"Nagmandala" by Girish karnad

Hello readers in this blog I'll be dealing with one of the mythical play i.e Nagmandala by Girish karnad, so let's dive into the play.

About the Author 

Girish Karnad whose time duration was from May 1938 to 10 June  2019. Was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in Kannada, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Marathi films. His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sarkar did in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi. He was a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India.

For four decades Karnad composed plays, often using history and mythology to tackle contemporary issues. He translated his plays into English and received acclaim. His plays have been translated into some Indian languages and directed by directors like Ebrahim Alkazi, B. V. Karanth, Alyque Padamsee, Prasanna, Arvind Gaur, Satyadev Dubey, Vijaya Mehta, Shyamanand Jalan, Amal Allanaa and Zafer Mohiuddin.

He was active in the world of Indian cinema working as an actor, director and screenwriter, in Hindi and Kannada cinema, and has earned awards.

He was conferred Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and won four Filmfare Awards, of which three are Filmfare Award for Best Director – Kannada and the fourth a Filmfare Best Screenplay Award. He was a presenter for a weekly science magazine programme called "Turning Point" that aired on Doordarshan in 1991.

About the play:-

The play starts with a Prologue. A prologue is something that is attached before the main text of a book to introduce it. A man is sitting in a ruined, deserted temple. He has an apprehension that he is going to die in a few hours. A mendicant has prophesied that because as a playwright he has tormented his audiences with his arid plays, the curses of all those audiences have befallen him. If he wishes to live, he must stay awake for one full night before the end of the month. But all his efforts to do so has failed and this is the last day of the month. Hopeless, now he is assured that he will surely die tonight and therefore he has run away from his house to have an anonymous death. He swears in front of the audience that he will give up theatre forever if he lives.

Soon, he hears the voices of some women approaching the temple. However, he finds that the voices are coming from "naked lamp flames". These flames arrive there nightly to gather at this deserted temple and gossip till the night ends. One of the flames informs the others that an old lady had been keeping a story and a song secret for a while. The story and song were chocked because the old lady did not disclose them to someone. So, they came out of the lady's mouth when she was napping. The story turned into a young woman and the song became her colourful sari. While the flame was still chattering about the story, the story-turned woman also follows her into the temple. Story wants to pass on her story to someone and the flames agree to listen. But, it will go in vain as the flames cannot help the story survive by passing it to other people. The man interferes and expresses his consent to listen and even agrees, though reluctantly, to pass on the story. So, it is settled that Story will narrate Rani's story. The man and flames take their positions and Story starts speaking. Thus, the first act begins.

The Story starts her narration by introducing Rani, a beautiful, innocent and naïve girl, who was the only daughter of their loving parents. She had long black tresses that added to her charm. When she was still in her early adolescence, her father chose a suitable groom for her a young, wealthy but spoilt man called Appanna whose parents were no more. She was married to Appanna but was not sent with him until she turned into a woman.

The play opens at Appanna's house. Appanna has brought her bride to live with him as she has grown into a woman now. But, the married life of the couple is not pleasant. Appanna spends most of his time outside with his concubine, even nights. He turns back home only when he needs to have a bath or when he feels hungry. It can be said that Appanna has made an unpaid maid of her wife, Rani who took care of his household. When Rani tries to talk with her husband about her problems, he muffles her down saying, "Do as you are told." He locks her inside the house and goes away living an unrestrained life. Being lonely, Rani feels being cursed, misses her parents and dreams of getting back to them.

Rani's life becomes cyclic like a 'mandala' with no change in her situation, until a blind old woman named Kurudavva, who was like sisters to Appanna's dead mother, comes to meet her. Rani informs her about her misery. Kurudavva decides to help her to gain her husband's love and gives her two magical roots-one small and the other big. She instructs her to prepare a paste from the small root and feed it to Appanna. When Rani feeds the paste to her husband, he faints which terrifies her. Knowing this, Kurudavva asks her to go on with the bigger root. She prepares the paste again but when she glances at the blood-like texture and colour of the paste, she was horrified thinking that it may harm her husband. She decides to throw the paste into the ant-hill where Naga, a supernatural serpent lives. Naga, consuming the magical paste, is infatuated with Rani. At night he assumes Appanna's shape and visits Rani. He talks to her like a loving husband, caresses her and makes her sleep. Naga continues visiting Rani nightly and makes love with her.

Rani could not figure out the reason for Appanna's changed demeanour who behaves like a stranger in the day, but a lover at night. But she does not make any effort to solve this riddle because, despite Appanna's rude behaviour during the day, she was having a great time with him during the night.

