister and Devadatta Minister Sire, the Queen has left the palace, rid- ing on her horse. King What do you say? Left my palace? THE KING AND QUEEN 175 Minister Yes, King. King Why did you not stop her? Minister She left in secret. King Who brought you the news? Minister The priest. He saw her riding before the palace temple. King Send for him. Minister But Sire, she cannot be far. She has only just left. You can yet bring her back. King Bringing her back is not important. The great fact is, that she left me.— Left me! And all the King's soldiers arxd 176 SACRIFICE forts, and prisons and iron chains, could not keep fast this little heart of a woman. Minister Alas, King. Calumny, like a flood- burst, when the dyke is broken, will rush in from all sides. King Calumny! Let the people's tongues rot with their own poison. Devadatta In the days of eclipse, men dare look at the midday sun through their broken pieces of glass, blackened with soot. Great Queen, your name will be soiled, tossed from mouth to mouth, but your light will ever shine far above all soiling. King Bring the priest to me. (Minister goes.) I can yet go to seek her, and bring her back. But is this my eternal task.? That she should always avoid me, and I should ever run after the fugitive heart.? THE KING AND QUEEN 177 Take your flight, woman, day and night, homeless, loveless, without rest and peace. {Enters Priest.) Go, go, I have heard enough, I do not want to know more. (The priest is about to go,) Come back.— Tell me, did she come down to the temple to pray, with tears in her eyes? Priest No, Sire. Only, for a moment, she checked her horse and turned her face to the temple, bowing her head low,— then rode away fast as lightning. I cannot say, if she had tears in her eyes. The light from the temple was dim. King Tears in her eyes? You could not even imagine such enormity? Enough. You may go. {The Priest goes.) My God, you know that all the wrong that I have done to her, was that I loved her. I was wiUing to lose my heaven and my kingdom for her love. But they have not betrayed me, only she has. 178 SACRIFICE Enters Minister Minister Sire, I have sent messengers on horse- back in pursuit of her. King Call them back. The dream has fled away. Where can your messengers find it.^ Get ready my army. I will go to war myself, and crush the rebellion. Minister As you command. [Goes away, Vikram Devadatta, why do you sit silent and sad.f^ The thief has fled, leaving the booty behind, and now I pick up my freedom. This is a moment of rejoicing to m.e. False, false friend, false are my words. Cruel pain pierces my heart. Devadatta You shall have no time for pain, or for love, now, — ^your life will become one THE KING AND QUEEN 179 stream of purpose, and carry your kingly heart to its great conquest. Vikram But I am not yet completely freed in my heart. I still believe she will soon come back to me, when she finds that the world is not her lover, and that man's heart is the only world for a woman. She will know what she has spurned, when she misses it; and my time will come when, her pride gone, she comes back, and jealously begins to woo me. Enters Attendant Attendant A letter from the Queen. [Gives the letter, and goes. King She relents already. {Reads the letter.) Only this. Just two lines, to say that she is going to her brother in Kashmir, to ask him to help her to quell the rebellion in my kingdom. This is insult! Help from Kashmir! 180 SACRIFICE Devadatta Lose no time to forestall her, — and let that be your revenge. King My revenge? You shall know it. THE KING AND QUEEN 181 ACT n Tent in Kashmir ViKRAM and the General General Pardon me, King, if I dare offer you advice in the interest of your kingdom. Vihram Speak to me. General The rebelHon in our land has been quelled. The rebels themselves are jBght- ing on your side. Why waste our strength and time in Kashmir, when your presence in your own capital is so urgently needed? Vihram The fight here is not over yet. 182 SACRIFICE General But Kumarsen, tlie Queen's brother, is already punished for his sister's temerity. His army is routed, he is hiding for his Hfe. His uncle, Chandrasen, is only too eager to be seated upon the vacant throne. Make him the king, and leave this unfor- tunate country to peace. Vikram It is not for punishment, that I stay here; it is for fight. The fight has become like a picture to a painter. I must add bold lines, blend strong colours, and per- fect it every day. My mind grows more and more immersed in it, as it blossoms into forms; and I leave it with a sigh, when it is finished. The destruction is merely its materials, out of which it takes its shape. It is a creation. It is beautiful, as red bunches of palash, that break out like a drunken fury, yet every one of its flowers delicately perfect. General But, Sire, this cannot go on for ever. You have other duties. The minister has THE KING AND QUEEN 183 been sending me message after message, entreating me to help you to see how this war is ruining your country. Vikram I cannot see anything else in the world but what is growing under my masterly hands. Oh, the music of swords. Oh, the great battles, that clasp your breast tight like hard embraces of love. Go, General, you have other works to do, — your ad- vices flash out best on the points of your swords. (General goes.) This is de- liverance. The bondage has fled of it- self, leaving the prisoner free. Revenge is stronger than the thin wine of love. Revenge is freedom, — freedom from the coils of cloying sweetness. Enters General General I can espy a carriage coming towards our tent, perhaps bringing an envoy of peace. It has no escort of armed soldiers. 