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Home , Girish Karnad, Theatre of India

ofjKFm'H'iwo As a Playwright Girish Karnad was born on IQ**^ May 1938 in , a hill station near . His father, Mr. Raghunath Karnad, was a Medical Officer in the Sassoon Hospital, Pune. Karnad was first admitted to Tarabai Modak School and later on he joined Modern High School, Pune. The members of his family speak Marathi though their mother tongue is . Girish speaks more than five languages. As a child, he listened to fairy tales and stories from the Puranas. His parents were fond of . In his village, Sirsi, in the Western Ghats of State, strolling group of players called Natak Mandalies or Natak Companies would arrive, set up a , present a few plays for a couple of months and then move on to other villages. That was in the late 1940s. Karnad got an opportunity to watch a number of traditional when he was very young. His father saw an Urdu version of Othello in 1905 and introduced Girish to Urdu plays. His mother sometimes imitated the acting of Balagandharva at home. Karnad's encounter with the Natak Mandalies at an early age made an everlasting impression on his mind. During his school days, he acted in Kannada plays. He loved farcical plays in those days. Initially, it was his desire to be a poet. During his teens, he wrote poetry in Kannada and English. After his high school education, Karnad joined Karnataka University, in 1953. During his college life, he was intensely impressed by the late A. K. Ramanujan, the well-known Indian poet. He taught Karnad the art of literary

52 writing and structure of poetry. He made an indelible impact on Karnad's literary career. Karnad dedicated his Naga- Mandala to A.K. Ramanujan. When Karnad was the Manager of , Madras, during 1963-1970, he published a volume of A. K. Ramanujan's poems. Another person who influenced Karnad was Prof. K. G. Shah who taught him Philosophy at Dharwad University. Girish Karnad ranked first in the University at his B. A. examination held in 1958. His special subjects were Mathematics and Statistics. During his college days, Girish acted in the Marathi plays Sharada by G. B. Deval and Amaldar by P. L. Deshpande. Karnad came to Mumbai to complete his Postgraduation. He was selected as Dakshina Fellow for his M.A. in the Department of Statistics, University of Bombay during 1958-59. During his stay in Mumbai he watched many English, Marathi and plays. He was amazed to see Strindberg's Miss Julie directed by the brilliant young . About the , Karnad ( 1999:22 ) says : fVhat impressed me as much as the psychological cannibalism of the play was the way lights faded in and out on stage with the instruments called dimmers. That evening...! decided to be a playwright. In 1960 he received the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship which enabled him to go to England to complete his Master's degree. During his stay at Magdalen College, Oxford, Karnad took interest in arts and cultural activities. He saw many plays in England and got fully acquainted with the theatre. He completed his postgraduation with Philosophy,

53 Politics and Economics as primary subjects. He returned to in 1963 and joined Oxford University Press, Chennai, as its Assistant Manager and then its Manager till 1970. The job gave him an opportunity to read various kinds of writings. Girish Karnad was awarded the Homi Bhabha Fellowship in 1970-72 for his creative work in folk theatre. He resigned from Oxford University Press and devoted himself to drama and films. He was the Director of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune during 1974-75. He was awarded Padmashree in 1974 by the . He was the President of Karnataka Natak Academy during 1976-1978. He was the Indian Co-Chairman, Joint Media Committee (for Film, Broadcasting and Press ) of the Indo-U.S. Sub-Commission of Education and Culture during 1984-1993. In 1987 he went to the U. S. A. as Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence at the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilisations, . From 1988-1993 he was the Chairman of the Academy ( National Academy for ), New Delhi. He was awarded Padmabhushan in 1992 by the President of India. In 1994 he was honoured with the Doctor of Letters degree by the Karnataka University, Dharwad. A special honour was conferred on him by the Karnataka Sahitya Academy in 1994. He was honoured with Kalidas Sanman by the Government of . He presided over the seventieth Marathi Sahitya Sammelan on 3""^ January, 1997 at Ahmednagar. In 1999 he received the highest for his outstanding career. He is the Director of the

