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About the play
Gobindamanikya, Tripura’s monarch, on
realizing the futility of blood sacrifices, issued a ban
on these unnecessary slaughters at the altar of the
Goddess. Undoubtedly, this caused a general discontent in
the state that was encouraged by high priest Raghupati,
who held himself supreme in the matter of religion. Driven
by a false sense of ego, he felt that by prohibiting the
ritual, the king had definitely committed a grave crime
and to punish and humiliate him, he tried various means to
drive everyone against Gobindamanikya. He started by
playing on the emotions of the childless queen Gunabati
and convinced her of the king’s sin and tried to carry on
the periodic sacrifices but was soon foiled in his attempt
by the royal guards. Then he tried to take advantage of
general Nayanray’s devotion to the Goddess and incited him
to assassinate the king but the fearless general, though
disconcerted at the king’s decree, found it better to
surrender his post rather than his honour thus preventing
Raghupati to achieve his revenge. When this ploy failed,
Raghupati tried to conspire with the crown prince and
king’s brother Nakshatraray. For this he wove up a
fantastic story of his dream where Nakshatra was promised
the throne if he was would sacrifice Gobindamanikya in the
blood ritual. But the cowardly Nakshatra, fearing the
king’s wrath, refused to co-operate and once again
Raghupati stood discouraged. But then he seemed to have
found the right person in the form of Jayasingha, a Rajput
by birth, who was parented from a very early age by
Raghupati himself. Though royal blood flowed in his veins,
but Jayasingha, tutored by Raghupati, served the Goddess
and had unquestionable faith on the deity and his mentor.
But his beliefs were also shaken in the recent turn of
events and he stood confused as he witnessed the clash
between Raghupati and Gobindamanikya. Aparna, a young
girl, whose pet goat was slaughtered just before the royal
law was passed, also urged Jayasingha to come out of
Raghupati’s shackles to start life away not only from the
periodical bloodbath but also away from the clash of egos.
But Jayasingha, bound by the invisible ties of affection
and reverence to Raghupati, was adamant to leave him.
Raghupati, on the contrary, exploited Jayasingha’s loyalty
by asking him to vow before the Goddess to bring royal
blood as Her offerings. Caught between blind faith and a
mixed sense of morality as Jayasingha stood confused
searching for the path of righteousness, it seemed that
the only way to break the stalemate lies in his own
sacrifice that will bring the offering so cherished by
Raghupati and will save the noble king as well.
Director's Note:
"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 writing the chronicle
of the transient life of creatures in letters of blood". -
This is a line from the play that triggered me. I
cherished the dream to do 'Bisarjan' since a long time.
The upsurge of violence in the contemporary times and the
bloody reality we are living in provoked me and connected
me to 'Bisarjan'. It is a grand narrative of our times
where blood is not a metaphor; it is real blood that
leaves it stains on everything.
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