Read these 6 Girish Karnad works before you say you know Indian theatre

Indian Express

19-05-2025

(Written By Prachi Mishra)
Girish Karnad, wore many hats, and he wore them well.
While many readers may recognize Karnad for his roles in films like Ek Tha Tiger, Chalk N Duster, and Shivaay, for him, these were merely commercial commitments, undertaken for financial reasons. His true passion and creative soul were always rooted in the world of theatre and literature.
On this day, May 19, we remember the man who taught us that mythology is not dead, that history is not static, and that theatre is not just performance. Born in 1938, Karnad was not just a playwright. He was a time-traveler, a translator of gods into men and kings into symbols, a mirror-holder who turned epics into existential crises and legends into living, breathing truths.
His pen didn't write plays, it set the stage on fire. Let's take a look into some of his literary works.
Tughlaq, considered the chef-d'oeuvre of Karnad, is not simply about a medieval ruler. It is about every utopianist whose dream turned sour. Set in the 14th century, yet it seems fresh from the contemporary politics' perspective. It follows Sultan Muhammad bin Tughlaq, a visionary who thought too far ahead of his time. But the brilliance dims and the dream fades pretty soon, and the king is left stranded, exiled in his own mind. It highlights how there is a fine line between insanity and geniusness of a ruler's mind.
Exploring the themes of reality vs idealism, the play traversed through concepts of idealism turning into despair and tyranny. The dreams of Tughlaq having a secular India came crashing through when hit with the religious orthodoxy of his own people.
'I am not mad. I am merely a dreamer.' And in this line lies the tragedy of every misunderstood genius.
'Where is the mind in a human being – in the head or in the body?'
Published in the year 1971, Hayavadana uses Yakshagana (a traditional folk theatre form of Karnataka) elements in style and presentation. Karnad spins a tale from Indian and Western mythologies and turns it into a carnival of questions. The play revolves around the story of Padmini and her two lovers Devadutta and Kapila. But, it's not simply any other love triangle, it comes with a major twist. Two men, one woman, a divine mix-up of heads and bodies, but what follows is not confusion, but clarity. Who is Padmini's true husband – the man with her husband's head or her lover's body?
The half-man, half-horse character of Hayavadana becomes more than myth, it becomes a metaphor for fractured identity in a fragmented world. Along with comic elements scattered throughout, the play explores the theme of absurdity and irony.
With the straightforward line, 'Perfection is a negation of life', Karnad presents to its readers the philosophical depth of this story.
'You can kill a man. But can you kill an idea?'
One of Karnad's most thought-provoking works, Taledanda (literal translation beheading) takes us back to the 12th century, to the Bhakti movement and the radical Lingayat sect. But in Karnad's hands, it's not a history lesson, it's a blazing elegy. Set during the rise of Basavanna's egalitarian philosophy, the play questions caste, orthodoxy, and fanaticism. Trying to marry a dalit girl, Kalyana, a passionate reformer, just sees the tragic collapse of the so-called structured society.
Published in the year 1990, at a time when India grappled with communal politics, it felt like a mirror and a warning. The flowers of reform withered and the fire of hatred burned. The play ends with a tragic realization that radical social change invites violent backlash, raising the question – Can true reform happen without a price?
'Let me carry his soul to the heavens, even if my own burns in hell.' This line from the play will surely strike some chords even in the hard hearted people. Karnad picks a very simple plot, a tale of brothers, betrayal, ego, and endurance; emotions that are universally human. But, what sets it alight is his theatrical genius.
The setting is a seven-year fire sacrifice to bring rain. But the real drought is in the hearts of men. The story revolves around Paravasu, the head priest, his father Raibhya, his brother Aravasu, and Yavakri, who returns after years of penance for divine knowledge. 'The fire burns because we feed it with lies.' With this powerful statement, Karnad tries to present critique of the hypocrisy within ritualistic religion.
The play doesn't preach. It performs. It chants. It burns slowly, and when the rain comes, it isn't water, it's pure catharsis.
The play later got adapted into a film titled 'Agni Varsha' (2002), directed by Arjun Sajnani and starring Nagarjuna, Jackie Shroff, Raveena Tandon in lead roles.
Before the world knew Karnad through his awards, and before he achieved his fame, there was Yayati. Karnad was just 23 when he wrote his debut play. He reimagines the story of a king from the Mahabharata who traded his son's youth for his own aging body. But the king doesn't grow wise. The son doesn't gain enlightenment. The wife, Chitralekha, dies not for love, but for dignity.
When realization dawned upon Yayati, he expressed that, 'Desire is like a fire. The more you feed it, the more it hungers.' Through this metaphorical statement Karnad underscores the unending nature of human wants.
The play delves into alienation, existentialism, and intergenerational trauma, themes that now dominate literature, but he did this way ahead of the time in the year 1961. Simply put, Karnad's Yayati is not a myth retold; it's a myth re-lived.
Karnad's posthumously published memoir, This Life at Play, offers a candid window into his mind. The book covers his childhood in Sirsi and Dharwad, family life, especially his relationship with his mother, his time as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, the making of his early plays, including Yayati, Tughlaq, and Hayavadana and especially his involvement in Indian theatre, cinema, and cultural institutions.
All in all the book revealed the man who never feared complexity. A Rhodes Scholar who wrote in Kannada, an actor who stood at protests, a rationalist who dared to be spiritual, and a dramatist who became history. Also, we find a lot of behind the scenes or the insights into his creative process and how he strategized his work.
'Theatre gave me a life I had never imagined possible — a life at play.' This quote from the book beautifully explains his life as well as the title of this book.
To conclude, Girish Karnad didn't just write plays, he sculpted mirrors of our existing society. He turned the stage into a battlefield, a confession, which always left the audience with a temple of thought, and his words still hold the same magic that it possessed years ago.
(The author is an intern with The Indian Express)