8. Hayavadana
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Girish Karnad (19
May 1938 – 10 June 2019)
Indian playwright, author, actor, and film director whose movies and
plays, written largely in Kannada,Won Gnanpith in 1998. Padma Shri – 1974;
Padma Bhushan- 1992. Sahitya Academy- 1994 (Born in Matheran, Bombay
Presidency, now in Maharashtra, India—died in Bengaluru, Karnataka)
After graduating from Karnataka University in 1958, Karnad studied
philosophy, politics, and economics as a Rhodes scholar at the University of
Oxford (1960–63). He wrote his first play, the critically acclaimed Yayati
(1961), while still at Oxford. Centred on the story of a mythological king, the
play established Karnad’s use of the themes of history and mythology that would
inform his work over the following decades.
Samskara (1970) marked Karnad’s entry into filmmaking. He wrote the
screenplay and played the lead role in the film, an adaptation of an anticaste
novel of the same name by U.R. Ananthamurthy. Karnad followed with Vamsha
Vriksha (1971), codirected by B.V. Karanth. During this period Karnad continued
to produce work as a playwright, including Hayavadana (1971), widely recognized
as among the most important plays of postindependence India.
Karnad’s other well-known films in Kannada included Tabbaliyu Neenade
Magane (1977; Godhuli) and Ondanondu Kaaladalli (1978). He also worked in
Hindi, directing the critically acclaimed Utsav (1984), an adaptation of
Shudraka’s 4th-century Sanskrit play Mrichchakatika. With the play Nagamandala
(1988), Karnad framed an unhappy contemporary marriage in imagery drawn from
Kannada folk tales.
In 1992 the Indian government awarded Karnad another of its highest
honours, the Padma Bhushan, in recognition of his contributions to the arts. He
was the recipient of the Jnanpith Award, India’s highest literary prize, in
1999 for his contributions to literature and theatre. He continued to work in
film, directing such movies as Kanooru Heggadithi (1999) and acting in Iqbal
(2005), Life Goes On (2009), and 24 (2016), among others.
Plays:
1.
Maa Nishaadha (One
Act Play)
2.
Yayathi (1961): his first play, story of King Yayati, one of the ancestors of the
Pandavas, who was cursed into premature old age by his preceptor, Shukracharya,
who was incensed at Yayati's infidelity. Yayati, in turn, asks his sons to
sacrifice their youth for him, and one of his sons, Puru, agrees. It ridicules
the ironies of life through characters in Mahabharata. The play in Hindi was
adapted by Satyadev Dubey; and Amrish Puri as lead actor, became instant
success.
3.
Tuglaq: A Play in
13 scenes (1964)- believed to be inspired by Albert Camus’
Caligula. Based on a rashly idealist 14th-century Sultan of Delhi, Muhammad bin
Tughluq, and allegory on the Nehruvian era which started with ambitious
idealism and ended up in disillusionment.
4.
Hayavadana (1970): His second play. It won the NATYASREE award for the best play in 1971.
Based on a Sanskrit text Vetala Panchavimsati and Somdeva’s Brihat Kathasaritsagara
(11th century Sanskrit text), retold by Thomas Mann in his novella ‘The
Transposed Heads (1940)’. He employed the folk theatre form of Yakshagana. Story of Padmini, Kapila and Devadatta on the
dichotomy between mind and body.
5.
Anjumallige (Frightened Jasmine-1977)-
set on England in 1960’s, believed to be a recalling of Edward Albee’s Who’s
Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
6.
Hittina Hunja (1980) (rewritten as "Bali:The Sacrifice” in 2002)- Literally, “The
Dough Rooster’ or ‘Dough-Cock’, takes its cues from a Jain poem (Janna’s
Yasodhracharite) describes Queen Amrutamati’s sexual attraction for an ugly
mahour
7.
Nagamandala (Play
with Cobra, 1988)- based on a folk tale related to him by A. K.
Ramanujam, brought him the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award. Freudian
interpretation of a folk tale about a woman’s love for cobra that impersonates
her husband.
8.
Taledanda (Death by
Beheading, 1990) on the backdrop of rise of Veerashaivism, a radical protest and reform
movement in 12th century Karnataka. Demythologizes the life of Basaveswara, the
poet, mystic and social revolutionary of the twelfth-century Karnataka.
