Dharmo rakṣati bhakṣitaḥ.
Publisher: Īgal Pablikēśans
Published: 1977
Place of publication: Kumaṭā
Language: kan
Number of pages: 48
Description: A Brief Summary

     The title of this play is a distortion of an oft-quoted statement of the Bhagwadgita Dharmo Rakshati Rakshitaha, which means religion protects those who protect it. The twisted expression suggests that the religion protects those who devour it. This is identical with “Religion is opium of people”.  The introduction to the play says that, 
    “The fools who mistake the corpse for the living being-though aware that the pulse beating has stopped but the hawks do not permit the funeral- in between these two evils have solidly stood our holy places. Diseases have no religion. They do not spare any society. It is a kind of cowardice to say that only the Hindu priests have become degenerated and that the inner health of other priests is sound.”
     The action of this one act play surrounds a Muth (a Hindu monestery). Shri Vidyateertha Padangalavar who is the pontiff of this Muth is an innocent young priest not free from human weakness. Parupatyagara (the managing trustee) of this Muth controls the Muth and the pontiff and misappropriates the funds of the Muth. He silences the pontiff by arranging a mistress for him.The managing trustee is a hyprocrite and a cheat. He is a typical politician of rural India. During the British rule in India when there was freedom movement he had stolen a British collector’s horse and had been imprisoned on the charge of theft. After his release from prison he managed to be certified as a freedom fighter and he was equated with many other genuine freedom fighters who had gone to jail for the national cause. He was equated with them and received honour and various benefits that were conferred on the genuine freedom fighters. 
    His misdeeds include arranging secret affairs between Miss Sharada and the pontiff, selling sandalwood of the Muth to a smuggler who happened to be Muslim priest. Sandalwood was supplied by the government at a subsidized price to be used as holy paste. 	Instead, he arranged reddish tender coconut paste added with sandalwood essence. The Muth had large number cows. They were maintained for their milk which had to be used for the Abhishek (holy bath) of the idol of the Muth. The managing trustee sold that milk to a hoterlier secretly and bought milk powder from a Roman Catholic priest-Rev. Fr. Martin for the regular ritual. The milk powder was supplied by a charity organization of the U. S., to be distributed free of charge by the church. 
    Sharada, though a whore, was a woman of noble nature. She slowly tried to make the pontiff wiser in the ways of the world and tried to bring about reforms in the Muth. It went against the interest of the trustee. He applied coercive tactics and prevented the pontiff visiting the mistress. The latter did not accept this extreme step. Life became miserable to His Holiness. However, a local bank manager who had been watching these developments came forth to help the pontiff. 
    A large copper vessel was taken out from the Muth for tinning. After a few days it was brought in. The watchman at the door was outwitted. The woman had hidden inside that large container. She was concealed in a dark corner of the sanctum. Days rolled and the managing trustee was worried lest the pontiff should become a real celibate. There was pressure from other two religious men on the trustee. Their business was also affected. One day the trustee found her out. But his threats of blackmail were of no avail. She had come to possess some correspondence which evidenced his transaction with an idol smuggler. He was planning to sell the main deity of the Muth. She could send him to jail any time. 
     Finally a settlement was reached at under the arbitration of the two other religious heads. The main terms of the accord were that the trustee was not to interfere in the personal affairs of the pontiff and the pontiff was not to question the trustee about the finances of the Muth. Their spheres were clearly demarcated. If any dispute arose it was to be submitted to the arbitration of the Rev. Fr. Martin and Maulvi Hazrat Ali. 
    The play ends happily.
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