Remembering Girish Karnad: Read these landmark works by the Kannada playwright

The works of Kannada playwright Girish Karnad from Yayati to Tughluq have made a permanent contribution to Indian literature On his 83rd birth anniversary only two years after he passed away due to multiple organ failure HarperCollins India released an English translation of his memoir lsquoThis Life at Play Memoirsrsquo by Girish Karnad and Srinath PerurKarnad who was also an actor and director spoke truth to power in his life and work He wrote his plays in Kannada and preferred to translate them into English himself If you havenrsquot already explored his masterly works and are looking for a guide here is a selection of his plays that is widely considered to be essential readingYayatiYayati is known to be Karnadrsquos first play written in 1960It was published in 1961 when he was just 23 It is based on the Pandavasrsquo ancestor Yayati through an episode of the Mahabharata The plot revolves around the curse of premature old age given to the Chandravanshi king by his fatherinlaw Shukracharya because of his infidelity It can be lifted only if one of his sons is willing to exchange his youth with their father After the king asks his sons Pooru is the only one who agrees to do it Through this episode the Kannada playwright explores whether the son Poorursquos act brings about a crisis between him his wife Kausalya and his father YayatiTughlaqThree years later he wrote Tughlaq a 13scene Kannada play based on the reign of Muhammad bin Tughlaq The plot revolves around the Delhi sultan who is the protagonist and is shown as one who has grand ideas for his kingdom but ends up being a failure He wants to shift his capital in Delhi to Daulatabad so that he can rule over south India and also unite the Hindus and Muslims as he was known to be a secular king but things take a different turnThe play which is said to be an allegory for the Nehru era of India was first staged in Urdu by the National School of Drama through the direction of stage stalwart Ebrahim AlkaziHayavadanaIn 1971 Karnad wrote another one of his most famous works called a twoact Kannada play called Hayavadana which means horse face It is based on Thomas Manns retelling of Transposed Heads and Kathasaritsagara a 11thcentury collection of folk tales and fairy tales told in SanskritThe plot of the play revolves around two friends Devdutt and Kapil who are in love with the same beautiful woman Padmini and the crisis that follows due to a transposing of headsNagamandalaKnown to be the twin of his earlier play Hayavadana Nagamandala Play with Cobra is a 1988 Kannada play based on two oral stories that the playwright is said to have heard from his mentor Professor AK Ramanujan It is about a woman named Rani who lives in rural India and is married off by her parents to a man called Appanna without understanding her wishesThe plot revolves around the exploitation of women through the institution of marriage While it focuses on how patriarchy works in society it highlights the empowerment of womenTipu Sultan Kanda Kanasu The Dreams of Tipu SultanWritten in 1997 Tipu Sultan Kanda Kanasu is also a Kannada play and is among the popular ones to be written by Karnad Translated to English in 2004 as The Dreams of Tipu Sultan the play revolves around the last days of the Mysore rule Tipu Sultan while also delving into historic moments in his life It is seen through the eyes of an Indian court historian and a British scholar who showcase the life of Tipu Sultan which has been seen as both good or bad by different peopleThese dreams are said to have been written by Tipu Sultan and are a part of a manuscript preserved at the India Office Library Out of the 37 recorded dreams Karnad is said to have used dreams 9 10 and 13 for his playAlso Read On Ruskin Bonds birthday pick up these new and classic books