Page 171 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

146 Guy Poitevin

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of the Gadī Vadar, stone-workers for whom the donkey is a familiar
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and faithful daily carrier of stones. It is quite natural for those work-
ers to entertain feelings of sympathy towards a close assistant dedi-
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cated all his life to carrying stones for them and earth for kumbhars.
Connivance and familiarity, a sort of affinity, unite them. This was
already implicit in Vdr-02 and Vdr-17, and is supported by the ob-
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servation of the relationship that Vadars and kumbhars actually
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entertain with their donkeys. They may legitimately feel close to their
work companion and consider it as a kind of alter-ego. On the basis
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of that close association of disregarded and servile beings, Vadars
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compose the present narrative as a discourse meant to put a claim on
and express a request of dignified status equal to that of their master;
they accordingly direct the personage of the donkey to enact for them
an appropriate role.
With this purpose, the drama forthwith opens with a claim deci-
sively made by the donkey to marry the princess. That claim is at the
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outset definitely denied by the society. A Vadar is a Śudra, a manual
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labourer, a servant. An individual of subordinate condition has no right
whatsoever to pretend to the kingly status of a ruler. Such a pretence
on the part of the servant of a king who has only one daughter amounts
to a bid to be king. Such an offence cannot but be severely repressed.
The potter is well-advised to run away and save his life. He has not the
slightest notion of conspiring against the king and usurping a power
that he is meant only to serve.
Another story (Vdr-10) stages a somewhat comparable situation, but
with a significant difference. In Vdr-10 the princess herself, with the
consensus of the king and the king’s council, resolves to marry ‘whoever
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is the best in the whole world’. A Vadar proves that he is actually that
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‘best one’ as no-one except himself among all gods and humans can
move mountains and make palaces and houses out of rock for the wel-
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fare of all. The princess happily marries the Vadar, but he does not
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lay claim to the throne; he is only satisfied with the official recognition
of his excellence and the grant of land with good stones to perform his
duty of stone-worker. There is no expectation of breaking away from his
subordinate state. The king can, therefore, oblige with no reluctance.
In our present narrative (Vdr-24) it also takes no time for the donkey
to win the princess. But the deed this time is much more dazzling and
with no parallel. The performance is a direct challenge of the king’s