Girls for Sale: Kanyasulkam, a Play from Colonial India

245 Pages·2007·0.967 MB·English

by  Gurajada Apparao

Literature A Girls
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India
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Girls for sale Kanyasulkam A
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“A scholarly event of the first importance. . . . This translation
is a work of art, and I predict that it will, on its own terms,
become a classic.” —David Shulman, Hebrew University sale

First staged in 1892, the South Indian play Girls for Sale (Kanyasulkam) is

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considered the greatest modern work of Telugu literature and the first major
drama written in an Indian language that critiqued British colonialism’s effects i
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on Indian society. Filled with humor, biting social commentary, parody, and
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masquerade, the plot revolves around an English-speaking dandy, a clever
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courtesan, a young widow, and a very old man who wants to buy as his wife a
Kanyasulkam
very young girl. Eminent Telugu scholar and literary critic Velcheru Narayana f
Rao has prepared the first idiomatic English translation, with notes and a critical o
essay. Itself a masterpiece of Indian literature in translation, this edition makes
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Apparao’s work available to new audiences.

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Colonial India
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GuRAjAdA APPARAo (1862–1915) is regarded as the father of modern
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Telugu literature. In addition to Kanyasulkam, he published poetry and short
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stories, and wrote two other plays, left unfinished.

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VELChERu NARAyANA RAo is Krishnadevaraya Professor of Languages
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and Cultures of Asia at the university of Wisconsin–Madison. Author, editor, n Gurajada Apparao
and translator of many works, he received the 2004 A. K. Ramanujan Prize for y
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Translation for Classical Telugu Poetry: An Anthology (with david Shulman).
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Cover illustration: Bride, painting by Damerla Ramarao (1897–1925) k
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Translated from Telugu
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by Velcheru Narayana Rao
INDIANA
University Press
Bloomington & Indianapolis
http://iupress.indiana.edu
1-800-842-6796 INDIANA
Girls for Sale

Girls for Sale
Kanyasulkam
APlay from Colonial India
Gurajada Apparao
Translated from Telugu by
Velcheru Narayana Rao
INDIANAUNIVERSITYPRESS
Bloomington & Indianapolis
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
601 North Morton Street
Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
http://iupress.indiana.edu
Telephone orders 800-842-6796
Fax orders 812-855-7931
Orders by e-mail [email protected]
© 2007 by Velcheru Narayana Rao
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any
information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
publisher. The Association of American University Presses’ Resolution on
Permissions constitutes the only exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American
National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed
Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Apparao, Gurajada Venkata, 1861–1915.
[Kanyasulkam. English]
Girls for sale : a play from colonial India = Kanyasulkam / Gurajada Apparao ;
translated from Telugu by Velcheru Narayana Rao.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-0-253-34899-9 (cloth : alk. paper)—ISBN 978-0-253-21913-8
(pbk. : alk. paper)
I. Narayanaravu, Velceru, date II. Title. III. Title: Kanyasulkam.
PL4780.9.A5957K313 2007
894. 8'2725—dc22
2006103353
1 2 3 4 5 12 11 10 09 08 07
For Ramesh and Srilata Vemuri
Friends beyond words
des´amante matti kad ’oy.
de´samante manushul ’oy.
Acountry is not its soil.
Acountry is its people.
—Gurajada Apparao
CONTENTS
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Note on Translation and Transliteration xv
girls for sale
1
Dramatis Personae 3
1. Act One 7
2. Act Two 19
3. Act Three 35
4. Act Four 61
5. Act Five 95
6. Act Six 129
7. Act Seven 143
The Play in Context: ASecond Look at Apparao’s Kanyasulkam 159
Note on Names and Castes 191
On Kinship and Friendship 193
Performing Kanyasulkam 195
Card Game in Act Five, Scene Two 197
Guide to Pronunciation 199
Proper Names with Diacritics 201
Notes 203

Acknowledgments
This translation has been long in the making. I have been talking about
my reading of the play for more than a decade now, to anyone willing
to listen, until they are tired. Pressed by friends that I should write my
ideas down, I realized that before I presented my reading of the play, I
had to translate it. Over the long period of time I have worked on the
translation, I have incurred a number of debts, many that I cannot
repay with words of thanks.
Wissenchaftskolleg zu Berlin is the first on my list. Afellowship at
the Kolleg during 2000–2001 gave me an opportunity to produce the
first draft of the translation. It was fortuitous that David Shulman, San-
jay Subrahmanyam, Muzaffar Alam, and Partha Chatterjee were at the
Kolleg at the same time. Their company was energizing and also pro-
vided the necessary corrective to many errors I would have committed
in my enthusiasm to quickly produce a complete translation. Muzaffar
helped me with the Urdu words and songs in the text. Sanjay and
Partha read the first draft and by their silence told me it needed a lot of
work. I set to work on improvements and the more I reread the draft,
the more changes I began to make. In June 2003, David read the com-
plete draft with me and suggested improvements on practically every
page.
I knew the translation was not anywhere close to publication. Many
words were unclear and contexts unknown. My work on improving it
continued. Apparao’s language faithfully reflects the regional dialects
of Vizianagaram. I come from the same area of northern Andhra that
Apparao does and comfortably understand the language he uses in the
play, but the distance of time has made some of his expressions opaque.
Dictionaries did not help, and people I was able to contact long dis-
tance from Berlin were not particularly helpful either. These words and
references do not interfere with the enjoyment of the play as such, so
even admirers of Apparao read on without thinking about them, but
for one who is translating the play, they pose serious hurdles. I contin-
ued to pester my friends for books and information.
Attaluri Narasimharao and Chandu Subbrao of Visakhapatnam,