GIRISH KARNAD AS A WRITER OF MYTH AND

TRADITION
Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment for the
Award of the Degree of
Master of Arts in English
(SESSION - 2018-20)

SUPERVISOR SUBMITTED BY
MS. BABITA PUNDEER VAISHALI
ASSITANT PROFESSOR ROLL NO -18319307018
METHODIST GIRLS’ P. G. COLLEGE. CIVIL LINE,
ROORKEE
(Affiliated to H. N. B. Gharwal University)
 (SESSION-2018 to 2020)
GIRISH KARNAD AS A WRITER OF MYTH AND
TRADITION

A DISSERTATION SUMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FOR THE

AWARD
DEGREE OF MASTER OF ART IN ENGLISH
(SESSION 2018-2020)

SUPERVISOR SUBMITTED BY
MS. BABITA PUNDEER VAISHALI

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR ROLL NO-18319307018

 DATE- 28-07-2020

METHODIST GIRLS’ P. G. COLLEGE ROORKEE

DECLARATION
I, here by, declare that the work which is being presented in
this dissertation topic- ‘Girish Karnad as a writer of Myth and
Tradition’ in partial fulfillment or in the award of the degree of
master of art (English) submitted to Methodist Girls’ P. G.
College, Roorkee is an authentic record of my own work
carried out under the guidance of Ms. Babita Pundeer
Assistant professor, department of English, Methodist P. G.
College, Roorkee.

The matter embodied here in has not been submitted by me

for the awarded of any other degree or diploma
VAISHALI
 CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the declaration made by Ms.

Vaishali student of M. A. (English) is correct to the best
of my knowledge, she has completed her dissertation on
the topic- Girish Karnad as a writer of Myth and Tradition
in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree of Master
of Arts. She has carried out her work sincerely under my
supervision.

This dissertation report is a bonafide work and has not

been submitted for a degree at any other institute or
university.

(Ms. BABITA PUNDEER)

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I express my foremost gratitude to my research

supervisor, MS. Babita Pundeer, Assistant Professor for
providing me constant guidance. I also place my sincere
thanks to our director, Ms. J. Singh and principal, Dr.
Amita Srivastava for motivating me throughout my study
and providing all facilities. My special thanks to our
faculty Ms. Babita Pundeer for her useful suggestion and
valuable guidance. Last but not the least, I am extremely
obliged motivated and support from my parents and
friends during this great learning experience.

I am indebted to one all that has directly and indirectly

helped me to completed my work.
 CONTENTS
PREFACE 1
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION 8-20

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW 21-30

CHAPTER 3
SUMMARY 31-39

CHAPTER 4
CRITICAL ANAYLSIS 40-48

CHAPTER 5
CONCLUSION 49

REFERENCES
 PREFACE

GIRISH KARNAD, the very famous playwright, film director & Kannada
writer, who predominantly worked in south Indian cinema & Bollywood , Karnad
has always been inspiration for one & many. I feel fortunate to get a chance to
research on him & his works. Got inspired by Karnad & his work has lead me to
write a book about how I feel & experienced during my research so many that it
can get into your notice and inspired you as well. In my research I have talked
about how GIRISH KARND has taken the plunge into the unfathomable depths of
age old INDIAN MYTHOLOGIES to look for the subject matter of his plays &
has successfully & artistically converted them into the world which fits into the
present framework to reflect the present day social dilemma ,hiccups & problems .

One of the clamant feature of his two very famous plays HAYAVADANA
&NAGA-MANDALA is that the plot of the plays is based on myth. As in
HAYAVADANA he showcase the conflict between body & mind. Also he
highlights the infinite incomplete desires of human mind as he explained that
people are so conscious for their looks & have never satisfied for what all they have
& what they got . On the other hand NAGA – MANDALA is a powerful portrait
of the agony & anguish faced by both men & women in their development into
adult roles & social adjustment in the society where the individual is given little
space for self-development, awareness & liberty as a being.

In my “RESEARCH” I have put my almost efforts for my readers to give them

an appropriate content about the myth in his plays.
 INTRODUCTION

Girish Karnad was born at Matheran, Bombay presidency, British India in

19th may 1938. Girish Karnad was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada
writer, play writer & a Rhodes scholars, who worked in south Indian cinema &
bollywood . His rise as a play write in the 1960’s, marked the coming of age of
modern India play writing in Kannada, just as Badal sarkar did in Bengali,
Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He was a dramatist, who writes in Kannada & translate
his plays into English & received acclaim. His play have been translated into some
India language & direct by directors like Ebrahim Alkazi , B.V.Karanth Alyque
Padamsee, Prasanna, Arvind Gaur, satyadev Dubey & Zaffer Mohiuddin . He was
active in the world of Indian cinema working as an actor, director and screen
writer in Hindi & Kannada cinema, And has earned awards, he was conferred
Padam Shri and Padam Bhushan by the government of India & won four Film fare
awards, three film fare award for best director Kannada and the fourth and last
award for film fare best screen play. He was a presenter for a weekly science
magazine Programme called ‘TURNING POINT’ that aired on
Doordarshan in 1999. Karnad died on 10th June 2019 at Bengaluru at the age of
81 due to multiple organ failure following prolonged illness,

EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION

Girish karnad was born in Matheran, in present day Maharashtra, in 1938. His
mother Krishna Bai mankikar was a young widow with a son who belonged to a
poor Brahmin family. Since it was necessary for her earn a living, she began
working as a nurse & cook (general housekeeper) for the bedridden wife a certain
Dr. Raghunath Karnad a doctor in the Bombay medical services. Some five years
later, And while the first wife was still alive, Krishna Bai & DR. Raghunath Karnad
were married in a private ceremony. The marriage was controversial not because of
bigamy (It was legal until 1956 for a Hindu man to have more than one wife) but
because of the man prevailing social prejudice against widow remarriage. There for
the wedding was held privately and under the dispensation of the ARYA SAMAJ, a
reform organization which condones widow remarriage. Girish was the third of
four children born thereafter.

KARNAD’S initial schooling was in Marathi, later after his father was transferred
to Sirsi in the Kannada speaking regions of Bombay presidency, Karnad was
exposed to travelling theatre groups and natak mandalis, which were experience
a period of efflorescence during the iconic Balgandharva era. As a youngster, He was
an admirer of yakshangana and the theatre inhis village . His family moved to
Dharwad in Karnataka when he was fourteen. where he grew upwith his two sisters and
one niece.

He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics and statistics from Karnataka arts
college Dharwad (Karnataka University), in 1958. After graduation, he went to
England and studied philosophy, politics and Economics at Magdalen in Oxford as
a Rhodes scholar (1960-63), earning his Masters of Arts degree in philosophy,
political science, and economics. Karnad was elected the president of the
Oxford Union in 1962-63.

CAREER

His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the coming age of modern Indian
playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sarkar did in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in
Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He was a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith
Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India.

He wrote his first play, the critically acclaimed Yayati (1961), while still at Oxford.
Center on the story of a mythological king, the play established Karnad’s use of the
themes of history and mythology that would informed his work over the following
decades. Karnad’s next play, Tughlaq (1964), tells the story of the 14 th-century
Sultan Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq and remains among the best known of his work.
Samskara (1947) marked Karnad’s entry into filmmaking. He wrote the screenplay
and played the lead role in the film, an adaptation of an anticaste novel of the same
name by U.R.Ananthamurthy. karnad followed with Vamsha Vriksha (1971), co-
directed by B.V.Karnath. During this period karnad continued to produce work as a
playwright, including Hayavadana (1971), widely recognized as among the most
important play of post-independence India. For his contributions to theatre, he was
awarded the Padma Shri, one of India’s top civilian honours, in 1974.

Karnad’s other well- known films in Kannada included Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane
(1977; Godhuli) and Ondonondu Kaaladalli (1978). He also worked in Hindi,
directing the critically acclaimed Utsav (1984), an adaptation of Shudraka’s 4 th-
century Sanskrit play Mrichchakatika. With the play Naga-Mandala (1988), Karnad
framed an unhappy contemporary marriage in imagery drawn from Kannada folk
tales. For four decades Karnad composed plays, often using history and mythology
to tackle contemporary issues. He translated his plays into English and received
acclaim.

In 1992 the Indian government awarded Karnad another of its highest honours, the
Padma Bhushan, in recognition of his contribution to the arts. He was the recipient
of the Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary prize, in 1999 for his contributions to
literature and theatre, he continued to work in film, directing such movies as
Kanooru Heggadithi (1999) and acting in Iqbal (2005), Life Goes On (2009), and
24 (2016), among others.

