_With a laugh and a song in my heart I have left all sorrow and grief far behind me: Oh, I roam and wander through woods and fields and nameless lands—never caring to turn my vagabond’s back!_
[_A DarkChamber. QUEEN SUDARSHANA. Her Maid of Honour, SURANGAMA_]
SUDARSHANA. Light, light! Where is light? Will the lamp never be lighted in this chamber?
SURANGAMA. My Queen, all your other rooms are lighted—will you never long to escape from the light into a dark room like this?
SUDARSHANA. But why should this room be kept dark?
SURANGAMA. Because otherwise you would know neither light nor darkness.
SUDARSHANA. Living in this dark room you have grown to speak darkly and strangely—I cannot understand you, Surangama. But tell me, in what part of the palace is this chamber situated? I cannot make out either the entrance or the way out of this room.
SURANGAMA. This room is placed deep down, in the very heart of the earth. The King has built this room specially for your sake.
SUDARSHANA. Why, he has no dearth of rooms—why need he have made this chamber of darkness specially for me?
SURANGAMA. You can meet others in the lighted rooms: but only in this dark room can you meet your lord.
SUDARSHANA. No, no—I cannot live without light—I am restless in this stifling dark. Surangama, if you can bring a light into this room, I shall give you this necklace of mine.
SURANGAMA. It is not in my power, O Queen. How can I bring light to a place which he would have kept always dark!
SUDARSHANA. Strange devotion! And yet, is it not true that the King punished your father?
SURANGAMA. Yes, that is true. My father used to gamble. All the young men of the country used to gather at my father’s house-and they used to drink and gamble.
SUDARSHANA. And when the King sent away your father in exile, did it not make you feel bitterly oppressed?
SURANGAMA. Oh, it made me quite furious. I was on the road to ruin and destruction: when that path was closed for me, I seemed left without any support, without any succour or shelter. I raged and raved like a wild beast in a cage—how I wanted to tear every one to pieces in my powerless anger!
SUDARSHANA. But how did you get this devotion towards that same King?
Sarangama . How can I tell? Perhaps I could rely and depend on him because he was so hard, so pitiless!