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Ramesh 12
CHAPTER - I
INTRODUCTION
(The Evolution of Drama in English)
As an expression of our national genius, Indian drama, with its long
history of 2000 years, is a unique phenomenon in the literary world. But in
reality, the bifurcation of the evolution of Indian Drama in English and
Sanskrit makes us to understand that Indian Drama in English has a history
as old as literature in English. It is pertinent to observe that Indian Sanskrit
Drama inspite of its long history cannot be a part of Indian Drama in
English. Though Indian Literary critics and analysts try their best in
establishing corroboration between Sanskrit Drama and the so called
Classical Greek Dramas, Indian Drama in English has completely evolved
in the light of 20th Century National consciousness, modernism and other
literary influences.
Sanskrit Drama is the evolution from the Rig Veda, imitation from
Yajur Veda, melody from Sama Veda and aesthetic flavour from Atharva
Veda. Indian drama came into being as subtle means of communicating
the truth of things. It was rightly hailed as „pancham Vedam‟ and the
culmination of „natakam Ramyam‟. Having thus came into existence as
the „Fifth Veda‟ Indian Sanskrit Drama was meant to promote the
fulfillment of all the four “purusharthas” (aims of life – „dharma‟ (the
good), „artha‟ (the useful), „kama‟ (the beautiful), and „moksha‟ (the truth).
Ramesh 13
In the words of K.R.Srinivas Iyengar Indian Sanskrit drama was expected
to: “comprehend whole arc of life, ranging from the material the spiritual,
the phenomenal to the transcendent, and provide at once relaxation and
entertainment, instruction and illumination.” (Drama in Modern India. 1)
However, as a genre, Sanskrit drama is essentially romantic in its
impulsion and expression. And, with its predilection for comedy, it
generally concludes on a note of peace and quietude. The emotional
impact of the play on the audience normally settles down into a condition
of aesthetic delectation and purposive repose. It is not concerned with
mere realism in incident and character, nor preoccupied with the outer
forms of appearance. It geared to strive through shadow, symbol and
gesture to reach at the truth behind the appearance. Thus, “a long
discipline, a world of symbolism, a whole crowd of conversations
interpreting and enveloping them, and a philosophy of life and art gave this
ancient drama an individuality and beauty and power all its own” (Drama
in Modern India. 2).
It is with this intellectual and emotional background that we must
trace the evolution of Indian drama – its origin, growth and development
through the ages. As indicated the origin of Indian drama can be traced
back to the Vedic period. The dramatic tradition of the ancient Hindus
may be said to have been fully formed even before Greek dramas came to
Ramesh 14
their knowledge. It is clear that the Hindus of over 2000 years ago had
their own theory of drama and that their dramatic practice avoided both the
severe austerity of Greek tragedy and the opulent extravagance of the
ancient Chinese drama.
Bharata‟s Natyashastra in Sanskrit elaborately discusses the ancient
stagecraft. All aspects of the drama – stage-setting, music, plot
construction, characterization, dialogue and acting have borne the close
critical scrutiny of the author, and a set of rules to guide the conduct of the
stage has been elaborately laid down. Bharata felt that poetic justice where
good always triumphs over evil would implant a message of hope and
optimism in the spectator and make his faith in ethics deepened. He
further held that the total impression left on the mind of the spectators of a
play should be one of peace and not merely a source of entertainment, but
a vehicle of instruction and illumination.
The works of Bhasa, Shudraka, Kalidasa, Harsha, Bhavabhuti and
Vishakahadatta are the products of vigorous creative energy as well as
sustained technical excellence. The golden age of Sanskrit drama could
give equal impetus to social comedies like the Mricchakatika and
melodramas like the Malathimadhhava, romantic tragic comedies like
Shakuntala and heroic plays like Venisamhara, historical plays like
Ramesh 15
Mudrarakshasa and romantic comedies like Ratnavali, allegorical plays
like Prabhodachandrodaya and satirical farces like Mattavilasaprahasana.
