Ever since times immemorial, the head has gained predominance over the body. The Bhagavata, the omniscient narrator, himself declares that the head defines the identity of a man. Ironically, we find that the Bhagavata himself reverses the same when he addresses Hayavadana in the first part of the play as " poor man", even though Hayavadana possesses the head of a horse. If the voice of the Bhagavata declares that the head is supreme, the tale of Hayavadana seems to echo that the body is superlative. The prince controlling the horse indicates the head, and the horse signifies the body. Contrary to these two, the main plot shuttles between priority over the head and the body.
Earlier, if Ganesha was the husband of Siddhi and Riddhi, Padmini is …show more content…
The playwright achieves this in a remarkable metaphor. As the two slay each other, Padmini jumps into the funeral pyre in the ritual of Sati. As their fight is stylized like a dance, Padmini's reaction is also in the form of a dance synchronizing with the former. In expressionistic terms, this dance is exemplary to Padmini's identity crisis.
At another level, Kapila and Devadutta get into a state of identity crisis when their heads get transposed. The Bhagavata in his omnipotent authority allows the head to gain precedence and christens them Devadutta and Kapila corresponding to their heads. Devadutta also refers to the shastras and says that the head is the sign of a man. Nevertheless, one cannot fail to perceive the influence of the bodies on the two. Like never before, the dull-witted Kapila becomes logical and convincing in his arguments:
This is the hand that accepted her at the wedding. This is the body she's lived with all these months. And the baby she's carrying is the seed of this body. (106)
And in Devadutta we observe a kind of violence in language and action.DEVADUTTA (pushing Kapila aside):Get away, you …show more content…
It deals with archetypal theme, underlying mythical patterns, identifiable character-types, folk theatre conventions i.e. use of mask, curtains, dolls, story within story, use of images of Kali, Ganesh, Rudra etc, allegorical significance of the play are the characteristic features of the play. It was originally written in Kannada and it was persuaded by Rajinder Paul to translate the play into English and first published this translation in his journal Enact. It was Mrs. Laxmi Krrishnamurthy and Mrs. Yamuna Prather who jointly produced it for the madras Players at the Museum Theatre, Madras on 7th December 1972. The plot of Hayavadana is derived from Somdeva’s Brihadkatha Saritsagar, an ancient collection of stories in Sanskrit. The central episode in the playthe story of Devadatta and Kapilis based on a tale from Vetala Panchavimshika, but Karnad has borrowed it through Thomas Mann’s novel Transposed Heads, a mock-heroic transcription of the original Sanskrit tales. Whereas the sub-plot horse-man’s search for completeness, is Karnad’s original invention. Hayavadana is a play on the “mad dance of incompleteness? (57) And search of identity in a world of tangled
Earlier, if Ganesha was the husband of Siddhi and Riddhi, Padmini is …show more content…
The playwright achieves this in a remarkable metaphor. As the two slay each other, Padmini jumps into the funeral pyre in the ritual of Sati. As their fight is stylized like a dance, Padmini's reaction is also in the form of a dance synchronizing with the former. In expressionistic terms, this dance is exemplary to Padmini's identity crisis.
At another level, Kapila and Devadutta get into a state of identity crisis when their heads get transposed. The Bhagavata in his omnipotent authority allows the head to gain precedence and christens them Devadutta and Kapila corresponding to their heads. Devadutta also refers to the shastras and says that the head is the sign of a man. Nevertheless, one cannot fail to perceive the influence of the bodies on the two. Like never before, the dull-witted Kapila becomes logical and convincing in his arguments:
This is the hand that accepted her at the wedding. This is the body she's lived with all these months. And the baby she's carrying is the seed of this body. (106)
And in Devadutta we observe a kind of violence in language and action.DEVADUTTA (pushing Kapila aside):Get away, you …show more content…
It deals with archetypal theme, underlying mythical patterns, identifiable character-types, folk theatre conventions i.e. use of mask, curtains, dolls, story within story, use of images of Kali, Ganesh, Rudra etc, allegorical significance of the play are the characteristic features of the play. It was originally written in Kannada and it was persuaded by Rajinder Paul to translate the play into English and first published this translation in his journal Enact. It was Mrs. Laxmi Krrishnamurthy and Mrs. Yamuna Prather who jointly produced it for the madras Players at the Museum Theatre, Madras on 7th December 1972. The plot of Hayavadana is derived from Somdeva’s Brihadkatha Saritsagar, an ancient collection of stories in Sanskrit. The central episode in the playthe story of Devadatta and Kapilis based on a tale from Vetala Panchavimshika, but Karnad has borrowed it through Thomas Mann’s novel Transposed Heads, a mock-heroic transcription of the original Sanskrit tales. Whereas the sub-plot horse-man’s search for completeness, is Karnad’s original invention. Hayavadana is a play on the “mad dance of incompleteness? (57) And search of identity in a world of tangled