His plays have been translated into some Indian languages and directed by directors
like Ebrahim Alkazi, B.V.Karanath, Alyque Padamsee, Prasanna, Arvind Gaur,
Satyadev Dubey, Vijay Mehta, Shyamanand Jalan, Amal Allanaa and zafer
Mohiuddin.
After working with then oxford university press, Chennai for seven years (1963-70)
, Heresigned to take to writing full time . while in madras. (now known as
Chennai) he gotinvolved with local amateur theatre group the madras players.

During (1987-88), he was at the university of Chicago as visiting professor and

Fulbright playwright –in-residence. During his tenure at Chicago NAGA-
MANDALA had its world premium at the Guthrie Theatre in Minneapolis based on
Karnad’s English translate of the Kannada original.

He served as director of the film and Television Institute of India (1974 - 1975)
and chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the national academy of the
performing arts (1988 - 93). He served as director of Nehru center and as minister
of culture, in the Indian High commission, London (2000-2003).

Karnad is known as a playwright. His plays, written in Kannada, have been

translated into English (mostly translated by himself) and some Indian languages.
Kannada is his language of choice.

When Karnad started writing plays, Kannada literature was highly influenced by
the renaissance in western literature. Writers would choose a subject that looked
entirely alien to manifestation of native soil. Rajagopalachari’s version of the
Mahabharata published in 1951, left a deep impact on him and soon, sometime in
the mid-1950s, one day he experienced a rush of dialogues by characters from the
Mahabharata in Kannada.

“I could actually hear the dialogues being spoken into my eyes…. I was just the
scribe,” said is alter interview. Yayati was published in 1961, when he was 23 years
old. It is based on the story of king Yayati one of the ancestors of the Pandavas,
who was cursed into premature old age by his preceptor, Shukracharya, who was
incensed at Yayati’s infidelity. Yayati is turn asks his sons to sacrifice their youth
for him, and one of them agrees. It ridicules the ironies of life through
characters in Mahabharata. The play in Hindi was adapted ambitious idealism and
ended up in disillusionment. This established Karnad, now 26 years old, as a
promising playwright in the country. It was staged by the National School of
Drama repertory under the direction of Ebrahem Alkazi with the actor Manohar
singh, playing the visionary king who later becomes disillusioned and turns bitter,
Admist the historic Purana Quila in Delhi. It was staged in London by the National
school of drama for the festival of India in 1982.

HAYAVADANA (1971) was based on a theme drama from the Transposed Heads,
a 1940 novella by THOMAS MANN, which is originally found in the 11 th century
Sanskrit text Kathasaritsagar. herein he employed the folk theater from
Yakashagana. A German version of the play was directed by Vijaya Mehta as part
of repertoire of Deutsches National Theater, Weimar.

NAGA- MANDALA was based on a folk tale related to him by A.K. Ramanujan
brought him the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award for the most creative work of
1989. It was directed by J. Garland wright, as part of celebration of the 30 th
anniversary of Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis. The theatre subsequently
commissioned him to write the play, Agni Mattu Male (The fire & the rain) thought
before it come Tideland (Death by Beheading 1990) which used the backdrop the
rise of Veer Shaivism, a radical protest and reformed movement in 12th century
Karnataka to bring out current issues.

MOVIES

KARNAD made his acting as well as screen writing debut in a Kannada movie,
Samsara (1970), based on novel by Satyabhama a ready. The movie won the first
president Golden Lotus Award Kannada cinema.

In television, he played the role of swami’s father in the tv series Malgudi Days
(1986-1987) based on R.K, Narayan’s book, directed by Kannada actor and director
Shankar Nag. He also hosted the science magazine Turning Point on Doordarshan,
in the early 1990s. His Hindi movies include Nisha ant (1975) Matheran (1976),
Swami 1977 and Pukar (2000). He has acted in a number of Nagesh Kuku Noor
films, starting with Iqbal (2005), where Karnad’s role of the ruthless cricket coach
got him critical acclaim. This was followed by (2006), 8x10 Tasveer (2009) and a
Aashayein 2010. He played a key role in movies, “Ek Tha Tiger “2012. And its
sequel “Tiger Zinda Hai” 2017 produced by Yash Raj films.

He made his directorial debut with Vamsha Variksha (1971), based on a Kannada
novel by S.L.Bhyrappa. It won him National Film Award for Best Direction along
with B.V. Karanath, who co-directed the film. Later, Karnad directed several
movies in Kannada and Hindi, including Godlily (1977) and Utsav (1984). Karnad
has made number of documentaries, like one on the Kannada poet Dr.Bendre
(1972), Kanaka-Purandara (English,1988) on two medieval Bhakti poets of
Karnataka, Kanaka Dasa and Purandara Dasa, and The Lamp in the Niche
(English,1989) on Sufism and the Bhakti Movement. Many of his films and
documentaries have won several national and international awards.

Some of his famous Kannada movies include Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane,

Ondanondu Kaladalli, Cheluvi and Kaadu and most recent film Kanooru Heggaditi
(1999), based on a novel by Kannada writer Kuvempu. Karnad has acted in the
Kannada gangster movie Aa Dinagalu.

OTHER WORKS

He provided the voice of A. P.J. Abdul Kalam, former president of India, in the
audiobook of Kalam’s autobiography by charkha audiobook, wings of fire.

AWARD AND HONOURS

 For Literature

 Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and Varthur Navya Award – 1972

 Padam Bhushan – 1972

 Padam Shri - 1974

 Kannada Sahitya Parishat Award – 1992

 Jnanapith Award – 1998

 Kalidas Samman – 1998

 Rajyotsava Award

 Honorary degree by University of southern California, Los Angeles – 2011

For Cinema

National Film Award

 1971: Best Direction: Vamsha Varika

 1973: Best Feature Film: kaadu

 1977: Best Feature Film in kannada: Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane

 1978: Best Screenplay: Bhumika

 1978: Best Feature Film in kannada : Ondanondu kaladalli

 1989: Best Non – Feature Film : kanaka purandara

 1990: Best Non-Feature on social issues The Lamp in the Niche

 1992: Best Film On Environment Conservation : Cheluvi

 1980 : Filmfare Best Screenplay Award : Godhuli

 1980 : Filmfare Best Supporting actor Award : Asha : nominated

 1983 : Filmfare Award for best actor kannada – Ananda Bhairavi

 1982 : Filmfare Best Supporting actor Award : Teri kasam: Nominated

 1995-96 : Best Supporting Actor – sangeetha sagar Ganayogi Panchakshara Gavai

 1971-72 : First Best Film – Vamsha Varika

 1989- 90 : Best Supporting Actor – Santha Shishunala Sharita

 1971-72 : Best Dialogue Writer – Vamsha Varika

 1999 : Best Feature Film in kannada : kannuru

OTHERS

 Gubbi veeranna Award for his Service to theatre ( as a playwright ) .

 Karnad served as the director on the film and television institute of india from 1974 to
1975

, the Indian co-chairman for the joint media committee of culture from 1984 to
1993,

chairman of the Sangeet Natak Academy From 1988 to 1993, and president of Karnataka

Natakna Academy from 1976 to 1978.

 Honorary Doctorate from University Of Southern California , Los Angeles – 2011

 1996-Dr.T.M.A.Pai Konkani Distinguished a Achievement Award for performing Arts .

PERSONAL LIFE
 While working in madras for oxford university press on his return from England, he met
his future wife saraswathi Ganapathy at a party. They decided to marry but the marriage
was only formalished ten years later, when karnad was 42 years old. Saraswathi was born
to a parsi mother , Nurgesh Mugaseth and a kadava hindu father, kodander a Gannapsthy.
The couple had two children. They lived in Bangalore .

CONTROVERSIES

At the Tata literary Festival held in Mumbai in 2012, Karnad was invited to speak
about “His Life in Theatre” in hour long session. Instead of talking about the
subject, he took the opportunity to lash out at V.S. Naipaul for his “Antipathy
Towards Indian Muslims”. V.S. Naipaul has earlier been conferred the lifetime
achievement award by the festival’s organizers for having honored Naipaul.

The audience, which had gathered to hear karnad speak, had mixed reactions to the
speech. Some, like organizer Anil Dharker, tried ineffectually to steer the speech
toward less controversial waters. Other were amused by the episode, and some
commented the research and logic that had gone into the speech. a few weeks after
this, Karnad again created controversies by claiming that Rabindranath Tagore,
who wrote India’s National Anthem, was a great poet but a second rate playwright.

In November 2015, during celebration marking the anniversary of 18 th century

Muslim ruler Tipu Sultan’s birth, karnad stated that Bangalore International
airport should have been named after Tipu Sultan instead of Kempe Gowda.
apologized the following day.

