CBCS Sem-1 "Mrichchakatika": Theme of love

Theme of love in Mrichchhakatika

It was indeed a daring task for Sudraka to present onstage, in a rigid patriarchal ancient Indian society the consummation of a love affair between a respected Brahmin merchant Charudatta with the courtesan Vasantasena. The narrative of radical love begins with Vasantasena, a courtesan who has fallen in love with Charudatta after seeing him in the Garden of Lord Kama.The love in her heart is further triggered when pursued by the King’s lusty brother-in-law, she secretly slips into Charudatta’s dilapidated old house by extinguishing the lamp “with the hem of her garment.” On meeting Charudatta, whose poverty does not allow her to stay with him as a courtesan, she asks for the favour of leaving her ornaments “as a deposit” in his house. When he protests that his house is not fit for keeping deposits she reminds him that deposits are entrusted not to houses but to persons.

In the second act, in conversation with her maid Madanika, Vasantsena reveals how she is love sick. She tells her that she deposited the ornaments so as to have a reason to visit Charudatta again, and so, in a sense, what she deposits with Charudatta are not her ornaments but her love. Vasantasena's boldness is also highlighted when she is seen talking comfortably to her maid about how she wants to enjoy the pleasure of youth and true love instead of serving some king who needs to be served for the sake of his money. Charudatta opens before her an impossible chasm, a chasm that can only be leapt over by the radical and excessive emotion of love.It is as if the courtesan, the traditional gold-digger, has found an opportunity to discover a heart of gold within her; and it is only by letting go of her greedy ways that she can make the liberating leap of unconditional love.

So while Vasantasena’s love, due to her radical stance towards poverty, is intense and religious, Charudatta’s love for her is at best lukewarm. Charudatta, almost till the very end, treats her only as an attractive courtesan; it is Arayaka, the new king, who formally changes her social status from a ganika (courtesan) to a vadhu (bride) thereby giving her the license to marry Charudatta. Charudatta who, on losing Vasantasena’s ornaments deposited with him, can give away his wife’s expensive pearl necklace does not know how to give his heart. He seems as shackled in his desire for Vasantasena as Vasantasena is liberated in her desire for him.

Another short, yet significant and skillful love plot is the affair between Sharvilaka, an adventurous thief and Madanika, Vasantasena’s slave attendant. Sharvilaka is resolved to acquire by theft the means of buying her freedom. The casket of ornaments that Sharvilaka steals from Charudatta’s house, he learns later from Madanika, is actually Vasantasena’s and Madanika convinces him to pretend as Charudatta’s messenger who has come to return it. But when Sharvilaka returns the casket, Vasantasena, who has overheard the conversation between him and Madanika, decides to free Madanika by offering her as a gift to him.