184 SACRIFICE King Peace must follow the war. The time for it has not yet come. General Let us hear the messenger first, and then, — King And then continue the war. Enters a Soldier Soldier The Queen has come asking for your audience. Vihram What do you say.? Soldier The Queen has come. Vikrarrb Which Queen.'^ Soldier Our Queen, Sumitra. THE KING AND QUEEN 185 Vikram Go, General, see who has come. [The General and the Soldier go. King This is the third time that she has come, vainly attempting to coax me away, since I have carried war into Kashmir. But these are no dreams — these battles. To wake up suddenly, and then find again the same palace gardens, the flowers, the Queen, the long days made of sighs and small favours. No, a thousand times, no. She has come to make me captive, to take me as her trophy from the war-field into her palace hall. She may as well try to capture the thunderstorms. Enters General General Yes, Sire, it is our own Queen, who wants to see you. It breaks my heart when I cannot allow her to come freely into your presence. 186 SACRIFICE King This is neitlier the time, nor the place, to see a woman. General But, Sire. King No, no. Tell my guards to keep a strict watch at my tent door, — not for enemies, but for women. [General goes. Enters Shankar Shankar I am Shankar, — King Kumarsen's serv- ant. You have kept me captive in your tent. King Yes, I know you. Shankar Your Queen waits outside your tent. King She will have to wait for me farther away. THE KING AND QUEEN 187 Shankar It makes me blush to say, that she has come humbly to ask your pardon; or, if that is impossible, to accept her punish- ment from your hand. For she owns that she alone was to blame, — and she asks you, in the name of all that is sacred, to spare her brother's country and her brother. King But you must know, old man, it is war, — and this war is with her brother, and not herself. I have no time to discuss the rights and wrongs of the question with a woman. But, being a man, you ought to know that when once a war is started, rightly or w '>ngly, it is our man's pride that must ca ±y it on to the end. Shankar But do you know. Sire, you are carry- ing on this war with a woman, and she is your Queen. Our Ejng is merely espous- ing her cause, being her brother. I ask you, is it king-like, or man-like, to mag- 188 SACRIFICE nify a domestic quarrel into a war, carrying it from country to country? King I warn you, old man, your tongue is becoming dangerous. You may tell the Queen, in my name, that when her brother, Kumarsen, owns his defeat and surrenders himself into our hands, the question of pardoning will then be discussed. Shankar That is as impossible as for the morn- ing sun to kiss the dust of the western horizon. My King will never surrender himself alive into your hands, and his sister will never suffer it. King Then the war must continue. But do you not think that bravery ceases to be bravery at a certain point, and becomes mere fool-hardiness? Your King can never escape me. I have surrounded him on all sides, and he knows it. THE KING AND QUEEN 189 Shankar Yes, he knows it and also knows that there is a great gap. King What do you mean? Shankar I mean death, — the triumphal gate through which he will escape you, if I know him right. And there waits his re- venge. [He goes. Enters Attendant Sire, Chandrasen, and his wife Revati, Kumarsen's uncle and aunt, have come to see you. King Ask them in. Enter Chandrasen and Revati King My obeisance to you both. Chandrasen May you live long. 190 SACRIFICE Revati May you be victorious. Chandrasen What punishment have you decided for him? King If he surrenders, I shall pardon him. Revati Only this, and nothing more? If tame pardon comes at the end, then why is there such preparation? Kings are not overgrown children, and war is no mere child's play. Vikram To rob was not my purpose, but to restore my honour. The head that bears the crown cannot bear insult. Chandrasen My son, forgive him. For he is neither mature in age, nor in wisdom. You may deprive him of his right to the throne, or banish him, but spare him his life. THE KING AND QUEEN 191 King I never wished to take his life. Revati Then why such an army and arms? You kill the