CHAPTER - I INTRODUCTION. history of 2000 years, is a unique phenomenon in the literary world. But in

Transcription

1 Ramesh 12 CHAPTER - I INTRODUCTION (The Evolution of Drama in English) As an expression of our national genius, Indian drama, with its long history of 2000 years, is a unique phenomenon in the literary world. But in reality, the bifurcation of the evolution of Indian Drama in English and Sanskrit makes us to understand that Indian Drama in English has a history as old as literature in English. It is pertinent to observe that Indian Sanskrit Drama inspite of its long history cannot be a part of Indian Drama in English. Though Indian Literary critics and analysts try their best in establishing corroboration between Sanskrit Drama and the so called Classical Greek Dramas, Indian Drama in English has completely evolved in the light of 20 th Century National consciousness, modernism and other literary influences. Sanskrit Drama is the evolution from the Rig Veda, imitation from Yajur Veda, melody from Sama Veda and aesthetic flavour from Atharva Veda. Indian drama came into being as subtle means of communicating the truth of things. It was rightly hailed as pancham Vedam and the culmination of natakam Ramyam. Having thus came into existence as the Fifth Veda Indian Sanskrit Drama was meant to promote the fulfillment of all the four purusharthas (aims of life dharma (the good), artha (the useful), kama (the beautiful), and moksha (the truth).

2 Ramesh 13 In the words of K.R.Srinivas Iyengar Indian Sanskrit drama was expected to: comprehend whole arc of life, ranging from the material the spiritual, the phenomenal to the transcendent, and provide at once relaxation and entertainment, instruction and illumination. (Drama in Modern India. 1) However, as a genre, Sanskrit drama is essentially romantic in its impulsion and expression. And, with its predilection for comedy, it generally concludes on a note of peace and quietude. The emotional impact of the play on the audience normally settles down into a condition of aesthetic delectation and purposive repose. It is not concerned with mere realism in incident and character, nor preoccupied with the outer forms of appearance. It geared to strive through shadow, symbol and gesture to reach at the truth behind the appearance. Thus, a long discipline, a world of symbolism, a whole crowd of conversations interpreting and enveloping them, and a philosophy of life and art gave this ancient drama an individuality and beauty and power all its own (Drama in Modern India. 2). It is with this intellectual and emotional background that we must trace the evolution of Indian drama its origin, growth and development through the ages. As indicated the origin of Indian drama can be traced back to the Vedic period. The dramatic tradition of the ancient Hindus may be said to have been fully formed even before Greek dramas came to

3 Ramesh 14 their knowledge. It is clear that the Hindus of over 2000 years ago had their own theory of drama and that their dramatic practice avoided both the severe austerity of Greek tragedy and the opulent extravagance of the ancient Chinese drama. Bharata s Natyashastra in Sanskrit elaborately discusses the ancient stagecraft. All aspects of the drama stage-setting, music, plot construction, characterization, dialogue and acting have borne the close critical scrutiny of the author, and a set of rules to guide the conduct of the stage has been elaborately laid down. Bharata felt that poetic justice where good always triumphs over evil would implant a message of hope and optimism in the spectator and make his faith in ethics deepened. He further held that the total impression left on the mind of the spectators of a play should be one of peace and not merely a source of entertainment, but a vehicle of instruction and illumination. The works of Bhasa, Shudraka, Kalidasa, Harsha, Bhavabhuti and Vishakahadatta are the products of vigorous creative energy as well as sustained technical excellence. The golden age of Sanskrit drama could give equal impetus to social comedies like the Mricchakatika and melodramas like the Malathimadhhava, romantic tragic comedies like Shakuntala and heroic plays like Venisamhara, historical plays like

