CHAPTER: 5

USE OF MYTHS IN NAGA-MANDALA, YAYATI AND

TUGHLAQ

Girish Karnad bases his play Naga-Mandala (Play with a

Cobra) on two folk tales from Karnataka, which he acknowledges to
have heard several years ago from A. K. Ramanujan. Karnad's plays
reflect upon contemporary Indian cultural and social life using folk
tales, myth and historical legends. He weaves together timeless truth
about human life and emotions contained in ancient Indian stories with
the changing social mores and morals of modern life. His plays are
particularly concerned with the psychological problems, dilemmas and
contlicts experienced by the modern Indian men and women in their
ditferent social situations. His play Naga-Mandala is a powerful
p0!1rait of the agony and anguish faced by both men and women in
their development into adult roles and social adjustment in a society
where the indiv!dual is given little space for self-development,
awareness and liberty as a being.

The play Naga-Mandala, directed by Vijaya Mehta in German

was presented by Leipzier Schauspielhaus at Leipzig and Berlin for
the Festival of India in Germany in 1992. Again, it was performed at
the University Theatre at Chicago and subsequently at the Gutherie
Theatre in Minneapolis as part of its 30th anniversary celebrations in
1993.

Naga-Mandala (1988) is Karnad's one of the finest plays. It was

pUblished in Kannada first and then translated into English by Karnad
himself. It is based on a Kannada folk tale. It combines folk elements

209
with mythical and surreal to present a domestic drama. Karnad himself
writes about the source material of play in Introduction to Three
Plays:

Naga-Mandala is based on two oral tales I

heard from A. Ramanujan. These tales are
narrated by women-normally the older
women in the family - while children are
being fed in the evening in the kitchen or
being put to bed. The other adults present on
these occasions are also women. Therefore,
these tales, though directed at the children,
often serve as a system of communication
among the women in the family.

They also express a woman's understanding

of the reality around her, a lived
counterpoint to the patriarchal structures of
classical texts and institutions. The position
of Rani in the story of Naga-Mandala, for
instance, can be seen as a metaphor for the
situation of a young girl in the bosom of a
joint family where she sees her husband
only in two unconnected roles - as a stranger
during the day and as lover at night.
Inevitably, the pattern of relationships she is
forced to weave from these disjointed
encounters must be something of a fiction.

210
 The empty house Rani is locked in could be
the family she married into.

Many of these tales also talk about the

nature of tales. The story of the flames
comments on the paradoxical nature of oral
tales in general: They have an existence of
their own, independent of the teller and yet
live only when they are passed on from the
possessor of the tale to the listener. Seen
thus, the status of a tale becomes akin to that
of a daughter, for traditionally a daughter
too is not meant to be kept at home too long
but has to be passed on. This identity adds
poignant and ironic undertones to the
I
relationship of the tellcr to thc tales.

The feeling of dread and repugnance venomous reptiles

universally inspire, is shared by the Indians too. It was probably their
dreaded powers that led to the deification of serpents. In Hindu
scriptures, snakes are in some places mentioned as the enemies of

mankind and in others as deities. Originally, the Indo-Aryans were

avcrse to snake-worship, but later Hinduism absorbed some races who
worshipped snakes and with them their beliefs.

The Nagas (snakes) are fabled to live in a magnificent world

named Patala, situated in the nether regions. Thcrc dwcll the lords of
snakc-region, Vasuki, Sankha, Kulika, Mahasankha, Sweta,

211
Dhananjaya, Dhritarashtra, Sankhachurna, Kambala, Aswatara,
Devadatta and other large-hearted serpents. Of these, some have, five
hoods, some seven, some ten and some a thousand. The gloom of the
nether regions is lighted up by the splendour of the excellent gems
gracing their hoods.

The capital of the serpent-world is Bhogawati, a city famed for

its wealth. The serpents there are in possession of the nest precious
stones in the worlds.

The Nagas are said to be the progeny of Kadru (one of the

wives of Kasyspa) and mortal enemies of their half-brother Garuda.
Because of its habit of sloughing its skin, the serpent is believed to be
immortal. It is said that once when Garuda was taking ambrosia from
heaven to Patala, he happened to drop some of the nectar on the earth,
which fell on Kusa grass and snakes greedily kicked it up and became
immortal. They, however, burnt their tongues and hence they have
forked tongues.

The chief of the serpents is said to be Ananta, the thousand-

hooded hydra, on whom Vishnu sleeps. The earth is poised on one of
his hoods. The word Anallfa means endless. The serpent, particularly
one eating its tail, is indicative of eternity.

While Ananta and Vasuki (Shiva wears this serpent as his

girdle) arc objects of veneration, Kaliya is said to represent sin. This
cobra inhabited the river Kalindi (Jamuna) and was a cause of anxiety

212
to the herdsmen among whom Krishna lived. The boy Krishna, one
day, entered the river and after a fierce combat, subdued the
monstrous reptile. At the request of the wives of Kaliya, Krishna
spared his life but made him depart from Kalindi. The story of this
combat is very popular among the Hindus, and Krishna is very often
represented as a boy dancing on the hood of Kaliya.

Nagapanchami, the fifth day of the Hindu month of Shravan

(July-August) is sacred to snakes and they are particularly worshipped
on this day.

In Indian literature and lore, a serpent or King Cobra Naga

represents a positive force, sympathetic to like. A snake is often a
guardian figure. According to Zimmer:

Serpent Kings and queen (Naga, Nagin)

personifying and directing the terrestrial
waters of the lakes and ponds, rivers and
oceans, the goddess of the three sacred
2
streams ...

As per the popular lore, a Naga

bestows the boons of earthly happiness -

abundance of crops and cattle, prosperity,
3
offspring, health, long life ...

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 The Mandala of the title suggests a circular area or a cyclic
time. As such, Naga-Mandala denotes a world dominated by Naga.
The reference to circular time and space evokes an image of
concentric circle in motion that move outwards only to start all over
agall1.

The story of Naga-Mandala draws its concept from the snake

stories deeply rooted in our myths and folklores. The sinister hissing
of snake, its slithering movements, glittering eyes and fatal poison, its
sudden appearance and disappearance has always aroused the interest
and fear of mankind in this mysterious species. Our Bollywood film
producers also took interest and made some box-office hit movies on
such subjects. They added fuel to the fire of belief and imagination of
the people of the nation. Lord Shiva is seen with a Cobra around his
neck. Our religious books have also added the element of curiosity to
and eagerness of the people. The study of ancient life in India reveals
that Nagas (Cobras) were sacred beings whom it was forbidden to
touch and whose complex character made them equally feared and
adored. Their aggressive tendencies were proverbial, and their
vengeful spirit made them quite capable, supposedly of exterminating
an entire popUlation by exuding the fatal poison contained either in
their fangs, or by suffocating their victims in their coils. They were
also capable of blinding people with their foul breath or killing them
with the fire of their glance. Indeed their gaze was so powerful that it
could easily reduce a whole town to ashes. Yet, despite this, they were
equally capable of coming to the aid of humans and could, like the
Yakshas, make women fertile. They also guarded treasures buried in
the ground. The skin they sloughed was supposed to have the power of

114
granting invisibility to the one who picked it up, and to ensure him
long life, or even immortality, since the process of sloughing off
symbolize the soul liberating itself from evil and cycle of rebirth. It is
also a wide spread belief that the cobra can transform into a man, a
bird or a wolf. However, the main transformation in Naga-Mandala is
that of the cobra assuming the form of Rani's husband, Appanna to
make love to her. The playwright traces the movement of Rani (or the
Indian women, in general) from enslavement to empowerment. Into
this metamorphosis are woven the themes of patriarchal tyranny,
female and male sexuality, adultery and chastity. There are multiple
levels of transformation in the play. There are transformations at the
physical level - the flames assume female voices, the story transforms
into a young woman and the snake into a man. Besides these, there is
psychic and emotional transformation of different characters.
Metamorphosis also leads to self-knowlcdge, revelation, and role
shifting.

Pranav Joshipura writes:

... Girish Karnad, while using mythology, has

put forward a question mark to some of the
values of today. While we are busy
satisfying ourselves, our desires, thirst, wc
forget or overlook certain values, which may
lead us towards a stage from, where we feel
satisfied with ourselves, with what we have,
what we possess. Although we live in so-
called 'society' where we are closely

115
"related" to one another, we are very 'alien'
to each other. Our 'Brihadaranyaka'
o
Upanishad' describes the formation of
human beings as following: "In the
beginning, this universe was nothing but the
self in the form of a man ... He was as large
as a man and woman embracing. This Self
divided itself into parts; and with that, there
were a master and a mistress." This
symbolizes the split of a whole human being
into a man and woman. The same
symbolism can be found in the creation of
Adam and Eve by God as described in the
'Bible'.

We are born whole human beings, but

gender-based divisions of labour break us
into male and female fragments. Each
fragment retains only half of the human
potential. The retained part overgrows to
compensate for the other part, which
remall1S underdeveloped. These two
polarized, deformed fragments are called
men and women. Gender deformities are
thus caused and gradually 'canonized' by
socio-cultural programming of sex roles.

216
 It is signi ficant to note that the title of the
play comes not from any human character,
but from a snake - Naga. The story of the
Cobra suggests that the play not merely
dramatizes the folk tales 111 modern
interpretation; it also implies a deeper
meaning at various levels. In our Hindu
mythology, the Naga represents several
images. In South India many houses have
their own shrine, which is, often a grove
reserved for snakes, consisting of trees,
festooned with creepers, situated in the
corner of the garden. Snakes are also the
symbols of human maleness and strength.
Nagas are sometimes portrayed as handsome
men, or as half-man and half-snake, the top
half using the torso of a man, the lower half
a coiled snake. Karnad in 'Naga-Mandala'
has made use of the folk tales and the
"mixing of human and non-human worlds"
as a distancing device, whieh brings in the
4
clement of alienation in the play ...

