Jokumaraswami

Forthcoming in June 2025

Three plays that seamlessly blend the ageless with the contemporary.

Chandrasekhar Kambar, recognized as one of the most progressive and influential playwrights in modern Indian theatre, masterfully transforms traditional religious and folk motifs to deliver a strikingly contemporary message. This volume brings together three of Kambar’s seminal plays from the previous century.

In Jokumaraswami, a phallic fertility god worshipped in Karnataka is identified with Basanna, a fearless peasant who defies a tyrannical feudal lord with tragic consequences, embodying the myth of the god in his own heroic journey. Kambar’s vibrant, earthy play reimagines this religious myth through the local folk theatre form of Bayalaata, weaving together themes of worship, music, sex, death, and religion to convey a powerful contemporary anti-feudal message.

Samba Shiva is a lively, rambunctious farce filled with bawdy humor and hilarious situations. Everything is turned on its head: men become women, gods step down from their pedestals out of boredom, kings turn into donkeys, and donkeys into ministers. This acerbic comedy savagely satirizes bureaucracies, hierarchies, and the establishment at large.

In Siri Sampige, an ominous prophecy looms over a brave, handsome young prince, the sole heir to the kingdom of Shivapura. An oracle, speaking through the family god, warns that as the prince steps into manhood, he will either become a wandering ascetic or die due to 'one who is heir to what he is heir to.' The queen mother attempts to thwart this fate by arranging his marriage to the beautiful princess Siri Sampige, but destiny's coils tighten, and the prince is ensnared in his foretold fate.