SAKUNI " Let The Game Begin ..."

(The 2nd Chapter from the MOKSHA Trilogy)

What is the State of Moksha

Moksha is the State-of-Statelessness on the wheel of action where one stands liberated from all desires, actions and consequences and thus free from the cycle of birth and death. Moksha is the ultimate goal of human existence rewarded in turn by Supreme Peace and Bliss. Bhagvad Gita

Aims of MOKSHA the Production:

• To explore some interesting characters of Mahabharatha, the Great Epic through Experimental movement theatre;
• To humanize the 5 chosen characters – Saguni, Kanthari, Karnan, Duryodhanan & Panjali
• To understand the psychoanalysis power of the human mind through civilizations;
• To unravel some of the untold stories of Mahabharatha through the mentioned characters

Sakuni Synopsis

Sakuni is the depiction of one of the most significant characters of Mahabharata, Sakuni. His soul is raging restless and is seeking Moksha. Always portrayed in a unidimensional negative light, this character seeks the ultimate statelessness through and from Draupadi, a representation of the Goddess herself. Sakuni gets Draupadi to play a game of dice with him as a resort to his attempt at gaining salvation for his soul. He is made to face the demons from his past, his blood ties themselves, to explain himself. It is not his enemies that he has to face, but his very own. These are the characters whose lives have been influenced directly or indirectly by Sakuni and his schemes. Gandhari, Karna and Duryodhana lay their complaints against Sakuni. Did Sakuni explain himself and attain the salvation? Was Draupadi convinced? What happened to the game of dice?

Sakuni elaborates some of the lesser known dimensions of the Mahabharata. Examination of the untold stories reveals new facets to the characters. MOKSHA refers to the blood ties in this world’s longest epic which deals with clashes within one titanic family, the descendants of the Kuruvamsa.

Directed by G Selva & Script by Elavazhagan M

The Story of SAKUNI

Shakuni Soubala, was a prince of Gandhar (now Kandahar which is a town in Afghanistan). The cheating gambler and villain of Mahabharata is the brother of Gandhari. Fond of his nephew Duryodhana, he won the kingdom of Pandavas in the game of dice.Shakuni is one of the four most wicked men of Mahabharatha with others thatincludes Duryodhana, Dushyansana and Karna.

There is a story that the dice he used was made out of his father’s thigh bonesGandhari had some problem in her astrological chart which indicated that her secondhusband only will survive. To come over this problem, she was first married to a goat and then the animal was mutilated, so she became a widow before marrying Dhritharashtra. Duryodhana, when he took charge of the Hastinapura, was insulted by Bheema that he is son of a widow. Raged with this insult, he learnt about the story, conquered Gandhara Desha and imprisoned his 100 uncles including Shakuni.He arranged to provide one handful of rice for all of them to eat everyday.It was decided by the Subala, the father that Shakuni will eat the food given andsurvive to destroy Kouravas.

There is also an other story about how the Gandhara King assessed the intelligence of his sons to select a brilliant one. He asked hissons who were all in the prison to insert a thread through a bone so that who everdoes is it can eat the fistful of rice and survive to take revenge. All the sonsattempted and failed but Shakuni. He managed to tie a speck of rice to one end of athread and fed it to an ant which took the thread through the hole of the bone.Shakuni survived. He was asked to eat the flesh of his own father which he did andcarved set of dice from his bones. After all of them died and only Shakuni was left,he was allowed out of prison on Gandhari’s insistence.His plot started then.However, this story is not found in original Mahabharata authored by Vedavyasa.

Some sources say Shakuni had been insulted when his beloved sister has beenmarried to the blind Kuru king Dhritarashtra and swore to destroy the Kaurava clan.He achieved this by poisoning the mind of his volatile nephew, and influenced Duryodhana into instigating the war with the Pandavas, which resulted in thedestruction of the Kauravas. Thus, he is seen by many as the ultimate cause of thedestructive Kurukshetra War .Shakuni is like a rat which destroys cloths by biting in to it, though cloth is not itsfood. There are some crooked people who would love to do wicked things and enjoythough it doesn’t benefit them in any way. Shakuni was such a character.Duryodhana visits Mayasabha a glorious palace build by Maya, the architect ofGods, in Indraprasta, the Kingdom of Pandavas during the Rajasuya. While taking aview of the amazing things around, Duryodhana mistook water for floor and fell in it. The insult that the ‘son of blindman can only be blind’, got him enraged and Shakuniplotted a clever plan to remove Pandavas from the kingdom. Pandavas were invited to a friendly game of dice against Duryodhana and Shakuni played on his behalf. Shakuni used his skills in the game to good effect, and before Yudhishtira could bepersuaded to stop playing, he had already lost all his wealth and kingdom.Yudhishtira knew that he was not equal to Shakuni in dicing and still he ventured togamble. In the Dice Game, normally there are ten steps of pledging. The game startsfrom handful of pearls and then it moves on to gold, chariots, elephants, horses,male and female slaves and the army. Shakuni urges Yudhishtira to keep playing.When Yudhishtira loses all wealth, kingdom, his brothers and when himself becomethe slave of Duryodhana, Shakuni says: ‘There is only your precious queen left, andthere is also one throw of the dice remaining. Stake her and win yourself all you havelost back with her’, Shakuni throws the dice and cries out joyfully, ‘We have won’.Shakuni took Duryodhana's side in the great war at Kurukshetra. He was killed onthe battlefield by Sahadeva.