NAGAMANDALA

Girish Karnad’s Naga Mandala (play with a Cobra) incorporates a mythical structure. The artist takes on the role of the creator to retrieve, recycle and re-establish myths for the contemporary audience and, by applying his creative genius; he throws a lurid light on the social concerns prevailing in the society. Girish Karnad has facilitated the projection of his vision with the aid of historical myths and legends. He wants to empower the female gender and strives for the recognition of their individualistic identity; he feels it is mandatory to reinstate coherent order to the word beyond the self - that is the world of human relationships, of nature, of society as a totality.

Nagamandalais based on two oral Kannada tales he had heard from his mentor friend and well known poet, translator, philologist A.K.Ramanujan, to whom Karnad also dedicates the play. Two plots make up Nagamandala: the framing plot of the male playwright and his curse is a retelling of the story that Ramanujan calls ‘A Story and a Song’, while themain plot that deals with the story of Rani is based on snake myth prevalent in south India. The play discusses man-women relationship, position and identity of women about psychology and the impact of social and cultural modes on the feminine psyche.

The play is labeled as story theatre, that is, theatre whose action is based on folk stories. In his Introduction to Three Plays:

“… these tales are narrated by women- normally the older women in the family-while children are being fed in the evenings in the kitchen or being put to bed. The other adults present on these occasions are also women. Therefore these tales, though directed at the children, often serve as a parallel system of communication among the women in the family” (Naga: 16-17).

The play is focused on the four different stories. The frame story contains three other stories, each one of them inside the previous story. On the first narrative level, the frame story tells of an Author whose plays were so boring that the audience often went to sleep. For this crime the Author is condemned to death unless he manages to remain awake for one entire night before the end of that month. The night of this theatrical performance is precisely his last chance. We hear his repeated laments: “Imay be dead within the next few hours” (Naga: 22). The second and third narrative levels contain magical elements. The second is formed by the gossip type tales that a group of personified flames tell each other when they gather at night, after their work has ended. The Flames choose to go to the same ruined temple where the Author is bewailing his plight. When he sees them arrive, he hides behind a column from where he closely follows their stories. On the third narrative level, there is the tale told by one of the Flames who wants to be forgiven for arriving late. Her singularized tale is about a woman who knew a beautiful story but refused to tell it and share it with other people. One day, that story, taking advantage of the fact that the women was sleeping with her mouth open, escapes and is transformed into a young lady. And the song that accompanies it turns into her beautiful sari. The Story thus personified on the fourth narrative level relates the life of Rani, the main character of Nagamandala. The need for the story to escape illustrates the paradoxical nature of oral tradition, according to Karnad. “Stories are autonomous and independent of the person who tells them, although they live by being told and shared” (Naga: 17).

The moment when the main story, Rani’s, begins is interestingly complex from the point of view of structure, because there is interaction between the narrator of this story, the personified Story, and the narrators of the previous stories, the unfortunate Author and the Flames. The Author, narrator of the first level, who has been listening to the second and third narrative levels, establishes a dialogue with the story narrator of the third level and he suggests a name for the main masculine character in the central story, Appana which means any man. Furthermore, they reach an agreement by which the Author promises to retell the story, thus keeping it alive, if it is interesting enough to keep him awake for the whole night, which would amount to save his life.

The plot of the central story, Rani’s story, can be summarized as follows: young Rani, recently married to Appana, is locked inside the house by the husband. She started her new life with many expectations, desires and dreams. But Appana treats her as if she were a mere servant. Meanwhile he keeps and uses a concubine. An old blind women, Kurudavva, who is always carried around by her son Kappana, tries to help Rani by giving her a love root which, she says, will cause Appana to fall in love with her. So Rani decides to drug her husband with love root, which she mixes in the curry. Rani gives up her plan at the last moment, however, and pours the curry on the ant hill which happens to be dwelling place of a King Cobra(a Naga) then falls in love with Rani. He enters the house through the drain in the bathroom at night and once inside takes on the appearance of Appana, the husband. Despite the disorientation and wonder that this new situation causes in Rani, their relationship is fruitful and results in Rani getting pregnant. As soon as Appana discovers her pregnancy, he informs the elders of the village in order that they may determine her guilt or innocence, since he and she had never had a sexual intercourse. Rani proves her innocence by undertaking the Snake Ordeal, that is, by holding the King Cobra in her hand. Surprisingly, the Cobra, instead of biting her, “slides up her shoulder and spreads its hood like an umbrella over her head” (Naga: 58). The onlookers are awestruck, Rani is considered a goddess, and Appana can do nothing but accept her as his wife.In the end, Rani gets her husband back and enjoys a happy life. Naga, the snake, who has brought about such a happy consummation of married love, wants to have a final look at Rani. H makes the final visit when they are fast asleep. Naga then presses Rani’s hair to his body, ties a noose and strangles himself to death. When Rani combs her hair later, a dead Cobra falls to the ground. It is cremated and her son lit the funeral pyre. Once again, the Snake appears and Rani allows it to live in her tresses forever.