54 Nehru Centre, London. Karnad's dramatic career was prominently influenced by William Shakespeare, G. B. Shaw, Anton Chekov, Henrik Ibsen, Bertolt Brecht, Louis Pirandelo, Albert Camus, Jean Paul Sartre, Eugene O'Neill, Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett and many others. He has acquianted himself with Marathi writers like Vibhavari Shirurkar, Nath Madhav, , N. ^'•^. Phadke, V. S. Khandekar, P. L. Deshpande and many others. At present he lives in with his wife Dr. Saraswati Ganapathi, daughter Shalmali Radha and son Raghu Amay. Karnad has written and published nine plays in Kannada : ( 1961 ), Tughlaq ( 1964 ), Hayavadana (1971), Angumalige ( 1977 ), Hittina Hunia ( 1980 ), Naga- Mandala (1988), Tale-Panda ( 1989 ), Agni Mattu Male ( 1994 ) and The Dreams Of ( 1999 ). His first play Yayati won the 'Mysore State Award' in 1962, 'Government of Mysore Rajyotsva Award' in 1970 and the ' Award' in 1971. His second play, Tughlaq has been translated into Hungarian and German. A radio play of Tughlaq was broadcast by the B. B. C, London, in 1979. It was performed in English in London in 1982. A German version of the play was staged at Henschelverlag, Berlin in 1989. His play Tughlaq received 'Sangeet Natak Academy Award.' His third play Hayavadana which was translated into German was staged in 1998. The B. B. C. broadcast the play in 1993. It was performed at Weimar in 1984 and in New York in 1993 under the title Divided Together.

55 It was directed by B.V.Karantha in Australia in 1986. The play won The Natya Sangh Award' in 1971 being adjudged the best play. It also won 'Kamala Devi Chatopadhyaya Award' of the Bharatiya Natya Sangh for the Best Indian play of the year 1972. A German version of his play Naga-Mandala was performed in 1992. The play was staged at the University Theatre, Chicago by Guthri Theatre Minneapolis, in 1993. It won 'Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award' for the best play in 1989. The play also won ' Award,' in 1989, His play Tale-Panda won the 'Karnataka Natak Academy Award' for the best play of the year 1990-91, 'Book Sellers and Publishers Association of South Indian Award' 1992, 'B. H. Shridhar Award' for the best play in 1992, 'Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award 1993', 'Sahitya Academi { National Academy of the Letters ) Award' in 1994. Karnad was honoured as The Writer of the Year for the play Tale- Panda in 1990 by Granthloka, journal

of the Book Trade. He won the 'President's Gold Medal' for script, dialogue writing and lead role, in Samskara, ( Kannada ) which also won the 'Best Indian Film Award' in 1970. Karnad won The National Award' for excellence in direction, script writing and acting in Vansh-Vriksha ( Kannada ). He shared the award with B.V. Karantha in 1972. He also won 'Mysore State Award' for the best Kannada Film and for the best direction of the movie in 1972. His Kaadu ( Kannada ) movie won the 'President's Silver Medal' for the second best Indian Film in 1974. Kaadu represented India at the International Film

56 Festival, New Delhi in 1975. It was chosen for the Festival of Indian Films at the National Film Theatre, London in 1975 and for the Sydney Film Festival in 1975. The movie represented New Indian Cinema at the Festival des Trois Continents at Nantes, France. The film was also screened as one representing Indian film at the Museum of Modern Arts, New York in 1981. His Hindi film Godhuli won the 'Film Fare Award' for the best script and direction in 1978. His Kannada film Ondanandu Kaaladalli won the 'National Award' for the Kannada Film in 1978 for story, script writing and direction. The movie represented India at the International Film Festival, New Delhi in 1979. It was screened at the London Film Festival in 1979 and at the Film India Museum of Modern Arts, New Delhi in 1981. He wrote the script and directed the Hindi movie . The film was included in the London Film Festival in 1989 and Filmex, Los Angeles and also at Toronto Film Festival in 1987. Karnad directed a Hindi Film Woh Ghar in 1986. His Hindi film won the 'National Award' for the best film on Environmental Conservation in 1993. A show was performed at The London Film Festival. The film was screened at the Festival des Trois Continents Nantes, France in 1993, and also at Gateberg Film Festival, Sweden in 1994. His Hindi Film Swami gave him the West Film Journalists Association Award' for the best actor of the year in 1978. He was adjudged the best supporting actor for his role in Santa Shishunala, Shareef (a Kannada film ) by Karnataka State Government in 1991. He

