THE WATERFALL(play)
Rabindranth Tagore
ACT I
Scene. A mountainous country, with a road leading to the temple of Bhairava. The scene remains the same throughout the play.
In the background is represented the upper framework of a big iron machine; opposite to this is the spire of the Bhairava temple, with its trident.
Ranajit, the king of Uttarakut, has his royal tent in the mango grove by the side of the road. He is resting there on the way to celebrate the evening festival, on the dark night of the moon. After twenty-five years of strenuous effort, his royal engineer, Bibhuti, has succeeded in building up an embankment across the waterfall called Muktadhara.
The inhabitants of Uttarakut are seen visiting the temple with their offerings and preparing to hold in the temple court-yard the festival, which is to celebrate the achievement of the royal engineer, Bibhuti.
The temple devotees of Bhairava are in the foreground. They are seen making a long circuit in religious procession round the temple. As they sing the praises of the god Bhairava, some are swinging their censers, some are beating the gongs, some are blowing the conch shells.
[The DEVOTEES sing, in procession,]
Victory to Him, the Terrible,
The Lord of Destruction,
The uttermost Peace,
The Breaker of fetters,
Who carries us beyond all conflicts,
The Terrible, the Terrible!
(They go in.)
{A STRANGER comes with his offerings of worship and meets
a CITIZEN of Uttarakut.}
STRANGER।
What's that there put up against the sky? It is frightful!
CITIZEN।
Don't you know? You're a stranger, I see,It's the Machine.
STRANGER।
Machine! What Machine?
CITIZEN।
The Royal Engineer, Bibhuti, has been working at it for the last twenty-five years. It's just been finished. A festival is now being held in honour of the occasion.
STRANGER।
What's the object of the Machine?
CITIZEN।
It has bound up the waterfall of Muktadhara.
STRANGER।
What a monster! It looks like a dragon's skull with its fleshless jaws hanging down! The constant sight of it would make the life within you withered and dead.
CITIZEN।
The life within us has got a thick hide to protect it! You needn't have any fear for us!
STRANGER।
All the same, this isn't a thing to put up nakedly before the sun and stars. Can't you see how it seems to irritate the whole sky by its obtrusion?
YOU ARE READING
Tagore
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