The Purpose by T.P. Kailasam

Introduction

Here is my blog about the activity given by Vaidehi Mam for "The purpose" by T.P. Kailasam. 

To create literature is an "ART", literary people have amazing qualities to describe the same event in thousands of ways. We have so many works in which the main idea taken from History, myth or Epic or religious events and retelling of these stories by writers in different eras is different. One event which is true and acceptable in that particular era seems to be useless or senseless in contemporary era and which is telling in new form with new themes and ideas. We have some examples like…

• Myth of Oedipus is retelling in different way by Sophocles
• "Sairandhri" by Vinod Joshi

In the same manner, "The Purpose" by T.P. kailasm(Thanjavur Paramasiva Kailasam 1884-1946) is a retelling of the event of Mahabharata taken from Adi Parva. Revolve around the characters of…

• Arjun (Son of King)
• Eklavya (Nishdha boy)
• Dronacharya (Teacher)

The story divided into Two acts presents the post colonial thinking. Where Eklavya comes from a lower class family still his purpose is Nobler than Arjun while in the character of Arjun and Dronacharya we can see the deconstruction of the myth of Mahabharata. Class descimination and its influence on Society like class conflict and hierarchy is shown through the play. The play raise questions that

• How lower class people are treated?
• What is their identity in this world?
• Majotarian and Minorities
• Question about their Existence

Question 1 Compare and Contrast Arjun and Eklavya's Character.

We can answer this question in two ways…

1. By making comparison between Arjun and Eklavya of  Mahabharata and of T.P. Kailasam 
2. By making comparison Between the both characters

Mahabharata and T.P. Kailasam's Arjun and Eklavya….

For years we heard the myth of Arjun and Eklavya in the words of Maharishi Ved Vyas Ji. According to him Arjun is nobler and the greatest archer in the world while Eklavya is described as the man of lower caste. But here, T.P. Kailasam makes a different experiment who portrays Eklavya as the Nobler man and his purpose behind learning archery is far far better than Arjun. And Arjun as an anti-hero and in a negative role who is arrogant and his motive behind learning archery is self centered and personal to become the best archer in the world. Which we can see in his dialogue…

"I shall have to remember it, as it is my personal ambition to be the most famous archer of all time!"

Comparison between Character of Arjun and Eklavya

• There were some similarities and contrasts between both characters.Both wants to be the Best Archer in the world but their purpose behind it is quite different. Arjun wants to prove himself as the best archer by winning lots of battles and wars, while Eklavys wants to hunt and help and save the lives of innocent animals by learning archery.
• In social status Arjun is Prince of the great kingdom and Eklavya is the prince of his caste, but he belongs to a lower class and here considered as Nishdha Boy.
• As an Archer Arjun wants to compete with everyone else while Eklavya competes with himself.
• Arjun's motive behind learning archery is selfish and self-centered. Eklavya's  because he is aggressive and not good at all and even sometimes does not follow his guru's instructions. On the other hand Eklavya has hunger for learning, is a hard worker and his dreams and helping nature is better than Arjun.
• Both characters face such kinds of hurdles and problems in their life like Arjun tried to give his best and put all his effort in learning. Still he is dull in comparison to Eklavya. Guru Dronacharya refused to teach Eklavya and he is a self learner. His observation and dedication towards his goal is fullest.

Question 2 What is Subaltern? Who do you think is the Subaltern in this play? Explain with examples.

Meaning of Subaltern

Subaltern is a term first coined by Antonio Gramsci. There are two kinds of classes in society: Ruling Class and Subaltern class. Ruling class who is dominant in power and subaltern means someone with a low ranking in social, political, economical or other hierarchy. They are Oppressed, Marginalised, Minority, Inferior, Secondary or at the periphery.

According to Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak…

"It is just not a classy word(subaltern) for oppressed, for others, for somebody who is not getting a piece of pie, It signifies proletarian whose voice could not be heard"

Here, in the play we find Eklavya as a subaltern character who is a Nishadha boy. Eklavya wants to learn Archery from Guru Dronacharya who refused to teach because he already made a promise to Arjun that he will make him the world's best Archer. At that time, only higher class people or sons of kings or Kshatrya can learn Archery. Even Eklavya is very bright and his purpose behind learning Archery is good, still there is no scope for him because of his caste. There is a beautiful conversation between Arjun and Eklavya which proves that he is from the lower class and treated as a subaltern.

Arjun - “AN ARYA IS AN ARYA! AND A NISHAADA IS ONLY A LOW- BORN NISHAADA!”

Eklavya - “PRIDE IN ONE'S CASTE MORE THAN IN ONE'S POWER TO DO GOOD.”

Arjun - “I DO NOT LIKE YOU! I DISLIKE YOU! VERY MUCH!

So here we can find that Eklavya is from a lower class family and only because of that Guru Drona can't accept him as his student pupil or Shishya.

Question 3 Write your views about the Education system in India with reference to Past and Present time.

There is a vast difference between the Gurukul system of Education in India and the present Education system.

In the Gurukul system only boys can achieve education and among them only brahmins and kshatriya are allowed to learn Projectile weaponry (astra-vidhya). Now in the present time every child can achieve education involving girls.

One positive point about the Gurukul system is that there is no Vacation during study time and now we can see the Education system has so many holidays on Saturday-Sunday, religious festivals, and vacations also. So teaching time for students is becoming too short.

During middle ages we can find some problems in our Education system like girls are not allowed to take higher education. And even students from lower class families have no right to enter in class and they have to sit at the corner but with the passing of time this biased behaviours are slowly slowly changed but still we can find that there is so much corruption in our Education system. It needs an improvement. There is one dialogue from Super 30…

"Ab raja ka beta raja nahi banega, 

Ab raja vahi banega jo HAQDAAR hoga, 

Utho, padho, ladho, badho auo HAQDAAR bano…"

Question 4 Is Dronacharya an ideal teacher? If yes, then how? and If No, then Why? Explain with examples.

Dronacharya as a tutor we can say to some extent is good but there are also some bad qualities in him. As a teacher, he should be free from biased and partiality, to teach is his "Dharma" and job but to teach only brahmins and kshatriya is not good, because everyone has a right to study and get knowledge.In the play when Eklvaya comes to him.to accept him as his pupil he said.. 

"My little man"

Drona always used a word for Eklavya is Little man where we can see that he considered him as a person from a lower class…

“I love all the little man 

of all castes alike"

So Dronacharya refused to teach Eklavya by saying that he is woven in his vow given to Arjun that's why he can't teach him. Here he makes partiality with Eklavya as Nishadha. So he is not a good teacher at all. Here Kailasam shows Drona as a bad teacher and who is selfish to his economy, politics and love for Arjun. At the end when Arjum blamed Drona for lying and not taking  his vow he will make Drona's criticism..and to save his Guru from social criticism he offered his thumb to guru. So we can see Guru Drona as selfish and a bad teacher.

Question 5 Write something about your experience like Eklavya or Arjuna with any teacher during your study phase till now. 

During my study phase I have seen many teachers who make partiality between their students and give few to more importance and few to less. But there is not any personal big experience of a biased teacher.