Bhasa is the oldest known dramatist who might have flourished
some time between 500 BC and 50 BC, a period certainly earlier than that
of the celebrated grammarian, Panini. Of the thirty-five plays he is said to
have written; only thirteen have come to light. Later playwrights like
Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti distinctly bear the imprint of Bhasa‟s dramatic
style. The supreme achievement of Indian drama is undoubtedly in
Kalidasa who is often called the Shakespeare of India. Though he does not
have the range and variety of Shakespeare, he has given the world a
profound spiritual vision of life. His magnum opus, Abhijnana
Shakuntala, is said to be the richest and most completely satisfying
romantic drama. Bhavabhuti turned out dramatic poems rather than stage
lays. His Mahaviracharita, Malatimadhava and Uaramacharita, reveal
the “Poet‟s maturity of mind, a sense of workmanship, and acute
understanding of human mind, and some of the deep values of life.”(3)
The Sanskrit drama flourished in its glory under the patronage of the
court and the aristocracy till the 12th
century when the Mohammedan
intrusion shifted the Sanskrit stage. The glory of Sanskrit drama became a
thing of the past when it was divorced from the stage. Instead of poets,
„pandits‟ took to playwright and produced works on the stock epic themes
Ramesh 16
in a conventional way. The decadent drama distanced itself from life in its
sophisticated setting, stereotyped characters and artificial diction.
Vidyanatha‟s play, Prataparudrakalyana, provides a patent example of the
virtual death of the ancient Indian drama.
After the Sanskrit drama ceased to be acted and was read only as
literature, the theatre of the people flourished for many centuries and
catered to the Indian masses. The old splendor and fullness of drama was
gone, but people still needed relaxation and entertainment. As a result,
music, dance and drama survived in varying forms in different parts of
India – Bengal, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra, Karnataka, Gujarat as also in
North India. The „jatras‟ of Bengal, the folk plays of Tamilnadu like
Satharam and Nallathangal, the „yakshaganas‟ of Andhra and Karnataka,
the „Kathakali of Kerala, the „Kirtaniya‟ of Mithila, the „Bhavani‟ of
Gujarat and the Ramila plays of North India took place instilling their
meaning into the sub-conscious of the race, and penetrating to the very
backbone of the people‟s art and morality. These variegated forms of
entertainment had but little merit as literature, but they conveyed to the
people the essentials of Indian culture. Above all, as K.S.Ramaswamy
Sastri observes: “they formed a transition from the classical Sanskrit drama
to the modern Indian drama and had some influence on the evolution of the
latter. ”(4)
Ramesh 17
It was only after British set up their regime in India that the crippled
Indian drama received new strength and witnessed a revival. As Krishna
Kriplani points out, the modern Indian drama: “owed its first flowering to
foreign grafting” (Literature if Modern India. 40) with the impact of
Western civilization on Indian life, a new renaissance dawned on Indian
arts including drama. Furthermore, English education gave an impetus and
a momentum to the critical Indian drama. English and Italian dramatic
troupes toured India and performed many English plays, mainly
Shakespeare‟s, in cities like Bombay and Madras.
The newly awakened creative efforts first took the form of
translations and adaptations from Sanskrit and English drama. Kalidasa‟s
Shakuntala was translated into quite a few regional languages.
Mrichchakatika was translated into Maithili by Ishanatha Jha and
Ratnavali into sindhi by Dewan Kauromal. Shakespeare was naturally the
most sought after, and among his plays the frequently translated or adopted
were Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Othello and
Cymbeline. To cite but a few examples Viresalingam Pantulu‟s rendering
of All is well That Ends Well came out in 1897, a Tamil adaptation of
Cymbeline in 1898, and a Bengali edition of Shakespeare‟s plays in four
volumes was issued between 1896 and 1902. K.S.Ramaswami Sastri
translated A Midsummer Night‟s Dream into Sanskrit. Apart from
Ramesh 18
Shakespeare‟s plays, Goldsmith‟s She Stoops to Conquer was a favourite
play among Indian translators.
