Sundardas: A Play in Three Acts

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The play Sundardas recounts the activities of the first Christian missionaries in Orissa between 1826 and 1832, their meagre successes, their discouragement and defeats. But the play is more than a simple retelling of historical facts; rather, it gives reality to the underlying motivations of the individual actors, as well as to the conflicting world views in contact in this meeting of Christianity and Hinduism on the Indian subcontinent, in a context of empire, subjugation and colonisation. The real question dealt with in the play is, however, a more philosophical one, that is, the nature of the relationship between belief and the (religious) institutions whose role ostensibly is to further and protect it. The fundamental theme of the play is that truth cannot come through the denial of oneâ€™s identity and also that identity must not blind one to truth.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR J.P. Das

Dr Jagannath Prasad Das is a well-known poet, playwright and fiction writer whose Puri Paintings continues to be a masterly volume on Orissan art. He has also co-authored with Professor Joanna Williams of University of California, Berkeley Palm-leaf Miniatures: The Art of Raghunath Prusti of Orissa. His other publications in English include First Person, Timescapes and Lovelines”collections of poems; Before Sunset, The Underdog and Sundardas”plays; The Magic Deer, The Forbidden Street and Dear Jester ” collections of stories. His plays have been translated into several Indian languages and staged in different parts of India. Before Sunset is considered a classic among modern Indian plays. Born in Orissa in 1936, Dr J P Das lives and works in Delhi.