soldiers, who have done you no harm, and spare him who is guilty? Vikram I do not understand you. Chandrasen It is nothing. She is angry with Kumar- sen for having brought our country into trouble, and for giving you just cause for anger, who are so nearly related to us. Vikram Justice will be meted out to him, when he is captured. Revati I have come to ask you never to suspect that we are hiding him. It is the people. Burn their crops and their villages, — drive them with hunger, and then they will bring him out. 192 SACRIFICE Chandrasen Gently, wife, gently. Come to the palace, son, the reception of Kashmir awaits you there. King You go there now, and I shall follow you. {They go out.) Oh, the red flame of hell-fire. The greed and hatred in a woman's heart. Did I catch a glimpse of my own face in her face, I wonder .^^ Are there lines like those on my forehead, the burnt tracks made by a hidden fire? Have my lips grown as thin and curved at both ends as hers, like some murderer's knife .f^ No, my passion is for war, — it is neither for greed, nor for cruelty; its fire is like love's fire, that knows no restraint, that counts no cost, that burns itself, and all that it touches, either into a flame, or to ashes. Enters Attendant Attendant The Brahmin, Devadatta, has come, awaiting your pleasure. THE KING AND QUEEN 193 King Devadatta has come? Bring him in, — No, no, stop. Let me think, — I know him. He has come to turn me back from the battle-field. Brahmin, you under- mined the river banks, and now, when the water overflows, you piously pray that it may irrigate your fields, and then tamely go back. Will it not wash away your houses, and ruin the country.^ The joy of the terrible is blind, — its term of life is short, and it must gather its plunder in fearful haste, like a mad elephant up- rooting the lotus from the pond. Wise councils will come, in their turn, when the great force is spent, — ^No, I must not see the Brahmin. Enters Amaru, the chieftain of Trichiir hills Amaru Sire, I have come at your bidding, and I own you as my King. King You are the chief of this place? 194 SACRIFICE Amaru Yes. I am the chief of Trichur. You are the Kjng of many kings, and I am your servant. I have a daughter, whose name is Ila. She is young and comely. Do not think me vain, when I say that she is worthy to be your spouse. She is wait- ing outside. Permit me, King, and I shall send her to you as the best greeting of this land of flowers. [He goes out. Enters Ila with her Attendant King Ah! She comes, as a surprise of dawn, when the moment before it seemed like a dark night. Come, maiden, you have made the battle-field forget itself. Kashmir has shot her best arrow, at last, to pierce the heart of the war-god. You make me feel that my eyes had been wandering among the wilderness of things, to find at last their fulfilment. But why do you stand so silent, with your eyes on the ground .f^ I can almost see a trembling of pain in your limbs, whose intensity makes it invisible. THE KING AND QUEEN 195 Ila {Kneeling.) I have heard that you are a great King. Be pleased to grant me my prayer. King Rise up, fair maiden. This earth is not worthy to be touched by your feet. Why do you kneel in the dust? There is noth- ing that I cannot grant you. Ila My father has given me to you. I beg myself back from your hands. You have wealth untold, and territories unlimited, — go and leave me behind in the dust; there is nothing that you can want. King Is there, indeed, nothing that I can want? How shall I show you my heart? Where is its wealth? Where are its terri- tories? It is empty. Had I no kingdom, but only you — 196 SACRIFICE Ila Then first take my life, — as you take that of the wild deer of the forest, pierc- ing her heart with your arrows, — King But why, child, — why such contempt for me? Am I so utterly unworthy of you? I have won kingdoms with the might of my arms. Can I not hope to beg your heart for me? Ila But my heart is not mine. I have given it to one who left me months ago, promis- ing to come back and meet me in the shade of our ancient forest. Days pass, and I wait, and the silence of the forest grows wistful. If he find me not, when he comes back! If he go away for ever, and the forest shadows keep their ancient watch for the love-meeting that remains eter- nally unfulfilled! King, do not take me away, — leave me for him, who has left me, to find me again. THE KING AND QUEEN 197 Vikram What a fortunate man is he. But I warn you, girl, gods are jealous of our love. Listen to my secret. There was a time when I despised the whole world, and only loved. I woke up from my dream, and found that the world was there, — only my love burst as a bubble. What is his name, for whom you wait? Ila He is Kashmir's King. His name is Kumarsen. Kumarsen! Vikram Ila Do you know him.^* He is known to all. Kashmir has given its heart to him. Vikram Kumarsen? Kashmir's King? Ila Yes. He must be your friend. 