The present article dives into Girish Karnadâ€™s Hayavadana to map out the significance of the earnest desire of the characters perfection and self-identity against the backdrop of the features of Indian culture, religion, beliefs, etc. The play is a milestone in the history of Indian Writing in English. Karnad exposes the issue of identity and impersonation leading to conflicts between the mind and the body. This aspect brings us close to the conflict that we face in our daily lives. The conflict between the head and the body is well expressed in Devadattaâ€™s words, â€œIâ€™d always thought one had to use oneâ€™s brain while wrestling or fencing or swimming. But this body does not wait for thoughts, it acts.â€ The play prospered the regional theatres because of its apt, thought-provoking, mythical, topical and social issues

Nagane, Dhanaji Annasaheb

English

International Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies (IRJMS)

 
 
VOLUME-I, ISSUE-IV                                                                                              ISSN (Online): 2454-8499             
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDIES 
1st November, 2015    Page 1 
 Website: www.irjms.in                                       Email: irjms2015@gmail.com, irjms.in@gmail.com 
 
Longing for Self-Identity in Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana 
 
Dr. Dhanaji Nagane 
Head, Department of English 
Sharadchandraji Pawar College, Jejuri 
 
ABSTRACT 
The present article dives into Girish Karnad’s Hayavadana to map out the 
significance of the earnest desire of the characters perfection and self-identity 
against the backdrop of the features of Indian culture, religion, beliefs, etc. The play 
is a milestone in the history of Indian Writing in English. Karnad exposes the issue 
of identity and impersonation leading to conflicts between the mind and the body. 
This aspect brings us close to the conflict that we face in our daily lives. The conflict 
between the head and the body is well expressed in Devadatta’s words, “I’d always 
thought one had to use one’s brain while wrestling or fencing or swimming. But this 
body does not wait for thoughts, it acts.” The play prospered the regional theatres 
because of its apt, thought-provoking, mythical, topical and social issues.  
Keywords: Perfection, Self-Identity, Mythology, Religion, Beliefs   
   
Introduction 
The beginning of Indian Drama can be pointed back to the ancient rituals and seasonal 
festivities of the Vedic Aryans. Later, different events from the epics Ramayana, 
Mahabharata and Bhagvadgtita were picked up and enacted out in public places. There 
are references to drama in Patanjali’s Vyakarna Mahabhashya, Vatsyayan’s Kamsutra 
and Kautilya’s Arthasastra. Thus, the origin of Sanskrit dramas dates back to 1000 B.C. 
Contemporary Indian drama, deviating from classical and European models, is 
experimental and innovative in terms of thematic and technical qualities. It is not progeny 
of any specific tradition but it has laid the foundation of a different tradition in the history 
of world drama by representing history, legend, myth, religion and folk-lore with context 
to contemporary socio-political issues. An increasing theatrical tradition evolved by 
Girish Karnad and his contemporaries prepared the background for contemporary Indian 
English theatre.  
Girish Karnad born in 1938 is a versatile playwright and knows the demands of the 
Indian theatre quite immediately. He has written a large number of plays dealing with 
various aspects of contemporary Indian society and Indian culture. He has extensively 
used material from Indian mythology, folklore and the ancient Indian theatrical examples. 
His plays include Tughlaq, Hayavadana, Yayati, Nagamandala, Tale-Danda and The 
Fire and the Rain. Karnad’s plays effectively weave the contemporary context in their 
structure. Contemporary socio-political and cultural issues are dramatized through the use 
of myth, legend and folklore. Karnad also takes important problems of caste, heredity, 
religion and gender and knits them into the texture of his plays. The political 
disillusionment of post Nehruvian regime, its ambiguities and paradox are brilliantly 
dramatized in a play like Tughlaq. In his plays like Hayavadana and Yayati, Karnad deals 
with unconventional themes.  
In Hayavadana, Karnad effectively dramatizes the conflict between the body and the 
soul. The question of physical vitality versus intellectual power is powerfully dramatized 
in the characters of Devadutta and Kapila. As a member of Brahmin caste Devadutta 
possesses all the virtues and qualities of an intelligent class. He is preoccupied with 
reading and knowledge and spends most of the time in his study. As a consequence he 
 