Naga-Mandala is the story of a young girl, Rani, newly married

to Appanna, and their gradual understanding of the role, function and
responsibilities of the institution of marriage. This story is presented in
the play by a woman-narrator, a flame that has come to tell a story.
The play begins with a Prologue in which one is taken to the inner

217
 sanctum of a ruined temple. The temple is very old and the idol in it is
broken and therefore cannot be identified. It is night and a man is
sitting in the temple, yawning involuntarily. He turns to the audience
and confides:

I may be dead within the next few hours. I

asked the mendicant what I had done to
deserve this fate. Moreover, he said, "You
have written plays. You have staged them.
You have caused so many good people, who
came trusting you, to fall asleep twisted in
miserable chairs that all that abused mass of
sleep has turned against you and become the
Curse of Death." (NM 22-23)

The man is sad because a mendicant has told him,

+
You must keep awake at least one whole
night this month. I f you can do that, you'll
live, If not, you'll die on the last night of the
month. (NM 22)

The man has been dozing off every night, and tonight is the last night
of the month. His guilt is that he has written plays and thereby caused
so many people

to fall asleep twisted 111 miserable chairs.

(NM 22-23)

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 Hence,there is the Curse of Death (NM - 23) on him. He swears that
ifhe survives this night he will

adjure all story-telling, all playacting. (NM

23)

Suddenly he is shocked to see naked lamp flames entering the

temple, talking to each other in female voice. All the flames have
come from different households in the village, who, after lights have
been put out for the night, escape their houses, to collect gossip and
have some entertainment. Each flame is a female, a storyteller, sharing
with the others her observations and new experiences. Then a new
flame enters and is enthusiastically greeted by the other flames. This
new flame tells the others:

My mistress, the old woman, knows a story

and a song. But all these years she has kept
them to herself...This afiernoon ... The
momcnt her mouth opened the story and the
song jumped out. (NM 24-25)

The story took the form of a young woman and the song became a
sari: this young woman wrapped herselfin the sari and stepped out.

The identification of the flames with young, sprightly, and vocal

women and stories that they tell each other is a brilliant device used by
the playwright for creating a particularly female context and content in
the mall-oriented folk tale.
,I

219
 The flame begins her story of Rani and Appanna. Act One
begins with the Story addressing the audience:

A young girl. Her name ... it doesn't matter.

But she was an only daughter, so her parents
called her Rani, Queen. Queen of the whole
wide world ... (NM 27)

Rani is beautiful beyond words. She is the queen of the long

tresses. When her hair is tied up in a knot, it is as though a black King
Cobra lies curled on the nape of her neck. Rani's father finds her a
suitable husband, Appanna (Any man) who soon comes and takes her
to his village. Rani enters her wedded life like most girls with a lot of
expectation but is shocked by Appanna's neglect. Marriage is a
milestone in a person's life and since it presents a hostile environment;
her mind indulges in dreams in order to calm her troubled self. Rani's
problem in Appanna's house could be the problem of any bride in a
Hindu family. Both Rani and Appanna do not know how they can
relate to each other. The young girl misses her parents, feels home-
sick and lonely, while Appanna comes home only in the day, asks for
food, stays for sometime and then goes away. Every night he visits
concubine, which reflects his awareness of the biological aspect of
sex. Rani is mentally a child craving for parental affection. So she
moons 017 mother, Father! in her sleep. The next day before Appanna
leaves, she expresses her plight.

220
 Rani Listen - (Fumbling for words)
Listen-I feel frightened
- alone at night -
Appanna: What is there to be scared of?
Just keep to yourself. No one
will bother you. Rice!
Rani Please, you could -
Appanna: Look, I don't like idle chatter.
Don't question me. Do as you
are told and you won't be
punished. (Finishes his meal,
gets up) I will be back
tomorrow for lunch. (NM 28)

Rani's miserable days roll by in this manner. Appanna treats her

as if she were a non-human thing, without any feeling and a robot-
cook following his instructions without uttering a single word of
complain. He locks her in the room, and scolds the old woman
Kurudavva and her son Kappanna when they attempt to become
friendly with Rani.

One day it so happens that Kappanna (the dark one) enters the
street carrying his mother Kurudavva (the blind one) on his shoulders.
Kurudavva is the intimate friend of Appanna's mother. She has come
to visit the new daughter-in-law who has arrived in the house. She
talks to Rani and feels her through the window. She learns that
Appanna still visits his concubine though he has a beautiful wife. The
elderly woman bursts out:

221
 I'll tell you. I was born blind. No one would
marry me ... One day a mendicant came to
our house .... He was pleased with me and
gave me three pieces of a root. 'Any man
who eats one of these will marry you', he
said. (NM 33)

Therefore, Kurudavva used the middle-sized root and got her

loving husband. She gives Rani a piece of aphrodisiac root and
instructs her to grind the root and mix it in Appanna's food. Rani for
the first time has someone to speak to her sympathetically and she is
granted a miraculous thing to solve her problem. So she feels very
happy. When Appanna comes, Kurudavva expresses her wish to talk
to Rani. He says:

She won't talk to anyone. And no one needs

talk to her. (NM 34)

Later he brings a watchdog to prevent people from talking to his

wife. It is clear that Appanna does not want Rani to come into contact
with other people. While he enjoys extra-material relationships, he
does not allow her to enjoy even the affection of others. He
mercilessly keeps her starved of affection and love, which are
indispensable for the growth and sustenance of human mind. Sudhir
Kakar rightly points out that

the dominant psycho-social realities of a

woman's life can be condensed into three
stages. First, she is a daughter to her parents;

222
 second, she is a wife to her husband (and
daughter-in-law to his parents); and third,
she is a mother to her sons (and daughters).
It IS through these three important
relationships that a woman realizes her self
and social significance. Rani's
developmental struggle meets the first
obstacle, as she lives with a man who does
not give her the full physical and emotional
relationship that should exist between a
5
husband and wife ...

Rani grinds the aphrodisiac root into a paste and pours it into
the curry. The curry boils over, red as blood. Rani is so terrified that
she goes out and pours the entire curry into the anthill where lives
King Cobra. Rani as a typical wife does not want to cause her husband
any harm, which she fears, will be caused by the root though her
husband has been treating her badly since she came. Appanna as a
typical husband punishes her severely even for a small thing like her
going out though she has been serving him without any grudge since
he brought her.

The charm has worked now. A King Cobra consumes the paste
and falls in love with Rani. King Cobra lifts his hood, sees Rani and
follows her at a distance. When it is very dark, the Cobra enters Rani's
house through the drain in the bathroom. As the Cobra is supposed to
assume any form it likes, it takes the shape of Appanna. He visits Rani
at night. He takes pity on Rani for her miserable condition. He
behaves very differently. He becomes so affectionate, compassionate
and full of love that Rani cannot comprehend the situation. Yet she
willingly suspends her disbelief and enjoys the concern and affection
of Nag a who is in the guise of Appanna and thus Act One ends here.

Act II continues with the same scene. Their meeting at night

continues; Rani cannot understand why Appanna so nice at night is
rough and rude hissing like a stupid snake during the day. Rani tells
Appanna (who actually is King Cobra):

You talk so nicely at night. But during the

day I only have to open my mouth and you
hiss like a ... stupid snake. (NM 42)

On one night, Rani sees wounds on Naga's cheek and so brings

the mirror box for ointment. Naga had received these wounds in a
fight the previous night with the dog, which Appanna had brought to
keep a watch on Rani and to keep everyone away from her. She sees
an image of a cobra in the mirror and screams with fright. At once, she
shuts the box and pushes it away. She says, by miming, that she has
seen a cobra in the mirror. Then she gently touches his wounds and
finds his blood cold. She advises him not to wander in cold weather
and spoil his health. In spite of the hints, she fails to suspect the real
identity perhaps because she is very innocent, immature and
inexperienced in every matter. She is totally ignorant of sex also. She
feels that sex is mean and sinful. After the love - making, she goes to a
corner and starts weeping as if she has committed some crime. Then
Naga explains to her that sex is natural and enjoyable but not sinful.
Yet Rani is not convinced. Then it is almost dawn and he is about to

224
go. She expresses her unhappiness over his going out. Before leaving,
he repeats his injunction that she should not ask why his behaviour at
night is different from that during the day. She accepts it like a dumb
animal.

Kappanna and his mother Kurudavva come in the mornll1g.

Kappanna sees Naga and mistakes him for Appanna. Both of them
find the front door locked. Kurudavva thinks that Appanna is doing
like this just for the sake of fun. She is delighted that the magic root
has worked. She speaks to Rani. They are not in a position to
understand how Appanna has gone out while the lock is still there.
Kappanna sees a cobra coming out of the house. Kurudavva instructs
Rani to block the drain to prevent the entry of reptiles.

When Appanna comes, he finds the dog dead. Rani is also

surprised to see that there was no wound on his face! After lunch,
Appanna goes out, locking her in as usual. He brings a mongoose to
keep a watch on Rani. The mongoose gives a tough fight to the Cobra
before it dies. Naga thus receives severe injuries and does not visit
Rani for fifteen days. When he comes back after fifteen days, his body
is totally covered with deep wounds. During the day, Appanna has no
such wounds on him. This \:,ery much surprises Rani but she has no
courage to ask any question.

Naga visits Rani regularly and cures her of frigidity with tact,
patience, and affection. Rani, too, starts enjoying pleasures. The days
roll by. Rani becomes pregnant and she thinks that she has conceived
for her husband. When she gives this good news to Naga, he is not
happy because Rani's pregnancy can reveal his identity. He advises
her to keep it secret from him as long as possible. Rani is too much
confused at this type of behaviour of her husband. When Appanna (the
actual husband) comes to know about Rani's pregnancy, he is furious.
He curses and kicks her.

