Visiting Professor Discusses Indian Drama

From mammoth-sized epics passed down orally through generations, to plays addressing professional crying peasants all the way to the current street theatre, India has long thrived in its dramatic conventions.

Tucked away in Homer Babbidge Library's Class of 1947 meeting room, Ashish Sengupta led a lecture to a slight, albeit interested crowd Monday afternoon. Sengupta, a visiting professor from the University of North Bengal, touched on a number of components of Indian drama, but focused on the contemporary.

His seventy-five minute presentation impressed many who were in attendance. He was described as "quite energetic, lively, and articulate," and his lecture as "a concise history of Indian drama from its origins of ancient Indian epics to the present day," according to Terence Detoy, a 3rd-semester English major.

The few other students in the crowd concurred with Detoy's positive sentiments.

"I really enjoyed how he showed the way India has progressed, the way English is now the national language," said Nidhi Shrivastara, 3rd-semester English major, "He described that in a nice manner."

Shrivastara also liked his discussion of the two main Indian epics, "Ramayana" and "Mahabharat," ancient Hindu texts. "Ramayana" is an "epic poem, which narrates the journey of virtue to annihilate vice," according to www.valmikiramayan.net. "Mahabharat," which translates to "The Holy War," is the longest poem in the world, made up of 220,000 lines divided into 18 sections, and tells the tale of a great battle, says www.haryana-online.com.

Shrivastara's professor, Dr. Rebecca Mathews of the university's English department, was also at the lecture. Mathews thought watching Sengupta would be an enlightening experience for her students, and called off class for the day so they could attend. She was extremely pleased with Sengupta's lecture, both personally and professionally. Sengupta's Bengali heritage proved to be very pertinent to the course, in which Mathews is currently teaching a book rife with references to Bengali culture.

Professor Mathews was struck by Sengupta's reference to the play "Rudali," about professional mourners. "Professional mourners" are impoverished citizens of India hired to cry when tragedy strikes someone idolized in the country. This act is less common now, but used to occur regularly around certain parts of India.

Mathews met up with another audience member, Sanil Johnson, a Fulbright Scholar at the Dodd Center, after the lecture. They reviewed some of the highlights of the afternoon's presentation. Both enjoyed Sengupta's take on the various contemporary forms of Indian drama, such as experimental theatre, the theatre of the absurd, and street theatre.

Sengupta's presentation was colored by his utilization of the Library's technology, displaying still clips of Girish Karnad's "Tughlaq," an Indian play translated to English.

Betty Hansen, India studies program coordinator and political science professor at UConn, arranged Sengupta's visit.