9.
Agni mattu Male (The Fire and the Rain, 1995).-
story of Yavakrita in the Ramayana.
10.
Tipu Sultan Kanda
Kanasu (The Dreams of Tipu Sultan)- his first script originally written in
English, (wrote for BBC Radio). It probes the gaps between Tipu’s dreams of
liberty and the reality of the colonial bondage, against the historical events
of 1799.
11.
Odakalu Bimba
(2006) (A heap of Broken Images)- only play by Karnad which is set in present
day India. a prime example of how technology and the media constantly invade
and affect people’s lives. The protagonist, Manjula Nayak, an unsuccessful
writer in Kannada and finds success with her novel written in English. Her
doppelganger (mirror image, and hence the title of the play) later questions
her about her choice to write in English rather than in her own language and
the betrayal of her own language.
12.
Maduve Album (2006)- translated in English as Wedding Album in 2009. The play is a blend of
anxieties and resentments deep rooted in Indian marriage institution
13.
Flowers (2012)- based on a folk tale, set in Chitradurga in Karnataka; Narrated by a
Brahmin priest in a single night; story of his equal love for God Shiva, his
wife and his mistress, the wealthy and beautiful courtesan, Chandravati.
14.
Benda Kaalu on
Toast (2012)- (Boiled Beans on Toast in 2014)- Bengaluru, the metropolis, itself is
the protagonist. According to a legend King Veera Ballala, while hunting, got
lost in a forest. An old woman saved the exhausted, hungry king by offering him
‘bendakaalu’ (baked beans). In gratitude, the King built a town there and gave
the name Bendakaaluru to it. In course of time, Bendakaaluru became Bengaluru.
15.
"Rakshasa Tangadi" (2018)-
historical play centres around the Battle of Talikota (1565), between Aliya
Ramaraya of the Vijayanagar empire and the united forces of the Deccan
sultanate.
Others:
16.
He Wrote screen play for Samskara by U R Ananthamurthy.
17.
He provided the voice of A. P. J. Abdul Kalam,
in the audiobook, Wings of Fire. He narrated and recorded a collection of folk
and mythological stories 'Karadi the Bear' for children.
18.
Acted in Telugu films such as Dharma Chakram,
Shankardada MBBS, etc..
19.
Acted as Swamy's father in Swamy and Friends
in TV series of Malgudi Days (1987)
Background:
In 1972 the Madras Players produced
the play Hayavadana, originally written in Kannada and transleated into English
by Girish Karnad. Interestingly, it is not simply based on the eleventh-century
Indian text, Vetalapanchavimshika, but its central episode is heavily drawn
from Thomas Mann’s novella ‘The Transposed Heads 1940’ (German: Die vertauschten
Köpfe).
Vetalapanchavimsathi vs Transposed
Heads vs Hayavadana
|
Vetala Panchavimsati and
Kathasaritsagaraa |
Transposed Heads (1940) |
Hayavadana (1970) |
|
Dhavala (Prince) |
Shridaman (brahman) |
Devadatta (brahmin) |
|
Svetapatta (brother of Madana Sundari) |
Nanda (cow-herd and blacksmith) |
Kapila (wrestler, and blacksmith) |
|
Madanasundari |
Sita |
Padmini |
Karnad also invents a frame story of
Hayavadana to exaggerate the literary themes and meanings in the central
episode, and it is this frame that gives the play its name.
The play Hayavadana is based on the
idea that humans are imperfect and thus have a number of limitations.