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57 ^Jl won the 'National Award' for the best script writing for Bhumika. The award was shared with Shyam Senegal and Satyadeo Dubey in 1978. He also won 'Golden Lotus Award' for the best non-feature film for Kanaka-Purandara in 1989. His The Lamp in the Niche got the 'National Award' for the best non-feature film on social issue in 1990. Girish Karnad worked as an actor and director with Madras Players in English plays such as Evam Indrajit, Six Characters in Search of an Author. Uncle Vanya, The Caretaker, The Crucible and A View From the Bridge during 1964-69. He acted the lead roles in Oedipus Rex and Jokumaraswamy, directed in Kannada by B. V .Karantha in the Open Air Festival held at Bangalore in 1972. Besides the films already listed above, he acted in several Hindi feature films, television films and serials of , , and many others. He was a member at the jury of the International Film Festival, New Delhi and also at the Festival of India in Britain and London. He represented India at the Montreal Film Festival. Karnad prepared the following TV documentaries : 1) D. R. Bendre ( Kannada ) on the Kannada poet in 1973. 2 ) Kanaka-Purandara ( English ) on two medieval poets of Karnataka in 1987-88. 3 ) The Lamp in the Niche ( English ) Part 1: Sufism in India, Part II: Sufism and Bhakti in 1989. Karnad wrote and published several papers and gave lectures in English. He also attended a number of seminars and conferences.

58 His winning the most coveted Jnanpith Award itself suggests that Girish Karnad is a versatile personality. He is first of all a well-acclaimed pla3rwright, an actor on the stage and in the cinema, a director, a poet and a compere of television talk show. He has enriched the Indian cultural scene by his valuable contribution to art, literature, theatre and the film world. He ( 1999:19 ) himself asserts his multifarious personality thus : / have been fairly lucky in having a multi- proned career. You know I have been an actor, a publisher, and a film-maker. But in none of these fields have I felt quite as much at home as in playwriting. Karnad has made use of the folk theatre tradition in his plays like Yayati, Tughlaq, Hayavadana and Naga-Mandala. He knows that play writing is a more difficult job than writing a novel or a poem. A novel ends, but a play never stops. All plays are plays in progress. A play literally begins when it ends. Karnad (1989:85 ) is of the opinion that

The problem in being a playwright is that everything that you write is for someone else to say and then if, like me, you also happen to be an actor, everything you say happens to be written by someone else. Drama is not a solo acting; a whole team is required to give drama the real meaning on the stage. The real success of a play can be seen only on the stage. Karnad is aware of the difficulties, hindrances, and obstacles involved in the production of a play. Therefore, he has full affinity with the

59 artists, directors and other men related to the theatre. He has never directed any of his plays. Moreover, he is of the opinion that once play-writing is over it is as good as finished for him. He never interferes with the performances. He allows full liberty to the director to edit his play without damaging the kernel of the play. Karnad feels that each performance is a re-creation and it is the right of every performer to interpret and present it as he/she considers it proper. If such freedom is not allowed then the characters become the mouthpiece of the playwright. That is the reason why the audience get different presentations of Karnad's plays when they are directed by Alyque Padmsee, Ebrahim Alkazi, Satydeo Dubey, , B.V.Karantha and many others. While writing a play Kgirnad has his audience in mind. With his mind's eye he sees them, in the auditorium. He listens to their responses. The spectator in the theatre is a vital factor in any performance. The audience is God. There must be something in the performance to satisfy everyone in the auditorium. The success of the performance lies in the reaction and appreciation of the spectators. Parasuram Ramamoorthi (2001:16 ) in his article The Theatre is Betweenness : A Study of Girish Karnad's Plays has a very significant thing to say in this respect: One thing is sure, that there is no bogus theatricality in his plays for the sake of pleasing the spectators. He teases the spectator and makes the theatre an encounter between the spectator and the performer.

