Girish Karnad

Girish Karnad
Girish Karnad at Cornell University, 2009
Born	Girish Raghunath Karnad (1938-05-19) 19 May 1938 Matheran, Bombay Presidency, British India (now in Maharashtra, India)
Occupation	Playwright, film director, film actor
Nationality	Indian
Alma mater	Karnatak University, University of Oxford
Genre	Fiction
Literary movement	Navya
Notable works	Tughalak 1964 Taledanda

Girish Raghunath Karnad (born 19 May 1938) is an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer,^[1] playwright and a Rhodes Scholar, who predominantly works in South Indian cinema and Bollywood. His rise as a playwright in the 1960s, marked the coming of age of modern Indian playwriting in Kannada, just as Badal Sarkar did in Bengali, Vijay Tendulkar in Marathi, and Mohan Rakesh in Hindi.^[2] He is a recipient of the 1998 Jnanpith Award, the highest literary honour conferred in India.^[3]

For four decades Karnad has composed plays, often using history and mythology to tackle contemporary issues. He has translated his plays into English and has received acclaim.^[4] His plays have been translated into some Indian languages and directed by directors like Ebrahim Alkazi, B. V. Karanth, Alyque Padamsee, Prasanna, Arvind Gaur, Satyadev Dubey, Vijaya Mehta, Shyamanand Jalan, Amal Allana and Zafer Mohiuddin.^[4] He is active in the world of Indian cinema working as an actor, director and screenwriter, in Hindi and Kannada cinema, and has earned awards. He was conferred Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and won four Filmfare Awards, of which three are Filmfare Award for Best Director – Kannada and the fourth a Filmfare Best Screenplay Award.

Early life and education

Girish Raghunath Karnad was born in Matheran, in present-day Maharashtra, in 1938. His mother Krishnabai née Mankikar was a young widow with a son, and while training to be a nurse, met Dr. Raghunath Karnad who was a doctor in the Bombay Medical Service. For five years they could not get married because of the prevailing prejudice against widow remarriage. Finally their marriage was sanctified under the dispensation of the Arya Samaj. Girish was the third of the four children born thereafter.^[5]

Girish Karnad's initial schooling was in Marathi. In Sirsi, Karnataka, he was exposed to travelling theatre groups, Natak Mandalis, as his parents were deeply interested in their plays.^[6] As a youngster, Karnad was an ardent admirer of Yakshagana and the theater in his village.^[7] His family moved to Dharwad in Karnataka when he was 14 years old, where he grew up with his two sisters and niece.^[8]

He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in mathematics and statistics from Karnatak Arts College, Dharwad (Karnataka University), in 1958. Upon graduation Karnad went to England and studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Magdalen in Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar (1960–63), earning his Master of Arts degree in philosophy, political science and economics.^[4] Karnad was elected President of the Oxford Union in 1963.

Career

After working with the Oxford University Press, Chennai for seven years (1963–70), he resigned to take to writing full-time.^[4] While in Madras (now known as Chennai) he got involved with local amateur theatre group, The Madras Players.^[9]

During 1987–88, he was at the University of Chicago as visiting professor and Fulbright playwright-in-residence.^[4] During his tenure at Chicago Nagamandala had its world premiere at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis based on Karnad's English translation of the Kannada original.^[10] Most recently, he served as director of the Nehru Centre and as Minister of Culture, in the Indian High Commission, London (2000–2003).

He served as director of the Film and Television Institute of India (1974–1975) and chairman of the Sangeet Natak Akademi, the National Academy of the Performing Arts (1988–93).

Literature

Girish Karnad in 2010

Karnad is known as a playwright. His plays, written in Kannada, have been translated into English and some Indian languages. Kannada is his language of choice.