Plot/Narratie Structure:
|
Part |
Narrative / Plot Summary |
|
Prologue |
The Bhagavata invokes
Lord Ganesha, introducing the theme of imperfection and
incompleteness. The character Hayavadana, a man with a
horse's head, appears seeking to become fully human. This surreal subplot
runs parallel to the main story. |
|
Act I |
The main plot begins
with Devadatta (a learned man) and Kapila (a
strong man), best friends who both fall in love with Padmini. She
marries Devadatta. While traveling to Ujjain, jealousy and insecurity lead
Devadatta to commit suicide in Kali’s temple, followed by Kapila. Padmini
pleads to Kali, who grants life back—but Padmini accidentally swaps their
heads when reattaching them. A head vs. body identity
conflict emerges. |
|
Act II |
It is ruled that
identity lies in the head, so Padmini lives with the man with Devadatta’s
head and Kapila’s body. Over time, the physical body (Kapila’s) begins to
dominate, leading to estrangement. Meanwhile, Hayavadana’s subplot evolves—he
visits Kali to become fully human but turns into a complete horse instead,
gaining a human voice. Eventually, Devadatta and Kapila fight and die,
and Padmini performs sati, entrusting her son to a pair of
ascetics. |
|
Epilogue |
The Bhagavata and
Padmini’s son reflect on the outcomes. Hayavadana, now a
horse with a human voice, sings patriotic songs, symbolizing the absurdity
of identity and completeness. The play ends on an ironic, philosophical
note. |
Opening line:
O
Elephant- headed Herambha
Whose
flag is victory,
And who
shines like a thousand suns.
O
husband of Riddhi and Siddhi,
Seated
on a mouse and decorated with a snake.
Osingle-tusked
destroyer of incompleteness,
We pay
homage to you and start our play. --(Bhagavatha)
Closing line:
Grant us, O Lord, good rains,
good crop
Prosperity in poetry, science,
industry and other affairs,
Give the rulers of our country
success in all endeavours,
And along with it, a little bit
of sense.
--(Bhagavatha)
The play has a three-part structure.
Part 1 – Introduction: Hayavadana
starts with a "Naandi": traditionally a song meant to invoke divine
blessings for the prosperity of the kings, Brahmins, the land where the play is
being staged and the organizer/producer/writer of the play. In Hayavadana, the
entire troupe led by the narrator seeks blessings for the politicians instead.
Not sure about the blessings but this definitely "invoked" laughter
from the audience who didn’t see it coming. As the Naandi ends, Hayavadana, the
horse-faced human being, approaches the narrator and asks for a solution to his
curse of being horse-faced. The narrator sees him off by suggesting that he
seek the blessings of a goddess in Chitrakoota mountain, and introduces the
play.
Part 2 – Main act: The
play is set in Dharmapuri, home of two inseparable friends Devadatta and
Kapila. Devadatta, from a scholarly Brahmin family, is a gifted poet and
Kapila, son of a blacksmith, is brawny and illiterate. Both friends fall in
love with Padmini, a fun-loving, happy-go-lucky girl from the same town.
Circumstances force Padmini to marry Devadatta and what happens next forms the
main story. In the course of the play, we are treated to a fascinating love
triangle with a mélange of romance, insecurity, jealousy, sacrifice,
opportunism and deception.
Part 3 – Closure: Hayavadana,
who has completely transformed into a horse now, returns to the stage. The
narrator introduces him to Padmini’s son and they leave the stage together. The
narrator ends the play thanking the audience.
Summary of Hayavadana by Girish
Karnad
The play is divided into two acts
Act-1
Bhagavata, a stage player enters the stage and
raises some rhetorical questions on the perfection and imperfection in context
to Gods and humans. Puja is done. He tells an anecdote of two best friends
namely Devadatta (man of mind) and Kapila (man of body).
As the play is about to begin an actor
(Actor-1), who was supposed to perform, comes running towards Bhagavata and is
quite frightened. Upon asking, he tells that while he was defecating, a horse
taunted him by talking in human voice.
Bhagavata does not believe him. While they are
arguing, the horse namely Hayavadana enters the stage who has head of human and
body of a horse. His look astonishes the audience.
Bhagavata enquires Hayavadana about its
condition, suspecting that some curse might have fallen on him. However, Hayavadana
rejecting his opinion, tells that his mother, a princess fell in love with a
horse. After 15 years the horse attained the human shape.
Princess did not accept him in human figure.
Thus he cursed her and she became a horse and later on gave birth to
Hayavadana. Bhagavata suggests him to visit the Kali temple as the Goddess Kali
is believed to cure all such diseases.
He also asks Actor-1 to accompany Hayavadana.
They depart and Bhagavata begins the play.
Devadatta is sitting on a chair. Kapila, his
best friend comes and finding him in quite miserable condition asks about the
cause. Devadatta requests him to leave him alone.