198 SACRIFICE Vikram But do you not know, that the sun of his fortune has set? Give up all hope of him. He is like a hunted animal, running and hiding from one hole to another. The poorest beggar in these hills is happier than he. Ila I hardly understand you, King. Vikram You, women, sit in the seclusion of your hearts, and only love. You do not know how the roaring torrent of the world passes by, and we, men, are carried away in its waves in all directions. With your sad, big eyes, filled with tears, you sit and watch, clinging to flimsy hope. But learn to despair, my child. Ila Tell me the truth. King. Do not de- ceive me. I am so very little and so trivial. But I am all his own. Where, — in what homeless wilds, — is my lover THE KING AND QUEEN 199 roaming? I will go to seek him, — I, who never have been out of my house. Show me the way, — Vikram His enemy's soldiers are after him, — he is doomed. Ila But are you not his friend .^^ Will you not save him.^^ A king is in danger, and will you suffer it as a King .5^ Are you not honour-bound to succour him? I know that all the world loved him. But where are they, in his time of misfortune? Sire, you are great in power, but what is your power for, if you do not help the great? Can you keep yourself aloof? Then show me the way, — I will offer my life for him, — the one, weak woman. Vikram Love him, love him with all you have — Love him, who is the King of your precious heart. I have lost my love's heaven my- self, — but let me have the happiness to 200 SACRIFICE make you happy. I will not covet your love. — ^The withered branch cannot hope to blossom with borrowed flowers. Trust me. I am your friend. I will bring him to you. Ila Noble King. I owe you my life and my heaven of happiness. Vikram Go, and be ready with your bridal dress. I will change the tune of my music. (Ila goes.) This war is growing tiresome. But peace is insipid. Homeless fugitive, you are more fortunate than I am. Woman's love, like heaven's watchful eyes, follows you wherever you go in this world, mak- ing your defeat a triumph and misfortune splendid, like sunset clouds. Enters Devadatta Devadatta Save me from my pursuers. King Who are they.^ THE KING AND QUEEN 201 Devadatta They are your guards, King. They kept me under strict watch for this ever- lasting half-hour. I talked to them of art and letters; they were amused. They thought I was playing the fool to please them. Then I began to recite to them the best lyrics of Kalidas, — and it soothed this pair of yokels to sleep. In perfect dis- gust, I left their tent to come to you. King These guards should be punished for their want of taste in going off to sleep when the prisoner recited Kalidas. Devadatta We shall think of the punishment later on. In the meanwhile, we must leave this miserable war and go back home. Once I used to think that only they died of love's separation, who were the favoured of fortune, delicately nurtured. But since I left home to come here, I have dis- covered that even a poor Brahmin is not too small to fall a victim to angered love. ^02 SACRIFICE Vikram Love and death are not too careful in their choice of victims. They are im- partial. Yes, friend, let us go back home. Only I have one thing to do, before I leave this place. Try to find out, from the chief of Trichur, Kumarsen's hiding-place. Tell him, when you find him, that I am no longer his enemy. And, friend, if some- body else is there with him, — if you meet her, — Devadatta Yes, yes, I know. She is ever in our thoughts, yet she is beyond our words. She, who is noble, her sorrow has to be great. Vikram Friend, you have come to me, like the first sudden breeze of spring. Now my flowers will follow, with all the memories of the past happy years. [Devadatta goes. THE KING AND QUEEN 203 Enters Chandrasen Vikram I have glad tidings for you. I have pardoned Kumarsen. Chandrasen You may have pardoned him, — but now that I represent Kashmir, he must await his country's judgment at my hands. He shall have his punishment from me. Vikram What punishment.^ Chandrasen He shall be deprived of his throne. Vikram Impossible. His throne I will restore to him. Chandrasen What right have you in Kashmir's throne? 204 SACRIFICE Vikram The right of the victorious. This throne is now mine, and I will give it to him. Chandrasen You give it to him! Do I not know proud Kumarsen, from his infancy? Do you think he will accept his father's throne as a gift from you? He can bear your vengeance, but not your generosity. Enters a Messenger Messenger The news has reached us that Kumarsen is coming in a closed carriage to surrender himself. [Goes out. Chandrasen Incredible! The lion comes to beg his chains! Is life so precious? Vikram But why does he come in a closed car- riage? Chandrasen How can he show himself? The eyes of the crowd in the streets will pierce THE KING AND QUEEN «05 him, like arrows, to the quick. Ejng, put out the lamp, when he comes, receive him in darkness. Do