MOVIES DIRECTED

 D.R.Bendre (1972,documentary)
 Tabbaliyu Neenade Magane in (1977, kannada)
 Godhuli (1977, hindi)
 Ondanondu Kaladalli (1978,kannada)
 Kanooru Heggadithi (kannada)
 Kaadu (1973, kannada)
 Durga in Mahendra
 Utsav (hindi)
 Who Ghar (1984, hindi ) based on Kirtinath Kurtakotis kannadaplay as Mani
 The lamp in the niche (1990) ( Documentary )
 Cheluvi (1992, kannada and hindi (dubbed))
 Chidambara Rahasya (2005, kannada ) (tv film for DD1)

PRODUCTION

 Om Namo (A Mini Series For Doordashan, Directed By K M Chaitanya)

 Kuauma Bale (A Mini Series For Doordarshan, Directed By K M Chaitanya)

WORKS IN TRANSLATION

 Yayati. Oxfords University Press.

 Yayati . Tr. by B.R Narayana.
 Rajkamal Prakashan Pvt Ltd, 2008.
 Tuglaq : A play in 13 Scenes , Oxford University Press, 1972
 ; Hayavadana ; Tuglaq . Oxford University Press, 1996 Tuglaq (Assamese)
Translation Utpal Datta
 Hayavadana, Oxford University Press, 1975.
 Tuglaq (Marathi) , Tras . vijay Tendulkar.
 Three plays : Naga-Mandala
 Tuglaq . Tr by B. V. Karanath .
 Rajkamal Prakashan Pvt Ltd, 2005
 Collected plays vol 1 : Tuglaq , Hayavadana, bali: The Sacrifice, Naga-
Manadala . Oxford University Press. 2005.
 Collected plays : Taledanda , The Fire And The Rain , the Dreams Of Tipu Sultan,
Flowers and images : Two Dramatic Monologues: Flowers: Broken Images,
vol 2 Oxford University Press, USA, 2005.
 Three plays by Girish Karnad . Oxford University Press.
 Cheluvi (Assamese) Translation Utpal Datta

TV SERIES

 Malgudi Days (1987) as Swami;s Father

 Indradhanush (1989) as Appu and Bala’s Father
 Khandaan (Tv Series)
 Apna Apna Aasman

FURTHER READING

 Jaydipsinh Dodiya, ed, The plays of Girish Krnad: Critical Perspectives

Prestige Books, New Delhi, 1999.
 Pardeep Trikha, Multiple Celebrations, Celebrating Multiplicity in Girish Karnad
– A Monograph
 Chhote Lal Khatri, Girish Karnad : Naga- Mandala: a critique. Prakash book
depot, 2006.
 Dr. Prafull D. Kulkarni, The Dramatic world of Girish Karnad. Creative Books
Nanded,2010.
 P Dhanavel, The Indian Imagination of Girish Karnad, Prestige Books New
Delhi, 2000.
 G Baskaran, ed, Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani: Methods and Motives, Yking
Books, Jaipur, 2012.
 Vanashree Tripathi, Three plays of Girish Karnad : Hayavadana, Tale-Danda,
The Fire and the Rain, Prestige Books, New Delhi, 2004.
 Neeru Tandon (2006). “ Myth and Folklore in Girish Karnad’s Fire and the
Rain . Perspectives and challenges in Indian- English drama. Atlantic Publishers &
Dist.
 Julia Leslie, “ Nailed to the past: Girish Karnad’s plays” Journal of south Asian
Literature,1999, 31-2(for1996-7).
 Julia Leslie, “ Understanding Basava: History, Hagiography and a Modern
Kannada Drama” Bulletin of the school of Oriental and African Studies,
1998,61,pp.
 Zinnia Mitra “ A Tale of Subversion with a conundrum of mask: A reading into
Girish Karnad’s Naga Mandala “ in Indian drama in English ed.K.Chakraborty,
Delhi.

ACTIVISM

He was a proponent of Multi - Culturalism and freedom of expression. He was a

critic of religious fundamentalism. He had publicly condemned the demolition
of babri masjid in 1992 and later spoke against the attempts to create controversy
about the Idgah Maidan in Hubli. He had opposed Rss, bjp and other
organizations on several occasions. He opposed Narendra Modi for the prime
minister’s post in the 2014 parliament election. He was one of the 200 writer who
put on open letters against hate politics and for “diverse and equal india” during
the 2019 general elections. With a tube in his nose, he wore a placed saying “me
too Varban Naxal” at the first death anniversary of slain journalist Gauri
Lankesh.
Karnad claimed that Tipu Sultan was the greatest king controversy about the king.
Karnad was a Supported of the forum for communal harmony.
 LITERATURE REVIEW

“ Subhendu Sarkar “ gave his review on Girish Karnad’s play ‘

Hayavadana’Hayavadana : A Critical Appraisal Hayavadana, play Girish
Karnad wrote combining a mythical story found in the Sanskrit vetala
panchavimasti which forms a part of somdeva’s kathasarithasagara and Thomas
Mnn’s reworking on the table in his story, ‘ The Transposed Heads’, depicts the
duality between the desire and reason, between friendship and love. However,
the central theme of karnad’s play revolves round the idea of
incompleteness and the human desire to overcome alienation and become
perfect . karnad in Hayavadana explore the theme of incompleteness at three
levels: Divine, animal and human. The play begins using the tradition of
worshipping the mask of lord Ganesha, the elephant headed hindu god , the
harbinger of success and prosperity But here Ganesha adds to the theme of
incompleteness. Bhagavata, who also play the role of sutradhar (stage manage)
states: A elephant’s head on a human body, a broken task and cracked belly –
whichever way you look at him he seems the embodiment of imperfection, of
incompleteness.The theme of alienation and the yearning for completeness is next
introduced by bringing in the grotesque figure of Hayavadana, a man with the
head of a horse, who was born as a result of the marriage of a stallion. He spends
days in melancholy frantically wanting to be a complete man. Bhagavata advise
him to visit the temple of goddess. Kali of Mount chitrabook padmini – kapila
only to merge with it at the end. Hayavadana’s dream of perfection turns into
reality but only in an on ironical manner. Giving a comical twist to the subplot
karnad makes him a complete horse.“Swathilekha Thampy” gave a literary
review on

An analysis on the plays Naga-Mandala and Hayavadana The folk elements and
Gender roles Girish karnad is one of the modern playwrights who experimented
with drama and created a new wave to Indian drama history. He is not only a
kannada playwright, but also an acclaimed Indian writer who had a distractive
voice in the literary scenario. Karnad is also noted for his bold and courageous
stand against the right –wing politics of india. He is a writer who travels beyond
boundaries of Karnataka, india and abroad which created a exclusive space for
Indian drama. He had an intellectual clarity made his purpose about the theme and
from each play. This clarity made his play popular both in india and abroad. Girish
Karnad , bring a very ambitious person always had a thoughtful mind and about
literature and drama he was fascinated by the history, particularly Indian history
which resulted his most original historical plays Tuglaq. The dreams of Tippu
Sultan and thale danda. On the other hand, he explored the realm of folk and
myths which produced beautiful mythical plays include yayati, Hayavadana, Naga-
Mandala and broken mirrors.

In the review, the focus will be on mythical plays of girish karnad - specifically on
Hayavadana and Naga-Mandala. These plays can be taken as a perfect example for
folk theatre. Sheelita Das, who is a scholar in her paper “ Folk theatre – its
relevance in development communication in india” describes the concept of folk
culture in a precise manner. It is as follows:Folk theatre is a composite art from in
india with a fusion of elements from music,dance, pantomime, versification, plastic
arts, religion and festival peasantry . The folktheatre heaving roots in native culture
is embedded in local identity and social values.Besides providing mass
entertainment, it helps Indian society as indigenous tools of interpersonal, inter-
group and inter- village communication for ages. Folk theatre has been used
extensively in india to propagate critical social, political and cultural issues in the
form of theatrical messages to create awareness among the people. As an
indigenous from it breaks all kinds of formal barriers of human communication
and directly to the people.
Dr. Anju Bala gave her review on mythological aspects in Girish
Karnad‘NAGA-MANDALA’Myth refers to colourful stories that tells about the
origin of humans and the cosmos.As stories.Myths articulate how characters enact
an ordered sequence of events.According to the common misconception of the
term myth are merely primitivefictions, illusions or opinions based upon false
reasoning. It out of folktales. According toM.H.Abrams:Folktales have been
normally understood as traditional verbal materials and social rituals that have
been handed down primarily by r, word mouth, folktales developed and continued
to flourish best communities where few people can read or write. It include,
among other things ,legends, superstitions, song, tales, proverbs, riddles, spells,
rhymes; pseudo- scientific core about the weather, plants and animals. In reality,
mythology includes much more than grate school stories about the Greek
andRoman deities or clever fable for children’s enjoyment. As mark scholar in
William Blake:The political to vision, says “ myth is fundamental, the dramatic
representation of our deepest instinctual life of a primary awareness of man in
universe, capable of many configuration, upon which all particular opinion and
attitudes depends.” According to Alan.W.Watts, “ myth is to defined as a complex
of stories which for various reasons human brings regards as demonstration of the
inner meaning of the universe and of human life”