 
VOLUME-I, ISSUE-IV                                                                                              ISSN (Online): 2454-8499             
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDIES 
1st November, 2015    Page 2 
Website: www.irjms.in                                       Email: irjms2015@gmail.com, irjms.in@gmail.com 
 
grows physically weak, pale and thin. Kapila to the contrary belong to a lower caste and 
quite naturally, he is physically strong and sturdy. The contrast between Devadutta and 
Kapila powerfully illuminates the age old caste narrative stereotyping human beings 
according to their origins and caste. It is a highly revealing comment on the nature of a 
caste based society and the notions of intellectual superiority and physical sturdiness that 
are governed by the caste paradigm. The subject is relevant to the contemporary society.  
Karnad sets in motion Hayavadana with a prayer to Ganesha "the destroyer of 
incompleteness" as he is called the husband of Riddhi (style) and Siddhi (talent). It is 
believed that Riddhi cannot exist without Siddhi, and Siddhi counterfeits its identity with 
the appropriate Riddhi. The harmonizations of these two features shape the ideal of 
appropriateness that Karnad endeavors to achieve throughout the play through his 
heroine, Padmini. The play attracts our attention to the thought-provoking questions such 
as what decides our identity. Whether it is decided by the facial beauty and intelligence or 
strength and physical powers. Likewise, Devadutta and Kapila are these two attributes 
personified respectively. But the two are envisaged only as complementary entities such 
as Lava and Kusha, Rama and Lakshmana, Krishna and Balarama and are not considered 
as a fused thing. 
Since the beginning of human race on the earth, the head has gained predominance over 
the body. It is observed through the frequent speeches of the Bhagavata, the omniscient 
narrator, who himself declares that the head defines the identity of a man. But the 
Bhagavata himself reverses the same when he addresses Hayavadana in the first part of 
the play as "poor man", even though Hayavadana possesses the head of a horse. 
Although, the voice of the Bhagavata declares that the head is supreme, the tale of 
Hayavadana seems to echo that the body is superlative. The image of the prince 
controlling the horse indicates the head, and the horse may signify the body. Contrary to 
these two, the main plot shuttles between the priority over the head and the body. 
As Ganesha was the husband of Siddhi and Riddhi, Padmini is projected as the lover of 
intelligence and strength i.e. Devadutta and Kapila respectively. However, she fails to 
form a harmonious whole. On the contrary she is entangled between these two 
personalities, and this leads to a split in her identity and her mental imbalance that is 
clearly visible in the stimulating scenes that projects her as a woman bathing and dancing 
in the blood of the two men. Padmini, the female protagonist, is a mentally disturbed 
individual caught between knowledge and power. This becomes implicit in the doorframe 
of her house which has on it the engraving of a two-headed bird. A bird instantly signifies 
a female. Having two heads, its individuality can never remain in integrity as one head 
will always strive to assert superiority over the other.  Kapila strikes the chord when he 
claims, "A proper two-headed bird. But it is so tiny you can't see it at all unless you are 
willing to tear your eyes staring at it.”(P.16). This aspect is solely psychological. 
Padmini is legally wedded wife of Devadutta and she loves him for his fair look and 
intellect; on the other hand she is attracted to Kapila for his physical elegance and power. 
This attraction of Padmini leads to flourish her friendship with Kapila and consequently 
to the acute crisis of identity. She herself asserts that the song, "Is this one that / Or that 
one this?" points to her autobiography. When Padmini envisages Kapila during their trip 
to forest, she loses her sense of propriety and attracts towards Kapila’s mascular body. 
Here the omnipresent narrator, the Bhagavata chants, "And the head is bidding good-bye 
to the heart." (P.25) because Padmini demotes Devadutta to the background and gets 
fascinated with Kapila as she inwardly utters, "And what an ethereal shape." (P.25).  
 
 
VOLUME-I, ISSUE-IV                                                                                              ISSN (Online): 2454-8499             
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDIES 
1st November, 2015    Page 3 
Website: www.irjms.in                                       Email: irjms2015@gmail.com, irjms.in@gmail.com 
 
