The play, Tuka Abhang Abhang, staged at a State Government-sponsored competition recently, has already evoked criticism from the Brahmin community. Now, the writer, Vishnu Wagh, expects a full-blown controversy when the play is staged in Goa and Maharashtra in the next few months.

Wagh, who is also president of the Goa Youth Congress, expects his political rivals from the saffron parties to oppose the staging of the play as it also contains a strong anti-Hindutva message.

Among other things, the production contains references to the Ram temple at Ayodhya, which the saffron forces have protested. ``Since these scenes are not directly related to the play we shall make suitable alterationsin the script,'' the play's director Devidas Amonkar told The Indian Express. Incidentally, Amonkar himself is associated with the Sangh Parivar as the head of the Goa unit of Sanskar Bharat, which is affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Amonkar himself admits that certain elements within the Sangh Parivar have criticised his association with the play. ``But we are not blind followers of Hindutva. What is good about it needs to be supported but we should oppose its negative features,'' he says. Amonkar has also advised opponents of the play to watch it before raising objections.

Wagh says he was deeply influenced by Tukaram's abhangs and the works of historian A H Salunkh, author of Vidrohi Tukaram, and Dilip Chitre, who wrote Says Tukaram, a translation of the abhangs.

Wagh insists that Tukaram, originator of the Bhakti Movement in Maharashtra, has several miracles wrongly attributed to him. ``Sant Tukaram was a social and religious reformer whoseteachings have been misinterpreted by some people,'' he explains.

In the play, the saint is shown to have been murdered by his rival, Mambaji, a Brahmin priest. ``Tukaram's is one school of thought, Mambaji's is another, but the latter represents fundamentalist elements,'' says Wagh.

After the killing, Mambaji is depicted as referring to the abhangs of Tukaram, as per which the reformer-saint predicted his own ascent to heaven, by way of explaining the saint's disappearance.

The play, which marks the 350th death anniversary of Sant Tukaram, has consequently raised the hackles of the Brahmins. Just like Sant Tukaram himself did when he started the Warkari Movement in praise of Lord Vithoba to counter-balance the influence of Brahminism.