4 Ramesh 15 Mudrarakshasa and romantic comedies like Ratnavali, allegorical plays like Prabhodachandrodaya and satirical farces like Mattavilasaprahasana. Bhasa is the oldest known dramatist who might have flourished some time between 500 BC and 50 BC, a period certainly earlier than that of the celebrated grammarian, Panini. Of the thirty-five plays he is said to have written; only thirteen have come to light. Later playwrights like Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti distinctly bear the imprint of Bhasa s dramatic style. The supreme achievement of Indian drama is undoubtedly in Kalidasa who is often called the Shakespeare of India. Though he does not have the range and variety of Shakespeare, he has given the world a profound spiritual vision of life. His magnum opus, Abhijnana Shakuntala, is said to be the richest and most completely satisfying romantic drama. Bhavabhuti turned out dramatic poems rather than stage lays. His Mahaviracharita, Malatimadhava and Uaramacharita, reveal the Poet s maturity of mind, a sense of workmanship, and acute understanding of human mind, and some of the deep values of life. (3) The Sanskrit drama flourished in its glory under the patronage of the court and the aristocracy till the 12 th century when the Mohammedan intrusion shifted the Sanskrit stage. The glory of Sanskrit drama became a thing of the past when it was divorced from the stage. Instead of poets, pandits took to playwright and produced works on the stock epic themes

5 Ramesh 16 in a conventional way. The decadent drama distanced itself from life in its sophisticated setting, stereotyped characters and artificial diction. Vidyanatha s play, Prataparudrakalyana, provides a patent example of the virtual death of the ancient Indian drama. After the Sanskrit drama ceased to be acted and was read only as literature, the theatre of the people flourished for many centuries and catered to the Indian masses. The old splendor and fullness of drama was gone, but people still needed relaxation and entertainment. As a result, music, dance and drama survived in varying forms in different parts of India Bengal, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Andhra, Karnataka, Gujarat as also in North India. The jatras of Bengal, the folk plays of Tamilnadu like Satharam and Nallathangal, the yakshaganas of Andhra and Karnataka, the Kathakali of Kerala, the Kirtaniya of Mithila, the Bhavani of Gujarat and the Ramila plays of North India took place instilling their meaning into the sub-conscious of the race, and penetrating to the very backbone of the people s art and morality. These variegated forms of entertainment had but little merit as literature, but they conveyed to the people the essentials of Indian culture. Above all, as K.S.Ramaswamy Sastri observes: they formed a transition from the classical Sanskrit drama to the modern Indian drama and had some influence on the evolution of the latter. (4)

6 Ramesh 17 It was only after British set up their regime in India that the crippled Indian drama received new strength and witnessed a revival. As Krishna Kriplani points out, the modern Indian drama: owed its first flowering to foreign grafting (Literature if Modern India. 40) with the impact of Western civilization on Indian life, a new renaissance dawned on Indian arts including drama. Furthermore, English education gave an impetus and a momentum to the critical Indian drama. English and Italian dramatic troupes toured India and performed many English plays, mainly Shakespeare s, in cities like Bombay and Madras. The newly awakened creative efforts first took the form of translations and adaptations from Sanskrit and English drama. Kalidasa s Shakuntala was translated into quite a few regional languages. Mrichchakatika was translated into Maithili by Ishanatha Jha and Ratnavali into sindhi by Dewan Kauromal. Shakespeare was naturally the most sought after, and among his plays the frequently translated or adopted were Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice, Hamlet, Othello and Cymbeline. To cite but a few examples Viresalingam Pantulu s rendering of All is well That Ends Well came out in 1897, a Tamil adaptation of Cymbeline in 1898, and a Bengali edition of Shakespeare s plays in four volumes was issued between 1896 and K.S.Ramaswami Sastri translated A Midsummer Night s Dream into Sanskrit. Apart from

