At an early age Mudrarakshas was instilled with a love for politics, literature and folk styles of performance. College turned him right to left politically and enhanced what became a lifelong love of study and an abiding concern for economic fairness and social justice. Through the second half of the twentieth century and into the twenty-first he was a major Hindi playwright, editor, writer of radio plays, novelist, short story writer, satirist, journalist, and public intellectual.
Subhash Chandra Arya was born on 21 June 1933 in the village of Behta near Lucknow. He was named by his father, Shivcharan Lal 'Prem', in honor of the freedom fighter Subhash Chandra Bose, known popularly as Netaji, The Leader, a sobriquet which itself was probably in imitation of Adolf Hitler's common name Der Führer. His father performed in the folk theater of the region, especially Svang Sapera, but also Nautanki, Bhand, Bharthari, etc., and Subhash Chandra also performed with him and remained interested in these genres, and influenced by them, the rest of his life. Later in life, however, he was convinced that such folk performance genres were moribund. His maternal grandfather was the eminent literary figure Acharya Chatursen Shastri, who undoubtedly lay the seed of literature in his soul that sprouted and bloomed later.
As a young man he began studying philosophy under Dr. Devraj in a masters programme at Lucknow University. The Arya family, too, moved into Lucknow, taking a home in Durvijayganj. Subhash Chandra came to college a strident right-winger politically, but his fellow students who were communists and otherwise on the left engaged him in discussions which he lost, so he "converted" and remained solidly on the left the rest of his life. Also during this period he read deeply and widely and was actively interested in the arts, music and performance. He was particularly impressed by the work of the Lucknavi author Amritlal Nagar, whom he met, and from him he began learning how to write literature.
While Subhash Chandra was working on his masters degree, he wrote a scathing review of the anthology of experimental poetry Tar saptak, which he showed to his teachers, particularly Dr. Devraj, before sending it out for publication. Their advice was that it convincingly and justly skewered the introduction to Tar saptak and therefore should be published, but they also felt that, for the sake of his future employment, he should publish it under a pen name.
While Mudrarakshasa is the name of a Sanskrit play by Viśākhadatta, sometimes translated as The Minister's Seal, that term in Hindi was generally used to express the idea of a "printer's devil", meaning that an inexplicable mixup had occurred and instead of getting on the printed paper what the compositor had intended, what came out instead was absolute nonsense. (Some say it was Nagarjun who came up with this name for Subhash Chandra. Others say it was Dr. Devraj himself.) And thus, Mudrarakshas was born, and few people later in his life knew his earlier name.
The humor involved in his name remained a major trait of the character and the work of Mudrarakshas, as did his serious concern to use his talents as writer, director, playwright, radio play writer, author, journalist and public intellectual to make the world a better place, particularly for the oppressed.