Days pass and Rani becomes pregnant about which she informs Naga. But, Naga seems indifferent to the news while Appanna is infuriated to find that her wife has committed adultery. He beats her and decides to call the elders of the village to find the truth of her pregnancy. That night Naga admits that it is inevitable for Rani to evade the ordeal to prove her innocence. He proposes she choose the snake- ordeal to testify her chastity. He informs her that she needs to utter something in front of the elders that is not a lie otherwise the snake will bite her.

The next morning, Rani is brought to the elders with the villagers surrounding them. Among other easier ordeals to testify her innocence, she finally chooses to go through the snake-ordeal. Holding the snake in ber hand, she proclaims that since she came to to go through the snake-ordeal. Holding the snake in her hand, she proclaims that since she came to this village she has touched only two males-one is Appanna and the other is the Cobra that she was holding in her hand. Since technically this statement is true, Cobra doesn't bite her. It moves over her shoulder like a garland. Witnessing this miracle, the elders and the villagers declare her a goddess. The elders suggest Appanna spending the rest of his life in her service.


Story concludes her tale with a happy union of the couple. But, man remains unconvinced with this ending. He questions some unresolved complications in the narrative but Story tries to convince him saying that people often need to ignore things to lead a peaceful life. When Man asks about Appanna's lifelong misery, Naga's destiny and Rani's confusion about Appanna's changed behaviour during the day and night, Story changes the conclusion of the story. She continues her story. She continues her story with another resolution. She proposes a tragic ending for the story in which Naga sacrifices himself. Naga turns into a small serpent and gets into Rani's beautiful long tresses where he dies, probably choked. While combing Rani's hair, the dead serpent falls out. Rani and Appanna consent to ritually cremate the serpent.

However, the flames are not pleased with this tragic ending and ask Man to conclude the story happily. Man gives the story a happy ending in which Rani hides the small living serpent back into her tresses before Appanna could kill it. Rani allows the serpent to live in her tresses forever and says that her hair is the symbol of her wedded bliss.

Additionally, the Indian English dramatists chose the incorrect mythologies and complex historical past from the plentiful material. which was another grave error.

Myths and legends communicate through motifs and symbols, recurrent patterns of human behaviour, and archetypal human experiences. The myths' representations of archetypal social relationships These relationships could exist between fathers and sons, husbands and wives, or brothers. Second, even when we're not conscious of it, myths can influence us. By purposefully reverting to the rich history and parallel art forms made popular by folk theatre, Karnad sheds light on the enormous treasure trove that Indian dramatists can utilize. Karnad brings together the original and the true, the past and the present. The dreams and peaks of the past find parallels in the problems of the present, which lend fresh connotations and experiences through connection, so advancing the subject. Through the transcendence of space and time, myths provide fleeting insights into the mysteries of life. Myth plays a crucial part in expressing, developing, and codifying beliefs in prehistoric cultures; it supports and protects profound qualities, attests to the efficacy of customs, and provides insightful instructions for man's direction. As a result, myths are a crucial part of human civilization. It is not a random story, but a laborious, active force; it is not a creative or intellectual explanation, but rather a useful aspect of early faith and moral understanding.

A myth is a special kind of story that belongs to a certain genre and has a big impact on society. The main protagonists are frequently supernatural people. The word 'fantasy" is typically used to describe a story that is fantastical. According to Alan Dundes" definition of myths, "Myths are prose narratives that, in the society in which they're told, are considered to be veracious accounts of what happened in the remote history." Myth includes jokes and stories passed down orally in any society. It is a collection of made-up tales involving either people or animals. Superstition and unfounded beliefs are the core components of myth tradition, Girish Karnad is one of the most well-known playwrights in modern English drama. His plays frequently employ mythologies. He emphasizes the existence of people in the ground position in his plays. He worked as an actor, director, and screenplay in Hindi and Kannada movies. In acknowledgment of his enormous contribution to Indian literature, he received the Inanpith Award, the country's highest academic honor. According to R. K. Dhawan, Girish Karnad is the primary author of Indian theatre today. He has injected a rowdy energy into Indian theatre that is most likely due to his interests in acting and directing. His talents extend past the theatre. He has performed in prominent roles in art films, commercial images, and TV documentaries in Hindi and Kannada. He has also directed point films, images, and TV documentaries in English, Kannada, and Hindi. He has visited several nations in his capacity as an ambassador for Indian art and culture. Modern topics including the status of women in Hindu society, gender norms, patriarchy, coitus, violence, and rapacity are addressed in his plays. His characters highlight the seeming irony that is built into life as we know it. He picks the right words to express occasion and persona.