7 Ramesh 18 Shakespeare s plays, Goldsmith s She Stoops to Conquer was a favourite play among Indian translators. The Western impact also quickened the drying roots of Indian native tradition with the sap of a new life, thereby opening the exciting chapter of modern Indian drama written originally in vernaculars, and at times, translated into English. By the end of 19 th century there were pioneering efforts boldly employing the mother tongue for creative dramatic expression. The earlier dramatists from different regions of the country tried their hand at different forms-romance, opera, comedy, farce, tragedy, melodrama and historical play. As a result, the modern Indian drama was product and blend of many models and forces. When old puranic themes were handled, various approaches the reformist, the revivalist, the idealistic, the iconoclastic, the frivolous and the allegorical were tried. To mention the most representative plays written in regional languages, we have Khadilkar s mythological play Keechala Vadha in Marathi, Lakshminath Bezbarua and Gohain Barua s historical play Jaymati in Assamese, Amant s opera Inder sabha in Hindi, Ram Shankar Ray s Kanchi-Kaveri in Oriya, Gurajada Apparao s social play Kanyasulkam in Telugu, T.P.Kailasam s Tollu-gatti in Kannada, Sundaram Pillai s Poetic drama Manonmaniyam in Tamil and Tagore s symbolic poetic plays like Chitra, Sacrifice, Mukta Dhara, Red Oleanders, and The Post Office in

8 Ramesh 19 Bengali now quite familiar to us in English Rendering. Though most of these plays convey the renaissance of Drama in the regional languages of India, they were subjected to the tremendous influence of Marxism, psychoanalysis, and the symbolist and surrealist movements which is a common factor across the world. While the theatre movement in the Indian languages had already gathered momentum under the influence mainly of British drama, Indian Drama in English could not flourish on expected lines. Though the first Indian play in English, Is this civilization?, was written by Michael Madhusudan Dutt as early as in 1871 it was not followed up by any sustainable creative effort for almost a decade. There are plausible reasons for the arrested growth of Indian English drama. Unlike poetry and novel, drama is a composite art that involves the playwright, the actor and the audience in a commonly shared artistic experience. This calls for total commitment of the persons concerned to create a lasting impact. Moreover, since the normal medium of conversation in India is the mother tongue, it is difficult to make a dialogue between Indians in English sound natural and convincing. This difficulty, however, has been overcome to a considerable degree by some talented Indian English dramatists by carefully choosing the situations and language that appealed to every section of the society.

9 Ramesh 20 Rabindranath Tagore, Sri Aurobindo, T.P.Kailasam, A.S.P.Ayyar, Lobo-Prabhu, Harindranath Chattopadhyaya and Bharathi Sarabhai have contributed substantially to the evolution and development of Indian English drama during the pre independent times. Rabindranath Tagore was the first major playwright who invested Indian drama in English with lyrical excellence, symbolic overtones and allegorical significance. His best known plays are Sacrifice, Chitra, Mukta Dhara, The Post Office, The King of the Dark Chamber and Red Oleanders. They have displayed a unique blend of simplicity, complexity conventionality and modernity. Though his plays are great variety and richness, they tend to be too suggestive and symbolic thereby lacking in dramatic action. In the words of Edward Thompson they are vehicles of thought rather than expressions of action. (Rabindranath Tagore Poet & Dramatist. 51) However, Tagore s plays though rendered into English, often by the author himself, belong properly to Bengali drama. Sri Aurobindo inherited and carried forward the tradition of Elizabethan poetic drama of Marlowe and Shakespeare revived by Robert Bridges and Stephen Philips in the Victorian era. His dramatic genius is amply revealed in his five complete plays: Rodogune, the Viziers of Bassara and Eric. Pursues, Vasavadutta, All these plays were completely written originally in English. Eric is a comedy of love and