‘Maninder kaur’ gave an article on Girish karnad’s Hayavadana –A reworking

of myth and folk narrative on contemporary linesGirish karnad’s talking to myth
and legends in his plays was more an act of impulse ratherthan intention. Perhaps
it was inevitable for karnad who was exposed to traditional forms of theatre in
childhood. The three kinds of theatre between which he moved swiveled and
wroteplays, were the company Natak,yakshagana have been influence by them,
whatever the reason, whether it is the influence or traditional theatre upon him or it
is his incapacity to invent new stories as he confesses, he had rightly chosen to use
myths and legends for his plays. He feels they are very much relevant today,
and hence, seeks to adapt myths and folk forms in his plays. Thus he affects a
synthesis between the ancient and the modem to serve his purpose of using the
post to illuminate the present. Girish karnad in his ‘HAYAVADANA’ used the
same myths to project the theme of fundamental ambiguity of human life for this,
he combines the transposed heads plot of mann with Hayavadana story is entirely
karnad’s own invention.. This is how karnad makes use of a myth. He takes them
only in parts and the rest he supplements with his imagination .

‘Mr. Dimple Raj gave her review on Myth and Modernity: A discursive study of
Girish karnad’s selected plays Girish karnad who have endeavored to explore
myths in the modern scenario. A janapitha awardee, karnad is the author of
many well known and produced plays in kannada. He has experimented with the
fusion of the traditional and the modern dramatic forms and content. Karnad
visualizes myths to tackle contemporary issues. Through this research article I
would like to introduce the employment of Indian myths as a concrete base to
establish and portray the particularities of human reletionships and the ironies of
day to day life, alloyed with the distinguished zest of Indian myths by the
playwright.

‘Mrs. S.Ramya’ gave an article on a study of hindu mythology in Girish

karnad’s Hayavadana and Naga-Mandala

Indian writers in English especially dramatist were on the search for new avenues
for their creation folk tales, mythologies, episodes from epics like the Ramayana
and the Mahabharata themselves admirably to their cause. During the late 19 th
century professional companies in Karnataka and Maharashtra began to stage
mythological plays. A myth is defend as a legend, a story, a sage of superhuman
will, courage. And strength handed down to the people by word of mouth over
the long period of time, and put it into written from by poets who made changes in
theme whenever it suited their purposes to do so karnad widely uses episode from
Indian mythology as a base for his plays. Myths and legends have an enduring
significance for the fundamental human obsession. Indian writing in English is a
product of our history it is a product of our culture. Drama can not be thought of
without the possibility of its performance. All Indian literature for centuries had
been drawing on myths. The plays taken for this study both Hayavadana and Naga-
Mandala are mythical and folktoristic. While Naga- Mandala is formed on two
kannada folk-tales, Hayavadana is molded from the story of the
vetalapanchavismsa, of Thomaas Mann and of karnad’s invention. This paper
concentrates on theses famous plays in terms of the use of hindu mythological.
Elements like gods and goddesses, animals etc. It further verifies the mythological
authentically by comparing the hindu mythology and karnad’s use of it. ‘Smita
Dhantal’ gave her review on women characters in the selects plays of Girish
karnad and Vijay Tendulkar Girish Karnad and Vijay Tendulkar are prominent
Indian playwrights. They have been instrument in the ( kannada and Marathi,
respectively). Their plays were originally written in their vernacular language and
were later translated into english. Women characters play an important role in
their plays. Karnad leans towords mythology to build his unconventional women
characters who are bold and open about their feelings and psyche. Whereas,
Tendulkar looks at the contemporary society to build woman characters who are
objectified and are victims of the patriarchal society. Both the writers have made
a conscious attempt to reflect upon the feminist ideology of freeing woman
from the bondages of the patriarchal society their woman characters are from
different backgrounds and ages, and play different roles, struggling to find their
own identity their characters are deep and intense. This research paper will
compare and contrast the women characters from the selected work of girish
karnad and vijay tendulkar.

‘Scholar Pakistan’ gave his review on looking at the past refiguration of history in
Giris karnad’s The Dream of Tippu Sultan To review and revise history and
to present it in an imaginative from is one of the challenges taken up by south –
Asian historical theatre. However writing back to the the empire poses many
problems, the foremost of the danger of hegemonic re-construction which
ultimately leads to an inversion of the power structure through replacement of
substitution without making a genuine effort to engage with the
colonical/western perspective along with its tools of erasure and overwriting.
Such a text, ultimately written as a rebuttal, without trying to delve into the very
process by which the colonical version of history is created, indirectly legitimizes
its perspective. Talking Girish Karnad’s The Dream Of Tippu Sultan I explore
how south-Asian theatre not only deals with the politics of representation
questioning euro-centric conception of objectivity and authenticity by decentering
colonical version of history but also deconstructs historiography by challenging the
dichotomy between fact and fiction and most importantly questioning the nature of
historical truth itself.

‘Godvgunuri Parsad’ gave an article on the topic of Girish Karnad as a myth-

Intoxicated modern playwright He attempt in this paper is to study karnad’s play
from the point of view of themes and techniques. While doing so, the focus will
mainly be on man –woman relationships with the institution of marriage in the
postcolonical society. Karnad is india’s best living playwright whose journey from
yayati to boiled beans on toost holds a mirror to the very evolution of a truly “
Indian Theatre” which can be true to its traditions and at the same time
responsive to contemporary concerns.

‘Sarvana Jyothi’ gave an article on themes in the play of Girish Karnad

Karnad’s concerns is with the life of the modern man that is very complex and
lacks in wholeness. The employment of the old tales is to focus on the obscurity
of modern life with a end conflicts. In this way tha folk tales becomes vehicles for
modern living under the impact ofwestern ideologies and system of knowledge
viewing human behavior from different angles. His outlook towords the present is
colour existentialism, symptomatic of a fundamental change in the outlook of the
modern man to wars human life and its origin. It cuts man adrift from his
metaphysical origin and questions the moral and spiritual values, which hider
human freedom. Man is projected as living in a human society acting and
reacting with other follow beings. In Girish Karnad these modern theories are
shows operating in the traditional tales. It is under influence og these Oedipus
complex appears to marks all mothers support from existential alienation to
obviate which they indulge in violence and cruelty, and , the idea of god and
religion is symptomatic of their helpless condition and neurotic mind only. The
historical events in karnad mirror the current political, religious and social
happenings

‘Dr. Manisha Dwivedi’ gave his review on the topic of Study of Girish Karnad
as a great Indian drama writer According to dr. Manisha Dwivedi, Girish Karnad
is a playwright, poet, actor, director, critic, translator and cultural administrator all
rolled into one. He has been rightly called the“Renaissance Man” kalidas and
merchant, renaissance man whose celebrity is based on decades of polific and
consistent output on native soil. He belongs to a generation rakesh and vijay
tendulkar who have created a national theatre for modern india which is the legacy
of his generatiodn. Karnad is the most famous as a playwright. His plays written
in kannad have been widely translated into English amd all major Indian
languages. Karnad plays are written neither in English , except few, in which he
dreamed of earning international literary fame, nor in his mother tongue Konkani.
Instead they are composed in his adopted languages kannad thereafter translated by
himself into English a language of adulthood. Karnad’s practices of drawing
source from myth and tales lends the play an immediacy of appeal. Another
important fact is that since the audiences are familiar with the theme they
curiously watch or read the play, to know the perception and focus handled by the
dramatist.

‘ Mrs . Amrita Sengar’ gave her review on Indian ethos and dramatic
craftsmanship A fusion in Karnad’s plays Girish karnad is the most popular media
personality in contemporary india. In his plays karnad uses the various dramatic
convention and motifs of folk art, like masks, curtains, sutradhara, the seemingly
unrelated comic episodes to uphold the rich cultural heritage of india. The themes
of his plays do have contemporary significance but the main focus is on the present
action of complex cultural fabric of india.