Girish Karnad's play Nagamandala exposes the exploitation of women in Indian culture. Rani and Appanna, a newlywed couple, are the main characters in this pastoral-therned novel. Rani has always been kept outside of society and is portrayed as a good

person. Appanna completely damns her life. He is taken in by a doxy and misses her attractiveness as a result. Rani, on the other hand, is a servant who resides in her own home. She complies with all her husband's requests. She adores her dictator husband dearly and is the picture of sincerity. She works up a sweat attempting to win her husband over, but in vain. She provides Kurudava love roots to help her win back her husband's devotion. She commands, "Enter Get to work grinding. Create a wonderful curry. Make a paste in it. If you allow him to have a tablespoon, he will become your slave. Rani inserts myth as a component when she adds Kurudava's love roots to the dish. After her initial attempt fails, she mixes the backup root and notices that the curry has gone blood-red. At the ant hills, she gives the curry to the King Cobra Naga, who licks it and falls in love with Rani. This is the pivotal moment in Rani's life. Naga changes into a person and enters Rani's home through the bathroom drain." This represents the merger of two sexual organs. He enters Appanna's bedroom, which is where Rani is. Naga picks a violent fight with the dog to show his love for Rani. Naga's love fully transforms Rani. According to Indian tradition, a woman is seen as an endowment of the land, and when the land is in trouble, a snake helps her out. Numerous stories about snakes are found in Hindu mythology. These creatures are acknowledged to be able to assume mortal form at will. In our Hindu culture, there are several depictions of the Naga. South Indian households frequently have their own refuge, which is typically a snake-infested wooded area in the theater's corner. At first, Rani is averse to having sex, but Naga convinces her otherwise, Naga gives her a lengthy speech. sexual relations, saying things like, "Frogs guaranteeing in projecting precipitation, turtles singing quietly in the dark, foxes, wrenches, underground insects, deceivers, wenches, drinks without a doubt the goose!" The womanly starts to smell moist like the ground. Additionally, the Lord Cobra starts searching for his Sovereign after being overcome by her odour. The creature calls out to his companion. It is spread throughout the entire world. He then informs her that coitus is normal and pleasurable and is not immoral. Rani yields to Naga and develops an intense desire for him. She starts to feel very secure within the Naga organization. Appanna accuses her of infidelity because she is carrying Naga's child. Her husband and every resident of the area force her to make a pledge while clutching a hot iron bar to defend herself. Naga appears to be her savior, moves up her shoulder, and spreads its hood over her head like a marquee. When Rani is shown to be trustworthy, the people start to worship her as a deity, leaving Appanna with no choice but to

study the situation carefully. According to Hindu custom, the husband of an adulteress is a cursed man. These conservative traditions have the effect of making women always in charge of their life. However, Appanna is also betraying his relationship with his wife by hanging around with a doxy, but he doesn't see anything wrong with that. adultery is stigmatized in Indian culture, and Karnad is the only author to have portrayed extramarital lady adultery with respect. Whatever the reason, women always play a role in malevolence. No guy is without flaws. The entire village and Appanna are after Rani, but only Naga saves her. A woman who appears out of nowhere and is originally seen negatively becomes revered by the people. She exhibits her virginity with the help of her nut Naga. The uncaring spouse of Appanna is left feeling helpless and inquires, "What shall I do? Is everyone on the planet against me? Is my interference so noteworthy that nature should mock me? She may have any phenomenon call her a goddess. Whatever the case, I am aware." As a result, the socio-artistic immoralities presented in Nagamandala are interwoven with legendary motifs. In the play, woman is shown to be obedient to a man's wishes in a traditional Indian society. Rani, on the other hand, has been given freedom by the cobra, allowing her to communicate her thoughts and feelings through movement, emotion, spirituality, and thought.

In the article entitled "Relevance of Myths in Contemporary Times: A Critical Study," the author describes: "The same kinds of tales and even the exact same tale can be found in myths from across the world. The similar explanation, consolation, and meaning- giving purposes are served by myths from all cultures, whether they be Indian, Chinese, European, African, or Native American."