10 Ramesh 21 adventure showing various stages of love. The play has established man s kinship with his fellow human beings and universe at large. Eric is Sri Aurobindo s nearest approach to the classical form of drama and it has subscribed to the Classical rules of Drama to the complete extent. A study of the five plays of Sri Aurobindo reveals that he is a highly competent dramatist and an accomplished craftsman in verse. They are stepped in rich poetry and romance bringing the reminiscences of the spirit and flavour some of the distinctive Sanskrit Dramas, All the same, they are often labeled as closed drama designed for reading in the study. Nevertheless, the plays reveal Aurobindo s exquisite skill in the portrayal of characters. S.S.Kulkarni in The Plays of Sri Aurobindo: Perspectives on Indian Drama in English has observed that Aurobindo has created an extremely interesting men and women by developing psychological element which endows his plays with inexhaustible human interest and significance. (7). Harindranath Chattopadhyaya added a new dimension to Indian English drama with his leftist leaning and revolutionary deal. If his devotional plays Raidas, Chokha Mela, Pundalik, Saku Bai, Jayadeva and Tukaram deal with the lives of saints in his own characteristic way, his social plays 1937, The Window, The parrot, The Coffin, The Evening

11 Ramesh 22 Lamp and The Sentry s Lantern reveal the playwright s acute awareness of social problems and his innate sympathies for the suffering masses. Bharati Sarabhai is the first most distinguished woman dramatist, who gave a Gandhian touch to Indian English drama. Her first play The Well of the People (1949) upholds Gandhi s well-known doctrine Daridra Narayana (worship of the poor as God). An old widow, the protagonist of the play, who fails to go on a pilgrimage to Haridwar, decides to build a well with her savings for the untouchables of her village. S.Mokeshi Punekar has appreciated the lyrical play as the representation of the problems of the age: probably the only articulate work of literary art giving complete expression to the Gandhian age flawlessly executed with the fullest awareness of all the problems. (Perspectives on Indian Drama in English 129) Sarabhai s second play Two Women (1952) dramatizes the conflict between tradition and modernity, the material and the spiritual, driving home the point that God is within. Quite a few contemporary playwrights have made a significant contribution to the development of Indian English drama. The foremost among them is Nissim Ezekiel, a well-established Indian English poet who has also enriched Indian English drama. His Three Plays (1969) Nalini, The Sleep-Walkers and Song of Deprivation, have exposed the hollowness of the urban middle-class life, fickleness of modern lovers, greedy

12 Ramesh 23 fascination for American life and the hypocrisy and inhibitive nature of contemporary Indian society respectively. They reveal his sharp observation of the oddities in human life and behaviour, providing glimpses of a cross-section of contemporary society. Though they do not meet the full requirements of the stage, they make pleasant reading and are known for their stage-worthiness. Chetan Karnani in his work Nissim Ezekiel says: in his satire of current fashion, in his exposure of pose and pretence, Ezekiel comes very close to the spirit of some English social satirists in the theatre. (5) Contemporary Indian drama in English translation has made bold innovations and fruitful experiments in terms of both thematic concerns and technical virtuosities. It has been increasingly turning to history, legend, myth and folklore, tapping their springs of vitality and vocal cords of popularity with splendid results. Mohan Rakesh, Badal Sircar, Vijay Tendulkar and Girish Karnad have become the best representatives of the contemporary Indian drama not only in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi and Kannada respectively but also on the pan-indian level. Greatly influenced by Marxism, Mohan Rakesh waged a relentless fight against the traditional stranglehold of Hindi drama, and always endeavored to project something new and challenging. As Nirad Chaudhauri points out, with Mohan Rakesh Hindi drama makes a

13 Ramesh 24 departure from pseudo-modernism and traditional symbolism to the drama of non-communication the modern man s failure to understand himself or to understand the other person their mutual failure to understand each other, which is the real tragedy of modern life (Changing Language of Theatre at the Present Time ). His plays dramatize the sufferings of men and women who fall victims to socio-economic hierarchy and cultural hegemony. Particularly, in his plays like One day in Ashadha and The Great Swans of the Waves, Mohan Rakesh makes use of history and legend to throw light on the contemporary problems. His dialogues have a smooth flow, a meaningful depth, and elemental naturalness suitable to his characters. Rakesh uses historical characters to project the breakdown of communication in contemporary life. Badal Sircar is another significant Dramatist who uses contemporary situations to project the existential attitude of modern life. Popularly known as a barefoot playwright, Badal Sircar stands in the forefront of a new theatrical movement in India. He has created a genuine people s theatre, known as Third Theatre, a theatre supported and created by the people and not merely performed by the people. Transcending the limits and limitations of the traditional and folk theatres, the Third Theatre is a composite of a four way flow of influences actor to actor, audience to actor, actor to audience and audience to audience. It is essentially a