‘Shivaja Shankar Kamble’ gave his review on New morality in Girish Karnad’s
Tuglaq Balchandra Nemade, a serious critic, advanced the term new morality as
a modern literary value to set a very high premium on the morality of the writer.
Nemade dichotomizes morality into two divisions viz old morality and new
morality which is more akin to Mahatma phule’s true morality and false
morality, expressed in his book entitled sarvajanik satya dharm. According to
phule, morality ,as expressed in Ramayana, bhagavata is unreal morality of
spurious, wicked and bogus scriptures. For example, in an imaginative (romantic)
Ramayana, ravana had ten noses, twenty eyes, twenty ears and twenty hands but
one anus and two legs. It seems unnatural and magical. Phule objects to seta
swayamwara. Rama’s being monogamous, on the ground of false morality and
prefer true morality in aesop’s stories. The writer has to employ his own scale of
values, which are based on the original social values, since literature is an art from
the writer must imply a plane, a condition which goes beyond social values. This is
what nemade means by the morality of a writer.

‘Abha Shukla Kaushik’ gave her review on subaltern historiography : girish

Karnad’s The dreams of tippu sultan The term post colonial does not lend it self to
any fixed definition. Post colonial discourse, sharing the mood of postmodernism
and questioning the continuation of hierarchies, does not merely suggest a reversal
of the many binaries that exist in the contemporary world. Post colonial is basically
a shift in perspective. It is difficult to isolate post colonial literary theories forbids
their purely literary use. The fact that the term lends itself to more than one
interpretation allows its use in different context. It is an interdisciplinary field that
sometimes encroaches upon what can be identified as cultural studies, feminist
studies, dalit movement etc. post colonial investigation actually connects the
literary with the sociological, the historical, the cultural, the political and the
economic.One of the early attempts to theories post coloniality is made by Bill
Ashcroft, Gareth Griffith and Helen Tiffin in their book ‘The Empire Writer Back:
theory and practices in post colonial literature’ later Edword said, Homi Bhab and
Gayatri Chakravorty spivakemerged as the main voices. The word post colonial
can be understood by drawing on both the common wealth including the erstwhile
colonies, and the more complex use of the word post as something which
involves the post as well as the present. In the context of postmodernism and post
structuralism it is difficult to accept any post something as that which comes after
something. Beginning of the post-independence phase in a country need not mean
the beginning of post colonial period. The many discussion regarding the term
postcolonial make it clear to us that in the field of literary theories, this term is very
rarely being used to denote something that comes after colonialism. With the
dropping of the hyphen, the term post colonialism is effectively being used as an
always present tendency in any literature of subjugation marked by a systematic
process of cultural domination through the imposition of power.
 SUMMARY

‘HAYAVADANA’

Hayavadana is a part of an Indian writer Girish Karnad. The play opens with worship to
Lord Ganesa. Bhagwata comes to the stage. he is a character in the play and also is the
narrator of the play and also is the narrator of the play. He seeks blessings from Lord
Ganesh for the successful performance of the play. Through his narration, he talks the
audience to a place, called as Dharampur and introduction the audience to the king
Dharamsheel. Then he puts some rhetorical question on incompleteness of man and God;
and also on the perfection of a man. During his narration, he introduces two characters
who are mutual friends. The first one is Devdutta. He is sharp minded and highly
intellectual person. He has defeated poets and pundit’s with his knowledge. He is a son of
Brahmin. The second one is Kapila. He is a muscular man. He has a great physical
strength and he is a son of Lohar (Black Smith). Both Devduttra and kapila are in contrast
as the former lacks power and strength, the letter lacks knowledge and intellectual.
According to playwright the head of Devdutta (knowledge) and the body of Kapila
(physical strength) accomplish a complete man. The narrator compares their pair to the
pair of Ram –Laxman, Luv-Kush and Krishna-Balram. All these are the pairs of great
brothers of Hindu mythology.

A character appears on the stage shouting and running towards Bhagwata. He tells
Bhagwata that he has just seen a strange creature that looks like a horse (by face) but
speaks like a man. That creature has the head of a horse and the rest of the body of a man.
Without paying any heed to his talks, Bhagwat asks him to get ready for the play. But he
runs away from the stage and soon after he comes back shouting again. Now a strange
creature appears on the stage. As earlier described by the actor, the creature has the head
of a horse and the body of a man. For a moment, Bhagwat thinks that someone is wearing
the mask of horse. He tries to remove that mask but realizes that it is a truly half a man
and half horse. Now the creature starts to introduced itself before Bhagwata, and the
audience.

The creature introduces himself as Hayavadana and starts to narrate his story. He
tells that once upon a time, a princess had to choose a groom for her marriage. So
many prince approached from far and wide. But the princess falls in love with horse
of an Arabian Prince. She became desperate to marry that horse. Eventually her
parents allowed her to do so. She was married to the horse. After 15 years of their
marriage, the horse transformed into a celestial being. Now the princess rejected
him as her husband. That celestial being cursed her to be a mare (female horse) and
she became so. The princess give birth to Hayavadana. Now Hayavadana get rid of
this cursed life. Bhagwat asks him to go to goddess kali temple in chitrkut. He also
asks the actor 1 to accompany him on the way. They leave.

Now Bhagwat moved ahead with the story of the play. Devdutta and Kapila
appears on the stage. Devdutta tells Kapila that he wants to marry a woman, namely
Padmini, he pledges to sacrifice his head to Goddess kali and his arms to Rudra.
Kapila goes to Padmini and presents the proposal to marry Devdutta. Devdutta and
Padmini marry. By the time, Devdutta realized that Padmini attracted towards
Kapila and vice-versa. Now Padmini is pregnant. Devdutta knowingly tries to put
off the program of visiting Ujjain. He tells Kapila that Padmini is ill. But Padmini
gives her consent before Kapila. They all three leave for Ujjain Padmini repeatedly
praises Kapila’s physical strength and beauty that any woman can get attracted
towards him. Devdutta goes to goddess kali temple where he reminds himself of his
pledge to sacrifice his head to the Goddess kali. He wishes for the wellness of
kapila and Padmini. He beheads himself with a sword and dies. Meanwhile Kapila
and Padmini come out of the temple. Kapila gets worried on finding Devdutta
nowhere. He leaves Padmini and start searching for his friend. Finally, he reaches
in the same temple and feels shocked to see his friend dead. He feels himself
responsible for all this, kapila takes the same sword and behead himself. Soon
Padmini reaches there and she has no clue how they got died. She considered
himself responsible for all dual between the two friends and their deaths. she
provokes the Goddess kali and also tries to kill herself. The Goddess kali appears
and stops her. The Goddess also asks her to place the head with their respective
body so that the Goddess will re-join them with her magical powers and bring them
back to life. The Goddess also appreciates the two friends. Padmini follows the
command in a hurry. The Goddess disappears. Padmini, being thankful to goddess
kali, gets a bit relaxed. but soon she realizes her mistake. She has mistakenly placed
the heads with irrespective body. So now Devdutta’s head, makes a plea that head
is the master of body. So he has the right over Padmini. The man with Kapila’s
head a plea the Padmini has remained with Devdutta’s body she has the right over
Padmini. Meanwhile Bhagwat, the narrator come on the stage all the characters
become statues for a moment and the narrator addresses the audience. He asks them
to think of solution to this problem.

The act begins as the narrator repeats the same question- “what is the solution?”.
He also talks about the story of Vikramaditya and Betaal where the king Vikram
replies to Betaal that the mind (head)is the master of the body. It is head that gives
recognition to an individual. Bhagwat tells that they all three go to a hermit seeking
solution for this problem. The words of hermit are heard on the stage that
Devdutta’s head is the Swami (husband) of Padmini. Devdutta and Padmini accept
this in delight, Kapila being disappointed, leaves for the forest. The time passes.
Devdutta brings some dolls. These dolls also play the role of narrator. He starts
losing his physical strength and as a result they are losing mutual interest. A child is
born. Devdutta goes to buy new dolls from the fair in Ujjain. Bhagwat again
appears on the stage and tells that Kapila has regained his physical strength.
Padmini meets him in the forest and also tell him that it is Kapila’s son as it is born
from Kapila’s body. But Kapila does not accept it. Being a little reluctant, they get
ready to fulfill their physical desires. In search of his wife, Devdutta reaches there
in the forest. Finding them together, he finds himself the similar situation as he was
before. To put an ultimate end to this problem, Devdutta takes out the sword and
challenges Kapila for a dual. Both gets killed. Padmini finds herself lonely.
Bhagwata comes there and she hands him over the child and the same dolls. She
asks him to hand it over to Devadutta’s Brahmin father Vidyasagar after five years.
She leaves the stage by declaring that she is going to perform sati. Bhagwata
decides to end the play with his speech. A loud shout is heard on the stage actor 1
come and claim that he has heard Hayavadana chanting National Anthem and
patriotic songs. Then actor 2 appears with Devadutta’s son of age 5 now. The boy
has two dolls. Hayavadana comes there. Bhagwatta and actor 2 are talking lightly
and creating fun. They all stats laughing. The boy too starts laughing and the dolls
slip out of his hand. Bhagwata says that the boy hasn’t expressed any emotion of
happiness, anger, sorrow in past 5 years. Today he is smiling just because of
Hayavadana.

