The Art and Technique in Girish Karnard’s Plays

Abstract

Our inquiry into Girish Karnad’s art and technique has been to see how and what lines he accomplishes the realization of his thematic concerns, particularly in his three plays: Yayati, Hayavadana and Nagamandala. In the use of myth and folklore, his concerns are basically related to man’s existential turmoil while living in a society with traditional conventions. Out of this resultant tension between what may otherwise be called archetypal and mythical experience, he evolves a symbolic form that shapes his living response to life and its values. At the same time while working out a myth or a folktale against the contemporary reality, he gives a new meaning to the past from the vantage point of present.