When Karnad started writing plays, Kannada literature was highly influenced by the renaissance in Western literature. Writers would choose a subject that looked entirely alien to manifestation of native soil. C. Rajagopalachari's version of the Mahabharata published in 1951, left a deep impact on him^[11] and soon, sometime in the mid-1950s, one day he experienced a rush of dialogues by characters from the Mahabharata in Kannada. "I could actually hear the dialogues being spoken into my ears ... I was just the scribe," said Karnad in a later interview. Yayati was published in 1961, when he was 23 years old. It is based on the 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 them agrees. It ridicules the ironies of life through characters in Mahabharata. It became an instant success, immediately translated and staged in several other Indian languages.^[10]

Karnad found a new approach of drawing historical and mythological sources to tackle contemporary themes and existentialist crisis of modern man through characters locked in psychological and philosophical conflicts. His next was Tughlaq (1964), about 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.^[11] This established Karnad, now 26 years old, as a promising playwright in the country. It was staged by the National School of Drama Repertory under the direction of Ebrahim Alkazi, with the actor Manohar Singh, playing the visionary king who later becomes disillusioned and turns bitter, amidst the historic Purana Qila in Delhi. It was staged in London by the National School of Drama for the Festival of India in 1982.^[4][10]

Hayavadana (1971) was based on a theme drawn from The Transposed Heads, a 1940 novella by Thomas Mann, which is originally found in the 11th-century Sanskrit text Kathasaritsagara. Herein he employed the folk theatre form of Yakshagana. A German version of the play was directed by Vijaya Mehta as part of the repertoire of the Deutsches National Theatre, Weimar.

Naga-Mandala (Play with Cobra, 1988) was based on a folk tale related to him by A. K. Ramanujam, brought him the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award for the Most Creative Work of 1989. It was directed by J. Garland Wright, as part of the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of Guthrie Theatre, Minneapolis. The theatre subsequently commissioned him to write the play, Agni Mattu Male (The Fire and the Rain). Though before it came Taledanda (Death by Beheading, 1990) which used the backdrop, the rise of Veerashaivism, a radical protest and reform movement in 12th century Karnataka to bring out current issues.^[4][12]

Awards and honours

Controversies

At the 2012 TATA Lit Fest held in Mumbai, Karnad was invited to speak about "his life in theater" in an hour-long session. Instead of talking about the subject, he took the opportunity to lash out at V. S. Naipaul for his "antipathy towards Indian Muslims". V. S. Naipaul had earlier been conferred the Lifetime achievement award by the festival's organisers. Karnad also criticized the organizers for having honored Naipaul.

The audience, which had gathered to hear Karnad speak, had mixed reactions to the speech. Some, like organizer Anil Dharker, tried ineffectually to steer the speech toward less controversial waters. Others were amused by the episode, and some commented on the research and logic that had gone into the speech (unfortunately overshadowed by its 'scandalous' nature).^[19]

Just a few weeks after this, Karnad again created controversy by claiming that Rabindranath Tagore was a second-rate playwright and that his plays were "unbearable".^[20][21]

In November 2015, during celebrations marking the anniversary of 18th-century Muslim ruler Tipu Sultan's birth, Karnad stated that Bangalore International Airport should have been named after Tipu Sultan instead of Kempe Gowda. This created a furore among right-wing groups. Karnad apologised the following day.^[22][23]

Personal life

Karnad is married to Dr. Saraswathy Ganapathy and they have two children. He lives in Bangalore.^[4] Girish Karnad, while working in Madras for Oxford University Press on his return from England, met his future wife Saraswathi Ganapathy at a party. They decided to marry but the marriage was only formalised ten years later, when Karnad was 42 years old. Saraswathi was born to a Parsi mother, Nargis Mugaseth, and a Kodava father, Kodandera Ganapathy.^[24]

Activism

He is a proponent of multi-culturalism and freedom of expression, Girish Karnad has been a critic of religious fundamentalism and Hindutva in India. He publicly condemned the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992 and later spoke against the attempts to create controversy about the Idgah Maidan in Hubli.^[4] He is a proponent of secularism and has opposed RSS, BJP and other Hindu organizations on several occasions. He opposed Narendra Modi for the Prime Minister's post in the 2014 parliament elections.