Now Hayavadana tells his story. When he was trying to behead himself in the
temple, the Goddess kali appeared. Hayavadana tells his desire. The goddess kali
without listening to him fully, gives him blessing. Hayavadana becomes a complete
horse instead of become a complete man. Yet he is satisfied. He still has ability to
speak like a man. He wants to lose this voice. He is singing National Anthem as he
believes that people who sing national anthem, lose their voice early. Meanwhile he
sobs. The boy starts sings a tragic song which was chanted by his mother, padmini.
Hayavadana tries to lough and his voice completely changes into a horse. Now
Hayavadana is a complete horse.

Bhagwata asks the actor to go Brahmin Vidyanagar and informs him that his
grandson is coming to him during ride on a great horse. Bhagwata thanks Lord
Ganesh for the successful performance of the play.
 SUMMARY

‘NAGA-MANDALA’

Naga-Mandala is a kannada language film, directed by T.S. Naga-Mandala.

Written by Girish Karnad and released in 1997, the film is named after a
Dakshina Kannads ritual called Naga-Mandala. It stars Prakash raj and Vijayalakshmi
in the lead roles. The film, upon release, went on to win many prestigious s
awards for its content and screen adaption.

The play begins with kurudamma (blind woman) and her son kappana visiting her
nephew for a devi festival. There she sees his beautiful daughter Rani.

She returns after the festivities, not before her nephew asks her to find a suitable
match for Rani. Kurudamma disapproves saying that Appanna spends most night
at the house of the prostitute cheluvi. Kurudamma however pesters Appanna
regularly for consenting to marry Rani. Finally, Appanna gives in and marries Rani.

On their first night at Rani’s maternal home, a timid Rani is taken aback by lusty
and overbearing husband, she sleeps in a corner of the room. They return to
Appanna’s village where Rani confides her fear to Kurudamma who convinces
Rani to win him over by teasing and playfulness. However, that night she is again
overcome by fear and lock herself in the Pooja room. Locking the door from
outside. He heads to cheluvi’s house. Next day, kurudamma comes there and is
taken a back to see the door locked. She finally realized that Rani is locked and
with Kappanna’s help talks tp her over the window in one of the room. she gives
Rani a small root and asks her to mix it with milk and give it to Appanna. Next day
she does so and Appanna falls unconscious only to regain.
Consciousness after a minute and leaves the house as usual. Again Kurudamma
comes there and learns of Rani’s failure and give her a bigger root, saying that a
sage gave it to her in return for her relative and kappanna was thus born.

Rani tries to drug the milk but it catches fire and Appanna arrives home at the same
time and goes to bath as usual. A terrified Rani pours it under a tree. The milk
drains into an anthill under the tree. On seeing this Rani is further scared and
returns home Apparently the snake would have consumed the milk and it comes to
her bed that night, A scared Rani locks herself up in the Pooja room. The snake
then assumes the form of Appanna and talks her out and consoles her and sleeps her
on his lap and wines over her affection. The next morning the snake is gone and
real Appanna comes in and is surprised to see a cheerful Rani and scolds her. A
perplexed Rani prepares food and Appanna leaves as usual (to the farm, followed
by drinking session with friends and cheluvi’s house at night). At night, a
melancholic Rani is waiting near the door Appana. And the snake arrives in
Appanna’s form behind her and stares her. She runs in for to her room, but
Appanna pacifies her and wins her over with smooth talk. The consummate their
union that night. Next morning, the snake is gone as usual and Appanna arrives
only to see a half-naked Rani lying in bed with all the cloths and flower lying
around, as if after the marriage night. A suspicious Appanna bathes and goes away
and talk about it in his gym. His teacher’s volunteers to keep a watch at Aparna’s
house that night. Meanwhile Rani tells kurudamma about her success in
consummating her marriage. However, kurudamma is surprise when kappanna says
that front door is closed is locked from outside. This continues for a while.

The next night, Appanna teacher is watching his door from outside. The snake
appears as usual and is playing dice with Rani, when their voice is heard, the
teacher bangs the door and shouts calling the man inside to come out. Appanna
(snake) sends a scared Rani into the bedroom, while he slips out of the window (in
the snake form) and bites the teachers. He comes back to Rani and tells her not to
ask question.

The next day Appanna and his friends are shocked to see their teacher dead. That
night they come to the anthill with sticks and chases the snake. Rani see a tired
Appanna (snake) in her bed and nurses him. Meanwhile real Appanna is with
cheluvi, but his mind his puzzled with the happenings in his home. Next morning
after the gym session Appanna arrives home and sees Rani lying half naked in bed.
This continues for a few days. One night he decides to keep out the door himself.
That night the snake waits for him to leave. A frustrated Appanna unable to see
anyone leaves to cheluvi’s house. Meanwhile Rani realizes that she is pregnant.
The snake come back to Rani in Appanna’s form and learns of her to keep it a
secret and not talk about it in the morning.

After a couple of days, kurudamma and kappanna learns of the pregnancy and rush
to the gym to congratulate Appanna. A furious Appanna beats kappanna and runs
home. He beats Ran asking her who the father is. He pushes her out of the house
creating a havoc, denying having slept with Rani. The elders pacify him and
decided to call for a panchayat session that evening to investigate, a puzzled Rani
locks herself inside the house to escape Appanna’s beatings. That evening, the
village gathers for the panchayat, when she is about to hold her hand in fire for a
test. Some people in the crowd demand a more server test- ‘Naga divya –holding a
snake in the hand and swearing by the truth. Rani agrees to it. They all go to the
anthill where Rani bows down and picks up a snake and declared that if she is pure,
the snake would not harm her. This snake happens to be the very snake which
would come to rani. Thus Rani escapes unhurt and the village adores her.

Meanwhile Appanna is frustrated and goes away to cheluvi. She tries to convince
him of his wife’s innocent but is stopped short. The night the snake appears as
Appanna and is confronted by Rani in her house. Meanwhile the real Appanna
arrives there unseen by Rani. But the snake realizes that and sends Rani to fetch
milk. The snake takes its form and slithers away through the window. Appanna sees
this and realizes that the snake had taken his from and was sleeping with Rani all
these days. He goes to the anthill where the snake appears in Appanna’s form and a
fight ensures. When the snake is about to kill Appanna, he realizes that Rani’s love
has eliminated all the poison in him and spares Appanna. Appanna however beats
the snake and throws him into the fire. The snake assumes his real form and dies.

After a few months, Appanna is changed man who loves his wife. He is shown
taking his heavily pregnant wife (who is oblivious to all the story so far) to a
festival.

Rani is young bride who is neglected by her indifferent and unfaithful husband,
Appanna. Appanna spends most of his time with his concubine and comes home
only for lunch. Rani is a typical wife who wants to win her husband’s affection by
any means. In an attempt to do so. She decided to drug her husband with a love
root, which she mixed in the milk. That milk is spilled on the nearby anthill and
Naga the cobra drink it.

Naga, who can take the form of human. Is enchanted with her begins to visit her
every night in the guise of her husband. This changes Rani’s life completely as she
starts to experience the good things in life though she never knows that the person
with her is not her husband but the Naga.

Soon she become pregnant and breaks the news to Appanna. He immediately
accuses her adultery and says that he has not impregnated her. The issue is referred
to the village panchayat. Rani is then asked to prove her fidelity by putting her hand
in the snake burrow and taking a vow that she has not committed adultery. (It is the
snake popular belief that if any person lies holding the snake in their hand. They
will be instantly killed by the snake god).

Rani places her hand in the snake burrow and vows that she has never touched any
male other than her husband and the Naga in the burrow. She is declared chaste by
the village panchayat. however, her husband is not ready to accept that she is
pregnant with his child and decides to find out the truth by spying on the house at
night. Appanna is shocked to see the Naga visiting Rani in his form, spending time
with her and then leaving the house.

Appanna gets furious with the Naga and indulges in a fight with him. Eventually,
the Naga dies in the fight. After this incident, Appanna realizes his mistake and
accept Rani along with the child she is carrying.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS
MYTH

DEFINITION OF MYTH

Myth is a legendary or a traditional story that usually concerns on event or a hero,

with or without using factual a real explanation. These particularly concern
demigods or deities, and describes some rites, practices, and natural phenomenon.
Typically, a myth involves historical events and supernatural beings. There are
many types of myths, such as classic myths. Religious myth, and modern myths.