14 Ramesh 25 flexible, portable and inexpensive Theatre aiming at enlightening the people on socio-economic and political problems and leading them to constructive action with a view to bringing about a social change. Leading the vanguard of the avant-grade Marathi Theatre, Vijay Tendulkar symbolizes the new awareness and attempts of Indian dramatists. He depicts the agonies, hypocrisy in the traditional Indian Society. In his latest plays, To Hell with Destiny and The Tour, Tendulkar highlights the typical middle-class mentality and value system. In all his plays, Tendulkar economizes on the number and range of characters situations and episodes, giving wider scope to deeper interpretations and meaningful corollaries. The league of contemporary Indian Dramatists is strengthened by Girish Karnad who has made a distinctive mark in contributing to the historical development of Indian English Drama. His acquaintance with western thought and western theatre has exterted unavoidable influence on his dramatic art. Born in Bombay, Girish Karnad has grown to become the Rhodes Scholar at Oxford during and Bhabha Fellow during The Western Education and Research expose has made him to become one of the finest dramatists in India. He has extensively used Indian mythology to suit the contemporary times of India. Between 1961 and 1998 he has written significant plays that catapulted him into the

15 Ramesh 26 celestial heights. His plays are: Yayati (1961), Tughluq (1964), Hayavadana (1971), Anjumallige (1977), Hittina Hunja (1980), Naga Mandala (1988), Tale Danda (1990), Agni Mattu Male (1995), the Dreams of Tipu Sultan (1998). Most of his plays were translated into English and have received wide critical acclaim and reception. His first Play Yayati (1961) narrated the theme of responsibility in the light of Indian mythology. It is considered as self conscious existentialist Drama. Picking the story line in the myth found in Mahabharata, Karnad gives a contemporary twist to the tale. The interpretation of old myth on the exchange of ages between father and son baffled and angered many conventional critics. Basing his unheroic hero Puru Karnad ventures into making the hero recognize the horror of his own life. The hero s awareness shifts from intellectuality to spirituality. The play endorses the belief that myths express certain archetypal and social relationships. His second play Tughlaq has further consolidated his dramatic excellence. The play, considered as a landmark in the history of Kannada literature, has made use of historical material in the way Shakespeare and Brecht had used. Recognizing the dramatic potential of the character of Tughluq, Karnad has made the play as the critique of Nehru and Post Nehru s political scenario. The play has succeeded in realizing the

16 Ramesh 27 psychological depth of Tippu Sultan s character. Taking the cue from the Parsi theatre, Karnad succeeds in creating the parallel story of Aziz that reflected the other side of Tughluq s personality. Encouraged by the huge success of the first play Karnad has written unforgettable Hayavadana (1970) which fetched him Natya Sangh award. Based on the collection of Sanskrit stories Kathasarithasagara and Thomas Mann s Transposed Heads, the play ridicules the mechanical conception of life. The play examines the problem of human identity in a world of tangled relationships. Using the conventional motives of folk tales, folk theatre, Karnad introduces two characters Devadatta and Kapila who bring in the reminiscences of Rama and Laxmana. He introduces Hayavadana who has a man s body but horse s head. Hayavadana is allowed to narrate the story of his birth. Karnad wanted to convey that the world is of incomplete individuals and the world is indifferent to the desires, joys and sorrows of human beings. The play has revealed the dramatic potential of Native traditions, folk arts and the strong presence and influence of Indian aesthetics. After Hayavadana Karnad has written two unsuccessful plays Anjumallige (1977), and Hittana Hunja (1980). Anjumallige as the only play set out of India represented the impact of Naturalism on Indian Dramatists. As a naturalistic play, the play is set in England and could not

