Shaping and Reshaping Destiny in Dharamveer Bharati’s Andha Yug

Abstract

Dharamveer Bharati’s play Andha Yug is set in the backdrop of the great Indian epic Mahabharata, but the questions that Bharati posits find relevance through ages. Bharati uses the backdrop of the great war as a curtain for the manifestation of perpetual questions pertaining to morality, its application within a reality, the bloodshed that stems from an obsession and the basic dichotomy between good and evil. The play highlights within itself the growth of an idea that is motivated by a collective passion, the sheer strength of which lead the characters into a mania and a destructive frenzy. The pre-determinism that Bharati initially builds upon through the “stock metaphor of blindness” is effectively debunked in the play, which the paper will attempt to establish. Thus, this paper seeks to elicit the position of Bharati that is traced through his characterisation and their introspections which finally shape and reshape their ultimate destiny.