Appanna Aren't you ashamed to admit

it, you harlot? I locked you
in, and yet you managed to
find a lover! Tell me who
it is. Whom did you go to
with your sari off?
Rani I swear to you I haven't done
anything wrong!
Appanna You haven't? And yet you
have a 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 - ! (NM 52)

Appanna does not accept Rani's innocence. He drags her out

and tries to throw a huge stone at her to smash her illegitimate child to
be born. Now, the Cobra comes out and hisses loudly. Appanna
throws the stonc at the snake, which escapes into the ant-hill. He then
gocs out to request the Village Elders to sit in judgment and punish

226
her. That night Naga comes and Rani asks him with flood of tears in
her eyes:

Why are you humiliating me like this? Why

are you stripping me naked in front of the
whole village? Why don't you kill me
instead? I would have killed myself. But
there is not even a rope in this house for me
to use. (NM 53)

Naga says,

Rani, the Village Elders will sit in judgment.

You will be summoned. That cannot be
avoided. (NM 53)

He advises her to take snake ordeal. He assures that everything will be

all right:

All will be well, Rani, Don't worry. Your

husband will become your slave tomorrow.
You will get all you have ever wanted. (NM
54)

She suddenly runs to him and embraces him. She says:

Please hold me tight. I'm afraid. Not of the

Cobra. Nor of death! Of you. For you. You
say you'll become my slave tomorrow. That
we will be together again. (NM 54)

227
 The village elders sit in judgment and Rani swears that she has
not touched anyone except her husband and the Cobra, nor has she
allowed any male to touch her.

If! lie, let the Cobra bite me. (NM 58)

The Cobra does not bite her, but slides up her shoulder and
spreads its hood like an umbrella over her head. The crowd is stunned,
while the Elders declare her a Devi, a divine being.

Elder-I A miracle! A miracle.

Elder-II She is not a woman, she
is a Divine Being.
Elder-III Indeed, 'a Goddess-!

(They fall at her feet. The crowd surges

forward to prostrate itself before her.
Appal1na stands, uncomprehending. The
Elders shout, 'Palanquin! Music!' They lift
her into the Palanquin. Then as an
afterthought, Appanna is seated next to her.
The couple is taken in procession to their
house.)

Elder-I Appanna, your wife is not

an ordinary woman. She is
a goddess incarnate. Don't
grieve that you judged her
wrongly and treated her

228
 badly. That IS how
goddesses reveal
themselves to the world.
You were the chosen
instrument for revealing
her divinity.
Elder-II Spend the rest of your life
in her service. You need
merit in ten past lives to be
chosen for such a holy
duty.
Elder-III Bless us, Mother. Bless
our children. (All
disperse, except Rani and
Appanna. Appanna opens
the lock on the door,
throws it away. He goes in
and sits, mortified, bamed.
She comes and stands next
to him. Long pause.
Suddenly he falls at her
feet.)
Appanna Forgive me. I am a sinner.
I was blind ... (NM 59)

Rani gives birth to a beautiful son, but Appanna is aware that he

is not the father of the child. He is not convinced of Rani's chastity.
The Cobra unable to bear separation ties a stress on Rani's hair round

229
its neck and strangles itself to death hiding in her hair. The dead Cobra
falls to the ground when Appanna combs her hair. Rani, who now
understands all about the Cobra, wishes him to be cremated by their
son and rite to be performed to commemorate the Cobra's death.
Appanna agrees to the wishes of Rani as he regards her the goddess
incarnate.

Rani (Almost to herself) A

Cobra. It has to be ri tually
cremated. Can you grant
me a favour?
Appanna Certainly.
Rani When we cremate this
snake, the fire should be lit
by our son.
Appanna : As you say. (NM 63)

Thus, in Naga-Mandala, the human and non-human worlds

enter into one another's lives to reveal the playwright's vision of
reality. A number of Indian habits and beliefs are reflected in Karnad's
plays. In Naga-A1andala, Appanna marries Rani, locks her up in his
house, and carries on his affair with his concubine. He is notoriously
promiscuous but expects his wife to be chaste. He goes to the extent of
lodging a complaint with the elders of the village for justice. Such a
hypocritical attitude is common in many parts of the country, though
women are liberated largely now.

230
 Karnad has deployed all devices used with the folk-tale andlor
mythic patterns, like the imputations of superhuman qualities to
humans and non-humans, the use of magic elements, extraordinary
ordeals. The flames, the Naga taking Appanna's form, the magic roots,
the imputation of divinity to a woman - all confirm to the needs of
folk-tale and myth.

The play proper seems a re-mythification of the Ahalya myth.

In Valmiki's Ramayana, Ahalya commits adultery knowingly but the
folk mind equates Ahalya with the chaste women and therefore cannot
allow her to sin deliberately. So Indra is shown to have perpetrated a
fraud on her by impersonating her husband Rishi Gautam. In Naga-
Mandala too, Rani is innocent. It is Naga in the form of her husband
Appanna who makes love to her. She thinks that she bears her
husband's child and does not suspect Naga's identity until the very
end. How Naga comes to be her lover is based upon a fertility rite.
According to Northrop Frye, A ritual is a sacred manifestation or an
epiphany of a myth in action. In other words, myth rationalizes or
explains a ritual by providing an authority for it. For instance, it is a
common practice in our country that on a celiain day of a certain
month of a certain year, women perform the ritual of pouring milk on
ant-hills inhabited by Cobras. It is believed that married women
propitiate the Cobra to get over barrenness and unmarried girls to get
good husband. Naga of the play Naga-Mandala is a supernatural being
who reflects charisma and possesses the special powers of
transformation. The scenography of Naga-Mandala is set in the aura
of Naga, which is both beautifully terrible and terrifyingly beautiful.
This mysterious quality of Nag a permeates the entire play.

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 Naga-Mandala is a magico-religious ritual involving Naga, the
snake-god of Hindus who grants the wishes of his devotes, especially
the wish for fertility. In the play, Naga (Cobra) grants Rani all her
wishes, which she does not express openly. She grows mentally and
becomes a confident woman. She is cured of her frigidity. She gets a
devoted husband. Her husband's concubine becomes a life-long
servant-maid for her. Above all, she begets a beautiful son. Naga, in
addition, makes Appanna's heart fertile with love and affection for his
wife.

Naga-Mandala depicts the man and woman pass through

several stages of doubt, unce11ainty, and even failures before they
become mature and learn to live harmoniously as husband and wife,
within the family-fold. Appanna becomes a caring and subdued
husband, accepting Rani's decisions, which may be at times, baftle
him. This change in Rani's status comes through her motherhood, and
the public trial, where her bold acceptance of truth gains her public
respectability. This transformation of both Appanna and Rani presents
the significance of the institution of marriage. It is through their
adjustment that they gain a status within the life of the community.

Karnad's Naga-Mandala provides aesthetic pleasure, which in

turn reforms the tastes of the people and changes their attitude to life.
It has so absorbing a story that it can keep anybody awake the whole
night as it forces the Man in the play to hear it. The audience is
transported to a world of make-believe, without any reference to the
mundane affairs. The Naga-episode, which is a mixture of romance
and chivalry, is exhilarating.
 Literature in essence is a criticism of society. Matthew Arnold
has said in his imm0l1al words,

... that poetry at bottom is a criticism of life;

that the greatness of a poet lies in his
powerful and beautiful application of ideas
to life, - to the question, How to live?

What he has said about poetry applies to all forms of literature.

Naga-Mandala presents a tale of male chauvinism to give the message
that it debilitates and degrades both sexes. In modern ambience, men
and women have to work in tandem to maintain this pace of progress.
Women have shown that they have drive to and enterprise as much as
men have. Though to our misfol1une we find that there are
innumerable cases of exploitation of women, yet it is more than clear
that Rani cannot be tortured any more. We shall be worse than blind
Kurudavva if we fail to give women their due place in the society and
worse than Cobra if we fail to appreciate their potential. Rani's and
Naga's ultimate act of reconci ling with the situation is edifying. It is
no wisdom to remain stuck to the past, when future beckons us.

For Karnad mythology is never a dead past. He makes it

relevant in the modern context. The modern men can learn and
understand certain social values and morality from it. Myths, legends
and folk forms function as a kind of cultural aesthesia and they have
been used for introducing and eliminating, in our racial unconscious,
cultural pathogens such as caste and gender distinctions and religious
fanaticism. Karnad makes use of myths and folk forms in his plays to
exercise socio-cultural evils. He says,

233
 The energy of folk theatre comes from the
fact that although it seems to uphold
traditional values, it also has the means of
questioning these values, of making them
literally stand on their head. 6

In Naga-Mandala, he not only exposes male chauvinism, the

oppression of women, the great injustice done to them by men and
patriarchal culture but also stealthily deflates the concept of chastity.

Literature is picture of the society drawn on a large canvas by

persons of higher sensibilities to show the people their failings and
foibles' and also to inspire them to take remedial steps. In Naga-
Mandala Karnad has made out a case for emancipation of women
who, he thinks, are subjected to all sOl1s of invidious discrimination.
The play is no doubt based on a deeply rooted Indian mythology but
that is not all. It has become a sociological study of Indian women for
whom freedom or independence is still an unfulfilled dream.