Bibliography

Filmography

Movies directed

Other works

• Evam Indrajit (English) by Badal Sircar. Tr. by Girish Karnad. 1974.

Works in translation

• Yayati. Oxford University Press.
• Yayati (Hindi). Tr. by B. R. Narayan. Rajkamal Prakashan Pvt Ltd, 2008. ISBN 81-7119-627-6.
• Tughlaq: A play in 13 scenes, Oxford Univ. Press, 1972
• Hayavadana, Oxford University Press, 1975.
• Tughlaq (Marathi), Tras. Vijay Tendulkar. Popular Prakashan Pvt. Ltd. ISBN 81-7185-370-6.
• Three Plays: Naga-Mandala; Hayavadana; Tughlaq. Oxford University Press, 1996. ISBN 0-19-563765-8.
• Tughlaq (Hindi). Tr. by B. V. Karanth. Rajkamal Prakashan Pvt Ltd, 2005. ISBN 81-7119-790-6.
• Collected plays Vol 1: Tuglaq, Hayavadana, Bali: The Sacrifice, Naga-Mandala. Oxford University Press. 2005. ISBN 0-19-567310-7.
• Collected Plays: Taledanda, the Fire and the Rain, the Dreams of Tipu Sultan, Flowers and Images: Two Dramatic Monologues: Flowers : Broken Images, Vol. 2. Oxford University Press, USA. 2005. ISBN 0-19-567311-5.
• Three plays by Girish Karnad. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-563765-8.

Autobiography

• Aadaadtha Aayushya. Manohara Grantha Mala, 2011

Notes

References

• Nand Kumar (2003). "Myths in the Plays of Girish Karnad". Indian English Drama. Sarup & Sons. ISBN 81-7625-353-7.
• Sachindananda (2006). "Girish Karnad". Authors speak. Sahitya Akademi. ISBN 81-260-1945-X.
• Dr. Prafull D. Kulkarni (2010). The Dramatic World of Girish Karnad. Creative Books Nanded. ISBN 978-81-906717-5-0.
• Dr. Prafull D. Kulkarni (2010). The Enchanting World of Indian English Drama A Socio-Cultural Review. Lulu, USA. ISBN 978-0-557-74285-1.

Further reading

• Jaydipsinh Dodiya, ed.,The Plays of Girish Karnad: Critical Perspectives Prestige Books, New Delhi, 1999.
• Pradeep Trikha, Multiple Celebrations, Celebrating Multiplicity in Girish Karnad – A Monograph
• Chhote Lal Khatri, Girish Karnad: Naga-mandala : a critique. Prakash Book Depot, 2006. ISBN 81-7977-165-2.
• Dr. Prafull D. Kulkarni, The Dramatic World of Girish Karnad. Creative Books Nanded, 2010. ISBN 978-81-906717-5-0.
• P Dhanavel, The Indian Imagination of Girish Karnad, Prestige Books, New Delhi, 2000.
• G Baskaran, ed., Girish Karnad and Mahesh Dattani: Methods and Motives, Yking Books, Jaipur, 2012.
• Vanashree Tripathi, Three Plays of Girish Karnad: Hayavadana, Tale-Danda, The Fire and the Rain, Prestige Books, New Delhi, 2004.
• Neeru Tandon (2006). "Myth and Folklore in Girish Karnad's Fire and the Rain". Perspectives and challenges in Indian-English drama. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. ISBN 81-269-0655-3.
• Julia Leslie, "Nailed to the Past: Girish Karnad's Plays" Journal of South Asian Literature, 1999, 31–2 (for 1996–7), pp. 50–84. JSTOR
• Julia Leslie, "Understanding Basava: History, Hagiography and a Modern Kannada Drama" Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, 1998, 61, pp. 228–61. DOI
• Zinia Mitra " A Tale of Subversion with a Conundrum of Mask: A Reading into Girish Karnard's Naga Mandala" in Indian Drama in English ed.K.Chakraborty, Delhi, PHI,2011, ISBN 978-81-203-4289-7, INR:295.00 395 pp.

External links

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