Jan 10 2023 to Jan 10 2023 6:30 p.m.

EVENT HAS ENDED

Where

Bangalore International Centre

7 4th Main Rd, Stage 2, Domlur 560071

Event Description

Kannada | 90 minutes Written by K B Siddiah Directed by Lakshmana K P Daklakatha Devikavya is an experimental play drawing on the epic poetry and stories of the important Kannada writer and founder member of the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti, K B Siddaiah. This experimental piece begins with a re-reading of a cosmogonic myth from a community that is oppressed even amongst the oppressed – narrating the origins of the world and of life on it. The play progresses through weaving and unravelling untouchable rituals, beliefs, hunger, and desires through song and storytelling. For untouchable communities, Nudi (speech, sound, voice, and word) is like breath that cannot be separated from the body. The play uses instruments such as the Areye and Tamte as vines of Nudi that enmesh the narrative and sprout new directions from within. Thereby opening up the untouchable world as a world of deep sonic imprints. In a context such as this, the play confronts what happens when the ‘written word’ that has so far been unreachable collides with and becomes an organ of the untouchable body giving rise to a new relationship of intimacy and struggle. The play provokes how the received insights through the experience of untouchability and the written word force us to confront what it means to be human in the depths of our being.

About KB Siddiah:

Professor K B Siddaiah (1954-2019), or KB as he came to be popularly known, was one of the founders of the Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (DSS) and was one of its most creative writers and critics. He was born in Kenkere in Magadi, completed his Masters in English at Mysore University, and spent several years teaching English Literature at Tumkur. He is well known for writing and composing a moving Horatda Hadu (song of resistance) titled Ondu Dahanada Kathe (The story of a burning). The song simultaneously evoked mourning and sought political strength in the aftermath of the massacre of Dalits in Belchi, Bihar, and similar incidents closer home, like the atrocity against Dalits in Dasanapura in Tumkur District. K.B. Siddaiah is the author of four epic poems: Bakaala, Daklakatha Devikavya, Anatma, and Gallebani. A collection of his prose, including his early writing in the DSS magazine Panchama, was published in 2019 as Kattalodane Maatukate (A Conversation with Darkness). He is a recipient of the Karnataka Sahitya Akademi Award and the Karnataka Rajyotsava Award.