17 Ramesh 28 envisage a pattern to express naturalistic speech. The tragic incestuous love of a woman for her brother and the émigré experience of Indians in England are the important themes in the play. Hittina Hunja is taken from a Jain myth. The play has emphasized that intended violence and adultery committed in the mind are equivalent and serious offences. Karnad has returned to the rich traditions of folk theatres with Nagamandala (1988). This play has exploited the devices from the works of Boccacio, Chaucer and the ancient Sanskrit. The original story tells of young man s difficulty to trust women and experience love. Karnad has shifted the focus to dwell on the women s experience and presented her growth selfhood and maturity. A particular female context is prepared as women and female flames. The play has exposed the double standards of Indian patriarchy. It has exposed the way women are judged with sundry and retrogressive ideas. Tale-Danda (1990) is extremely successful play. It is translated into many Indian languages. Karnad has drawn the theme from the historical movement. Karnad has used the assemblage of poets, mytics, social revolutionaries and philosophers by Basavanna which upheld the equality of sexes and condemned the caste discrimination, as a spring board for the theme of the play. The play has offered a brilliant analysis of Hindu society and its social deformity. It has succeeded in portraying the

18 Ramesh 29 difficulties encountered by the people who challenged the conventions and traditions. The opposition of the sharanas by the orthodox sections of the society and the divisions that existed within the sharanas are elucidated in a theatrical performance. Karnad has proved that the ugly reality of the caste system though abolished from the officialdom cannot be erased from the minds of the people. Karnad has reposed his faith in the relevance of the play and opined that the horror of the events of Mandir & Mandal proved the failure of Indian social fabric. Agni Mattu Male (1995) translated as The Fire and The Rain is the most complex play by Karnad. Based on the myth of Yavakrita, it exhausted thirty seven years of Karnad to come into the realization. In creating the characters, Karnad has observed some modifications. Characters like Nittilai, Visakha are drawn from the periphery to the centrality. In Karnad s perception Yajna is a favourite metaphor of theatre activity. It involves human performance, precise gestures, speech and an action that leads to predetermined denounment. The play within the play brings the reminiscences of some of the Shakespeare s plays. Transiting the two layers of myth in the capacity of the performer the play foregrounds the philosophical preoccupations. Karnad s recent play The Dreams of Tippu Sultan (1998) is written to commemorate the fifty years of Indian Independence. Tippu Sultan is

19 Ramesh 30 chosen by Karnad for his uncompromising nature with the British. Karnad has used the recorded dreams of Sultan to convey the dramatic actions of Tippu Sultan. A close analysis of the plays of Karnad makes us to understand that he has carefully moulded and sculpted the nuances of the past to suit the contemporaneity. His well made plots, interesting characters, authentic dialogues and visual impacts have ushered in a new era of dramatic consciousness in Indian English literature. Though his contemporary sensibility is challenged by the critics that Karnad fails to invent his own plots, his plays belong to the generation of confrontations. Little traditions of myths, poetry, history, legends folklore etc., are internalized for authorial conveyance. From a different perception Karnad is understood to have acquired the temperament of T.S.Eliot as a modern Dramatist. His approach is considered to be modern. Though Karnad borrowed from the well known epics and myths, he stressed on the living texture of myths, history and legends. A scrupulous reading of Karnad s plays evinces a variety of influences. The obvious quality of his Dramas is the amalgamation of Karnataka Yakshagana and Indian classical drama. The significant notable influences of the west are Shakespeare, Bertoolt Brecht & Samuel Beckett.