The Western impact also quickened the drying roots of Indian native
tradition with the sap of a new life, thereby opening the exciting chapter of
modern Indian drama written originally in vernaculars, and at times,
translated into English. By the end of 19th century there were pioneering
efforts boldly employing the mother tongue for creative dramatic
expression. The earlier dramatists from different regions of the country
tried their hand at different forms-romance, opera, comedy, farce, tragedy,
melodrama and historical play. As a result, the modern Indian drama was
product and blend of many models and forces. When old puranic themes
were handled, various approaches – the reformist, the revivalist, the
idealistic, the iconoclastic, the frivolous and the allegorical – were tried.
To mention the most representative plays written in regional languages, we
have Khadilkar‟s mythological play Keechala Vadha in Marathi,
Lakshminath Bezbarua and Gohain Barua‟s historical play Jaymati in
Assamese, Amant‟s opera Inder sabha in Hindi, Ram Shankar Ray‟s
Kanchi-Kaveri in Oriya, Gurajada Apparao‟s social play Kanyasulkam in
Telugu, T.P.Kailasam‟s Tollu-gatti in Kannada, Sundaram Pillai‟s Poetic
drama Manonmaniyam in Tamil and Tagore‟s symbolic poetic plays like
Chitra, Sacrifice, Mukta Dhara, Red Oleanders, and The Post Office in
Ramesh 19
Bengali now quite familiar to us in English Rendering. Though most of
these plays convey the renaissance of Drama in the regional languages of
India, they were subjected to the tremendous influence of Marxism,
psychoanalysis, and the symbolist and surrealist movements which is a
common factor across the world.
While the theatre movement in the Indian languages had already
gathered momentum under the influence mainly of British drama, Indian
Drama in English could not flourish on expected lines. Though the first
Indian play in English, Is this civilization?, was written by Michael
Madhusudan Dutt as early as in 1871 it was not followed up by any
sustainable creative effort for almost a decade. There are plausible reasons
for the arrested growth of Indian English drama. Unlike poetry and novel,
drama is a composite art that involves the playwright, the actor and the
audience in a commonly shared artistic experience. This calls for total
commitment of the persons concerned to create a lasting impact.
Moreover, since the normal medium of conversation in India is the mother
tongue, it is difficult to make a dialogue between Indians in English sound
natural and convincing. This difficulty, however, has been overcome to a
considerable degree by some talented Indian English dramatists by
carefully choosing the situations and language that appealed to every
section of the society.
Ramesh 20
Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, T.P.Kailasam, A.S.P.Ayyar,
Lobo-Prabhu, Harindranath Chattopadhyaya and Bharathi Sarabhai have
contributed substantially to the evolution and development of Indian
English drama during the pre independent times. Rabindranath Tagore
was the first major playwright who invested Indian drama in English with
lyrical excellence, symbolic overtones and allegorical significance. His
best known plays are Sacrifice, Chitra, Mukta Dhara, The Post Office, The
King of the Dark Chamber and Red Oleanders. They have displayed a
unique blend of simplicity, complexity conventionality and modernity.
Though his plays are great variety and richness, they tend to be too
suggestive and symbolic thereby lacking in dramatic action. In the words
of Edward Thompson they are “vehicles of thought rather than expressions
of action.” (Rabindranath Tagore Poet & Dramatist. 51) However,
Tagore‟s plays though rendered into English, often by the author himself,
belong properly to Bengali drama.
Sri Aurobindo inherited and carried forward the tradition of
Elizabethan poetic drama of Marlowe and Shakespeare revived by Robert
Bridges and Stephen Philips in the Victorian era. His dramatic genius is
amply revealed in his five complete plays: Pursues, Vasavadutta,
Rodogune, the Viziers of Bassara and Eric. All these plays were
completely written originally in English. Eric is a comedy of love and
Ramesh 21
adventure showing various stages of love. The play has established man‟s
kinship with his fellow human beings and universe at large. Eric is Sri
Aurobindo‟s nearest approach to the classical form of drama and it has
subscribed to the Classical rules of Drama to the complete extent. A study
of the five plays of Sri Aurobindo reveals that he is a highly competent
dramatist and an accomplished craftsman in verse. They are stepped in
rich poetry and romance bringing the reminiscences of the spirit and
flavour some of the distinctive Sanskrit Dramas, All the same, they are
often labeled as „closed drama‟ designed for reading in the study.
