Aren’t you too old to be playing with dolls?
ACTRESS 1: Give him back to me!
ACTRESS 2: (Returning it.) It’s so ordinary looking.
ACTRESS 1: He is not ordinary.
(Dance of the golden calf.)
ACTRESS 2: Mira, since you won’t visit her temple, we have brought Mother to you. Kali is strong on the blood of ten thousand generations of goats. She leads our armies in war. She gives life; she takes life. She is time.
ACTRESS 1: Oh no! She is death!
ACTRESS 2: She is birth, and rebirth. Kneel before Kali, pray to her for a son, and make this humble offering of holy blood.
ACTOR 1: O holy goddess of million wars, give us victory!
ACTRESS 1: I don’t want war.
ACTRESS 2: O holy goddess of million children, may the line of Ranas forever live!
ACTRESS 1: It is painful when the son comes out.
ACTRESS 2: O holy goddess, bless our house with happiness.
ACTRESS 1: I don’t want to be happy.
(Chant to Kali.)
ACTOR 2: My heart is a burning ground,
For you Dark One.
ACTOR 1: Dance your eternal dance, Mother,
My heart wishes nothing more.
ACTRESS 3: Burn forever the funeral,
Scatter the ashes of the dead.
ACTRESS 2: Death conquering Time is your anklet,
Come dance your rhythms, Mother.
ALL: That I may see you inside my closed eye.
ACTRESS 1: Death says come; life says go. I want to go; I don’t want to come.
ACTOR 2: Uda forcibly places the vessel in her hands. Mira looks at the blood and faints. The blood spills on the floor as the vessel comes down with a crash.
(The dance of the slaughter-house.)
ACTRESS 3: Every tree has bark.
ACTOR 1: Mira, Mira!
ACTRESS 3: When you spit at the moon it falls back on you.
ACTRESS 2: What is more illusory than the fire of a glow worm?
ACTOR 2: She is recovering.
ACTRESS 1: There is blood on my hands. Blood on my clothes. Blood on the ground!
ACTOR 1: (Echo) Mira, Mira.
ACTRESS 1: It’s hot all over.
(Echo)
Mira, Mira.
ACTRESS 1: The sun shines on the desert.
(Echo)
Who is that woman in white with tiger’s teeth and blood in her hands?
(Echo)
Who is that woman with her smug high forehead and her hungry butcher’s eyes.
(Echo)
I don’t like women with strangler’s hands.
(Echo)
He didn’t want to die.
(Echo)
He was afraid when she killed him.
ACTRESS 3: Mira, try to understand others.
ACTRESS 1: When I’m old and understanding like you, I shall also look the other way when I see evil. Now I am young …
ACTRESS 2: There is evil in the house. Kali is in pain.
(Hide and seek dance.)
ACTOR 1: Rana begins to withdraw.
ACTRESS 1: Mira attempts to hold him.
ACTOR 1: Only Mira can save us.
ACTRESS 1: I can’t do it.
ACTOR 1: There will be no heir to the throne.
ACTRESS 1: Rana, don’t ask me to do it.
ACTOR 1: Mira, when a dog barks at a mountain, who gets hurt, the dog or the mountain?
ACTRESS 1: I will do anything for you. I live for you. But not this. If I did, I’d stop being Mira. I am being asked to play the actor who is elevated from peasant to king for two hours.
6. Enter Jai
(Dance of the Warrior Prince.)
ALL: (Chant.) Sound of drum and voice of trumpet
and the horse’s joyful cry
Stately as a golden palm
Now the warlike Prince has come.
Blessed with all manly virtues
Lion-like in build and muscle
Warrior Jaimal pious-hearted
Forth he brings the wheat and treasure.
Warlike leader of his forces
Like the all-consuming fire
Jai by his graceful mein
Joyful makes the proud Rana.
ACTOR 2: Enter Jai.
ACTRESS 2: To sounds of shouts, cheers, bells.
ACTOR 1: Rana comes forward,
ACTOR 2: Jai bows.
ACTOR 1: Rana returns the bow.
ACTRESS 2: And the two embrace.
ACTOR 1: Mewar has waited many moons to welcome the noble Prince.
ACTOR 2: To be in the sacred presence of unvanquished Mewar is high honour.
And he bows again.
ACTOR 1: The Rana again returns Jai’s bow and takes his arm and leads him before Kali.
ACTOR 2: Jai bows to Kali’s image.
ACTOR 1: Rana then leads Jai to his sister and introduces them with elaborate ritual as demanded by the occasion.
ACTOR 1: Our sister, Suryavanshi, pearl of the sun race, the Sisodia princess, Udabai.
ACTOR 2: Jai bows even more elaborately.
ACTRESS 2: She covers her head with her ordny, which hides her face as well—a mark of modesty and acknowledgement.
ACTOR 2: May the sun forever give strength to Sisodia!
ACTOR 1: The Rana next leads Jai to Mira.
ACTOR 2: Jai again bows ceremoniously.
ACTRESS 2: The great amount of ritual and style that has so far attached to this scene abruptly comes to an end.
ACTRESS 1: As Mira, instead of courtesying ritually, leaps up with a spontaneous and joyful cry.
(Carousel dance.)
ACTRESS 1: Jai!
For a moment she stares at him; then springs up and runs up to him. Jai, oh Jai! Jai for victory.
She begins to speak with feverish vivacity as if she feared that she would stop and think. She holds him in a spontaneous embrace.
Let me look at you cousin. How handsome you’ve become! No, no, don’t look at me. Are these new clothes? You’re so good-looking in them.
ACTOR 2: Jai laughs.
ACTRESS 1: She embraces him again.
Oh Jai, Jai for victory! I’ve been expecting you for so long. Rana said you were to come a month ago. I thought you’d never come. Let me look at you again.
She laughs and pulls his cheek playfully.
ACTOR 2: He blushes self-consciously and tries to extricate himself from Mira’s unorthodox welcome.
(Dance of the Marionettes.)
ACTRESS 1: Jai, what’s happened to your tongue? Say something.
ACTOR 2: Those who speak don’t know, those who know don’t speak.
ACTOR 1: The noble Jai has