not let him suffer the insult of the light. Enters Devadatta Devadatta I hear that the King, Kumarsen, is coming to see you of his own will. Vikram I will receive him with solemn rituals, — with you as our priest. Ask my general to employ his soldiers to make preparation for a wedding festival. Enter the Brahmin Elders All Victory be to you. First Elder We hear that you have invited our King, to restore him to his throne, — Therefore we have come to bless you for 206 SACRIFICE Enters Shankar the joy that you have given to Kashmir. [TJiey bless him, and the King bows to them. The Brahmins go out. Shankar (To Chandrasen.) Sire, is it true that Kumarsen is coming to surrender himself to his enemies? Chandrasen Yes, it is true. Shankar Worse than a thousand hes. O my be- loved King, I am your old servant, I have suffered pain that only God knows, yet never complained. But how can I bear this? That you should travel through all the roads of Kashmir, to enter your cage of prison? Why did not your servant die before this day? Enters a Soldier Soldier The carriage is at the door. THE KING AND QUEEN 207 King Have they no instruments at hand, — flutes and drums? Let them strike a glad tune. {Coming near the door,) I welcome you, my kingly friend, with all my heart. Enters Sumitra, with a covered tray in her hands, Vikram Sumitra. My Queen! Sumitra King Vikram, day and night you sought him in hills and forests, spreading devas- tation, neglecting your people and your honour, and to-day he sends through me to you his coveted head, — the head upon which death sits even more majestic than his crown. Vikram My Queen. Sumitra Sire, no longer your Queen; for merciful death has claimed me. [Falls and dies. 208 SACRIFICE Shankar My King, my Master, my darling boy, you have done well. You have come to your eternal throne. God has allowed me to live for so long to witness this glory. And now, my days are done, and your servant will follow you. Enters IiiA, dressed in a bridal dress Ila King, I hear the bridal music. Where is my lover? I am ready. Printed in the United States of America *HE foUowing pages contain advertisements of MacmHlan books by the same author THE WORKS OF SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORB Personality Preparing An interesting series of lectures among which are "What is Art? " "Meditation," "My School," "The Second Birth" and "The World of Personality." The Cycle of Spring Preparing Tagore represents a rare development of dramatic genius, one peculiarly Indian in character. In his plays there is little striving after ordinary stage effects, no bid for a curtain, no holding up of the moment of suspense, in order to force a sensation with which we are so familiar on our American stage. He attains a naturalness of style, a simpUcity of mode, a fluidity of movement, which is con- genially influenced by the musical affinity of his themes and the leisurely drama of the open air and the courtyard. Nationalism Preparing A series of lectures consisting of "Nationalism in the West," "Na- tionalism in Japan," "NationaUsm in India." THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York THE WORKS OF SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE Stray Birds Clo^k, i2mo, $r.jo Frontispiece in color and decorations by WiLLY Pogany. 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THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York THE WORKS OF SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE THE NEW BOLPUR EDITION OF **The Standard Edition of Tagore's Works'* £ac^ volume in the Bolpur Edition, cloth, $r.jo ; leather, $2.00 This beautiful new edition, named after Tagore's famous school at Bol- pur, India, is a fitting celebration of his recent visit to America. There are ten volumes in the Bolpur Edition, representing Tagore's previously pub- lished poems, plays and essays, and his two new books just issued, " Fruit Gathering," and " The Hungry Stones, and Other Stories." The paper, printing and general appearance of the volumes are unusual, carrying out the intention of the publishers to make these books the stand- ard editions of this distinguished poet's works. A special design has been made for the covers, the end papers and title pages are in colors, and each volume contains a photogravure frontispiece, one of these from a portrait of Tagore taken during his recent visit to Japan. SIR RABINDRANATH TAGORE'S WORKS (Com^tete in the Bolpur Edition) FRUIT GATHERING. (Just published.) A sequel to the famous Gitanjali. THE HUNGRY STONES, AND OTHER STORIES. (Just published.) CHITRA: A Play in One Act. THE CRESCENT MOON : Child Poems. THE GARDENER: Love Poems. GITANJALI : Religious Poems. THE KING OF THE DARK CHAMBER. A Play. SONGS OF KABIR. SADHANA : The Realization of Life. THE POST OFFICE : A Play. THE MACMILLAN COMPANY Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: July 2009 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724)779-2111