Nevertheless, the plays reveal Aurobindo‟s exquisite skill in the portrayal
of characters. S.S.Kulkarni in The Plays of Sri Aurobindo: Perspectives on
Indian Drama in English has observed that Aurobindo has created “an
extremely interesting men and women by developing psychological
element which endows his plays with inexhaustible human interest and
significance.” (7).
Harindranath Chattopadhyaya added a new dimension to Indian
English drama with his leftist leaning and revolutionary deal. If his
devotional plays – Raidas, Chokha Mela, Pundalik, Saku Bai, Jayadeva
and Tukaram – deal with the lives of saints in his own characteristic way,
his social plays 1937, The Window, The parrot, The Coffin, The Evening
Ramesh 22
Lamp and The Sentry‟s Lantern – reveal the playwright‟s acute awareness
of social problems and his innate sympathies for the suffering masses.
Bharati Sarabhai is the first most distinguished woman dramatist,
who gave a Gandhian touch to Indian English drama. Her first play The
Well of the People (1949) upholds Gandhi‟s well-known doctrine „Daridra
Narayana‟ (worship of the poor as God). An old widow, the protagonist of
the play, who fails to go on a pilgrimage to Haridwar, decides to build a
well with her savings for the untouchables of her village. S.Mokeshi
Punekar has appreciated the lyrical play as the representation of the
problems of the age: “probably the only articulate work of literary art
giving complete expression to the Gandhian age… flawlessly executed
with the fullest awareness of all the problems.” (Perspectives on Indian
Drama in English 129) Sarabhai‟s second play Two Women (1952)
dramatizes the conflict between tradition and modernity, the material and
the spiritual, driving home the point that God is within.
Quite a few contemporary playwrights have made a significant
contribution to the development of Indian English drama. The foremost
among them is Nissim Ezekiel, a well-established Indian English poet who
has also enriched Indian English drama. His Three Plays (1969) Nalini,
The Sleep-Walkers and Song of Deprivation, have exposed the hollowness
of the urban middle-class life, fickleness of modern lovers, greedy
Ramesh 23
fascination for American life and the hypocrisy and inhibitive nature of
contemporary Indian society respectively. They reveal his sharp
observation of the oddities in human life and behaviour, providing
glimpses of a cross-section of contemporary society. Though they do not
meet the full requirements of the stage, they “make pleasant reading” and
are known for their “stage-worthiness”. Chetan Karnani in his work
Nissim Ezekiel says: “in his satire of current fashion, in his exposure of
pose and pretence, Ezekiel comes very close to the spirit of some English
social satirists in the theatre.” (5)
Contemporary Indian drama in English translation has made bold
innovations and fruitful experiments in terms of both thematic concerns
and technical virtuosities. It has been increasingly turning to history,
legend, myth and folklore, tapping their springs of vitality and vocal cords
of popularity with splendid results. Mohan Rakesh, Badal Sircar, Vijay
Tendulkar and Girish Karnad have become the best representatives of the
contemporary Indian drama not only in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and
Kannada respectively but also on the pan-Indian level.
Greatly influenced by Marxism, Mohan Rakesh waged a relentless
fight against the traditional stranglehold of Hindi drama, and always
endeavored to project something new and challenging. As Nirad
Chaudhauri points out, “with Mohan Rakesh Hindi drama makes a
Ramesh 24
departure from pseudo-modernism and traditional symbolism to the drama
of „non-communication‟ – the modern man‟s failure to understand himself
or to understand the other person their mutual failure to understand each
other, which is the real tragedy of modern life” (Changing Language of
Theatre at the Present Time. 25-26). His plays dramatize the sufferings of
men and women who fall victims to socio-economic hierarchy and cultural
hegemony. Particularly, in his plays like One day in Ashadha and The
Great Swans of the Waves, Mohan Rakesh makes use of history and legend
to throw light on the contemporary problems. His dialogues have a smooth
flow, a meaningful depth, and elemental naturalness suitable to his
characters. Rakesh uses historical characters to project the breakdown of
communication in contemporary life.