            The dramatist also attempts to instill analienation effect by driving the material of the playfrom the folk tales, and also by using the non-materialistictechniques of the traditional Indiantheatre. The title of the play is not the name of ahuman character, but it is that of a snake. As thename suggests, it revolves around a woman anda serpent. As this play is based on a folk tale itcould be observed that the serpent plays animportant role as in most such narrations all overthe world. It is believed that snake myths arefound extensively in Brahmanism, Buddhism and Japanese writing. In Nagamandala, 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 atest, 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 learn to overcome and this becomes more comprehensive in Karnad’s plays. Nagamandalais 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 playprobes 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 patriarchalsociety 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 of the experience of man and woman in the psychologically transitional phase.

In the play, the story takes a happy turn, both Rani and Appana 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 emphasizethe 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. 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. Appana even agrees to her rather strange demand that their son should perform an annual pinda daan in the memory of the dead snake.

Nagamandalais unconventional in that it offers three endings. The first three endings go along with what one would expect in a fairy tale or folktale. Rani, after having succeeded spectacularly in demonstrating her innocence, is considered a goddess. Appana automatically considers her his wife and forgets about his concubine, who voluntarily becomes Rani’s servant. This ending is found to be loose, however, as the Author-narrator points out. Obviously, Appana knows that the child his wife is expecting is not his, since he has never had any sexual relationship with Rani. Though Appana has his doubts, he can do nothing “What am I to do? Is the whole world against me? Have I sinned so much that even Nature should laugh at me?... Let the miracle declare her a goddess. But I know” (Naga: 60). And furthermore, the Cobra cannot be ignored. On the Story-narrator’s part, she wonders about Rani’s thoughts. Now, after being intimate with her husband, Rani has to know that the man with whom she used to have intercourse was not her husband.

The second ending takes into the state of mind of the Cobra who, after recognizing his love for Rani in another soliloquy, is ready to sacrifice himself. He hides in Rani’s abundant hair and dies. The Flames, this time, do not seem to be pleased with an ending which involves the death of the Cobra. Therefore, Rani and Appana reappear of the second one. However, this time when the Cobra falls from Rani’s hair he is alive. Appana immediately thinks about killing the snake, but Rani devises a way to save the Cobra. She lets him hide in her hair again, though she tells Appana that he has escaped. It ends with these words spoken by Rani: “This hair is the symbol of my wedded bliss. Live in there happily, forever” (Naga: 64).Indian culture considers marriage to be the supreme boon of a woman because it offers her salvation through her service to her husband. For that woman chastity is superior and preferable to life. Therefore, the third of Nagamandalamaynot be acceptable within the orthodox Indian tradition. Accordingly, Karnad can be seen as an author who presents the character of the married woman from within an unconventional perspective.

In the alternate end to the play suggested by the playwright, the snake does not die. It isallowed 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 become too powerful. Rani has gone through these new desires, the daydreaming and fantasizing about love and she understands their power over the social and moral duties.

The unique challenge of Naga-Mandala lies in its exposure of its own limitations as a workof art. In this sense, the play is attuned to itscontradictions with regard to women’sexperiences of desire, and the modes of self expressionavailable to them within existing

discourses. The play hints, indeed, that these contradictions lie at the heart of myths as a whole. Karnad’s way of reckoning with the anxiety this can generate is the classic postmodern theatrical device of multiple endings. It appeals to the postmodern sensibility of the late twentieth century of which Naga-Mandala is a good example.

It can be concluded that, though the ending of Naga-Mandala is not within the orthodoxy of Indian epic texts, the play must be studied and interpreted not only by keeping

elements of Hindu philosophy as points of reference, but also by taking into account the

cultural context of the Indian woman of today who seeks to fulfill her needs and aspirations.