LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 23:10 October 2023
ISSN 1930-2940

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The Representation of Folktales and Mythology in
Girish Karnad’s Naga-mandala: Play with a Cobra

Dr. Itika Dahiya Dagar

Abstract

The present research paper analyses Girish Karnad’s play Naga-mandala (1990) with its focus on representing or depicting the folktales and mythical tales or legends employed within the plot. Karnad has made use of various devices peculiar to a dramatic literary work along with the folktales or myths, attributing divine qualities to human or non-humans, the use of magic, exceptional and amazing ordeals, the use of Flames and Story as well as the Man or the Sutradhaar, the power of the demi-god Naga who can transform into a human (Appanna’s) form, the magical roots, and lastly Rani who attains divinity near the end of the play. All these issues or devices employed by the playwright can be included within the folkloric or mythical framework of the play, Naga-mandala.

Keywords: Girish Karnad, Naga-mandala, folktales, myth, Naga, divinity, human-form, and male chauvinism.

Girish Karnad is a renowned playwright who prefers writing about myths, folklores or traditional beliefs as a major issue / theme in his plays. Another astonishing feature of Karnad’s writing style is that his plays reflect socio-cultural aspects along with metaphysical and are also mythical at the same time. Karnad’s plays exhibit his rootedness in his cultural traditions and how tactfully he is able to evoke the sensibility of the contemporary audience.

In his play, Naga-mandala: Play with a Cobra (1990), the dramatist tells a wonderful fantasized and mythical story with which one can travel into an altogether different world. Since ancient times, the retelling of old myths through the story of a drama in Indian literature has been a universal theme which is also embodied and weaved with perfection within the plot of Naga-mandala by Girish Karnad.

The storyline of this play also touches the issues of feminism as it points towards the exploitation of the women characters. The play throws light on the condition of a woman in a patriarchal society. And the vacant house in which Rani is locked in is devoid of any human presence except Rani. It could be connoted with the family in which Rani is married where she finds herself entrapped into the empty house feeling alienated and dejected so much so that her condition is like “a caged bird” (Karnad, 257). “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” (qtd. in Ansari, 1813). Rani addresses Naga who is in the human form of Appanna, “You talk so nicely at night. But during the day I only have to open my mouth and you hiss like a … stupid snake” (Karnad, 271).

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Dr. Itika Dahiya Dagar
Independent Researcher, B.A., M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., UGC-NET (English)
Pursuing A Short-Term Certificate Course on
“From Classics to Contemporary: Journey into the Evolution of Films”
itikadahiya@gmail.com
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