Nil Darpan
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Nil Darpan (Bengali: নীল দর্পন।; translated as "The Mirror of Indigo") is a Bengali play written by Dinabandhu Mitra in 1858-1859. The play was essential to Nilbidraha, or Indigo Revolt. [1] It was also essential to the development of theater in Bengal and influenced Girish Chandra Ghosh, who, in 1872, would establish The National Theater (kolkata) where the first ever play commercially staged was Nildarpan.
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[edit] Critical Summary
The Play was taken by the people all over the world with a mixed bit of reaction. Mitra himself wrote in the preface of the English translation[2]
"I PRESENT " The Indigo Planting Mirror " to the Indigo Planters' hands ; now, let every one of them, having ob- served his face, erase the freckle of the stain of selfishness from his forehead, and, in its stead, place on it the sandal powder of beneficence, then shall I think my labour success".
It was evident from this wish that its a piece meant to raise a voice among the elite intellectuals of kolkata so that the farmers revolt will be integrated with the urban thinkers. Unlike the Sepoy Revolt, Nilbidraha is effectively a revolt integrating the whole population of Bengalis with no distance kept between the several classes of society, which can be attributed to the effort by Mitra and Rev. James Long and Michael Madhusudan Dutt.
Indian Literature has a long standing stradition of drama writing. Almost for a millennium the only form of literature other than odes was drama. The distinction of the genre of Sanskrit Drama by the luminaries like Kalidasa were strong enough to keep the millions absorbed for centuries. But it was coming at a dwan by the mid 1800 in Bengal where the Bengal Renaissance say the rise in western education and ideas, and therefore the styles of new forms of literature were seeping in [3]. For example Ram Narayan Tarkaratna (1823-1885) had already left the Sanskrit tradition and started writing about social realism.[4] The drama is markedly different from the earlier dramasof that period, notably the first modern drama written in Bengali by Ram Narayan stil had the old sadhu bhasa the artificial sanskritised dialect of modern Bengali as the writing medium.
The characters in the drama are the villagers and the indigo planters who got the money and the law in their hand.
[edit] The Characters
GOLUK CHUNDER BASU.
NOBIN MADHAB BINDU MADHAB
SADHU CHURN A neighbouring Ryot RAY CHURN Sadhu'a brother. Gqji CHURN DAS The Dewan.
Indiqo Planters. J. J. WOOD
P. P. ROSE J
THE AJVIIN OR LAND MEASURER.
A KHALASI, a Tent-pitcher.
TAIDGIR Native Superintendent of Indigo Cultivation.
Magistrate, Amla, Attorney, Deputy Inspector, Pundit, Keeper of the Gaol, Doctor, a Cow-keeper, a Native Doctor, Four Boys, a Latyal or Club-man, and a Herdsman.
WOMEN.
SABITRI Wife of Goluk Chunder.
SOIRINDRI Wife of Nobin.
SARALOTA Wife of Bindu Madhab.
REBOTI Wife of Sadhu Churn.
KHETROMANI Daughter of Sadhu.
ADURI Maid-servant in Goluk Chunder 's house.
PODI MOYRANI A Sweetmeat Maker.
[edit] Humor
[edit] Legacy
The legacy of black humor in the play is well shared by contemporary dramatists like Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Girish Chandra Ghosh. It was also important in development of the chalit bhasa, or colloquial dialect, which is free of the Sanskrit influenced Sadhu bhasa.