Kapila guesses that Devadatta might have
fallen in love again as he had fallen 15 times before within two years and thus
this condition of his is not unusual.
However when Devadatta shows his seriousness
towards his love, Kapila also becomes serious. Devadatta gives clues about
residence of the girl and Kapila sets out for her search. He succeeds in
finding her (Padmini) at last and talks to her about Devadatta. Through the
efforts of Kapila, Devadatta and Padmini get married.
However, in a course of time, Padmini gets
attracted towards the Kapila because of his strong body and Devadatta becomes
aware of it. One day the three decide to visit some fair in Ujjain.
On the way, Devadatta asks Kapila and Padmini
to visit some temple. They resist but Devadatta does not listen to them and
both go away ultimately.
Devadatta then goes to Mother Kali’s temple
and beheads himself as he cannot live without his wife as well as his friend.
Kapila and Padmini return and find Devadatta missing. Kapila sets out in his
search and finding him lying dead, he also beheads himself.
Padmini after waiting for long also starts
searching for them and finding them dead, she also decides to end her life, but
she is stopped by Goddess Kali who in a mocking way insults both Devadatta and
Kapila for killing themselves not in her name but for selfishness reasons
(Devadatta kills himself in the name of Padmini and Kapila kills himself for
his friend).
Goddess Kali gives Padmini an opportunity to
bring both of them back to life. In haste, Padmini mixes up the heads of both.
As a result, Devadatta’s head is fitted on the body of Kapila and vice-versa.
Goddess Kali knows the intentions of Padmini and says that humans can never
give up selfishness.
They all laugh but soon a quarrel arises
between the two friends over the matter whom does Padmini belong to. Having
failed to find any solution the three go to an old sage who declares that the
man having Devadatta’s head is the rightful husband of Padmini.
Both Padmini and Devadatta return back
happily. However Kapila being deeply hurt decides to remain in the forest in
solitude.
Act-2
After some months Padmini becomes pregnant.
After some months, Devadatta’s body starts assuming its original shape that
weakens the love of Padmini for him. Their relationship loses affection and
both quarrel often.
One day she, along with her child, goes to
forest to meet Kapila who does not like her coming and asks her to go back. But
she insists telling him that he is the rightful father of the child. She also
asks him to complete the uncompleted love by sleeping with him.
Kapila cannot resist and both start
love-making
Meanwhile Devadatta also comes to forest with
a sword. However his wrath vanishes when he sees Kapila waiting for him. Both
are convinced that they cannot solve the matter of Padmini and thus decide to
end their life by fighting.
A fierce fight starts between the two friends
and both are killed. Padmini hands over the child to Bhagavata requesting him
to handover him to some tibe and herself commits Sati along with the pyre of
the two
Play ends
Actor (Actor-2) comes running and tells
Bhagavata that he has seen a horse reciting National Anthem of India.
While Bhagavata is in confusion, Actor-1
arrives with a child who was handed-over to him by the tribe in the forest (who
cannot speak) while he had gone with Hayavadhana. He tells Bhagavata that on
the way Hayavadhana left him alone and he returned back.
That patriotic horse also comes and Bhagavata
at once recognises him as Hayavadana. Hayavadana tells Bhagavata that Goddess
Kali instead of giving him shape of humans made him a complete horse. However
he still has the voice of humans and he wants to get rid of it.
He has heard that those who sing patriotic
songs have worst voice. This is why he was singing National Anthem of India so
that he might lose it.
Hayavadana starts singing songs and suddenly
starts laughing. Seeing him laughing, the child also starts laughing and
consequently their voices are interchanged. the boy gets human voice and
Hayavadana, the voice of horse.
Concluding Puja is performed.
HAYAVADANA - The Story in brief
Hayavadana, as the name suggests, is a
man with a horse's head (Haya = horse and vadana = face). (His mother, a
princess, had fallen in love with and been impregnated by a stallion.)
Hayavadana is desperately seeking to get rid of this strange head when he
stumbles on to the stage where the play about the transposed heads is about to
be performed. The Bhagavata of the play then guides him to the same temple of
Kali where the characters in the play will get their heads transposed. This
incident forms the introduction for the tale of transposed heads that follows.
