Welcome to Matta Vilasa Prahasanam (Telugu)

I first came across a reference to this play while I was translating Kalki's epic historical novel Sivakamiyin Sabatham from the original Tamil version to Telugu. From the snippets in that novel, I got an idea that king Mahendra Varma takes a dig at the degenerate religious sects at that time in Tamil Nadu, including kapalika, Pashupati and even Buddists and Jain monks.

This is a short one-act satire set in Kanchipuram, the then capital of Pallava kingdom. Kanchi was not just the political capital, but the seat of highest education in south India, rivaling Varanasi in the north. Culturally it was highly sophisticated as well and king Mahendra was keen on reviving Hinduism in the south and had done a lot in terms of building cave temples, mostly Shiva temples, encouraging religious studies and so on.

King Mahendra himself was a great scholar and also an accomplishied musician. This play is probably the first, or at least one of the earliest, satires in Indian literature.

From the Wikipedia:

“Mattavilasa Prahasana is a satire that pokes fun at the peculiar aspects of the heretic Kapalika and Pasupata Saivite sects, Buddhists and Jainism. The setting of the play is Kanchipuram, the capital city of the Pallava kingdom in the seventh century. The play revolves around the drunken antics of a Kapalika mendicant, Satyasoma, his woman, Devasoma, and the loss and recovery of their skull-bowl. The cast of characters consists of Kapali or Satysoma, an unorthodox Saivite mendicant, Devasoma, Satysoma’s female partner, a Buddhist Monk, whose name is Nagasena, Pasupata, a member of another unorthodox Saivite order and a Madman. The act describes a dispute between a drunken Kapali and the Buddhist monk. The inebriated Kapali suspects the Buddhist monk of stealing his begging bowl made from a skull, but after a drawn-out argument it is found to have been taken away by a dog.”

Here is my Telugu translation of this hilarious satire! I hope you enjoy reading it.

Matta Vilasa Prahasanam

Best regards,
K. Nagarajan
Bangalore/Bengaluru
Email:knr_sh@yahoo.com