60 In his play Naga-Mandala, a playwright is cursed to death because he made many good people ( spectators ) who came trusting him, fall asleep. In the play Hayavadana, the Bhagavata addresses the spectators as 'our large-hearted audience.' Full freedom is given to them to have a solution for the intricate problem of the transposed heads. Before the interval he requests them to return with their solutions. After all, drama is pooja ( a sacred rite ) for Karnad. He doesn't write hurriedly. He rewrites a play nearly ten to fifteen times. He reads the script in the company of his friends and then edits, cuts, changes the dialogues and episodes or adds new characters, episodes and so on. He worked for nearly thirty- seven years on his latest play The Fire and the Rain. He has thus sporadic production of plays to his credit. Indian plays in various regional languages have gained rich acclaim and status. Karnad has written nine plays in Kannada and translated six of them into English. As a polyglot, he knows the limitations of translation. A translated play must not be only a shift from one language to another. Karnad feels that translating a play from Kannada into English requires a great deal of effort; it is a sort of transcreation. Though he feels comfortable to write letters, articles and speeches in English, it is his firm belief that translating works from one regional language into another is easier than translating them into English. While talking to Mahesh Dattani, he explicitly remarks ( 1999:5 ) :

61 My English translation is not a faithful translation and I don't treat my original with great respect and I rewrite a lot of it in English.—Because the English itself suggests its own series of images and you know logic and the language bring their own association. It can be said that translation for Karnad is a search for appropriate cultural equivalents. It seems that translation can't be a direct recreation of an original work. Karnad gives the example of who has done great damage by translating his original Bengali poetry into English. At the same time Karnad runs the risk of translating his original Kannada plays into English because he feels that without doing so, no writer can reach a wider living theatre at national and international level. Translation bridges the east and the west; the north and the south. He believes that other translators don't have the freedom to make drastic changes in his original work. Realising the entire problem, Karnad himself resumed the task of translating his own work. It is very interesting to know that Karnad translated his Kannada plays into English whe n somebody had demanded the English version of his plays. He translated Tughlaq into English when Alyque Padmsee asked him to do so. An English version of Hayavadana was prepared when Rajinder Paul persuaded him to translate it for his Enact. Naga-Mandala was staged in English when Prof. C. M. Naim, Chairman, Department of South Asian Languages and Civilisation suggested him to perform it for the University theatre, Chicago.

62 When the prestigious Guthrie Theatre of Minneapolis, U. S. A., suggested him to write a play for them, he wrote The Fire and the Rain. The B. B. C. requested Karnad to write a play for the fiftieth year of Indian Independence on the British rule in India. Hence Karnad wrote a radio play. The Dreams of Tipu Sultan for them. Even though he translated the plays for various occasions, still he is at his best in English. Besides these, he translated Badal Sarcar's Bengali play Evam Indrajit into English and Mahesh Elkunchavar's Marathi one-act play Vasansi Jirnani into Kannada.

