of execution (கழு மரம்) No doubt, MURUKAN'S act is a trifle melodramatic, for it is not in keeping with the seriousness of the occasion when a man's life stands doomed to extinction by the irreversible orders of an autocrat. But how does JIVAKA meet this almost farcical attempt of MURUKAN? He forgets his dignity and exclaims : "மாட்டுதிர் இவனையும் வன் கழுவதனில்" Can folly go further?

Kudila

This character naturally leads us on to its companion figure, KUDILA, the powerful minister, who has been moulding JIVAKA into whatever shape he liked. His personality dominates the play throughout. The central marow of his character is intense selfishness and inordinate ambition which in certain ardent natures follows selfishness as night the day. In an aside even in the first scene the key-note of his character is struck (I.i. 109). The sharp intelligence of NARAYANA has probed this arch-humbug to his bottom and has mercilessly dissected him. (II.i. 289-291). Even the dull intelligence of the ordinary farmer class of Jivaka's kingdom has grasped this central fact of Kudila's character - his inordinate ambition (III.ii. 132-135). Marital alliance with royalty - see to what a pitch his vaulting ambition soars! It was rendered feasible as a proposal only by the astounding imbecility of JIVAKA. In a soliloquy, which Kudila now and then indulges in, he seems to feel where this ambition of his had led him. He is sensible of the heavy burden of miseries, a man's limitless ambition may throw on others (IV.i. 3-4). In this all-consuming ambitious career he does not seem to care for the interests of even PALADEVA. He dismisses the thought of his son's marriage with MANONMANI quite in an unceremonious manner. (V.i. 1-16). He seems to arrive at a solitary pinnacle of his own where even his son does not keep him company at least in his affections. Such is the fate of intensely selfish natures which have not thawed themselves into acts of helpfulness and active sympathy towards others. Another trait of Kudila is his utter want of faith in human virtue. When his son PALADEVA - the dissolute libertine that he is - mustered up courage to cast in the teeth of his father his treason and the just Nemesis which had overtaken him in IV.iii. 286-288, KUDILA scolds him into silence in the sharpest manner (IV.iii. 289-290). It is almost certain that KUDILA borrows the phrase ஊழ்வினை from his son's mouth and repeats it with biting concentrated irony. He knows that ஊழ்வினை and all that farrago of learned nonsense will carry weight only with weak ignorant souls. Like a commonsense man of the world, he ascribes the occurrence to PALADEVA'S enemies. This want of faith inhuman virtue and in a moral law which protects virtue from becoming a meaningless show is almost absolute in KUDILA. Now, of all tragedies, this tragedy of the human soul is the most terrible, as Shakespeare has taught as