Let us take up the case of Appanna, the main male character of

the play. He has nobody to take care of him. His parents are already
dead. He has money to spend and spare. It is natural for an unguided
youth to be wayward, more so in a society in which women are
available for pay. Indian society somehow does not provide many
channels to release one's energy. People do not have healthy pastimes.
Appanna therefore starts going to a concubine who has held him fast
in her trap. The question whether Appanna is guilty or the society
confronts the readers. Even today, Indian society docs not take
responsibility of unguided or misguided youths. Naturally, such

234
youths become drug addicts, adulterer, or criminals. It is not the
society worth the name, which leaves the youths to their own care.
Bernard Shaw's Candida has a case in point. Candida saves the boy
who has become a drug addict because he was neglected by his
family. If Appanna had met a Candida, he would not have strayed
from the path of righteousness. Appanna cannot be blamed for his
lapses because there is none to guide him. He has missed the centre
and nobody is there to show him the right track.

Rani, the most impotiant female character of the play, too

suffers due to social conditions, traditions and so called culture. She is
brought up in a conservative society, which believes that a wife has to
serve her husband howsoever depraved he may be, and that marriage
is not a bond but bondage. The wife has to consider her husband a god
(Pati Parmeshwara). She has to obey all orders without asking a single
question. Rani is told on the very day she enters her husband's house
that he will come only once in a day for lunch and she has to keep his
lunch ready. He said,

Well, then, I'll be back tomorrow at noon.

Keep my lunch ready. I shall eat and go.
(NM 27)

She is thus left to languish in a solitary cell. When she tries to

speak to Appanna about her woeful state, he snubs her -

Look, I don't like idle chatter. Do as you are

told, you understand? I will be back
tomorrow, for lunch. (NM 28)

235
 She starts having hallucinations and dreams of her parents
whom in contrast where caring and loving. She moans, Oh, Mother!
Father in her sleep. She is so upset mentally that she talks to herself
even while cooking food -

Then Rani's parents embrace her and cry.

They kiss her and caress her. At night, she
sleeps between them. So she IS not
frightened any more. 'Don't worry', they
promise her. 'We won't let you go away
again ever!' In the morning, the stag with the
golden antlers comes to the door. He calls
out to Rani. She refuses to go. 'J am not a
stag,' he explains, 'I am a prince' ... (NM 28)

Her shattered dreams visit her to make her miserable,

... Therefore, Rani asks him: 'Where are you

taking me? And the Eagle answers: 'Beyond
the seven seas and the seven isles. On the
seventh island is a magic garden. And in that
garden stands the tree of emeralds. Under
that tree, your parents wait for you. (NM 27-
28)

The gap between her dream and the present state torments her.
She is a caged bird. She wants the open sky to fly freely. However,
Hindu customs and beliefs do not allow her to do so.

236
 One more fact of our so-called cultured society comes before us
is that a Hindu husband can enjoy any liberty but his wife is not to
cross the threshold of her house, the Laxman-Rekha of social
inhabitations and prohibitions and if she does, she does on the pain of
social ostracism. Everybody knows that Appana goes to a concubine
but none dares ask him to desist from going there, but he keeps his
wife under lock and key lest she should get a company to abate her
suffering. Hindu wives have no voice in anything. She is exhorted to
follow the dictates of her husband. She is further told that lucky is the
wife whose dead body is carried to the pyre by her husband, implying
that the treatment she receives from her husband and in-laws. Rani,
therefore, bears all the suffering without speaking a word of revolt.
She is left by her loving parents also to fend for herself in her
husband's house. It is really a very true observation, A Cobra is better
than sllch a husband.

Hindu society has been perfectly retlected in Naga-Mandala. It

is a very common practice among Indians in general and Hindus in
particular that they look for a rich boy with a status for the match of
their daughters and marry them away without the consent of the bride
and bridegroom. Such marriages result in laceration of women. Many
a time it so happens that the rich boy is found poor in morality. Rani is
a victim of such a concept. It is not this that the marriage has been
rocked, but a woman has been enslaved. Bernard Shaw has dealt with
such a problem in his play Arms and the Man, in which the young
woman, Raina, rejects her betrothed fiance who is selected by her
parents on the considerations of his riches and status, to marry with
her chocolate cream soldier who is a fugitive, pursued by the enemy

237
and torn with hunger. She chooses him because she has found him a
better man. When the two rivals speak of their wealth to get her hand,
Raina says, -

The lady says that he can keep his

tablecloths and his omnibuses. I am not here
to be sold to the highest bidder. 7

But the fugitive tells her-

I won't take that answer. I appealed to you

as a fugitive, a beggar and a starving man.
You accepted me. You gave me your hand
to kiss, your bed to sleep in, and your roof to
shelter me. s

The direct message that Shaw gives is that character of a man

should be the primary consideration, not his wealth and status in
matrimonial matters. It is correctly said, The real dignity of a man lies
in not what he HAS but in what he IS. However, Indian society is too
orthodox and reactionary to accept such a message. That is the main
cause for Rani's suffering. Rani would have gone beyond seven seas
and Seven Isles if she had been married to a man with moral values.
But unfortunately, she gets a husband who does not know or care for
even the alphabets of moral val ues.

Rani is, in a way, representative of Indian wives who crave for

love of men and in the intensity of their passion; they accept any men
that come in their lives. In most cases, people exploit sllch women for

238
physical pleasure, but Rani is lucky in having a sincere lover. Her case
compels the guardians of the society to imagine what would have
happened to her if the lover-snake had been a flirt or a procurer. Indian
ethics does not permit a woman to have extra-material relations even
if the woman is a deserted wife. Naturally, Rani is shocked when she
realizes that she has copulated with a man other than her wedded
husband. The author puts her case plainly-

No two men love alike. And that night of the

village court, when her true husband
climbed into bed with her, how could she
fail to realize it was someone new? Even if
she hadn't known earlier! When did the split
take place? Every night this conundrum
must have spread its hood out at her. Don't
you think she must have cried out in anguish
to know the answer? (NM 60)

The play examines the issues of adultery and chastity and

questions the patriarchal moral code, which believes in the loyalty of a
woman to her husband but not in the fidelity of a man to his wife. No
hue and cry is raised when Appanna commits adultery openly and
intentionally whereas Rani, who commits adultery unknowingly, is
compelled to face the trial. She remains one of Sita in Valmiki's
Ramayana who has to pass through the test of fire to prove her
virginity. Rani is tormented by her husband who accuses her of
infidelity. He utters imprecations on her,

239
 Aren't you ashamed to admit it, you harlot?
I locked you in and you managed to find a
lover! Tell me who it is. Who did you go to
with your sari off? (NM 52)

When she undergoes the snake ordeal, she confesses swearing

by the King Cobra that she has not touched anyone of the male sex,
except her husband and this snake. The cobra does not harm her and
she is apotheosized into a divine goddess incarnate. However,
Appanna is not convinced for her chastity and says,

Have I sinned so much that even nature

should laugh at me? I know I haven't slept
with my wife. Let the world say what it
likes. Let any miracle declare her a goddess.
But 'I' know! (NM 60)

He undergoes great mental agony. It seems that Providence has

punished him for torturing his wife and for being infidel to her.
Chastity or virginity of a woman is one of the major issues in the life
of a woman. Chastity is considered the most precious possession of a
woman. Thomas Hardy's famous novel Tess is centrally based on the
chastity issue. Tess, the heroine of the novel, had to sutTer throughout
,
because she was not virgin. Thus, this problem is not only limited to
India but also spread worldwide. The question that arises before the
readers is whether Rani is a chaste woman in spite of getting a child
from the lover snake. The religions bigots will condemn her as
depraved as Tees was condemned by her husband Angel Clare. Even
Ahalya was outcast for a similar offence. Indians are generally

240
prudish. They do not rise above ready-made ethical mores. Hardy has
tackled this question judiciously in his novel Tess! Tess becomes a
victim of the prurient employer Alec. Towards the end of the novel
Angel, her husband, realizes the worth of Tess and accepts her. Hardy
himself calls Tess A Pure Woman. However, the Indian Tess, that
Rani is, is caught in the steel framework of social ethics so strongly
that she cannot rise above ingrained moral values. It requires a Rama
to restore peace to the distraught Ahalya. It is therefore natural for
Rani to suffer the arrows and slings of mind. Appanna has also to
suffer mental agony because he knows for certain that his wife has had
illicit relations with somebody. But the poor fellow is not in a position
to speak a single word because Rani has successfully overcome the
ordeal in the presence of Village Elders!

The play also poses some very relevant questions regarding the
institution of marriage as it exists in India. We are introduced to
Appanna who has brought home a wife but continues to visit a harlot.
He leaves home after lunch everyday and returns only for lunch the
next day. The two are psychologically and physically mismatched.
Appanna, with his regular visits to concubines finds his inexperienced
new wife uninteresting and leaves her everyday to herself locked in
the house alone. Rani is totally ignorant about sex and so the only
bond that exists between newlyweds is absent in the case of Rani and
Appanna. The absence of this bond renders the marriage meaningless
and Rani is reduced to the status of a housemaid who must cook for
her husband and feed him every afternoon. The prince of whom she
has dreamt, who was to bring her to his house turns into a demon.

241
There is no chance of return to freedom and she is inescapably
trapped. She quakes to think of her fate in case of Appanna's death.

Suppose something happens to my

husband?" She ponders, "A little piece made
him ill. Who knows ... ? No, no forgive me,
God. This is evil. I was about to commit a
crime." (NM 37)

Rani is the very image of an ideal Indian woman - demure,

unquestioning, and uncomplaining. When Naga orders her not to ask
questions, she obeys him until she gets pregnant. Only when she is to
become a mother she realizes the grave injustice of the entire
situation-

I was stupid ignorant girl when you brought

me here and now I am going to become a
mother. I am not a parrot. Not a cat or a
sparrow. Why don't you take it on trust that I
have a mind and explain this charade to me?
Why do you play these games? Why do you
change like a chameleon from day to night?
Even it I understood a little, a tiny bit - I could bear
it. But now - sometimes I feel my head is going to
burst. (NM 5 I)

It is also clear that Rani is acceptable to her husband only as

goddess. She is to him a whore, a goddess, or nobody, to be kept under
lock and key. The ordinary woman with normal desires i.c. Rani as

242
she is-is rejected by him. Even the village elders refuge to take her
seriously until they get convinced that she is an Avatara - Goddess
incarnate.