At last, I would like to say that Girish Karnad is one of the most well-known playwrights in modern English drama. His plays frequently employ mythologies. He emphasizes the existence of people in the ground position in his plays. He deals with the modern topics including the status of women in Hindu society, gender norms, patriarchy, coitus, violence, and rapacity, myth and folk are addressed in his plays. His characters highlight the seeming irony that is built into life as we know it. He picks the right words to express occasion and persona. The play Nagamandala exposes the exploitation of women in Indian culture. Monitoring the fantasy and oral practices is made easier with writing and recording. Without this type of literature, almost all oral and traditional traditions would have been lost. The transmission and preservation of myths and oral traditions were most greatly influenced by Indian literature. India, the actual ancestors of this area, was once the pinnacle of all folk art. One example is Sama Veda, which is arguably the most enduring kind of folk music to date. To be true, if one considers Sama Veda to be rock society music, it is also the best and oldest music the world has ever witnessed. Numerous stories have been written down by scholars, saints, and authors to preserve oral traditions and myths, such as the Indian epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Buddhist Jataka tales, the Pancha Tantras, and Hitopadesha, the mediaeval Katha Saritsagarain, and the Jeremiah songs of the Bauls of Bengal.

Mythical Elements in the play

The middle and late nineteenth century saw many writers in colonial India, notably Michael Madhusudhan Dutt (Sharmishtha in Bangla), Annasaheb Kirloskar (Subhadra in Marathi), Vishnudas Bhave (who experimented with akhyan or verse narrations and Yaksha-gaan, a Kannada folk art form) struggle with this atemporal legacy, and begin to reorient myth and folklore towards negotiating contemporary Indian realities. As he avows himself, Girish Karnad' owes as much to this strain of "Indian' theatre history as he does to the psychological complexity and individualism of the European dramatic tradition. This sensitivity, then, to the cross-pollination of multiple dramatic traditions is crucial to any assessment of Karmad's position vis-à-vis Indian drama. It allows one to recognise the uniqueness of Karnad's dramatic vision and see him also as part of the post- independence 'modern' phase of Indian theatre, one where he shares space with Badal Sircar (Evam Indrajit).

The inexhaustible lore of myths, parables and legends that pattern and define our culture offers immense scope for the Indian dramatists as Shastri says, "Myth, at all events, is raw material, which can be the stuff of literature", Our early playwrights writing in English like Sri Aurobindo and Kailasam selected their themes from the myths and legends of Indian Literature. Though Karnad's themes appear to build castles in the air, he took refuge in the myths and legends and made them the vehicle of a new vision. His childhood exposure to street plays in Karnataka villages and his familiarity with western dramas staged in Bombay have induced him to retell the secular legends of India to suit the modern context. A vigorous vitality that combs the past for apt myths to analyze the present has been the hallmark of Girish Kamad, the pre-eminent Indian playwright in the Kannada language.


Karnad's creative genius lies in taking up fragments of historical-legendary experience and fusing them into a forceful statement. By using the 'grammar of literary archetype', Karnad links the past and the present, the archetypal and the real. Issues of the present world find their parallels in the myths and fables of the past, giving new meanings and insights reinforcing the theme. By transcending the limits of time and space, myths provide flashes of insight into life and its mystery. They form an internal part of cultural consciousness of the land, with different meanings and it reflects the contemporary issues. Karnad believes in the Jungian collective racial consciousness and so turns to the past habitually for the source materials. As Dhanavel says, the borrowed. myths are "reinterpreted to fit pre-existing cultural emphasis". All his plays are literary excavations of the Indian collective past the racial, mythical, legendary and the historical and they have a strong contemporary relevance. By using these myths he tried to reveal the absurdity of life with all its elemental passions and conflicts and man's eternal struggle to achieve perfection Vanashree Tripathy has said that "Literature and Myth merely dramatize, heighten and highlight what is theoretically possible in nature and science. According to Jyoti Sahi, "Girish Karnad's art can be described as a vision of reality". So, Karnad delves deep into the traditional myths to spell modern man's anguish and dilemmas that are created in his mind. Karnad does not take the myths in their entirety, he takes only fragments that are useful to him and the rest he supplements with his imagination to make his plots interesting. His interest was not in recreating old myths and legends but in representing them to suit his artistic purpose. Karnad himself has revealed that Theatre can simultaneously be entertainment, political commentary and artistic statement and can be composed in traditional, realistic and post modern forms.... Like masks worn by actors that allow them to express otherwise hushed truths, Indian theatre enables immediate, manipulative representations of reality.


