The 389th birth anniversary of Maharana Raj Singh (1629-1680) was celebrated with great enthusiasm, pomp and show in City Palace, Udaipur. On this occasion the Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation organized exhibitions and also a performance of the play “Gaurav Gatha Maharana Raj Singh Ki” at City Palace.
The play was written and directed by internationally renowned veteran theatre artist Shri Vilas Janve. Shri Arvind Singh ji Mewar graced the function to make this occasion all the more special.
Significant episodes from the life of Maharana Raj Singh ji were enacted in the play.
With his extra ordinary diplomacy, he had managed to save Mewar and retain peace during the regime of cruel and inhuman emperor Aurangzeb. He adopted a policy to please Aurangzeb as far as possible, so he helped to fight against his brothers Dara Shikoh and Shuja. He even sent his sons to greet the Emperor subsequent to his various victories.
But on many occasions he acted subtly in the larger interest even at the cost of annoying Aurangzeb. On receiving a letter from princess Charumati, sister of Kishangarh king, who wrote that Aurangzeb forcefully wants to marry her without her wish, whereas she actually wants to marry Maharana and not Aurangzeb; Maharaja went to Kishangarh and married Charumati without asking Aurangzeb. This created a situation of tension between Mughals and Mewar. But he resolved this tension by marrying off the daughter of a nearby kingdom to Aurangzeb’s son.
He also displayed his strong resentment to the Jajiya rule introduced by Aurangzeb aimed to crush Hindu communities. Facing problems of saving idols and temples, the Vaishnav devotees requested Maharana to give shelter to idol of Lord Shrinath ji (Incarnation of Lord Krishna) in Mewar against the wishes of Aurangzeb. Similarly, after death of Maharaja Jaswant Singh, Jodhpur was facing turmoil and he gave shelter to King of Jodhpur, Ajit Singh ji.
He thus diplomatically avoided conflict with Aurangzeb in the vital interest of Mewar. Maharana was also very kind towards his people. He did many charity works for his subject. Major Lakes like Rajsamand and Janasagar (Badi ka Taalaab) and a number of temples were constructed during his time.
The play was designed in a story telling format by Shri Vilas Janve, the playwrite and the director, who himself played the role of Kathavachak (the story teller) and explained the important aspects of the story through his narrations full of emotions. Mr. Janve undoubtedly handled this role honestly and with sincerity, and kept the audience glued to their seats during the play.
Manish Sharma in the role of Maharana Raj Singh, showcased his tremendous acting and storytelling talent with all the variations demanded by the role. Abdul Mubin Khan, as Aurangzeb did his best to bring out the true colour of the shrewd character of Aurangzeb, with his superb acting. Bhuwan Sharma impressed everyone in his very small but important role of Rawat Hari Singh, the enemy of Maharana Raj Singh. He also looked after sound during the play. Kiran Janve as Rajmata, Mohan Shivtare as Kasim Khan and Vishal Jain as Hameer Singh justified their roles to make the presentation very interesting.
Shri Vilas Janve made intelligent use of the limited space of the stage for this play by his able direction. In past too he also directed two plays in the City Palace, namely, “Gaurav Gatha Rana Sanga ki” on the 8th April and “Asmita”, a play based on the great deeds of Maharana Pratap, on the 16th June. All the plays were watched by the students as well as general public. It is quite difficult to stage historical plays and he has proved his talent by presenting the history in the right perspective while, at the same time, making the plays very interesting and captivating.
The Martand Foundation deserves accolades for the successful performances of these plays and the Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation deserves complements who took initiative to present such historical plays depicting the rich cultural heritage of Mewar.
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