Padmini figures out that Devadutta and Kapila have committed suicide and lose her sense 
of proportion. Her identity is deeply entangled with any of the two and her existence too. 
Paradoxically, she either loses both or acquires association with the two leading to a 
commencement of phobia. Her consistent existence depends on the presence of either of 
them. Eventually, she finds herself in intense euphoria when she combines the head of 
Devadutta and the body of Kapila. This union signifies and symbolizes her temporal 
stability. Padmini wants to procure something beyond an earthly concept which she calls 
the perfect combination, “My celestial-bodied Gandharva."(P.41) In contrast, the 
princess of Karnataka seems more down to earth', literally and metaphorically, in that she 
endeavors on securing an earthly being and rejecting a celestial being. Her temporal 
constancy enables her to behave like a normal human being. However, even in that state 
of condition, there are traces of her earlier self in consoling Kapila. At a later stage, 
Karnad utilizes dolls to interpret Padmini's dreams. Even at that unconscious level there 
is a split-hence Doll I and Doll II. Also, note that the dolls are dressed in such a way that 
it is difficult to decipher their sex; as conscience has no gender. 
DOLL I: Is that little Satan asleep yet? 
DOLL II: Think so. God! It's killing me. 
DOLL I: Crying all day. 
DOLL II: Making a mess every fifteen minutes. 
DOLL I: His palms! They were rough when he first brought us here like a 
laborer’s. But now they are soft, sickly soft like a young girl's. (P. 45) 
Dolls are generally acquainted with soft hands. If Doll I therefore, calls it "sickly soft" it 
is not from its personal point of view but that of Padmini's. And it speaks so, immediately 
after Padmini touches Devadutta and shudders realizing the fact that he has transformed 
into his original form. The split becomes more prominent as the dolls begin quarrelling 
with each other (this reflecting the conflict in her mind) and Padmini tries to achieve the 
ideal concept in her imaginative lullaby. First the paragon of her dreams is constructed in 
the song ‘Here comes a rider!’ (P. 47) and subsequently her failure to achieve this is in 
reality is reflected in the latter part. 
Padmini wheedles Devadutta into believing that she does not care about Kapila anymore. 
At any rate, as soon as she closes her eyes, the dolls start speaking of the visitor in her 
dreams. As Devadutta transforms into his original self once again, the split becomes 
almost complete in Padmini; and she becomes aggressive. A schizoid individual does 
things in secrecy and the tattered dolls can be attributed to this. Furthermore, with the 
dolls is associated a sense of honest propriety or what one would call the morality 
principle and she has to discard them before she leaves for Kapila. 
When Padmini goes to Kapila again, he pleads with her to go away. He hits the hammer 
on the nail when he retorts, "What do you want now? Another head?" (P. 52) Padmini 
clearly reflects that she is an entity caught between two different identities of association. 
She says, "Yes, you won Kapila. Devadutta won too. But I, the better half of the two 
bodies- I neither win nor lose."(P.55) 
The realization of the split reaches its saturation point when Devadutta and Kapila meet 
each other in complete honesty at the end of the play. Padmini comprehends that both 
cannot co-exist within her at the same time. She knew that they both could not have lived 
together in her blood, because they had to share not only her body but share theirs' as 
well. 
 
 
 
VOLUME-I, ISSUE-IV                                                                                              ISSN (Online): 2454-8499             
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY STUDIES 
1st November, 2015    Page 4 
Website: www.irjms.in                                       Email: irjms2015@gmail.com, irjms.in@gmail.com 
 
KAPILA: Devadutta, couldn't we all live together like the Pandavas and 
Draupadi. 
DEVADUTTA: What do you think? 
KAPILA: No it cannot be done. (P.60) 
 
Finally, we find the Bhagavata presenting the crack in Padmini's self in emblematic 
terms, “After sharing with Indra His wine His food His jokes I returned to the earth and 
saw from far- a crack had appeared in the earth's face- exactly like Indra's smile.” (P 
.61) The only solution to this is the exercising of the ghosts of Kapila and Devadutta, and 
in turn suicide for Padmini. The playwright achieves this in a remarkable metaphor. As 
the two slay each other, Padmini jumps into the funeral pyre in the ritual of Sati. As their 
fight is stylized like a dance, Padmini's reaction is also in the form of a dance 
synchronizing with the former. In expressionistic terms, this dance is exemplary to 
Padmini's identity crisis. 
 
Bibliography 
1. Karnad Girish ( 1975 ), ‘Hayavadana’  Oxford University Press, India 
2. Karnad, Girish: “Three Plays”(Naga-Mandala,Hayavadana,Tughlaq),Delhi: OUP,1997 
3. Karnad, Girish: “Monologues: “Broken Images and Flowers”, New Delhi, OUP, 2005 
4. Naik, M.K & Mokashi-Panekar, S: “Perspectives on Indian Drama in English”, Chennai, 
OUP, 1977 
5. Sharma, R.S:“Studies in Contemporary Literature”,New Delhi: Sarup & Sons, 2000 


Longing for Self-Identity in Girish Karnadâ€™s Hayavadana

http://irjms.in/sites/irjms/index.php/files/article/download/40/29

Longing for Self-Identity in Girish Karnadâ€™s Hayavadana

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

International Research Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies (IRJMS)