CHARACTERISTICS OF MYTH

Myth usually features ruling gods, goddesses, deities, and heroes having god like
qualities, but status lower than gods. Often, the daughter or son of a god (such as
Percy Jackson) is fully mortal, and these characters have supernatural abilities and
powers that raise them above average human beings.

Myth are mostly very old, and happen to have ruled the world the world when
science, philosophy, and technology were not very precise, as they are today
therefore people were unaware of certain questions, like way the sky is blue, or way
night is dark, or what are the causes of earthquakes. Thus, it was myths that
explained natural phenomena, and described rituals and ceremonies to the people.

Examples of myth in literature

Romeo and Juliet (by William Shakespeare)

Romeo and Greek myths, though originally not available in English, have deeply
influenced English work. During the times of the ancient Greeks, they had a belief
that some invisible gods, such as zesu, had created this world. We read in such
Greek stories that passions for human controlled the gods, and hence gods fought
for them. Likewise, romans had beliefs in such deities.

Due to mythological influences, many literary, authors refer to the Greek and
roman myths in order to add meanings to their work. For instance, Shakespeare, in
his play Romeo and Juliet, uses Greek mythology when Juliet cries out saying that,
gollop apace, you, fierly-footed steeds, towards Phoebus lodging. In Greek
mythology Phoebus was god of the sun, and here Juliet urges that god to bring him
home quickly, so that night could come and she may meet her lover Romeo.

No second troy (by William butler yeats) in another Greek myth, Greeks
devastated the city of troy in an outburst of the Trojan war, when Helen the wife of
king Menelaus ran away with the prince of troy. Apparently, Helen was a very
beautiful woman from Greece, and was ultimately held responsible for the
devastation of troy. Yeats as to try to use this Greek mythology in his poem. No
Second Troy, by creating a similarity between Helen and Maud Gonne. He also
brought a similarity between the Trojan war and revolutionary and anti-British
activities of the luish. Just like Helen, yeats blamed and held Maud responsible for
creating haterd in the haters of Lrishman, and consequently they caused destruction
and bloodshed.

Paradise lost (by john Milton)

Biblical stories and myths have also played an important role in shaping English
literary works. John Milton, in his poem Paradise lost, plays out the genesis story
about the fall of man, and subsequent eviction, from the garden of Eden.
Both John Steinbeck and William golding in their respective novels. East of Eden,
and lord of the flies, played on the same ideas in which they have presented eve as
a sedveer responsible for bringing sin into this world. We can clearly see this
allusion in medieval literature. We also have seen that many feminist literary critics
of the 20th century have made use of this myth in their research.

The waste land (by T. S. Eliot)

T. S. Eliot uses two underlying myths to develop the structure of this long poem
The waste land. These many are of The Grail Quest and the fisher king, both of the
which originate from garlic tradition, and come to not taken these stories focus on
the account of the death and resurrection of Christ.

FUNCTION OF MYTH
Myths exist in every society, as they are basic element of human culture. The main
function of myths is to teach moral lessons and explain historical events. Authors of
great literary works often taken their stories and themes from myths. Myths and
their mythical symbols lead to a creativity in literary works. We can understand a
culture more deeply, and in a much better way, by knowing and appreciating its
stories, dreams, and myths. Myths come before religions, and all religious stories
foretelling. global mythical themes. Besides literature, myths also play a great role
in science, psychology, and philosophy.
In his plays Karnad was overseeing an issues commonly explosion history and
folklore. His plays center with the topics of Indian legends, history, conventions,
customary information and theaters. Also, zone unit a vehicle for human activity
man’s need, jealousies, franticness, look for flawlessness and fulfillment,
interminable clash of interests and territory unit prominent in giving an area home
and a notoriety to man’s desires and need. Girish karnad demonstrated the realities
of the Indian culture in his work in a (very) coordinate way.

Naga-Mandala might be a sociology investigation of Indian young ladies composed

between 1987-1988, a lavishly refined emotional change of 2 individual’s stories of
aera, described by young ladies though nourishing youths inside the room. It not
exclusively uncovered the presence of general public whatever a woman is
considered ‘Second Sex’. ‘other’, subject, ‘non-man’, amid this method. Women
zone unit educated to embrace the decision patricentric belief system the
commonness of men; and after that adapted to spoil their own Sex and to work in
their own subordination. Patricentric strength has denied young ladies from
understanding their gainful and inner selves. The play further more recommends
cures and slaps the customary society by the compromise between nobility and
Naga. Karnad was perceptive with woman’s activist philosophies and hence the
calamity conceived by patricentric belief system in Indian culture. Naga-Mandala is
by all accounts a bundle whenever moral clashes, control relations and in this
manner the battle for personality are performed adequately.

Taledanda might be a dramatization in regards to the expansion of a broad

challenge and social development, veer Shaivism, in twelfth century area. Written
in 1990 inside the backcloth of mandir-mandal experience, the dramatization pills
in parallel between the socio-religious, political, and monetary state of existing time
and Southern Asian country inside the twelfth century A.D. all through
commitment movement. It invalidates the Indian standing frame work, also alluded
to as ‘Varna framework,’ that will be that the result of a Hindu story that cites
person’s introduction to the world hypothesis from the different components of God
Brahma.
Taledanda clarifies the social degeneracy in its shifted viewpoints. Karnad further
more presented socio mental trait of a woman uncovering the place of a woman
inside the general public.

Karnad’s play was composed inside the back cloth of Protestantism and thusly the
communalism with the help of those 2 writings, he uncovered the underhanded
impacts of social disfigurement at mental, social and social levels. He utilizes his
dramatic fitness to revel the structure and supply zone to the women involved
inside the general public and incorporate the quality and vitality all together that
they will adjustment their standing. Being a post- provincial creator, he reveals
shifted blemishes of the society with the help of legends, old stories and history.

The play can be read as an interrogation into the basic idea of human itself.
Hayavadana who is born as a result of the communion between a human princess
and a celestial human being or gandharva (in the form of horse) shatters the
premises of hetero normative human communities where a human male is assumed
as the center. Moreover, Hayavadana in the end of the play changes into a complete
horse. The son of Padmini could establish communion only with Hayavadana. This
may indicate that the animal world of Hayavadana is much better than the human
world which is full of scrupulous agendas and frailties. Padmini’s quest for
perfection doesn’t end with experimentation on Devadatta’s and Kapila’s bodies.
Before embracing death after Devadatta and Kapila passed away, Padmini instructs
Bhagavat on how to bring up her son. She instructs that her son must be handed
over to Kapila’s people in the forest and after five years to Devadatta’s father as his
grandchild. First he should be taught by Kapila’s people, so that he can gain a stout
and strong body. Then, he should be made the disciple of Devadatta’s father so that
he will be bestowed with a keen intellect. Padmini is here playing with the
parentage of her son. She paints an ambiguity regarding her son’s father. With the
transposition of heads, Devdatta’s body was fitted to Kapila’s head. This creates a
confusion regarding the real father of Padmini’s son. It evokes the question of to
whom does the child belong to; to Devdatta’s face or to his body (which are not
united anymore!)? Karnad here questions the ambiguity which envelops the notion
of human itself. Is it the head or the “Hayavadana presents the typical existential
anguish, but does not stop at the existential despair. Going beyond it, the play
suggests a strategy for the achievement of integration in a world inevitably cursed
with absurdity and irrationality” [2]. Human life is essentially not perfect. Each
individual experiences flaws of one kind or another. They are not the ultimate
beings or the centre of all activities as the anthrocentric discourses suggest.
Superiority of human beings and their supposed existence akin to the sun in the
solar system is basically a myth. Hayavadana puts forward this notion of
incompleteness and also suggests the ensuing journey of human beings for
perfection. The play begins with an invocation to lord Ganesha. Lord Ganesha has
an elephant head with a human body but is neither considered as an animal nor as a
human but as God. The invocation ends by the lines: “O singletusked destroyer of
incompleteness, / we pay homage to you and start our play” . Bhagavatha, who
takes up the Tiresian role of a narrator, brings up the paradox of how Lord
Ganesha, who has “an elephant head on a human body, a broken tusk and a cracked
belly” and is worshipped as a symbol of perfection, appears as an “embodiment of
imperfection, of incompleteness” . Such a symbol of Ganesha can be taken as a
suggestion that the concept of perfection is inherently flawed. Even though many
critics observe that Karnad in Hayavadana conveys the futility of human’s quest for
completeness, the theme of human enhancement or quest for improvement looms
large in the play, thus illuminating its associations with transhumanism.