The play deals with male female sexuality, too. Naga employs
the myth of life to educate Rani about sex. Sleep (nindra), food
(ahara), and copulation (maithuna) are common to man and animal.
Naga as the phallic symbol performs as per his nature or Swadharma
and initiates her into sex. He comes disguised as her husband but he
cannot change what he is. This is artistically described by Karnad:

Frogs croaking in pelting rain, tortoises

singing soundlessly in the dark, foxes, crabs,
ants, rattlers, sharks, swallows - even thc
geese! The female begins to smell like wet
carth. And stung by her smell, the King
Cobra starts searching for his queen. The
tiger bellows for his mate. When the flamc-
of-forest blossoms into a fountain of red and
the earth cracks open at the touch of the
acrial roots of the banyan, it moves in the
hollow of the cotton-wood, in the flow of
the estuary, the dark netherworlds, within
everything that sprouts, grows, stretches,
creaks and blooms-everywhere, those who
come together, cling, fall apart lazily! It is
there and therc and there, everywhere. (NM
45)

243
 Gradually, Rani grows and matures. By employing his erotic
art, Naga cures her of frigidity and she starts enjoying erotic pleasures.
Her ecstatic heart feels that her house is redolent of the blossoming
night queen before her lover arrives.

How it welcomes him! God how it takes me

set each fiber in me on fire! (NM - 49)

In fact, every night she anxiously waits for Naga to arrive and
wants the night to last forever. His intense and sincere love satisfies
her and she finds her absolute in him. When she discovers that she is
pregnant, which is a definite evidence to prove that Naga is not an
illusion but a reality, she attains a state of heavenly bliss.

The passage recalls the creation myth of Uranus and Gaea, and
of Heaven and Earth coming together: of the first male and female,
Purusha and Prakriti, Yang and Yin. It is this law of life that Rani is
ignorant of. The above passage is replete with images of sexual
intercourse reaching orgasmic climax to the lazy falling apart.

In the sub-plot, Kurudava's son deserts his mother to gratify his

sensual desires and goes in search of a girl who becomes the rival of
his mother and like the serpent lover arrives from some other world.
She might be a

temptress from beyond? A 'Yaksha' woman

-perhaps a snake woman? But not a human
being. (NM 57)

244
 In spite of all that has been said above regarding the necessity
of having a reasonably liberal attitude towards such a case, our author
gives the message that none of the three persons involved in a triangle
of love can be happy. As has been discussed above, Appanna and Rani
have reasons to be upset. The lover snake is also upset to find that his
lady-love is in the arms of somebody else -

Rani! My queen! The fragrance of my

nights! The blossom of my dreams! In
another man's arms? In another man's bed?
(NM 61)

Well, we are the products of Indian ethos and would not accept
an un-Indian situation in any case. Luckily, the Naga accepts the
situation and withdraws from the contention.

Yayati

To understand the myth of Yayati more perfectly, it is very

important to study the legends of Devyani, his wife. The story of the
love adventures of Dcvyani, the daughter of a Brahman Priest named
Sukra, represents a new phase in both human character and Hindu
history. She is a self-willed and vindictive girl, who prides herself
upon being the daughter of a Brahman priest, and occasionally meets
with some mortifying rebuffs, for which she seeks to gain a pitiful
revenge. The father of the morose young damsel is a fair type of the
Brahman priest of both ancient and modern times, who occasionally
keep a village or tribe in strict subordination, by preying upon their

245
superstitious fears, and arrogating to themselves the power of bringing
rain form heaven or curing diseases, or securing victory in battle.

The period in which the events seem to have transpired may be

easily inferred from the surrounding circumstances. The story contains
no satisfactory traces of the Vedic age, and evidently belongs to an
early period in the Brahmanic age; in as much as the interest turns first
upon the Brahmanical rule that a pupil prohibited from marrying the
daughter of his preceptor; and secondly, upon a primitive assertion of
Brahmanical supremacy over a superstitious and barbarous tribe.
There is one remarkable feature in the story, which is of some
historical importance. It will be seen that Sukra, the father of Devyani,
was not the priest and preceptor of a tribe of Aryans, or Devatas, but
of a tribe of Daityas; and the Daityas were the dark - complexioned
aborigines who are generally represented as the enemies of the
Aryans. From this circumstance, it may be inferred that the Brahmans
were not originally a tribe or a nationality, but a professional class of
priests who were ready to officiate for one race as for another, for the
Turanian aborigine of the country as well as for the Aryan invaders.
The same circumstance also throws some light upon the means by
which the Brahman missionaries, who made their way into the
territories of the aborigines, established their ascendancy over the rude
and barbarous tribes who appear in the Rig-Veda as the enemies of the
Aryans.

Yayati is based on a tale found in the Mahabharata. Here is an

extremely condensed form of the story of Yayati as found in the
original.

246
 Yayati's story begins with his wife, Devayani, the beautiful
daughter of Sukracharya, the preceptor of the Asuras (Demons).
Before her marriage, Devayani was insulted, slapped, and thrown into
a (waterless) well by Sharmistha, the daughter of the king of Asuras.
Yayati, who happened to pass by, had rescued Devayani by holding
her right hand and pulling her out of the well. Devayani had then
asked Yayati to marry him. However, the prevailing custom ofthe day
forbade a Kshatriya to marry a Brahmin girl (this was called the
Pratiloma marriage); Yayati refused, stating the Pratiloma rule as the
obstacle for their marriage.

Seething with rage, Devayani complained to her father about

Sharmistha. Sukra, who loved his only daughter dearly, told the king
that he would leave the kingdom if his daughter were not appeased.

Devayani set her condition for revenge. Sharmistha had to be

her Dasi (handmaid) and serve her in the house she would occupy
after her marriage. Shannistha agreed in order to save her father's
honour. Yayati later married Devayani after S ukra agreed to make an
exception to the Pratiloma rule.

In the meantime, Sharmistha was attracted to Yayati and asked

him to marry her. A bewitching woman, Yayati found it hard to resist.
He married her without Devyani's knowledge. Before long, Devayani
discovered the secret and complained bitterly to her father. A furious
Sukracharya cursed him with old age. This is the crucial juncture of
Yayati's story. An extremely sensual king, Yayati believed in
enjoying all pleasures that life affords a king. In addition, this highly
apt curse left him distraught. When he later mollified Sukra, the sage

247
told him that if anybody were willing to exchange his old age, his
youth would continue as before. Yayati approached each of his sons
and asked of them this barter. None except Puru agreed. When a
delighted Yayati embraced Puru, the transfer was complete.

Puru became a ripe old man in the prime of his youth while
Yayati regained his youth.

Yayati pursued pleasure with a renewed zest. The original

Mahabharata tells us that the more he indulged, the thirstier he grew.
In his words, (crudely translated) told to Puru, Dear son, sensual desire
is never quenched by indulgence any more than fire is by pouring ghee
in it. I had so far heard, and read about this. Now, I have realized it: no
object of desire-corn, gold, cattle, and women-nothing can ever satisfy
the desire of man. We can reach peace only by a mental poise that
goes beyond likes and dislikes. This is the state of Brahman. Take
back your youth and rule the kingdom wisely and well. Yayati then
retired to the forest to perform penance. In due course, he attained the
perfect state of Brahman.

Here the story of Yayati and Devyani virtually ends. Devyani

declared that she would live no longer with the Raja, and can-ied her
complaint to her father Sukra, who there upon pronounced
, a curse of
old age upon Yayati. The curse is said to have taken effect, but Sukra
offered to remove it by transferring it to anyone ofYayati's sons, who
would agree to accept the infliction. Yadu, his eldest son by Devyani,
refused and was cursed that his posterity should never enjoy dominion
and he ultimately became the ancestor of the Yadawas, or cowherds.
Then all the other sons of the Raja refused, and were cursed in like

248
manner, excepting the youngest son by Sarmishtha, who was named
Puru, and who agreed to bear the burden of his father's old age for a
period of a thousand years and who ultimately become the ancestor of
the Panda va's and the Kauravas.

The legend of the marriage of Devyani and Yayati seems to be

cumbered with some mythical detail for ennobling the tribe of
Yadavas, to which Krishna belonged, by representing them to have
been descended from one of the ancient Rajas of Bharata and the
daughter of a Brahman. In the genealogical lists, Yayati appears as the
great grandfather of Raja Bharata.

Karnad's Yayati

Karnad's first play Yayati was published in 1961. It has not been
translated into English. The play received the Mysore State Award in
1962. Yayati and Tale-Danda (Raktkalyan) have been translated into
Hindi by S. R. Narayan and Rajpal Bajaj respectively. Karnad's Yayati
re-tells the age-old story of the king who in his longing for eternal
youth does not hesitate to usurp the youth and vitality of his son,
Karnad invests new meaning and significance for contemporary life
and reality by exploring the king's motivations. In the Mahabharata,
Yayati understands the nature of desire itself and realizes that
fulfillment neither diminishes nor eliminates desire. In the drama,
Karnad makes Yayati confront the horrifying consequences of not
being able to relinquish desire; and through the other characters, he
highlights the issues of class/caste and gender coiled within a web of
desire.

249
 The play was an unexpected outcome of the intense emotional
turmoil Karnad experienced while preparing for his trip to England for
further studies. He was the first boy from his traditional family to go
abroad for higher studies. The uncertainty of his future course of
action and the struggle ahead made him aware of his responsibility. To
escape from his stressful situation he began writing a play retelling a
myth from the Mahabharata. The play that reflects his mental
condition at that time is a self-conscious existentialist drama on the
theme of responsibility.