The dramatist also attempts to instil an alienation effect by driving the material of the play from the folk tales, and also by using the 'non- materialistic techniques of the traditional Indian theatre. The title of the play is not the name of a human character, but it is that of a snake. As the name suggests, it revolves around a woman and a serpent. As this play is based on a folk tale it could be observed that the serpent plays an important role as in most such narrations all over the world. "We are forced to believe that there exists a theory that the mothers of great men in history such as Scipio, Alexander the great, and Augustus Ceasar were all impregnated by serpents"." It is believed that snake myths are found extensively in Brahmanism, Buddhism, Lamaistic and Japanese writing. In Naga- Mandala, the story of the cobra suggests that the play is intended to dramatize not merely the folk tales, but also to imply a deeper meaning at various levels. The folk-tale element of the Naga- Mandala and the magical power, which the cobra possesses continually, remind the spectators that they are only watching a play.

The play deals with a 'self-involved hero, who undergoes a test put to him by his wife in order to survive. The psychological inadequacy he is trapped in causes acute lack of understanding and communication between him and his wife. It is a threat to family and society. Every man through adolescence faces this existential problem and so he must leam to overcome and this becomes more comprehensive in Karnad's plays. Naga- Mandala is not only about the male difficulty to trust and love women, it seems to be about the socialization process of both men and women, particularly in the Indian society, where marriages is more often than not the first experience of sex and love for most people. The transition from childhood into adolescence and then into adult roles has, in India, very different stages and psychological and cultural relationships are totally different from other less tradition-bound societies. The Naga-Mandala probes into the female and male growth into selfhood, and their mature adjustment with the social roles appointed for them by the traditional society.

Myths and folk tales in a patriarchal society represent primarily the male unconscious fears and wishes and are patriarchal constructs. and male-oriented. In these stories the women's experiences and inner feelings are not given importance. They do not probe much light on women's fears, anxieties and psychological problems. It is a remarkable achievement of Karnad that he adapts this male-oriented folk tale in such a manner that it becomes a representation.

In the alternate end to the play suggested by the playwright, the snake does not die. It is allowed by Rani to live in her dark, long and cool tresses. The lover is always present; he lives with her, within the family. The danger to male authority as a husband and patriarch lives on constantly at close quarters but mostly within the woman's. imagination. The dutiful and loyal wife may observe the social, moral code entirely; yet within her live the memories of the perfect lover who had given her first emotional and erotic experiences. These desires may haunt her or lie dormant within. Rani can understand emphatically why Kappanna, the young man, who was bound by filial duty to his old and blind mother, runs away one night. He had been pursuing his dream of a beautiful woman. Though he resisted the alluring voice and presence of the dream girl, he was trying to be a dutiful son carrying his old mother on his back. Finally he is pulled away when the dreams of the experience of man and woman in the psychologically transitional phase.

In a folk tale, there is a magician or a snake that assumes the form of the Prince, enters the palace and woes the beautiful Princess, locked up in the palace. When the Prince becomes aware of this, he gets the snake/ magician killed and the Princess then sets him a riddle. If he fails to answer, he has to die. This existential crisis is treated in the folk tale in different ways. In Kamad's play. the story takes a happy turn, both Rani and Appanna adjusting to the family and community in a socially useful manner. But this is achieved after upsetting the male egoism and exaggerated sense of power over women. The male assumption of keeping full control over the body, sexuality and virtue of women through the insinuations of family and values like chastity are mocked in the story.

Appanna's violent reaction to his wife's infidelity does not make him consider for a moment his infidelity towards her. The other villagers also ignore this lapse on his part but they emphasize the institution of marriage and the procreative function of the couple. The importance of the family and progeny are established. The husband and the wife run towards each other, with a greater sense of relationship. The girl-bride now becomes the mother to be and as such gains a social recognition. This stage of Rani's social integration brings her a new sense of respect and her own worth. This is another significant aspect of the Indian social and cultural life in its treatment of women.

In Kiranth's words, an Indian woman knows that motherhood confers upon her a purpose and identity that nothing else in her culture can". As a mother, Rani is seen in the last part of the story to be in command of the household with some authority and decision making power. 

Conclusion:-

Rani, who has been trapped in a loveless marriage with Appanna, finds herself in a unique situation when she unknowingly forms a bond with Naga, a serpent who takes the form of her husband. When her pregnancy leads to accusations of infidelity, she is subjected to the village's trial by ordeal—she must prove her chastity by holding the Naga without harm. Miraculously, the serpent does not bite her, and she is declared pure.

This divine test elevates Rani's status in society. She is revered as a goddess-like figure, and Appanna, who had mistreated her, accepts her as his wife. However, the Naga, heartbroken by her acceptance of Appanna, chooses to end its life in the anthill, solidifying its eternal love for Rani.

I hope this would be helpful,

Thank you.