Scene 2

II

[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?

SURANGAMA . How can I tell? Perhaps I could rely and depend on
him because he was so hard, so pitiless!

SUDARSHANA. When did this change of feeling take place?

SURANGAMA. I could not tell you--I do not know that myself. A
day came when all the rebel in me knew itself beaten, and then my
whole nature bowed down in humble resignation on the dust of the
earth. And then I saw ... I saw that he was as matchless in
beauty as in terror. Oh. I was saved, I was rescued.

SUDARSHANA. Tell me, Surangama, I implore you, won't you tell me
what is the King like to look at? I have not seen him yet for a