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Rukmini is being prepared for her marriage to Shishupala. She reluctantly submits to these torments. Her spirit continues to yearn for Sri Krishna, her Redeemer. The old Brahmin returns with his answer.
The wedding day. Rukmini proceeds to the temple of Parvathi to offer the customary prenuptial prayers. She has already arranged with Krishna to “abduct” her on the way.
Rukmi and Shishupala rush in to intercept the fleeing couple. A duel follows where they are both humbled and disgraced. Rukmini saves her brother from death at Krishna’s
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hands.
Krishna and Rukmini proceed to the kingdom of Dwaraka as man and wife. There they reside in divine fulfillment as the Lord and His Consort. They radiate peace and happiness among their devotees.
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Prakriti, a young girl of the “untouchable” caste, or the
Chandalis, is shunned by those around her because of society’s terrible practice of oppressing a sector of its own people due to perceived inferiority. A wandering Buddhist monk asks
Prakriti, or “Chandalika,” for some water. Chandalika initially refuses, stating that society forbids a higher individual such as the monk to interact with an untouchable. The Monk,
Ananda, persuades Chandalika to give him water by teaching her that all human beings are equal in the eyes of god. Ananda then continues on his way, but Chandalika has fallen in love with him. She begs her mother to use her magical powers to bring this marvelous being to her. When he returns by the power of magic, shamed and degraded, Chandalika realizes that she has done him great
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harm and asks for forgiveness.
Invocation: A dance in praise of Rabindranath Tagore’s
Chandalika, Kuchipudi art, and the members of the orchestra
Chandalika awakens early in the morning and tends to her
chores. She hears the call of flower sellers in the market
and goes in search of them.
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When Chandalika approaches them, high cast women intervene and forbid the flower sellers to sell to her, an Untouchable girl, Similarly, Chandalika is shunned while trying to buy milk from the milkmaids and bangles from the bangle sellers. Chandalika is at first bewildered and hurt, Then becomes filled with fury and rages at the injustice and oppression committed by society.
Hurt and angered by this encounters, Chandalika becomes depressed. Her mother, Maya, Finds her daughter’s listlessness difficult to understand. She scolds
Chandalika, urging her to tend to her daily chores and work. Chandalika expresses her frustration to her mother, asking why she had ever been born an untouchable, blaming god and her mother for her plight. “Why was I bourn in to this life of isolation?” She asks. Unable to
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understand her daughter, Maya leaves, perplexed.
A weary Buddhist monk, Ananda, enters and sks Chandalika for some water to quench his thirst. Legend has it that the monk was Ananda, The principal disciple of the great Buddha himself, the Enlightened One. Chandalika refuses initially to serve Ananda, saying her low Chandala Cast forbids her from serving someone as fortunate and blessed as he. To her surprise, he rejects this explanation, saying that all human beings are created equal in the eyes of the God. He calmly asks her to judge herself by her own standards rather than the artificial standards of an unjust society.
These were revolutionary wards to Chandalika,
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