P. Guha-Thakurta - The Bengali Drama: Its Origin and Development

THE BENGALI DRAMA

INDIA: LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
In 14 Volumes

THE BENGALI DRAMA

ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

P GUHA-THAKURTA

First published 1930 by
Routledge, Trench, Trbner & Co Ltd

Reprinted in 2000 by
Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Transferred to Digital Printing 2007

1930 P Guha-Thakurta

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A CIP catalogue record for this book
is available from the British Library

The Bengali Drama
ISBN 0-415-24504-4
India: Language and Literature: 14 Volumes
ISBN 0-415-24289-4
Trber's Oriental Series
ISBN 0-415-23188-4

THE
BENGALI DRAMA

ITS ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT

By
P. GUHA-THAKURTA, M.A. (Harvard), Ph.D. (London),
Sometime Reader in English, Lucknow University.

LONDON
ROUTLEDGE, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., LTD.
BROADWAY HOUSE: 6874 CARTER LANE. E.C.
1930

Drama is action, sir, action, not confounded philosophy.

NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION

THE system followed in the transliteration of Sanskrit words is that approved by the Royal Asiatic Society in 1923. The same system has also been observed in transliterating Bengali words with the following exceptions:

(1) The inherent vowel has been generally neglected in cases where it is mute in Bengali pronunciation.

(2) Bengali pronunciation does not distinguish between the labial b and the semi-vowel v except when the latter is immediately preceded by another consonant, and so, as a rule, in transliterating genuinely Bengali words, it is only in this latter case that the semi-vowel has been represented by v. There are, however, a few words such as iva, Vaiava, etc., and some suffixes like vat which are familiar to English readers in this form and it has seemed best in such cases to adhere to the ordinary spelling.

(3) Some Bengali family names such as Tagore, Banerji, Mukherji, etc., have been written in the conventional English form instead of hkur, Bnrji, Mukhrji, etc.

I BELIEVE my present work on the Bengali drama, however imperfect and inadequate, meets a long-felt need. Being first in the field, I am aware of the limitations under which I had to work. I do not say that there have been no previous attempts at all to deal with this subject, but no historical account worthy of the name existed, at least none that I could profitably lay hands on. But I fully expect that there will be many in the future who will follow it up and perhaps deal with it more extensively, having in possession hitherto undiscovered facts, and I venture to think that they could safely depend on my work. Although this book contains matter for historians, it is not so much an attempt from an orthodox historical standpoint as a direct criticism of what I consider to be genuinely dramatic in the literature of Bengal, past or present.

I have brought the account of the modern Bengali drama right up to 1930, and in my concluding chapter, I have referred to influences and tendencies which are in operation to-day. I have criticized freely and without prejudice the methods and practices of the theatres of the old school and have also made constructive suggestions to those of the new school, drawing their attention to what has been achieved and is being practised by the most advanced and modern theatres in England, America, and Europe. In fact, my work throughout has been on comparative lines, and I thought that it was right that it should be so, because the modern drama in Bengal is the direct outcome of European influences. No doubt, the story of a modern Bengali play is perfectly indigenous, the atmosphere is thoroughly typical of Bengal and the language also is the vernacular, but the theatre as an institution, with its appendages and appurtenances, is an importation from the West. I see no shame in admitting that. But certainly the shame will be if, for any reason, the Bengali theatre should twist backwards and fall behind. There is not quite as yet a complete harmony between a Bengali play and its setting, because the synthesis which can only result from complete assimilation and not meaningless imitation, is yet to be attained. I cannot help criticizing the modern Bengali stage for its lack of realism in production as well as technique. Whereas the European stage has altogether too much of it, for which nowadays even a defence is necessary, the Bengali stage shows almost a total absence of it. But this is not so serious a defect as the preponderance of talk over action in most Bengali productions. The text of a play, no doubt, has to be set down in words; but the theatre is not literature and words are not everything in a successful play. Movement and action are not merely accessories to the text, but vital factors. No drama is possible without them. Action need not be merely external, but it would have to be visible, audible, and intelligible. I cannot emphasize this point too strongly on Bengali playwrights. They should not be on top of the theatre all the time. They must not hamper or burden it with text which cannot be artistically expressed with eye, voice, gesture, or motion. Absolutely the first question to ask about a play should be whether it is good for the theatre. If it is not, then it is not a good play. In Bengal, drama will not reach its highest point of excellence unless its makers follow the indispensable principles and standards of stage-craft.