Karnad's dramatic productions raise a very vital question: why does he resort to myths, legends and historical themes for his plays? Is he merely imitative and revivalist in his creation? Here an attempt is made to trace Girish Karnad's sources for his plays. He goes back and resorts to Indian myths, legends and history. Childhood experiences, learning and sanskaras always play a dominant role in moulding man's personality. It is completely true of Girish Karnad. Love for the theatre was in the family. In Sirsi he watched Yakshagana performances and Natak Mandalis. Vijay Tendulkar, while talking to Gauri Ramanarayan, says that Karnad has been brought up in a cultural atmosphere of the , the and the Puranas. Karnad has asserted that he can't write a play like Silence ! The Court is in Session or by Tendulkar. He ( 1995:137 ) asserts :

63 To me even now, drama means only 'Company drama' since I have watched only company from childhood days. 1 have only that image. Even to write a modern play, I need to start from the image of company drama. It is a fact that Indian theatre derives its sources from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Bhagavata Purana. Mystery, Morality and Miracle plays are also based on the stories from the Bible. Likewise, the Greek myths have been utilised as a source for their plays. The reason is that such plays have elements of modernity and relevance for audience. Karnad attempts to exploit the mythic and legendary sources for his plays. In an interview with Rajinder Paul, Karnad (2000:76 ) says : Most myths have a strong emotional significance for our (Indian ), I like to play on that too. Part of the effect does come from the fact that audience already has a set of responses to the particular situation, I'm dealing with....and to tell a particular story effectively.

Karnad is one of the best story tellers. One of his characters is named Story ( Naga-Mandala ). But Karnad doesn't retell the old myths and legends as they are. India is a rich mine of myths and legends. They are an inevitable part of our existence. Every creative writer has a natural connection with his cultural myths and legends. They appeal to and challenge his imaginative faculty. They lie untouched awaiting for a Midas touch. They get a logical form and sequence as soon as he

64 touches them. An artist whose understanding of the myths and legends is rich, can comprehend the present in a rich perspective. It is thrilling and interesting to look at the past while you are in the present. Some fundamental questions arise about human nature which has been responsible for the creation of history. It is challenging to look at those questions and issues from a historical perspective. One end of the question lies in the past while the other end lies in the present. History repeats itself and an ingenious artist tries to find out the causes behind it. His attempt is to comprehend the complex processes of history. He does not want to leave any area untouched. Karnad gets inspiration and raw material from the past for his creative existence. His way of perceiving the past and the present is a unique one. He tries to judge contemporary reality in terms of the old myths, legends and history. He feels that literature is a vital part of historical process. The process is not stagnant, but continuously changeable. He tries to challenge those ethical questions for which no ready-made answers are available, neither in the past nor in the present. He subverts a myth and visualizes the whole reality in a subterranean fashion. He revises and changes them to suit his dramatic purposes. These sources serve as surrogate for Karnad's plays. He is not afraid to introduce present realities in his plays. He links the past with the present and establishes continuity. He is not interested in social realities as they are and he finds them boring. He employs myths and legends as subterfuge to discuss socio-cultural evils. While he

65 operates on the evils in society myths, legends and history serve as a kind of anaesthesia. Karnad feels that there is no harm in exploiting a particular character or situation in history for the sake of saying something modern. About the use of myths and legends in Karnad's plays, D. Maya ( 2001:14 ) says :

Karnad shows how myths can be reinterpreted to convey contemporary reality. Issues of present world find their parallels in the myths and fables of the past which lend new meanings and insights through analogy reinforcing the theme. By transcending the limits of time and space myths provide flashes of insight into life and its mystery. They form an integral part of the culture consciousness of the land, with their associative layers of meaning, their timelessness and relevance to contemporary issues.

Myths and legends serve as metaphor for contemporary situation in Karnad's plays. He employs them to discuss the different problems that a modern woman faces in the patriarchal society in India. For instance, Padmini in Havavadana, Rani in Naga-Mandala, Vishakha and Nittilai in The Fire and The Rain stand for modern women. He uses the sources as tools for addressing his audience on vital issues related to women. He questions the moral code for its gender discriminating nature. He emphasizes a modern woman's craving for love and recognition. P. Ramamoorthi ( 2001:16 ) in this context says :

