Kanyasulkam

Kanyasulkam కన్యాశుల్కం
Written by	Gurazada Apparao
Characters	Gireesam Madhuravanis Ramappa Panthulu Agnihothravadhanulu
Date premiered	1892
Place premiered	Vizianagaram, British India
Original language	Telugu
Subject	Kanyasulkam (Bride price)
Genre	Comedy, Social reform
Setting	Vizianagaram

Kanyasulkam is a Telugu play written by Gurazada Apparao in 1892. It is one of the earliest modern works in an Indian language, and it is the first Telugu play to deal with social issues.

The play portrays the practice of Kanya-sulkam (roughly translates to bride price) which was common among the priestly Brahmins in Telugu-speaking areas of southern India. Controversial in its time, this play continues to be one of the most popular Telugu literary works of all time. A number of expressions used by Gurazada in this play are still popular in modern-day Telugu.

Gurazada wrote this play to raise awareness about what he felt was a scandalous state of affairs in society. His English preface to the first edition states: "Such a scandalous state of things is a disgrace to society, and literature can not have a higher function than to show up such practices and give currency to a high standard of moral ideas. Until reading habits prevail among masses, one must look only to the stage to exert such healthy influence." Traditionally, Telugu literary works were written in a highly stylistic language with complicated words and meter; these works could only be understood by the educated elite. Gurazada's mission was to reach out to the masses, so he broke with tradition (he called the literary dialect "doubly dead" in his preface) and wrote in the vibrant and colorful spoken language of the day.

Kanyasulkam drama does have 2 versions, both written by Gurajada Apparao in more than 15 years span. 2nd version of Kanyasulkam was published on 1909.

The play is set in the Vizianagaram (Vijayanagaram) princely state in British India. It deals primarily with the lives of the "upper caste" Brahmins of the area, although it offers a few insights into the lives of other people as well. The play centers on Gireesam, an English-educated, resourceful but unscrupulous Vaidiki Brahmin man, and Madhura vani, a prostitute who takes her morals seriously. Although it maintains a surface of humor through satire, the play conveys the "disgrace to society" that outraged Gurazada.

Madhuravani, the muse of Girisam during the beginning of the play, and that of Ramappa Panthulu in the rest of the play, is portrayed as a very righteous, wise, magnanimous and able woman who is willing to even bend over backwards to help someone in need. This way the play sought to take on the prejudices and practices of contemporary Indian society head-on. The play includes a few gut-wrenching scenes such as one where Agnihothravadhanulu, an egoistic, male-chauvinistic Brahmin and a key player in the play, barbarically slams his food plate onto the face of his young, widowed daughter, when she requests that he reconsider his decision to marry his pre-pubescent daughter to an old man. The practice of parents arranging the marriages of their pre-pubescent daughters to old men for cash was very prevalent during those days, and was referred to popularly as Kanyasulkam, literally meaning "money in lieu for a girl", which also forms the title of the play.

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Wikipedia