Badal Sircar is another significant Dramatist who uses contemporary
situations to project the existential attitude of modern life. Popularly
known as a „barefoot playwright‟, Badal Sircar stands in the forefront of a
new theatrical movement in India. He has created a genuine people‟s
theatre, known as Third Theatre, a theatre supported and created by the
people and not merely performed by the people. Transcending the limits
and limitations of the traditional and folk theatres, the Third Theatre is “a
composite of a four way flow of influences – actor to actor, audience to
actor, actor to audience and audience to audience.” It is essentially a
Ramesh 25
flexible, portable and inexpensive Theatre aiming at enlightening the
people on socio-economic and political problems and leading them to
constructive action with a view to bringing about a social change.
Leading the vanguard of the avant-grade Marathi Theatre, Vijay
Tendulkar symbolizes the new awareness and attempts of Indian
dramatists. He depicts the agonies, hypocrisy in the traditional Indian
Society. In his latest plays, To Hell with Destiny and The Tour, Tendulkar
highlights the typical middle-class mentality and value system. In all his
plays, Tendulkar economizes on the number and range of characters
situations and episodes, giving wider scope to deeper interpretations and
meaningful corollaries.
The league of contemporary Indian Dramatists is strengthened by
Girish Karnad who has made a distinctive mark in contributing to the
historical development of Indian English Drama. His acquaintance with
western thought and western theatre has exterted unavoidable influence on
his dramatic art. Born in Bombay, Girish Karnad has grown to become the
Rhodes Scholar at Oxford during 1960-63 and Bhabha Fellow during
1970-72. The Western Education and Research expose has made him to
become one of the finest dramatists in India. He has extensively used
Indian mythology to suit the contemporary times of India. Between 1961
and 1998 he has written significant plays that catapulted him into the
Ramesh 26
celestial heights. His plays are: Yayati (1961), Tughluq (1964),
Hayavadana (1971), Anjumallige (1977), Hittina Hunja (1980), Naga
Mandala (1988), Tale Danda (1990), Agni Mattu Male (1995), the Dreams
of Tipu Sultan (1998). Most of his plays were translated into English and
have received wide critical acclaim and reception.
His first Play Yayati (1961) narrated the theme of responsibility in
the light of Indian mythology. It is considered as self conscious
existentialist Drama. Picking the story line in the myth found in
Mahabharata, Karnad gives a contemporary twist to the tale. The
interpretation of old myth on the exchange of ages between father and son
baffled and angered many conventional critics. Basing his unheroic hero
Puru Karnad ventures into making the hero recognize the horror of his own
life. The hero‟s awareness shifts from intellectuality to spirituality. The
play endorses the belief that „myths express certain archetypal and social
relationships.
His second play Tughlaq has further consolidated his dramatic
excellence. The play, considered as a landmark in the history of Kannada
literature, has made use of historical material in the way Shakespeare and
Brecht had used. Recognizing the dramatic potential of the character of
Tughluq, Karnad has made the play as the critique of Nehru and Post
Nehru‟s political scenario. The play has succeeded in realizing the
Ramesh 27
psychological depth of Tippu Sultan‟s character. Taking the cue from the
Parsi theatre, Karnad succeeds in creating the parallel story of Aziz that
reflected the other side of Tughluq‟s personality.
Encouraged by the huge success of the first play Karnad has written
unforgettable Hayavadana (1970) which fetched him Natya Sangh award.
Based on the collection of Sanskrit stories Kathasarithasagara and
Thomas Mann‟s Transposed Heads, the play ridicules the mechanical
conception of life. The play examines the problem of human identity in a
world of tangled relationships. Using the conventional motives of folk
tales, folk theatre, Karnad introduces two characters Devadatta and Kapila
who bring in the reminiscences of Rama and Laxmana. He introduces
Hayavadana who has a man‟s body but horse‟s head. Hayavadana is
allowed to narrate the story of his birth. Karnad wanted to convey that the
world is of incomplete individuals and the world is indifferent to the
desires, joys and sorrows of human beings. The play has revealed the
dramatic potential of Native traditions, folk arts and the strong presence
and influence of Indian aesthetics.
