Theatre
Prahlad
प्रह्लाद
Balkrishna Sama · 1938
Synopsis
The play takes up the Hindu myth of Prahlad, son of a demon king, and transposes it to the city of Danavapura. King Hiranyakashipu defends science and technology there and seeks to silence his son, who defends the divine, according to a Tribhuvan University thesis. Around them live the city's inhabitants, a passionate wife, adolescents in love, scholars. The conflict sets materialism against moral values and seeks to link spirit and matter, according to Sahityapost.
Context
The play dates from 1995 of the Vikram era, that is 1938 or 1939, according to a thesis defended in 2010 at Tribhuvan University, which reads in it the follies and miseries of Nepali society beneath the mythological setting. Sahityapost regards it as its author's best work. Two English translations of it have appeared from the Royal Nepal Academy, one by Tika Ram Sharma, the other by Madhusudan Devkota, and Sajha Prakashan reissued it in 2003.
Who it is for
A play in Nepali, with no French translation; two English versions exist. It is worth knowing the myth of Prahlad, the pious son of a demon king.
Prizes and reception
Sahityapost sees it as its author's most accomplished work; the play still feeds dissertations at the University of Kathmandu.
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