Karnad’s Thoughts on Hayavadana The main plot revolves around three characters-
Padmini, Kapila and Devadatta. Devadatta and Kapila in the outset of the play are
bosom friends. While Devadatta is renowned body which identifies a being as
human? Or whether it is the union of the two? Padmini is trying to convert her son
from being an average human being; she wants him to be perfect with a sharp
intellect and good physique. Padmini’s strategizing can be due to suspicion about
human being’s inherent nature of imperfection. Padmini may have assumed that a
transfer of genes from his parents won’t grant a successful life to her son. Genes
can be tricky. Nobody can be sure about the traits which flow through the genetic
creeks over generations. Having a ‘desirable’ parentage which combines all the
qualities therefore doesn’t need to grant the child with all those perfect qualities.
Also, from her previous experience she understood that circumstances and
environment can also affect the faculties. Artificial changes inculcated on the body
at a later stage on life may not remain permanent. So, she wanted to train her son
from his infancy itself. Such notions about inculcating new faculties bring forth the
concept of human enhancement. “Due to genetic engineering, humans are now able
not only to design themselves, presumably to get rid of various limitations, but also
redesign future generations thereby affecting the evolutionary process itself” .

The play, Naga-Mandala, is based on folktales about Naga, popular in Karnataka

and in several other parts of India in its different forms. Karnad had heard these
tales from A.K. Ramanujan, who had collected many folktales and their variants
prevalent in different parts of India. In the folktale, there is a snake who assumes
the form of the prince enters the palace and woos the beautiful princess. When the
prince comes to know about it, he gets the snake killed. The wife then sets him a
riddle. If he fails to answer the riddle, he is to die. In some tales, the snake takes
revenge on the man. In Karnad’s play, it sacrifices itself for the happy life of Rani
and Appanna. The play dramatizes man’s attitude to woman in a patriarchal
society, mistrust, infidelity and lack of communication, breaking family life and the
institution of marriage, and it reaffirms the significance of motherhood as the
cementing factor in the family and the society. The play upholds the significance of
family, marriage and society. The story of Naga-Mandala is narrated by a special
character ‘Story’. The narrator-story is born of a woman’s mind which is strongly
agitated due to her suspicion that her husband is carrying affairs with some other
woman. Therefore Rani and Appanna’s story is not of any particular couple, it is
rather a story of mis-matched man and woman in a typical Indian society. Rani is
married to a man who does not have any particular name – “Well, any common
name will do”. The man is named Appanna. The parents of Rani had only these
considerations in arranging his marriage – “The young man was rich and his
parents were both dead”. Indian parents feel satisfied if they succeed in finding rich
boys for their daughters perhaps because they find that earning one’s livelihood is
terribly difficult and their daughter will live in comfort with her rich husband,
forgetting that the emotional comforts which proceed from happy marital relations
are far more important. Appanna is rich but has no interest in Rani. He is interested
in a concubine. As his parents are already dead, there is nobody to tell him the
difference between a wife and a concubine. Like many Indian men, he considers his
relationship with the concubine a normal thing; he never feels ashamed of it. As
Appanna is bewitched by the concubine, he fails to see that Rani is young and
beautiful. He claps her lock and key and tells her that he would come every day
only for lunch which she should keep ready for him. It is a bolt from the blue. All
the dreams of the young bride are shattered in a jiffy. He becomes so cruel that
Rani loses equilibrium. She has only dreams left which haunt her day and night.
She gets hallucination like the middle-aged woman of the Prologue. As many
Indian women’s dreams and desires, hers too are left unconsidered. Appanna is an
example of male chauvinism which is a typical Indian word. He goes tothe
concubine but keeps his wife under lock and key lest she should also get a lover. He
fails to realize that love knows no barriers. Inspite of his vigilance, Kurudava meets
her. Naga comes to her through drains and crevices. It is due to his failure to love
his wife that Naga manages to court Rani, and Rani fails to unravel the mystery of
the contradictory behaviours of the two Appannas due to her craving for love. She
had some doubts in the intial stages but Naga managed to win her confidence by his
ingenuity. Appanna is shocked to notice that Rani is pregnant in spite of all the
restraints that he has imposed upon her movements. He is shocked. With the Indian
concept of chastity in mind, he starts questioning her. He charges her with the
offences of adultery and perjury – “Tell me who it is? Who did you go to with your
sari off? You haven’t? And yet you have bloated tummy. Just pumped air into it,
did you? And you think I’ll let you get away with that? You shame me in front of
the whole village, you darken my face, you slut - !” He takes her to the village
elders who ask her to hold a red-hot iron bar to prove her innocence. They very
well know that Appanna himself is an adulterer. Indian society is a male dominated
society. It does not even take cognizance of the offence done by the husband, but
asks the wife to take the acid test. Rani passes the test, but it does not remove the
doubts of Appanna. He knows for certain that Rani’s child is not born of him. This
idea tortures him. He is exhorted by the village elders to spend his life in Rani’s
service. “You need merit in ten past lives to be chosen for such holy duty”, they
say. He raves, “What am I to do? Is the whole world against me? Have I sinned so
much that even nature should laugh at me? I know I have not slept with my wife.
Let the world say what it likes. Let any miracle declare her goddess. But I know
what sense am I to make of my life that’s worth nothing!” For any Indian, it is the
greatest torment if he knows that his wife is an adulteress. Appanna suffers such a
situation. Rani tells him, “When we cremate this snake, the fire should be lit by our
son. Every year on this day, our son should perform the rituals to commemorate his
death”. By saying this, she confirms that the snake is the real father of her son.
Appanna has to say nothing but the statement: “Of course, there is no question of
saying no. You are the goddess herself incarnate. Any wish of yours will be carried
out. ” A cuckold husband, having the knowledge of being one, is forced to treat his
wife as a goddess and to carry out every wish of hers. Indians have strong
superstitious beliefs and this is evident in Appanna also. He is not any particular
person but a representative of chauvinistic males of the Indian society. He
demonstrates Indianness in many of his qualities, views, and attitudes.
CONCLUSION

Hayavadana, who remained righteous till the end without slightest of deviations
was blessed with a complete body. Hayavadana finds a new friend in the boy and in
very happy to lives as a horse. The boy who is innocent of the sins of Padmini,
Devadatta and Kapila is rewarded with a grandfather and a precious friend –
Hayavadana. The three characters are complete in every sense and send a message
to everyone that god looks upon those who are only patient, righteous and innocent
of sins.

Also, Hayavadana displays the drama of “ tangled relationship” where Devadatta, a

man of intellect and mind, and Kapila, a man of steel- like body, are friends and
lovers of Padmini, a wife of Devadatta she loves the fabulous mind in the fabulous
body and craves for a son who should be a mixture of healthy mind and healthy
body. It cultivates a peculiar complexity of relationships which trap the characters
in a stage of agony and suffering. Ultimately, they become a pitiable figure and
appear like a loner, stranger and outsider to their world.

While, Naga-Mandala is another existential play of Karnad where his approach is

like a male feminist and a humanist. Rani is a victim of loveless marriage as her
husband, Appanna, goes to ‘concubine’ or a harlot’ on the first night of her
marriage. She is locked in a room like’ a caged bird, nobody talks to her and she is
‘bored to death’. The role of Naga makes her pregnant and removes her frigidity.
The snake ordeal reminds us of Agnipariksha of Goddess-like Sita of Ramayana era
and finally, Rani becomes a Goddess for Appanna, who admits that he is a sinner
he was blind. The predicament of Rani is full of existential suffering and agony
that she encounters in her life as a loner, outsider and stranger to her family and
society. She faces both social as well as self –alienation that Karnad has beautifully
constructed.
 REFERENCES

PRIMARY SOURCES

 https://www.wikipedia.org//girishkarnad
 https://www.academia.edu/42685623/Hayavadana.AcriticalAppraisal
 https://www.biography.otg//girishKarnd
 https://core.ac.uk//Theplaysofgirishkarnadpdf
 https://www.goodreads.com//en/book/show/228964.threeplays
 https://www.researchgate.net

SECONDARY SOURCES

 BY Dr. Abha shukla Kaushik, subaltern historiography: Girish Karnad The

Dreams Of Tippu Sultan, published by Atlantic publishers and distributors in 2013,
New Delhi.
 By Dr. Kaushik new morality in Girish Karnad’s Tuglaq; published by Atlantic and
distributors in 2013, New Delhi.
 By Dr. Anju Bala, Mythological aspects in Girish Karnad’s Naga-Mandala, 2014,
India.
 By Godugunuri prsad, Girish Karnad as a myth- intoxicated modern playwright,
Guntur. Ap, ky publication, 2014 India.
 By Dr. Manisha Dwivedi, study of Girishv Karnad as a great as a great Indian
drama writer, vol. 4, issue 3, 2018.
 By Mr. Ramya a study of hindu mythology in Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana and
Naga-Mandala, vol. 6 issue 3, 2019.