In the Puranic lore, as it has been discussed in detail earlier,

Yayati marries Devayani, the daughter of the sage Sukracharya, and
takes Sharmistha, an Asura girl, as his wife, as required under certain
niceties of dharma. His marriage to Sharmistha infuriates Devayani
who in her anger and jealousy goads her father to bring a curse of
senility and decrepitude upon Yayati. Yayati, who was cursed to old
age for his moral transgression, whishes to exchange old age for
money, land and even a part of his kingdom. None including his three
elde, sons accepts the offer, when Puru his youngest son with a great
sense of filial obligation and respect for his father offers his youth for
his old age and takes the curse on him. Puru has just returned home
with newly wedded wife Chitralekha (an invention of the dramatist)
and the nuptial bed is being prepared for them. The same bed is now
used fcir Yayati to celebrate his wedding night with Sharmistha, his
second wife, a lowborn girl, whom he had accepted under some
niceties of dharma. Devayani, his first wife, jealous and furious seeing
her husband with co-wife had brought the curse of old age on him.
However, Puru's great sacrifice brings disastrous results. Puru's newly

250
married wife, Chitralekha, who wants to bear a child, is unable to bear
her husband's old age. She wishes to offer herself to Yayati but, then,
commits suicide out of shame. Yayati is horrified to see the disastrous
results of his action. He finally takes back the curse from his son in a
moment of remorse.

Karnad's Yayati is similarly stricken with an overwhelming

desire for indulgence. However, because Karnad decides that he is an
Existential king, he alters Yayati' s character. Not content, he casts
Puru in a similar mold: the eternal conflict-torn drama protagonist who
in this play, vacillates between the desire to reclaim his youth and
fulfilling his duty as a son. In Karnad's Yayati, the importance is
skewed heavily in favour ofPuru-not Yayati-which is a perversion of
the original. In the original, Puru's role begins with accepting his
father's old age with respectful dignity, and ends with returning it.
Puru never thinks twice, he does not crib, and most impOliant, is not in
the throes of dilemma whether he made the right choice.

However, Karnad's Puru is despondent that about his loss of

youth. He is as said earlier, in the throes of a dilemma, which
desperately needs an outlet. He does vent in a few monologues, and
asides. However, this poses a problem because in the original, there is
limited emphasis on Puru's role and/or character. The playwright
therefore needs to strengthen, enhance, and add more meat to Puru so
that his presence can be "felt." In other words, Karnad's Puru needs
crutches to make himself felt. Lo! A fine woman, Chitralekha,
materializes as Puru's wife-a character absent in the original. One can
argue that other dramatists did extend their poetic licenses: the ghost

251
in Hamlet and Julius Caesar. However, the important distinction is that
these plays can be read lenacted even without the supernatural element
with any difference in the impact on the reader/audience. Take away
Chitralekha from Yayati and it falls flat. Worse, Chitralekha commits
suicide in the play when she learns that Puru has traded his youth for
old age. Karnad also conveniently hides Yayati's confession that
indulgence does not lead to peace and happiness. With good reason,
Karnad's hero is Pum, not Yayati. It however, exposes Karnad's
shallowness.

Karnad's Yayati comes across as merely a pleasure-monger

while in the original; his character is symbolic of a higher ideal, that of
striving for truth, and eternal happiness. Yayati's long span of sensual
indulgence is a symbol that indicates the futility of chasing happiness
in things that have a definite end. Indulgence only increases thirst it
does not quench it. Each climax of happiness ends with sorrow that it
is over so soon, followed by a craving to renew, to repeat the pleasure
once more. External causes of happiness never create real joy. Joy is
an internal state of consciousness that determines how we perceive
and experience the world. Yayati's disillusionment is complete only
with saturation. He has had his fill but remains unfulfilled which is
what plods him to seek a non-cyclical happiness.

In the original, neither Yayati nor his son suffers frol11 any kind
of confusion or existentialist disease. They are aware of their
motivations, their choices, and have great conviction. They feel no
guilt or remorse. Puru considers it his duty towards his father,
adhering firmly to the dictum of pitru devo bhava (father is god).

252
Yayati comes across as straightforward when he expresses his desire
to enjoy sensual pleasure; his strength of character is equally on for
display. when he speaks with conviction that he has had enough of
that.

Drunk with Sartre and other negative philosophers, Karnad

hideously caricatured what really is one fine tale. His crime in my
perspective is that he chose to reprobate interpret what is a
straightforward story. I would have had no problems if he had written
the play on the same theme but with a similar, maybe contemporary,
story and titled it Yayati. That could be taken as a product of his
imagination and scrutinized for its worth. Then, critics would yell that
he had stolen from the Mahabharata. The better way then is to
proclaim that it indeed is from the Mahabharata, only his exploration
of Yaymi /Puru 's inner conflict.

Influenced by existentialist drama, his first play Yayati (1961)

explores the complexities of responsibility and expectations within the
Indian family. Drawing on a myth from the Mahabharata, Karnad
expressed in it a personal dilemma between his family's demands and
his own wish for freedom.

It should be remembered that Yayati, before asking Puru,

approached his other three sons who all refused. The expectation part
falls flat. Yayati's was a request, not a command, which is why his
other three sons were completely free to refuse. Moreover, the remark
about his family's demands and his own wish for freedom can by no
stretch of imagination be appl ied to the story of Yayati. Puru, like his
elder brothers was completely free to refuse Yayati's request. His
freely chose to take on his father's old age.

The audience in the West at which Karnad aimed this missile is

largely ignorant of the humungous Indian mythology and its various
subtleties. For a man like Karnad, well versed in English literature and
western philosophy, tailoring Yayati in an existential garb has proved
rewarding. He gave them what they understood-and could understand.

In Yayati Karnad takes liberty with the original myth and

invents some new relationships to make it acceptable to modern
sensibility. In Karnad's play, Yayati has already married Devayani,
and marries Sharmistha during the action of the play. Karnad invents
two characters - ruru's wife Chitralekha and confidant Swarnalata. In
Karnad's play, the whole action takes place in one night. Puru is
shown coming home after his marriage and the bed is being prepared
for the newly wedded couple. The same bed is used for Yayati to
solemnize Sarmishtha. The curse falls and Pum loses his youth and
suddenly grows old. Chitralekha, who wants to bear a child, is
disillusioned. She decides to offer herself to Yayati and then she
commits suicide. This shakes Yayati and act as a revelation. In a
moment of genuine remorse, he takes back the curse from his son.

The playwright has given this traditional tale a new meaning

and significance highly relevant in the context of life today. The
symbolic theme ofYayati's attachment to life and its pleasures as also
his final renunciation is retained. The play reveals the existentialist
view that each man is what he chooses to be or make himself. Karnad
places individual at the centre of his picture of the world.

254
 The father is left to face the consequences of
9
shirking responsibility for his own actions.

Karnad reinterprets an ancient Indian myth from the Puranic

past to make a statement in the form and structure he found in the
Western playwrights. Karnad's originality lies in working out the
motivations behind Yayati's ultimate choice. In the Mahabharata,
Yayati recognized the nature of desire itself and realized that
fulfillment does not diminish or finish desire. In Karnad's play,
however, Yayati recognizes the horror of his own life and assumes his
moral responsibility after a series of symbolic encounters.

Karnad's interpretation of the familiar old myth on the change

of ages between father and son seems to have baffled and even
angered many of the conventional critics. However, to others, who are
trying to root their contemporary concerns in old myths, Karnad's
unheroic hero Puru is a challenging experience. The playwright places
the individual person at the centre of his picture of the world and
shows that each man is what he chooses to be or makes himself. In his
psychological exploration, Karnad shows an impressive insight and
introduces concepts, which greatly extend the area of moral self-
knowledge and self-awareness. It simply means that Karnad has
indeed read wisely Sartre, Camus and others. The playwright himself
says in an interview:

I wanted to tell people I had read Sartre,

10
Camus and others.

255
 Yayati was a big success on the stage, but Karnad's success was
not without some surprise for him. He was deeply impressed by poets
like Auden and Eliot and wanted to be a successful poet, but all of a
sudden be became a playwright. Secondly, the play was not about
contemporary life but about an ancient Indian myth from the
Mahabharata. And finally, English was the language of his
intellectual make up and he wanted to write in English, but, when it
came to expressing himself, he found himself writing in Kannada, his
mother tongue. Dante, the great Italian poet and critic, maintains that
mother tongue could be the best vehicle for creative expressions.
Karnad seems to follow the footprints of the great masters of literary
art in writing all his plays in Kannada, his mother tongue.

It should also be noted that Karnad was not the first to use the
myth ofYayati for his writing purpose. Rabindranath Tagore wrote his
famous play Kacha and Devyani on this theme V. S. Khandekar, the
eminent Marathi novelist, also used the Yayati myth in his novel
Yayati. Published in 1959, the novel received several awards such as
State Government A ward, the Sahitya Akademi Award (1960) and the
Jnanpith Award (1964). In his novel, Khandekar made Yayati a
representative of modern common man who in spite of receiving much
happiness in life remains restless and discontented. The mythical
Yayati ran after sensual pleasures but Khandekar's Yayati runs after
all kinds of materialistic pleasures - Cars, bungalows, fat bank
accounts, beautiful clothes, dance, music etc. Though the tale is taken
from the Puranas, Khandekar's Yayati is a modem man. The modem
man mistakes momentary animal pleasure for eternal happiness and
ponders over all the time how to get it. Karnad too, interprets the

256
 ancient theme in modem context. Like Yayati of the Mahabharata, the
common man of today is groping in the darkness of material and
sensual pleasures. He tinds himself in a world in which the old
spiritual values have been entirely swept away and new spiritual ones
are yet to be discovered. Blind pursuit of pleasure has become the
'Sumum bonum', the supreme religion in his life.