20 Ramesh 31 Though the Indian Drama has been using myth ever since its beginnings, it is not so much bound to the religion as its western counterpart was The Indian aesthetes are developed in an extremely original way and the Indian Drama never categorized as tragedies and comedies. In his play the cycle of Seasons, Rabindranath Tagore observes that his play in neither a tragedy nor a comedy, but it is what it is. Modern Indian dramatist continued the tradition by going back to the roots of Indian myth, tradition and culture and thus they have recreated a rich and vibrant picture of Indian society, culture and people. Girish Karnad is unique among the contemporary Indian dramatists as all his plays use myth in a highly creative and individualities way. Modern Indian Drama is formulated by the three important influences the classical Indian theatre, the medieval folk theatre and the modern western theatre. Myths are liberally used by the classical Indian dramatists like Basa, Bhavabhuthi and Kalidasa. The folk theatre of the medieval period used myths extensively and the way that they took liberties with them made them highly flexible. Rabindranath Tagore is the first dramatist who realized the importance of following the classical and folk forms of the Indian theatre. He borrowed many themes from the ancient Indian epic as well as from Buddisim and adopted them for the contemporary issues. He observes,

21 Ramesh 32 Man must realize the wholeness of his existence, his place in the infinite. He must know that hard as he may strive he can never create the honey he needs with in the cells of his live, for the perennial supply of his life-blood is outside their walls-deprived of the background of the work, his poverty losses its one great quality, which is simplicity and became squalid and shameful, it gross nearly extravagant. We miss the complete view of man if we forget the meaning of myth (Aspects of Indian Writing in English, ed. M.K.Naik, Macmillan, ). But he conceived all his plays according to the conditions of the folk theatre of Bengal, the Jatra. Among the three major dramatists of the contemporary period, Vijaya Tendulkar, Badal Sircar and Girish Karnad, Karnad is the only dramatist who followed the method of Tagore with spirit of imitation and emulation. Karnad has made use of the story of Yayati of The Mahabharatha for his very first play in which he dealt with the responsibilities and the yearnings of a young man. He has borrowed the theme of Hayavadana from Kathasarithsagar and his Nagamandala is based on the snake myth of South India.

22 Ramesh 33 He used the myth of Yavakri of The Mahabharatha for his The Fire and the Rain and Bali: The Sacrifice is taken from a Kannada epic. By choosing the historical personages live Tughlaq, Basavanna and Tipu Sultan who have also become mythical characters by means of a number of fictitious and imaginary tales associated with them, Karnad has given a contemporary interpretation of history. As a playwright who has firm belief in the Indian ethos and aesthetics, Karnad always borrowed a myth to say something to the contemporary society. He has firm belief in the power of myth. Jung, the great psychologist also points out the same when he says, the need for myth statements is satisfied when we frame a view of the world which adequately explains the meaning of human existence in the cosmos, a view which springs from our psychic wholeness, from the co-operation between conscious and unconscious. Meaningless ness inhibits fullness of life and is therefore equivalent to illness. Meaning makes a great many things endurable perhaps everything. No science will ever replace myth, and a myth cannot be made out of any science. For it is not that God is a myth, but that myth is the revelation of divine life in man (Memories, Dreams, Reflections. 1956).

23 Ramesh 34 The history of the man shows that man in bond of retelling the old stories to adopt himself to the new situations and unforeseen consequences. These adoptions may become inaccurate as it is not easy to face the truth. But a great writer rises above these weaknesses to face the truth and to express it without any inhibitions. A humble attempt is made in the following chapters to study the way that Karnad tackled various myths and to estimate his achievement as a dramatist preoccupied with myth. The primary contention of the study is the confine to the specific critical evaluation of some of the plays of Girish Karnad to establish the Post Modern, New Historicist, Post Colonial & Deconstructionist aspects to the best possible extent which will be followed from the next chapter elucidating the significance of myth, rituals, history & psychology manifested in the plays of Karnard. *****