After Hayavadana Karnad has written two unsuccessful plays
Anjumallige (1977), and Hittana Hunja (1980). Anjumallige as the only
play set out of India represented the impact of Naturalism on Indian
Dramatists. As a naturalistic play, the play is set in England and could not
Ramesh 28
envisage a pattern to express naturalistic speech. The tragic incestuous
love of a woman for her brother and the émigré experience of Indians in
England are the important themes in the play. Hittina Hunja is taken from
a Jain myth. The play has emphasized that intended violence and adultery
committed in the mind are equivalent and serious offences.
Karnad has returned to the rich traditions of folk theatres with
Nagamandala (1988). This play has exploited the devices from the works
of Boccacio, Chaucer and the ancient Sanskrit. The original story tells of
young man‟s difficulty to trust women and experience love. Karnad has
shifted the focus to dwell on the women‟s experience and presented her
growth selfhood and maturity. A particular female context is prepared as
women and female flames. The play has exposed the double standards of
Indian patriarchy. It has exposed the way women are judged with sundry
and retrogressive ideas.
Tale-Danda (1990) is extremely successful play. It is translated into
many Indian languages. Karnad has drawn the theme from the historical
movement. Karnad has used the assemblage of poets, mytics, social
revolutionaries and philosophers by Basavanna which upheld the equality
of sexes and condemned the caste discrimination, as a spring board for the
theme of the play. The play has offered a brilliant analysis of Hindu
society and its social deformity. It has succeeded in portraying the
Ramesh 29
difficulties encountered by the people who challenged the conventions and
traditions. The opposition of the sharanas by the orthodox sections of the
society and the divisions that existed within the sharanas are elucidated in
a theatrical performance. Karnad has proved that the ugly reality of the
caste system though abolished from the officialdom cannot be erased from
the minds of the people. Karnad has reposed his faith in the relevance of
the play and opined that the horror of the events of „Mandir‟ & „Mandal‟
proved the failure of Indian social fabric.
Agni Mattu Male (1995) translated as The Fire and The Rain is the
most complex play by Karnad. Based on the myth of Yavakrita, it
exhausted thirty seven years of Karnad to come into the realization. In
creating the characters, Karnad has observed some modifications.
Characters like Nittilai, Visakha are drawn from the periphery to the
centrality. In Karnad‟s perception „Yajna‟ is a favourite metaphor of
theatre activity. It involves human performance, precise gestures, speech
and an action that leads to predetermined denounment. The play within the
play brings the reminiscences of some of the Shakespeare‟s plays.
Transiting the two layers of myth in the capacity of the performer the play
foregrounds the philosophical preoccupations.
Karnad‟s recent play The Dreams of Tippu Sultan (1998) is written
to commemorate the fifty years of Indian Independence. Tippu Sultan is
Ramesh 30
chosen by Karnad for his uncompromising nature with the British. Karnad
has used the recorded dreams of Sultan to convey the dramatic actions of
Tippu Sultan.
A close analysis of the plays of Karnad makes us to understand that
he has carefully moulded and sculpted the nuances of the past to suit the
contemporaneity. His well made plots, interesting characters, authentic
dialogues and visual impacts have ushered in a new era of dramatic
consciousness in Indian English literature. Though his „contemporary
sensibility‟ is challenged by the critics that Karnad fails to invent his own
plots, his plays belong to the generation of confrontations. Little traditions
of myths, poetry, history, legends folklore etc., are internalized for
authorial conveyance. From a different perception Karnad is understood to
have acquired the temperament of T.S.Eliot as a modern Dramatist. His
approach is considered to be modern. Though Karnad borrowed from the
well known epics and myths, he stressed on the living texture of myths,
history and legends. A scrupulous reading of Karnad‟s plays evinces a
variety of influences. The obvious quality of his Dramas is the
amalgamation of Karnataka Yakshagana and Indian classical drama. The
significant notable influences of the west are Shakespeare, Bertoolt Brecht
& Samuel Beckett.