Karnad makes a few dramatic changes in this story but retains

Yayati's love for life and his tina I renunciation. In the mythical story,
Yayati realizes that fultillment of a desire does not tinish the desire
itself. Happiness is a state of consciousness that already exists within
us, but it is often covered up by all kinds of distractions. Just as a
beautiful sunrise might be hidden behind clouds, so, too, our inner
happiness is hidden behind our everyday concerns. In Karnad's play,
however, Yayati recognizes the horror of his life and owns moral
responsibility after his encounter with reality. Moreover, the liaison
between Yayati and Devayani and the birth story of Puru remain the
major dramatic deviation from the original myth.

It was music critic P. G. Burde, who tirst approached Shanta

Gokhale with the proposal to direct Yayati for the ongoing Girish
Karnad Natakotsav. The weeklong multi-lingual Natakotsav has been
organized as a tribute .. to the Jnanpith award-winning playwright.
Interestingly, Yayati is the tirst play written by Karnad when he was a
21 year old and was about to leave for England on the Rhodes
scholarship, in 1962. To quote Karnad from one of his essays .. .going
abroad was a much rarer experience in those days. Besides, 1 was the
»
first member of a large close-knit family ever to go abroad. 1 wrote

257
Yayati while preparing for the trip. The myth helped me to articulate
my resentment at all those who seemed to demand sacrifice of my
future ..

Writer-journalist Shanta Gokhale was more attracted to Yayati,

a relatively less-exploited script (as against Tughlaq or Naga-
Mandala), for two reasons. First, the crucial place it occupies in
playwright Karnad's life. Second, the status it enjoys in the Kannada
literary circles. Yayati is hailed as the first modern play in the history
of Kannada theatre. I liked the way Karnad has re-told and altered a
myth to elaborate on his predicament. I thought it was worth doing the
play since every character offered a challenge. she says.

While Indian mythology forms the backbone of the play,

Karnad's modifications lend a special touch to the known story. The
action takes place on a day in King Yayati's life. His son Puru (Paresh
Mokashi) is expected to arrive at the palace. Queen Devyani (Manisha
Korde) has asked two maids Swar;nalata (Rajashree Tope) and
Sharmishtha (Loveleen Mishra) to deck up his chamber. A quarrel
ensues between the duo and leads to the unraveling of the old
friendship of Devyani and Sharmistha. These developments culminate
in the union of Sharmistha and Yayati. Soon the King is cursed to an
untimely old age. Of course, there is a counter curse that he will
become young if he finds somebody to take away the old age. Yayati
does not find anyone willing to make this exchange. Toward the end,
son PUfU accepts the exchange and the curse. As the son becomes
older than his father does, a complex relationship develops. The king
is left to face the consequences of shirking responsibility. Karnad has

258
deftly explored various strands of the father-son relationship. Despite
the mythological dramatic structure, 1 can easily relate to the Yayati-
Puru entanglement. The playwright, who is questioning his past, has
explored his insecurities through a classical plot, says Kulkarni.

For actress Loveleen Mishra, the English production of Yayati

presents many challenges. First, the use of the English language to
articulate an Indian classic is not easy. Then, the artistes come from
varied theatre backgrounds and schools. Last, all the artistes are full-
time professionals in either television or commercial theatre.

Tughlaq

Girish Karnad uses mythical and historical episodes to highlight

problems, which confronts the modern India at various levels. In his
first play Yayati, which is a story borrowed from the Bhagavata, he
discusses the theme of responsibility. In Tughlaq, which came three
years later, he has taken a chapter from the Muslim period of history
and drawn striking parallels, between India then and India now.

Tughlaq is an abiding contribution to modern Indian English

drama. It has been remarkably successful on the stage due to its appeal
to audience and its dramatic excellence. The play deals with the life
and turbulent reign of Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq who ruled over India
for about twenty-six years from November - December 1324 to 1351.
For the sake of dramatic precision and brevity, Karnad spans only five
years from 1327 to 1332. The action begins in Delhi in the year 1327,
then on the road from Delhi to Daulatabad and lastly in and around the
fOli in Daulatabad.

259
 To understand Tughlaq we must know some historical details of
his reign.

The House of Tughlaq was the fifth Sultanate of Delhi. The

founder was Ghazi Malik Tughlaq (1320 - 25). By dainty of merit, he
rose to be the Governor of the Punjab under Ala-ud-din Khilji. The
last of the Khiljis was succeeded by the slave, Khusru Khan, an
immoral and faithless as a Muslim. With the war cry Islam in danger
Ghazi Malik Tughlaq and his son, Malik Jauna, rallied a party of
Turkish chief, defeated Khusru, and executed him. He accepted the
crown offered to him by the no~le and began his reign in 1320 with
the title of Ghiyas-ud-din. He combined the rare qualities of a General
and for-sighted statesman. He re-established peace and order in the
kingdom and expanded it. However, he and his second son died in an
accident, which was said to have been engineered by Malik Jauna,
who after a State mourning, proclaimed himself, Sultan with the
simple style of Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq.

Muhammad Tughlaq was an ambitious ruler and he had a fancy

for new policies or innovations both in foreign and domestic affairs. In
foreign affairs, he desired to conquer not only the entire Indian
subcontinent including its hilly regions in the north but also Characin
outside" its boundary. In domestic policy, he tried certain innovations
in different fields of administration, which, though attempted with best
intentions, affected adversely the fortuned of his empire.

One of the earliest measures of Muhammad Tughlaq concerned

revenue administration. He attempted to keep the records of income

260
and expenditure of all the provInces with a view to introducing a
uniform standard of land revenue throughout his empire. However, it
seems that nothing came out of this scheme and it was abandoned.
Besides, Muhammad Tughlaq established a separate department of
agriculture and appointed a minister to look after it. He attempted state
farming under the care of this department and a large tract of land,
nearly sixty square miles in area, was acquired for this purpose.
Cultivation was carried on this tract of land on an experimental basis
for three years and then, when no fruitful result came out of it, the
scheme was abandoned. However, the most serious schemes of
reforms of Muhammad Tughlaq were taxation in the Doab, transfer of
the capital to Daulatabad and introduction of token currency, which
have been described by some writers as 'mad schemes' of Muhammad
Tughlaq.

Karnad seems to be indebted to contemporary historians Zia-ud-

Din Barani's Tarikh-I-Firuz Shahi, Ibn Bututah's Travels, Badoni's
Tarikh-I-Mubarak ShaM and AI-Marshi's. The Maslikal-Absar. To
large extent, Karnad has been faithful to recorded history. Only for the
purposes of dramatic effect has he telescoped celiain events in order to
fit the two time sequences in the play - 1327 in Delhi and 1332 at
Daulatabad. This makes chronology of the play to fall into two natural
parts - the ambitious planning at Delhi and the fiasco in the south.
Karnad closely follows the traditional sources, which present Tughlaq
as combination of opposites - a dreamer and a man of action,
benevolent and cruel, devout and godless. Tughlaq, in both history and
Karnad's Tughlaq is a great scholar, idealist and visionary. He stands
for administrative reforms, for implementing the policy of Hindu-

261
Muslim amity, recognition of merit, irrespective of Caste and creed;
reorganization of administrative machinery and taxation structure;
establishment of egalitarian society in which all shall enjoy justice,
equality and fundamental human rights. A rationalist and philosopher,
Tughlaq radically deviates from the religious tenets in matter of
politics and administration. This departure from the holy tenets
enrages the orthodox people and they condemn, oppose and rebel
against Tughlaq. They think him a non-believer in Islam because he
abolishes the jiziya tax, treats Hindus and Muslims equally. The
Sultan was misunderstood throughout his reign. His intellectual
capacity and love of philosophy were thought as hostility to Islam. His
friendship with Yogies and Jains and his participation in the Hindu
festivals were seen as his being Hinduized. His efforts to break the
power of Ulemas and Sufies were thought anti-Islamic. His ambition
to establish political contact with the world outside India was thought
as madness. The old political leadership called him tyrant. The Ulemas
said that war against him was lawful.

An idealistic, humanist and visionary Tughlaq was a shrewd

politician who is guilty of parricide and fratricide. He killed his father
at prayer time. Karnad, a great and gifted dramatist, uses prayer as a
leitmotiv in Tughlaq, which has not been so employed in history. It
creates a vivid dramatic effect. U. R. Anantha Murthy writes:

Although the theme of the play is from

history there are many plays in Kannada-
Karnad's treatment of theme is not historical.
Take [or instance, the use Karnad makes of

262
 the leitmotiv of the 'prayer', in the scene
where the Muslims chieftains along with
Sheikh Shams -ud-Din, a pacifist priest,
conspire to murder Tughlaq at prayer. The
use of prayer for murder is reminiscent of
what Tughlaq himself did to kill his father.
That prayer, which is most dear to Tughlaq,
is vitiated by him as well as his enemies, is
symbolic of the fact that his life is corrupted
at its very source. The whole episode is
. . II
IrOnIc.