66 Karnad is questioning the values of the folktales through a modern gloss—// is quite alright to take the story from the epics or the folk tales which the spectators are familiar with, but when they confront the same story in the Girish Karnad play, they begin to ask questions like: Is it moral to sleep with a man who is not one's husband? Is it alright to kill someone who is praying?—It is this confrontation that makes theatre a participatory event. Immorality has acquired an important place in folk- literature. Karnad says that we are all immoral up to some extent and Indian society is very conservative. Thus through familiar myths, legends and history, Karnad not only provides his audience teasers and puzzles, but also challenges current social moral values. He has always stressed the contemporaneity of a play. In this connection he ( 2001:91 ) says : The point is, does it hold attention today? If it moves to tears, it is contemporary? If it touches the audience today, it is today's. In his plays, Karnad attempts to attach a new meaning to the past from the vantage point of the present. He knows that a creative artist can make his society aware of the complex issues of the time. Whenever the issue of contemporaneity is put to him, he persistently gives the examples of two plays : Tughlaq and Tendulkar's . Though Karnad didn't write Tughlaq intentionally as an allegory on the Nehru era, still Tughlaq reminds us of

67 and his disillusionment after independence. In this respect, he ( 2001:93 ) states :

In fact Bharata says it should not be 'Loka Warda\ It should not be immediate sense. I feel there is a lot of sense in it. Always date of subject matter does not matter whether it is Oedipus, it makes you cry now. Play might have been written five thousand years. Myth touches on our new experience.

Tendulkar wrote Ghashiram Kotwal in 1974 and the Indira Gandhi-Bhindranwala episode took place in 1983. There is a gap of nine years. But literature is eternal and universal. So the play is nine years ahead and it predicted what would happen in Punjab. It has a kind of resonance nine years later. Tendulkar has written the play in the Dashavatara form. It is but natural that our people respond to Indian plays in a manner that is entirely different. Indian plays with Indian problems touch them much deeper than other plays. After drama there is a gap of thousand years when no remarkable play was written in India. Inevitably, the theatre the Indians created imitated the British theatre of the times as presented by the visiting troupes from England in the cities like Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. Karnad considers Dharmavir Bharati's ( 1954 ) as the first remarkable Indian play. Karnad preferred the folk-form since there had been no dramatic structure in Indian tradition to which he could relate himself. Myth and history came to his help. Karnad's handling of myths and legends throws light on the mystery of

68 the process of his artistic creation. He ruminates over the myths and legends that come across in his reading of ancient literature. In the process of his thinking he conceives a suitable structure for his plays. Thus his plays attain the excellence of artistry and craftsmanship. About the use of the techniques of the classical and folk he ( 1997:25 ) says : 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 In his plays Hayavadana and Naga-Mandala he hasn't used any one folk form. Karnad has used masks, curtains, music, hunian and non-human elements in his plays. Like Brecht, Karnad compels the audience to respond intellectually rather than emotionally to the action of the play. One can easily notice that there aren't any elaborate stage directions in his plays. It helps actors and directors to utilize their creativity. U. R. Ananthamurthy ( 1995:131 ) says : Another interesting aspect of his plays is the 'texture' the insight he offers into human relationships. Karnad is a gifted craftsman. He does not follow the pattern of three unities but he creates the unity of impression. He invents sub-plots to heighten the dramatic beauty and effect. In this respect he reminds us of Shakespeare but at the core he is an Indian creative artist. Veena Noble Dass (1999:45 ) has rightly described Karnad's contribution to the Indian theatre thus :

69 He has shown to the Indian theatre community and to the world theatre community how our past and present can coalesce to give our present day existence meaning and to theatre activity a direction. Karnad is a highly educated dramatist. His education abroad has made him a fluent English speaker. As a dramatist he has first hand experience of using the language on the stage. Being a poet, his language has a poetic quality. Most of the dramatists like Shakespeare, Rabindranath Tagore, Dheirmaveer Bharati, V. V. Shirwadkar and meiny others are poets. So is Karnad. While discussing the issue of English usage in drama, he ( 1999:4 ) states : One who writes plays in English should know where do you breath through that sentence? Where you pause....because in Kannada you breath in different places. He writes lucid, crisp, precise and simple dialogues. He chooses simple, sonorous, apt and appropriate words to convey his rich thoughts. His plays have a lyrical quality in them. There are not very lengthy and tedious dialogues in his plays. He has deep insight into the human mind. He is throughout his plays, very serious and presents d£irk and gloomy facets of the human mind. He discloses internal conflict in the minds of his characters. He presents a complex and delicate emotional entanglement in man-man and man-woman relationship. Karnad's plays are short, usually in two acts, except Tale-danda. There is, as he himself accepts, Brechtian influence on writing scene-wise plays like Tughlaq and Tale-danda. His

