Two Plays

In Chandrasekhar Kambar's timeless classic The Bringer of Rain Rishyashringya a village afflicted with a deadly famine eagerly awaits the arrival of the chieftain's son whose homecoming promises the return of rain. As the death toll rises age-old secrets are unravelled and mythical forces step out of hiding. Will the sky relent? Power and bloodshed run hand in hand in Kambar's latest Mahmoud Gawan. Set in the fifteenth-century Bahamani Sultanate it follows Gawan's rise to fame during a time of intense civil strife when empires routinely rose and fell. Alluring and sublime Two Plays is a must-read for anyone hoping to dip their toes into the rich waters of Kannada folklore and theatre. Review Kambar employs subtle strategies to create a counter-modernist theatre brimming with poetry humour irony suspense and starts an exchange among our classical folk and modern traditions ... Krishna Manavalli has found the apt idiom to translate Kambar's plays into a language with an ethos and a syntax radically different from those of Kannada. -- OutlookThis translation ofRishyashringa andMahmoud Gawan is important for three reasons. It helps even the Kannada readers to have a new look at Kambar's plays from the perspective of a non-Kannada reader raises some important questions of the politics of translation and fulfils the need of a fresh look at our present day problems. -- The HinduA must-read for anyone hoping to dip their toes into the rich diversity of Kannada literature as well as its folklore and theatre -- Deccan HeraldKrishna Manavalli has made the Kannada poet and playwright's creations accessible to English language readers with great skill and finesse -- ScrollThe first play is rooted in the folk mythology but the second is a historical play with an element of phantasy woven into it. Krishna's translation of these plays which are literally at the two ends of what I would like to call the Kambar spectrum is simply remarkable. -- Firstpost About the Author CHANDRASEKHAR KAMBAR is an award-winning playwright who was born in 1937 in Ghodgeri north Karnataka. Kambar also writes poetry fiction and literary and cultural criticism in Kannada. He is the recipient of the Jnanpith Award and the Padma Shri. He is the president of the Sahitya Akademi New Delhi.Kambar's oeuvre of over twenty-five plays comprises many well-known works including Jokumaraswami Siri Sampige and Mahamayi among others. He also has eleven poetry collections and six novels to his credit. A man of many interests Kambar is also an illustrious scholar film-maker and teacher. He has held the posts of vice chancellor Kannada University (Hampi) and chairman National School of Drama (New Delhi).KRISHNA MANAVALLI is a professor in the department of English at Karnatak University Dharwad. She is a literary critic and translator who works in both English and Kannada. In her long and brilliant academic career in the US and India Krishna has worked on multiple areas such as contemporary British literature South Asian writing postcolonial studies feminism cultural studies and translations. Krishna is also a member of the English advisory board of the Sahitya Akademi and is on many academic and university administrative boards in the state. Krishna's recent publications include the translation of the renowned Kannada writer and Jnanapith award-winner Chandrashekhar Kambar's novels Karimayi (Seagull 2017) and Shivana Dangura (Speaking Tiger 2017). Krishna has received the 2019 Karnataka Sahitya Academy award for her translation of Karimayi.