K. P. Khadilkar: Life in Theatre and History

Krishnaji Prabhakar Khadilkar was born on 25 November 1872 in the small Indian principality of Sangli that boasted a rich cultural history and a claim as the birthplace of modern Marathi drama. Following high school Khadilkar studied at the Deccan College in Poona, one of the oldest institutions of modern Western education in India founded in 1821 by the liberal Orientalist and education reformer Mountstuart Elphinstone. At this distinguished college in the huge colonial administrative unit known as the Bombay Presidency, Khadilkar combined familiarity with ancient Sanskrit literature and culture with proficiency in English, European literary traditions and modern political ideas. Soon after his graduation in 1892 he wrote his first play, Sawai Mahavraowancha Mrityu (The Death of Sawai Madhavrao, 1893) that dramatized events from Maratha history but drew imaginatively on several Shakespearean models. Eventually over a career of forty-two years Khadilkar authored a total of fifteen dramatic works – six plays and nine sangeet nataks or musical dramas – many of which, but especially Kichaka-Vadha (The Slaying of Kichaka, 1907), Manapman (Honor and Dishonor, 1911) and Swayamvara (1916) fused great theatrical entertainment with covert calls for nationalist resistance and enjoyed extraordinary popular success as well as high critical acclaim. Together with his main actor-singer Bal Gandharva, Khadilkar became the principal force in shaping a period now regarded by common consent as the golden age of Marathi theatre.