Translating Land into Stage: Observations on the Patterns and Presentations in Girish Karnad’s ‘Hayavadana’ and ‘Nagamandala’

Abstract

This research paper examines the patterns and presentations in Girish Karnad’s major plays. Girish Raghunath Karnad (19 May 1938-10 June 2019) was the foremost Kannada playwright of India. In addition to writing plays, he was also an actor, film director, and a Jnanpith awardee, who dominated in the fields of Hindi, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, and Marathi films. His ascent to prominence as a playwright in the 1960s signaled the advent of contemporary Indian playwriting in Kannada as Badal Sarkar, Vijay Tendulkar, and Mohan Rakesh did in Bengali, Marathi, and Hindi respectively. He used his intellectual power to use distilled themes from history, folktales, and myths. He is able to give identity to Indian art and culture in other countries. Tughlaq(1964), Yayati(1961), Hayavadana(1971), Hittina Hunja(1980), Nagamandala(1988), Tale-Danda(1990), Fire and the Rain(1995)