The main plot of the play begins with Kapila,
who finds his best friend Devadatta despondently dreaming about Padmini. Kapila
goes to arrange Devadatta's marriage to her and realizes that Padmini is as
clever as she is beautiful. Although Kapila is attracted to her, he nonetheless
finalizes the match, and Devadatta and Padmini are married. The marriage is
unhappy from the beginning. Padmini is herself attracted to the strong-bodied
Kapila, and Devadatta is consumed by jealousy. A few months into the marriage,
the three travel to Ujjain to a fair. On the way, they rest between two
temples, one devoted to Rudra (The Howler-a form of Shiva) and the other to
Kali. As in the other versions, the two men behead themselves in the Kali
temple. The pregnant Padmini, afraid that she might be blamed for their deaths,
then decides to kill herself. However, Kali stops her and offers to bring the
men back to life. Padmini rearranges the heads so that Devadatta's head is on
Kapila's body and vice versa and asks the goddess to do her magic. Kali
resignedly comments that "there should be a
limit even to honesty" and brings the two men back to life.
In the confusion that ensues after the
transposition of heads, Padmini makes it clear that she wants to be with the
Devadatta head/Kapila body. Her wish is granted by an ascetic who mediates the
conflicting claims from both men to be her husband. The ascetic's decision is
the same as that given by King Vikramaditya in the Kathasanitsagar and by
Kamadamana in Die vertauschtenKopfe. With his new body Devadatta returns to the
city with Padmini and they begin a blissful marital life. At this point Karnad
introduces two dolls that Devadatta presents to Padmini as gifts for the
expected child. Through their own dialogues, the dolls describe the dynamic
changes occurring in the family. They document the change of Devadatta's body
from its rough muscular Kapila-nature to a soft, pot-bellied Brahmin body. They
reveal that Padmini has given birth to a disfigured son and that she has now
begun dreaming about Kapila again. The dolls also become the theatrical device
through which Padmini sends Devadatta to Ujjain, so she can use his absence to
sneak away with the child to the forest where Kapila resides.
Back in the forest, Padmini finds the rough
and muscular Kapila again. He is surprised to see Padmini, and she reveals her
desire for his well-muscled body. Devadatta, armed with a sword and two new
dolls, finds the lovers, and the two men decide to kill each other since their
love for Padmini cannot be reconciled. Padmini then decides to commit Sati. She
entrusts the boy to Bhagavata and leaves instructions for him to be raised both
as Kapila's son and as Devadatta's son.
Here the Bhagavata ends the story, and Karnad
suggests in his stage directions that the audience should feel that the play
has ended. However, the frame story involving Hayavadana begins again. An actor
stumbles on the stage screaming that a horse has been singing the National
Anthem, while another actor leads in Padmini's son-a mute, serious boy
clutching his two dirty dolls. No amount of clowning and questioning by the
actors elicits a response from the boy. Hayavadana returns to the stage, now
with the body, as well as the head, of a horse. Kali has answered his prayers,
it seems, by eliminating his human physical characteristics altogether.
Nevertheless, he still has a human voice and is singing patriotic songs.
Hayavadana begins laughing when he sees the actors and Bhagavata. His laughter
and human voice infect the mute child with laughter, and the child begins to
speak and laugh normally. In a cyclic transformation, the child's laughter
causes Hayavadana to lose the last shreds of his human nature and he begins to
neigh like a horse. Karnard thus uses the logic of myth to create a double,
reciprocal exchange of functions that allows for resolution (Levi-Strauss 227).
Hayavadana and the boy in effect complete each other: the one, as a human child
returned to the fold of society and the other, as fully animal...........
Hayavadana (meaning horse-face), a play
written by Girish Karnad, is the story of three protagonists Devadatta, Kapila,
and their lady-love Padmini. The play is based on Thomas Mann’s Germans play
The Transposed Heads, which in turn was based on the sixth story of
VetalaPanchavimshati Katha, written in Sanskrit.
Benaka, one
of the oldest theatre groups in Karnataka founded by theatre veteran and
parallel-cinema pioneer B.V.Karanth, staged the play at Rangashankara.
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