In 1326-27, Tughlaq decided upon a plan to make Devagiri the

second administrative capital of his empire which was renamed
Daulatabad. Different reasons have been given for this transfer.
According to Ibn Batuta and Isami, the citizens of Delhi used to write
letters containing abuses and scandals to the Sultan. Therefore the
Sultan decided to lay Delhi waste in order to punish them. Sir
Woolseley Haig has accepted the version of Ibn Batuta. Professor
Habibullah has descried that the motive of the Sultan was to provide
incentive to Muslim culture in the South. Besides, the prosperity of the
South and administrative convenience were also his motives. Dr.
Mahdi Hussain has expressed the same view. According to Dr. A. L.
Srivastava, the desire of safeguarding the capital from Mongol
invasions from the north-west, the necessity of consolidating the
empire in the South and the temptation to utilize the rich resources of
the South were primary considerations for the transfer of the capital.
He was convinced that the Deccan kingdom could be controlled only

263
 from a capital near them. The Amira and Sayyids were against the
Sultan and by transferring the capital to Daultabad, a Hindu dominated
town, he wanted to weaken their power. The reasons, which Karnad's
Tughlaq gives for changing the capital, are based on historical
evidence. He explains in the first scene:

My empire is large now and embraces the

South and I need a capital, which is at its
heart. Delhi is too near the border and as you
well know, its peace is never free from the
fear of invaders. But for me the most
important factor is that Daulatabad is a city
of the Hindus and as the capital, I will
symbolise the bond between Muslims and
Hindus which I wish to develop and
· my k'II1g dom. 12
strengt hen It1

The Ulemas and the Sufis refused to co-operate. The Sultan was
adamant. He forced all under threat of penalty. All historians have
called this a mass exodus. Barani, the court historian records that
Delhi was completely evacuated, not a cat or a dog was left.
According to contemporary historians, the entire population of Delhi
was ordered to leave it and it was laid waste. Ibn Batuta wrote:

A search was made and a blind man and a

cripple were found. The cripple was put to
death while the blind man was dragged to
Daulatabad where only his one leg
reached. 13

264
 Isami also has written: Muhammad Tughlaq ordered that the
city (Delhi) should be set onjire and all the populace should be turned
out o/it. Several modem historians do not accept this view. According
to Dr. K. A. Nizami, the entire population of Delhi was not asked to
leave. Only the upper classes, consisting of nobles, Ulema, Sheikhs
and the elite of Delhi were shifted to Daulatabad. But Dr. R. C.
Majumdar, Dr. A. L. Srivastava and Dr. Ishwari Prasad have
expressed the view that there is no doubt in the fact that the Sultan had
ordered all citizens of Delhi to vacate it. Kamad's Tughlaq says,

Najib, I want Delhi vacated immediately,

every living soul in Delhi will leave for
Daulatabad within a fortnight. I was too soft,
I can see that now. They will only
understand the Whip. Everyone must leave.
Not a light should rise from its chimneys.
Nothing but an empty graveyard of Delhi
will satisfy me now. 14

However, this seems an exaggeration because the Turkish

historian, Ibn Batuta, declares that when he visited Delhi in 1334, it
was as usual.

The Sultan arranged all possible measures for the comfort of the
people during their journey from Delhi to Daulatabad. Shady trees
were planted all along the route; free food and drinking oater were
supplied to the people after every three kilometers of journey, all were
provided means of transport, all were compensated for the loss, which

265
 they incurred in leaving their assets at Delhi, and all were provided
free residence and food at Daulatabad. Yet, there is no doubt that with
all these comforts, the forty days' journey from Delhi to Daulatabad
was an extremely tormenting experience for the people of Delhi. The
march involved unspeakable sufferings to the unfortunate migrants.
The forced exodus from Delhi to Daulatabad inflicted untold
suffering, penury, hunger and starvation on men, women, children,
young and old alike. Relief measures provided by Tughlaq were
misappropriated by corrupt officers. The people, who had suffered
hunger, starvation and other indignities for long, were rebellious and
Tughlaq inflicted heavy punishment upon them. K. A. Nizami, a
modern historian states in his famous book Comprehensive History of
India - p. 528:

The Sultan began to punish both the guilty

and the innocent on mere suspicion in the
hope that bloodshed on a large scale would
terrorize his officers and make them
obedient; on the other hand, his officers,
knowing his military weakness, preferred
rebellion to punishment without trial. 15

The experiment proved a dismal failure and after seven years,

Delhi was restored as the capital. This scheme of Sultan failed
completely. It failed due to various reasons. The Sultan committed a
blunder when he asked the people or even the elite of Delhi to go to
Daulatabad en masse. He ought to have shifted only his court and the
rest would have followed themselves. The common people were

266
neither prepared to shift themselves to an unknown distant place nor
was there any necessity of it. Besides, Daulatabad was a distant city
from the north-west frontier of the empire. It was difficult to resist
invasions of the Mongols from there. Moreover, the consolidated
north India provided better security to the empire as compared to the
newly conquered South. Thus, the Sultan made a wrong choice of the
place and adopted wrong methods to transfer his capital. Sultan's rash
and reckless act of transferring the capital to Daulatabad made him
very unpopular and he lost his people's sympathy.

Another important administrative measure, which Tughlaq

implemented, was the introduction of Token currency, which was
probably issued in 1330. A growing shortage of silver had led to the
brain wave. According to Barani, the Sultan introduced token currency
because the treasury was empty, while he needed money to fulfill his
schemes of conquest. The Sultan had in mind the paper currency of
China. His object was good. He issued the bronze coin, in place of the
silver coin and demanded its acceptance as a token coin equivalent to
silver tanka. But the new coins were immediately and successfully
forged. According to Barani,

the house of every Hindu became a mint. 16

However, there is no reason to believe that the Muslims resisted

the temptation. Rather, whosoever could afford to imitate the coins did
it and the market was flooded with spurious coins. The farmers paid
their revenue in token currency, the people paid their taxes in it and
the traders too desired to give token currency while each of them tried
to hoard gold and silver coins in his house. The result was that the

267
gold and silver coins disappeared from circulation and the practically
valueless copper tokens flooded the economy. Trade almost came to a
standstill. The Sultan says,

Only one industry flourished III my

Kingdom, only one and that's of making
counterfeit copper coins. Every Hindu home
has become a domestic mint; the traders are
just waiting for me to close my eyes ... 17

The token currency was kept in the market only for three or four
years. The Sultan had the courage to acknowledge his failure and the
honesty to give good silver coin in exchange for the depreciated token.
The prestige of the treasury was maintained, but with great personal
loss to Tughlaq. The Sultan's experiment miserably failed as the
minting of counterfeit coins became very common and consequently
the national economy was shattered. Tughlaq's plans were frustrated
by the unimaginativeness and non-co operation of his officers and
subjects.

Tughlaq's policy of taxation was disliked by everyone and

especially by the farmers in the Lower Doab, which had the famine.
He had advanced ideas regarding land improvement, education,
medical relief and other welfare measures. But his aims were not
realized in practice. Rebellions broke out. Amir II in Scene V of
Karnad's Tughlaq scoffs at the Sultan's taxation policy:

Look at what's happening in Delhi. Just look

at it. You can't take a step without paying

268
 some tax or another. There's ever tax on
gambling. How are we to live? You can't even
cheat without having to pay tax for it. IS

In 1353, Sayad Ahson, the trusted Governor of Mal bar rebelled.

This started a series of provincial revolts, which dismembered the
empire. In 1338, Bengal became independent. In 1340 Ain - ul- Mulk,
the governor of Avadh rebelled. In 1342, Sind revolted and in 1343,
Vijayanagar broke away. The Amirs of Daulatabad revolted and in
1347, the whole of Deccan including Daulatabad broke away from the
Delhi Empire and Hasan Gangu Bahmani proclaimed himself as
Bahman Shah. The rebellion of Taghi in Sind in 1351 called the
attention of the Sultan there. Pursuing the rebel, Muhammad died at
Thatta. A later historian said, The King was freed from his people and
his people from the King.

No ruler in our medieval history has aroused so much interest

and controversy as that of Muhammad-bin-Tughlaq. He inherited a
vast kingdom, which embraced not only the entire northern India but
also the Dakhin. But his achievements were negative. Therefore, when
he died, the Sultanate of Delhi was reduced in size. The Dakhin was
almost lost. Sindh was almost slipping away from his hand when he
breathed his last. Some of the modern historians opine that
Muhammad was not responsible for his failure, as a ruler he failed
because circumstances were not in his favour. His failure was due to
his characteristic limitations and to some odd decisions. He had
everything-intellect, power, and a kind heart too, but what he lacked
was common sense and practical wisdom.

269
 References:
.
1. Karnad, Girish. Three Plays: Naga-Mandala, Hayavadana,
Tughlaq. New Delhi: OUP, 1955.

2. Zimmer, Heinrich. Myths and Symbols In Indian Art and

Civilization. Ed. Joseph Campbell. Delhi: Motilal Banarasidass
Publishers Private Limited, 1972. p. 59.

3. ibid. p. 59-60.

4. Joshipura, Pranav, 'Naga-Mandala Reconsidered', The Plays of

Girish Karnad: Critical Perspectives, Ed. by Jaydipsinh Dodiya
New Delhi: Prestige Books, 1999.

5. Kakar, Sudhir. The Inner World, rpt. The Indian Psyche, New
Delhi: OUP, 1996. p. 57.

6. Karnad, Girish. Circle of Reason, Allen Mendonca's interview

with Girish Karnad. Times ofIndia. 26 January 2003.

7. Shaw, Bernard. Arms and the Man, Mumbai: Orient Longman,

rpt. 1987.

8. ibid.

9. Karnad, Girish. Introduction to Three Plays rpt. in The Plays of

Girish Karnad, Ed. Jaydeepsinh Dodiya, New Delhi: Prestige
Book, 1999. p.23.

270
 10. Meenakshi Rayker, An Interview with G. K., New Quest, Nov-
Dec., 1982, p. 340 .
•
11. Karnad, Girish. Tughlaq, introduction, New Delhi: OUP, 1983.
p.9.

12. Karnad, Girish. Tughlaq, New Delhi: OUP, 1983. p. 34.

13. ibid.

14 ibid.

15. Nizami, K. A. Comprehensive HistolY ofIndia. p. 528.

16. Karnad, Girish. Tughlaq, New Delhi: OUP, 1983.

17. ibid.

• 18 . ibid.

271