Ramesh 31
Though the Indian Drama has been using myth ever since its
beginnings, it is not so much bound to the religion as its western
counterpart was The Indian aesthetes are developed in an extremely
original way and the Indian Drama never categorized as tragedies and
comedies. In his play the cycle of Seasons, Rabindranath Tagore observes
that his play in neither a tragedy nor a comedy, but it is what it is. Modern
Indian dramatist continued the tradition by going back to the roots of
Indian myth, tradition and culture and thus they have recreated a rich and
vibrant picture of Indian society, culture and people. Girish Karnad is
unique among the contemporary Indian dramatists as all his plays use myth
in a highly creative and individualities way.
Modern Indian Drama is formulated by the three important
influences the classical Indian theatre, the medieval folk theatre and the
modern western theatre. Myths are liberally used by the classical Indian
dramatists like Basa, Bhavabhuthi and Kalidasa. The folk theatre of the
medieval period used myths extensively and the way that they took
liberties with them made them highly flexible. Rabindranath Tagore is the
first dramatist who realized the importance of following the classical and
folk forms of the Indian theatre. He borrowed many themes from the
ancient Indian epic as well as from Buddisim and adopted them for the
contemporary issues. He observes,
Ramesh 32
“Man must realize the wholeness of his existence, his place in
the infinite. He must know that hard as he may strive he can
never create the honey he needs with in the cells of his live,
for the perennial supply of his life-blood is outside their
walls-deprived of the background of the work, his poverty
losses its one great quality, which is simplicity and became
squalid and shameful, it gross nearly extravagant. We miss
the complete view of man if we forget the meaning of myth”
(Aspects of Indian Writing in English, ed. M.K.Naik,
Macmillan, 1979. 14).
But he conceived all his plays according to the conditions of the folk
theatre of Bengal, „the Jatra‟. Among the three major dramatists of the
contemporary period, Vijaya Tendulkar, Badal Sircar and Girish Karnad,
Karnad is the only dramatist who followed the method of Tagore with
spirit of imitation and emulation.
Karnad has made use of the story of Yayati of The Mahabharatha
for his very first play in which he dealt with the responsibilities and the
yearnings of a young man. He has borrowed the theme of Hayavadana
from Kathasarithsagar and his Nagamandala is based on the snake myth
of South India.
Ramesh 33
He used the myth of Yavakri of The Mahabharatha for his The Fire
and the Rain and Bali: The Sacrifice is taken from a Kannada epic. By
choosing the historical personages live Tughlaq, Basavanna and Tipu
Sultan who have also become mythical characters by means of a number of
fictitious and imaginary tales associated with them, Karnad has given a
contemporary interpretation of history.
As a playwright who has firm belief in the Indian ethos and
aesthetics, Karnad always borrowed a myth to say something to the
contemporary society. He has firm belief in the power of myth. Jung, the
great psychologist also points out the same when he says,
the need for myth statements is satisfied when we frame a
view of the world which adequately explains the meaning of
human existence in the cosmos, a view which springs from
our psychic wholeness, from the co-operation between
conscious and unconscious. Meaningless ness inhibits
fullness of life and is therefore equivalent to illness. Meaning
makes a great many things endurable – perhaps everything.
No science will ever replace myth, and a myth cannot be
made out of any science. For it is not that „God‟ is a myth,
but that myth is the revelation of divine life in man”
(Memories, Dreams, Reflections. 1956).
Ramesh 34
The history of the man shows that man in bond of retelling the old
stories to adopt himself to the new situations and unforeseen consequences.
These adoptions may become inaccurate as it is not easy to face the truth.
But a great writer rises above these weaknesses to face the truth and to
express it without any inhibitions. A humble attempt is made in the
following chapters to study the way that Karnad tackled various myths and
to estimate his achievement as a dramatist preoccupied with myth.
The primary contention of the study is the confine to the specific
critical evaluation of some of the plays of Girish Karnad to establish the
Post Modern, New Historicist, Post Colonial & Deconstructionist aspects
to the best possible extent which will be followed from the next chapter
elucidating the significance of myth, rituals, history & psychology
manifested in the plays of Karnard.
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