70 plays have only limited number of characters; for example, there are only three major characters in Hayavadana and Naga- Mandala. Tughlaq and Tale-danda are historical plays, still they revolve round the major characters only. Thus in Tale-danda, he attracts our attention to Basavanna and King Bijjala and most prominently to Sovideva, Jagadeva and Damodar Bhatta. In The Fire and The Rain, we remember the major characters, Yavakri-Vishakha and Arvasu- Nittilai. Thus Girish Karnad does not allow us to lose our attention an5^where during his performances. A sense of curiosity arises exactly in the middle of his plays. For example, the intensely curious conspiracy against the Sultan is shown in Scene VI in Tughlaq. In Hayavadana metamorphosis takes place exactly at the end of the Act I. In Naga-Mandala Naga, a lover, enters Rani's life exactly at the end of the Act I. In Tale-danda the complicated inter-caste marriage takes place exactly in the middle of Act II. His plot and structure develop side by side in his mind. His plays hardly exceed ninety pages. The Fire and The Rain which contains a Prologue, an Epilogue, and three Acts, comprises only seventy- four pages. It is his endeavour to create Indianness in his dramatic work. Karnad has adroitly used Indian expressions in his plays. In Tughlaq he has opulently and freely used Arabic and Indian words for creating the atmosphere of fourteenth century India. For example, Kazi-i-Mumalik, dhobi, Durbar-i- Khais, Jizia, Sultan and the Muezzin's call. In Hayavadana he

71 has introduced Sanskrit and Hindi words viz. nata, riddhi- siddhi, vighneshwara, vakratunda-mahakaya, punya, fakirs, gandharva, sadhus, pundits, kalpa-vriksha, alpanas, arti, mangalmoorthy, rishi, pativrata, punyasthana, Darga of Khwaja, makarandas, jacarands, etc. The Bhagavata has used typical Indian expressions :

In her house the very floor is swept by the Goddess of Wealth. In Devadatta's house they 've the Goddess of learning for a maid, (p.l9)

In Naga-Mandala he uses the following Indian expressions when Appanna exclaims :

/ swear to you I am not my father's son, (if I don't abort that bastard ),...my name is not Appanna, (p.33 )

In his The Fire and the Rain one gets Indian English terms like rakshasa and kritya. The play is based on Indian mythology. It presents the concept of rebirth, a fire sacrifice, Indian gods and so on. Thus, Girish Karnad is an Indian dramatist who has acquired national and international fame. His personality, his attitude, his dramatic work, subject and form have a smell of native land. His English plays have an outstanding place in . Suresh Awasthi, while commenting ( 1994:16 ) on Karnad's contribution to Indian drama, says :

72 ...Karnad followed the Natyashastra tradition rejecting borrowed western methods and conventions. Following the tradition he chose legendary, folkloric and historical thematic material, and with his ability in crafting his plays he created a new genre of indigenous drama... Karnad is quite optimistic about Indian theatre in the age of television, video, cinema, computer and internet. Since he asserts that we see an image of a human being and not the human being himself of real life and blood, there can't be a substitute for a living theatre. No comparison can be made with the live experience of acting before the audience. While paying a tribute to this genius dramatist R. K. Dhawan (1999:20 ), says : The classical qualities of balance and restraint are true of the person of Karnad too. He is a genius as a writer, man of excellent disposition. And one in whom all the four elements to use a Renaissance analogy are so well-mixed that Nature may stand up and say, ^^Here*s a man*\

73